MSPS remember the Duke of Edinburgh with condolence speeches – and they make it snappy
According to one of the anecdotes doing the rounds in the wake of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, so offended was he by the construction and design of the Scottish Parliament, less than a stone’s throw from Holyrood Palace, that he planted a rather enormous tree in the grounds, so he didn’t have to look at the place.
His disdain would perhaps have been slightly mollified when the motion of condolence speeches read out in the chamber today lasted just 22 minutes and 30 seconds.
Msps are not known for keeping it tight when there’ s pontificating to bed one, yet the five party leaders rattled through their sympathies at a speed with which prince philip would surely have approved.
The First Minister praised the Duke’s long years as consort to the Queen, a man faced with the “challenge of being the husband of a powerful woman at a time when that was even more of an exception than it is today”.
Ruth Davidson saluted his naval career, his time as Chancellor of Edinburgh University and his work with 800 individual charities – “to have achieved all of that while undertaking your greatest job and duty to be partner friend and confidant for 73 years to the monarch is a life of remarkable public service”.
And there was republicanism from Patrick Harvie, who admitted his party had grappled with taking part in the debate at all, but had decided, ultimately, that it was the right thing to do in a “year of terrible loss for the world”.
Anas Sarwar used the words of the Duke of Edinburgh about his scheme for young people to speak of the pandemic. Mr Sarwar said: “When Prince Philip launched the awards in 1956, he said ‘if you can get a young person to succeed in any one activity, then that feeling of success will spread over into many others’.
"Following the difficult year faced by so many young people, with their lives and learning disrupted by Covid, Prince Philip’s words from 65 years ago are just as relevant today.”
It was left to Willie Rennie to add a moment of levity. He had met Prince Philip on a day he was sporting a prostate cancer badge on his lapel. “Have you got it or are you against it?” the Prince demanded to know.
That was it. Proceedings closed.
on Modelling (Spi-m), said any form of reopening "could lead to higher risk".
Meanwhile, one expert said that he was worried about the reopening of society after a third Covid-19 wave hit Chile despite a significant proportion of the country having been vaccinated.
Asked what the effect of reopening may have on infection rates, Dr Tildesley told Times Radio: "It's hard to tell categorically but I think we do need to remember that with any form of reopening there's going to be more mixing, and so we might expect that that could lead to higher risk.
"This is exactly why this road map has got five weeks in between the next couple of relaxations - it gives us enough time to monitor what happens if we do start to see a concerning rise in cases, and more importantly if we see a concerning rise in hospital admissions and people sadly
dying from the disease.
"We might expect it could have a resurgence, but it's really really important therefore that people follow the rules that are in place with this relaxation.
"All the signs are pretty good at the moment - cases have been going down for many weeks now, we're seeing hospital admissions and deaths go down to very low numbers, and we really hope that continues.”