Credit Sturgeon

Alan Black (Letters, 30 March) is right in that we should be drawing together in tacking Covid19 but we should not be uncritical of government actions. Particularly as the UK government has ignored WHO advice on testing contacts, failing to check the temperature of those flying in from hotspots or ignoring the EU offer to provide ventilators and protective equipment. The UK government also ignored its own findings to set up an emergency alert messaging system to mobile phones to help the country in times of crisis. The additional financial help recently given to those who have become ill or unemployed or who face loss of earnings is merely matching what has been the norm in Scandinavian countries for many years.

There have been differences between the UK and Scottish Government’s strategy in combating the pandemic and it has emerged that the Prime Minister’s team was said to be furious with the Scottish Government for announcing the closure of schools in Scotland days before Boris Johnson wanted to do so. The Scottish Government was faster off the mark when Nicola Sturgeon took the step to ban gatherings of more than 500 people and indoor meetings of 100 people five days earlier than Johnson. The two governments have also differed in terms of restrictions they wanted to see placed on the construction industry.

It is to Nicola Sturgeon’s credit

that she has not criticised the UK government in public.

MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh