We need a four nations inquiry into the UK’S Covid disaster
AFTER weeks spent attempting to agree a “four nations approach” to hotel quarantine arrangements for international travellers arriving in the UK, the First Minister and the Scottish Government decided to go it alone in making hotel quarantine mandatory for all arrivals at Scottish airports from February 15. If the Prime Minister and the UK Government had done the same for all arrivals at English airports (not just those from “red list” countries), it is possible that the importation of the Delta (formerly India) variant could have been kept to minimal levels and we would not now be talking about a third wave of Covid-19.
When Pakistan and Bangladesh were eventually added to the red list on April 9, India was not added in spite of the infection rate there already being out of control and deaths approaching 1,000 per day. Apparently, according to UK Government spokespersons, the fact that Boris Johnson was scheduled to fly to India to discuss a new trade agreement did not influence the decision. A further two weeks later (April 23), after the estimated arrival of more than 20,000 people on flights from India, the Delta variant was not only running rampant in
India but was quickly spreading across the UK.
From the start of this pandemic Mr Johnson and the UK Government have been slow to act. Not only did he initially insist on not wearing a mask himself (and end up in hospital) but nearly all restrictions have belatedly followed those imposed by the devolved governments, including the wearing of face masks. While the Scottish Government adhered to the tried-and-tested approach of local\ manual contact tracing, the UK Government committed to a new “world-beating” app that turned out to be a complete flop. When scientific advisers proposed a temporary lockdown in England last September, to avoid a second wave of infections, that advice was ignored and the Alpha (formerly “Kent”) variant spread so rapidly that even more lives were lost across the UK than during the first wave.
We don’t yet know how many more avoidable deaths will be counted at the end of the third wave, but surely we should not be waiting until 2022 before preparations for a comprehensive four nations public inquiry begin if we wish to avoid the devastating effects (health and economic) of perhaps vaccine-resistant, variant-propagated fourth and fifth waves?
Stan Grodynski, Longniddry.
BORIS Johnson and advisors gave an update on England’s Covid-19 timetable yesterday (June 14). Astonishingly the BBC allowed him to hijack its evening news slot for what was a parochial event relevant to England alone, when it could have used News24 or the parliamentary channel. Scotland was denied a “Scottish Six” because of concerns of parochiality, but now that proposal should be back on the table along with equality of funding and staffing.
Mr Johnson has also upset the Speaker by bypassing Parliament for his announcements, but Speaker Hoyle will find that making Mr Johnson stick to the rules is like herding cats.
GR Weir, Ochiltree.
Lancet shoots down Oliver
NEIL Oliver may be a competent historian/archaeologist (his preening and hair-flicking to the camera so distracts from what he says, it is difficult to know) but he is clearly not an epidemiologist. His advocacy of abandoning all aspects of lockdown is dangerous in the extreme (“‘Lockdown has been the biggest mistake in world history’”, The Herald, June 11).
Recent research published in the Lancet, comparing the history of the pandemic in different countries, shows clearly and unequivocally that those employing early and rigorous lockdown had much greater success in controlling the outbreak than those that dillydallied. It is likely that similar results will be seen for those that relax precautions too soon. Interestingly, the research also shows that, counter-intuitively, countries with the highest GDP per capita had the worst results. Less surprisingly, those with high levels of income inequality also did badly.
Somehow, it seems unlikely that Oliver will be mentioning this research any time soon.
Dr RM Morris, Ellon.
The detailed case for indy
GRANT Ballantyne (Letters, June 15) claims to respect and demand “detail” . His letter, however, offered just the one: UK total exports for April 2021 were 10 per cent less than the same month in 2020. His other offerings were presented in terms such as “within a whisker” and with frequent use of the words “up” and “upward trend” – without giving us the important detail of from which exact starting points all these “ups” are happening.
His letter, apparently trying to argue that a destitute Scottish economy, dependent on oil, food and drink exports is now even more dependent on English tax-payers and their “upward” wealth, was, in fact, very simply, his opinion.
Well, here are some details for Mr Ballantyne.
In February 2021, UK total exports of food and drink were down on the previous year by
21%; to the EU the same exports were down by 41%. Food exports to Ireland were down, in the same period, by 70%. (We left the EU on December 31, 2020.)
Protesting against
Westminster’s imminent trade deal with Australia, which threatens the viability of hill farm produce in particular, 14 leaders of the farming and food industries, including the chief executive of the NFUS, have signed a letter in which they explain that the Scottish food and farming industry is “one of the fastestgrowing sectors in Scotland – with a value of £15bn and employs 120,000 people”.
In 2020 Scotland produced 97% of its electricity requirements form renewable resources. In April 2021, Scotland launched the world’s highest power single unit – the 2MW02 – into the North Sea off Orkney where it is part of the European Energy Sector. (Mr Ballantyne should kindly note the detail there of “European”.)
There are many more “details”, including the news – on June 7 – that in 2020 there was a 6% rise in foreign investment projects in Scotland – as opposed to a 12 % drop for the whole of the UK. And this was, according to Ernst and Young (EY) despite the “renewed push for independence”.
Finally, in 2019, before Covid, after 10 years of “quantitative easing” the UK national debt stood at 85% of GDP. In the first full year of Covid the Westminster Government increased its borrowing to a peacetime record of £303bn. Mr Ballantyne may be aware that the Westminster Government has been found guilty of criminal misuse of public funds during this time.
Therefore, to sum up, I hope that Mr Ballantyne may concede that these details indicate that the future of Scotland’s economy, based on natural resources, fully committed to sustainable energy and international co-operation, with a strong focus on Europe and Scandinavia, is at risk from continued Brexit and London rule.
We are at last beginning to see clearly: our economy, our environment and our people do indeed need our own independent government, urgently.
Frances Mckie, Evanton.
SNP is in a no-win situation
THE new post-brexit UK/ Australian trade deal will be treated, no doubt, with derision by the SNP, despite consumers achieving lower prices. Anything to do with Brexit always is. Once again, however, the SNP needs to face both ways at the same time because if Brexit is so bad, it follows that Scottish independence is almost certainly in the same boat. Conversely if Brexit is not the disaster the SNP predicted it would be, then it removes the necessity for independence.
The SNP is now having to rely on Brexit being really bad plus a guaranteed acceptance of an early entry to the European Union under favourable terms. The prospect of either of these happening is not only remote but is outwith the SNP’S sphere of influence. Given this, then attention must turn inevitably to the SNP’S record in government which by any account is rather poor. It seems this is all developing into a no-win situation for both the SNP and indyref2.
Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.
Concerns over health watchdog
SURELY there must public disquiet about the revelation that the “independent” watchdog Public Health Scotland (PHS) has a duty to protect ministers’ reputations (“Health body hit by conflict of interest row”, The Herald, June 12).
This apparent contradiction which strikes at the very heart of PHS’S own reputation and credibility was underlined by its publication of the report into coronavirus deaths in Scotland’s care homes which initially found that “there is no statistical evidence that hospital discharges of any kind were associated with care home outbreaks”, a view repeated by Nicola Sturgeon. After the Office for Statistics Regulation challenged this assertion by saying that “the discharges were consistent with a causal relationship between discharges and outbreaks”, a new PHS report confirmed “the link could not be ruled out”. Hardly reassuring to the relatives of those who had died.
Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Humza Yousaf have both claimed that Public Health Scotland is totally “independent” of government but I would take those assertions with a pinch of salt.
Bob Macdougall, Kippen.