Shoddy SNP should focus on recovery

BELATED apologies and blame-shifting are the unmistakable hallmarks of the SNP’s ham-fisted governance.

And so it proved again yesterday with Nicola Sturgeon’s half-hearted apology for the botched Covid vaccine passport app.

She tried to move some culpability for this predictable fiasco to the NHS, when in fact her own government is responsible.

It was the SNP’s idea to press ahead with such a highly contentious initiative – with seemingly negligible preparation and planning.

Businesses were left having to mop up the mess as a much-vaunted new app was exposed as a costly flop.

Meanwhile, an NHS ‘winter plan’ unveiled by Humza Yousaf contained scant detail.

It is also too little, too late after the multiple disasters of recent weeks.

Firefighters, troops and police officers have all been drafted in to provide back-up for paramedics.

And patients are still struggling to see their GPs in person – stoking another public health crisis.

How on earth can we trust Mr Yousaf to stabilise the NHS after presiding over this shambles?

Another strategy for getting education back on track after the trauma of lockdown was similarly unimpressive.

Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville doesn’t appear to have grasped the scale of the task ahead.

But her own government is in denial about its inability to drive up classroom standards after 14 years of failure.

And during long spells of home learning, the Education Scotland quango too often failed to provide the help that pupils desperately needed.

Recycled spending pledges will not cut it when children’s futures are at stake.

Public services are in turmoil partly because they had suffered years of neglect and mismanagement before Covid arrived on our shores.

As the First Minister made clear yesterday, the pandemic appears to be abating but winter is looming.

We are not out of the woods yet. However, the government attempting to guide us out of them is clearly unequal to the task.

It should tear up shoddy action plans devised by ministers who are woefully out of their depth – and focus relentlessly on Covid recovery.