THE First Minister this week promised that she would not be asking anyone else, any local authority, to accept responsibility for implementing or enforcing Covid-19 restrictions in Scotland ("Sturgeon facing backlash to her proposed five-tier restrictions", The Herald, October 21). Very few people would be surprised to hear this: Ms Sturgeon has carried that and all the other grim burdens of Covid-19 without complaint or diversion for the last nine months. Her team of advisers, likewise have stood firm and clear, thank goodness, throughout.

Today, as always, she refused to make political comment about the state of affairs elsewhere, but I believe it is very important that a few things are noted.

First, the awful situation in Greater Manchester has arisen as a direct result of the Westminster Government trying to force the mayors of Manchester, Oldham and other communities in Lancashire to accept responsibility for what amounts to a total lockdown there – and the consequent suffering of thousands of people on low wages as the furlough scheme disappears. The community leaders are understandably furious that Westminster is attempting to pass this “buck” without proper funding; they are also refusing to allow Manchester health authorities local control of testing and tracing so that they have a better chance of reducing the rate of virus spread in Lancashire.

This refusal seems particularly obtuse and dangerous because Westminster’s Testing and Tracing system is known to be in chaos. On September 18 a visiting scientist, Dr Phil Robinson, declared that what he had seen of Westminster’s Lighthouse Labs showed that they were “poorly managed, running out of staff and had failed to set up automatic processes – despite fears that the UK would inevitably be hit by a second wave”. One of these Lighthouse Labs is in Glasgow, and deals with Covid tests from all over the UK. No fewer than 64,000 test were “rerouted “ from that lab in the last few days.

It is also well known that the Scottish Government, quietly taking account of the situation at that Lighthouse Lab has, for some time, been transferring tests for care homes and other vital cases to Scottish NHS facilities.

When challenged about the latest problems at its Glasgow lab, the Westminster spokesperson denied that there was anything wrong at all but then declared, quite perpendicularly, “rerouting tests to other laboratories is a routine practice to ensure timely processing”.

There is taking responsibility, learning from difficulties, being honest about problems, accepting blame and moving on because you are trusted. Ms Sturgeon and her team have sustained all these things for nine grim months. As she said today, she accepts the full burden of the “buck stopping” with her.

In the midst of what could be a very terrible second wave of Covid-19 Greater Manchester has just demonstrated what happens when such leadership does not exist.

We should all be learning from that.

Frances McKie, Evanton.

THE First Minister said that people would know the difference between a cafe and a restaurant. Perhaps she will now expand on the differences between an English restaurant and a Scottish restaurant, the different science informing her, and the differences between being allowed to do your job safely and living hand to mouth due to the Hokey-Cokey nonsense we are now experiencing by the diktat of those charged with devolved powers?

There is no tartan, Scouse or Geordie Covid. Just Deadly Covid. In this pandemic for which our leaders should have had the country much much better prepared, we are not being served at all well by grandstanding politicians, and none more guilty than the First Minister.

John Dunlop, Ayr.

I'M continually bemused by the “Isn't Saint Nicola of Scotland doing brilliantly in her management of the pandemic” narrative playing out in some print and social media. Scotland has one of the worst coronavirus death rates in the world, with a particular tragedy playing out in many care homes north of the border. We should by now realise that there's much more to controlling coronavirus than self-assured TV briefings. True, the death rate here is marginally less appalling than England's – but isn't that merely damning with faint praise?

Martin Redfern, Melrose.

IF ever we needed confirmation of the bureaucratic imbalance in the NHS then, at a time of an existential healthcare crisis, vital physiotherapy rehabilitation facilities are converted to meeting rooms for managers, and to storerooms. On recent evidence, not rooms for storing flu vaccines.

This is further evidence of the lack of understanding of the huge benefits of rehabilitation after illness and surgery, but no surprise given the chronic underfunding of physiotherapy for years.

The Health Secretary’s anodyne response illustrating lack of insight and leadership is confirmation that the NHS is not safe in Government hands.

Gavin R Tait, East Kilbride.

Read more: Letters: An issue that is bigger than the individuals