SAGE backs it. Scotland’s done it. And the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is quietly organising it. 

So just one question remains.  

When will Boris Johnson implement Plan B in England - vaccine passports, mandatory face masks and all? 

Doubtless the Prime Minister fears fury from right wing colleagues whose passion for ‘taking back control’ has switched from Brexit to the management of Covid. The new (to England) Plan B restrictions are clearly intended to protect voters and relieve pressure on an embattled NHS. But somehow the Covid Recovery Group sees only another opportunity to bang on about the erosion of precious personal freedoms. One of their number - Jacob Rees Mogg - has tried to justify their maskless stance on the grounds that Tory MPs ‘know one another.’  

This is ludicrous and the Leader of the House knows it. 

Will he comply with new mask-wearing rules when they come? If not, will Rees Mogg become a rallying figure for those who object so strongly to wearing masks in hospital (where that’s still required) that nurses in England are reporting aggression and even assaults when they try to insist? 

Who’d have thought wearing a bit of material over your mouth could trigger such anger? But it’s been stoked by Boris Johnson’s irresponsible comments about the terrible sacrifice of wearing masks and the ‘national jubilation’ on ‘Freedom Day’ when the accursed objects could be thrown away - in England at least.  

Now the Prime Minister erodes the case for masks each time he appears in the Commons without one, whilst mocking SNP and other members who ‘mask-up’ in the confined, unventilated space of the Commons. 

If Boris is planning a mask-wearing volte face now, he’ll struggle and it’s very tempting to think - hell mend him. 

Let this arrogant man reap the mayhem he has sown.  

But that’s childish and self-defeating.  

England is our nearest neighbour. Its health problems rapidly become our own - and vice versa. 

But Johnson’s evident and instinctive distaste for any restrictions on his behaviour is also a public health problem.  

According to World Health Organisation spokesperson, Dr Margaret Harris, tlow infection rates experienced in most of mainland Europe have been achieved by governments that didn’t relax restrictions on mask-wearing and social distancing and kept supporting home working to reduce mixing. That cautious outlook has been internalised by citizens who can now abide by restrictions ‘whether authorities enforce them or not.’ A bit like wearing seatbelts.  

A lot like most Scots. 

It is disappointing that Scotland’s Covid caution hasn’t helped us match Europe’s lower infection rates - yet. Perhaps poverty-related, poor health is a factor along with the absence of protective Vitamin D in our cloudy climate.  

There is good news - infection levels in Scotland have fallen from 2.3% of the population in September to 1.3% last week - whilst rates in England have risen to 1.6%. But the rates in both countries are much higher than mainland Europe.  

Scientists will eventually find an explanation.  

But meantime, one thing is crystal clear. 

Mask-wearing in Scotland matters, whether it has yet delivered us from Covid or not - because it’s a collective statement about the importance of public health and a way for citizens to reject the ‘I’m alright Jack’ individualism exhibited by politicians down south. 

Mask-wearing is about mutuality - a visible, visual statement that there is such a thing as society and a pledge that Scots will thole restrictions to safeguard it. 

Of course - not absolutely everyone complies. But most do - and the contrast with behaviour south of the border has to be seen to be believed. I spent almost a week in leafy Surrey for a family wedding this summer and other Scottish guests were easy to spot - mask-wearing in shops, hotel corridors and on comfort breaks during the event, even though the lack of restrictions in England offered a chance to escape back to a more permissive ‘old normal’.  

No-one took it. 

So, Scotland has something very precious - a population that doesn’t feel belittled to its very collective core to wear masks if that help keep other people safe. 

That’s why Sir Keir Starmer hit such a dud note recently, when he suggested Nicola Sturgeon got Covid as badly wrong as Boris Johnson.  

Of course, the Scottish Government made mistakes, especially over care homes.  

But the First Minister’s consistent and lived example of mask-wearing helped ‘ordinary’ Scots accept restrictions without fuss, violent pushback or any of the ‘British exceptionalism’ highlighted in the recent Commons’ Covid reports. 

Now, when Scots see maskless Ministers at Westminster, they see politicians who define leadership as forcing others to ‘do as I say, not as I do.’  Somehow that seems to be acceptable amongst Tory voters, but the blatant double standards generated considerable annoyance amongst a BBC Question Time audience in Glasgow last week. 

Perhaps that’s because mask-wearing has acquired a symbolic value for many Scots - not as powerful as taking the knee but the clearest possible sign of support for a publicly funded NHS - and far more effective than the hollow ‘clapping for carers’ by Tories who are quite prepared to see health and care systems collapse before considering they might have eased Covid restrictions too quickly - again. 

Scotland may not yet be reaping European-style health rewards from maintaining stringent Covid restrictions around mask-wearing and social distancing, but two critically important things have been achieved. The first is a constant, reassuring, visual, reminder of the importance placed on solidarity in Scotland at this time of vulnerability and stress. The other is the relative ease of behavioural change - change that’s reduced the transmission of Covid, flu and other respiratory diseases and could yet act as a springboard for other much-needed improvements in public health.  

In contrast to the low levels of public trust in the British Government, trust in the bona fides of the Scottish Government remains high - even amongst opponents of independence. And that is a prerequisite for improving public health. 

As Boris Johnson is about to discover, trust is the only important political currency. 

And trust comes from eschewing double standards and observing restrictions - with conviction and good grace.