Covid: Is England’s negligence putting Scottish citizens at risk?

In Scotland, recent figures showed that one in 90 people have Covid. In England, it’s one in 55. Scotland’s infection rate has fallen, England’s is rising. Go to an English city, and it feels like a foreign country, with masks conspicuous by their absence.

It’s not a display of petty xenophobia to point out that the regulations put in place by Westminster and Holyrood are now different, resulting in different patterns of behaviour by citizens in England and Scotland. Nor is it petty xenophobia to point out that infection rates differ.

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It’s also true that Scotland and England are part of the same nation, the UK – there’s no border, and people move between the two countries in huge waves daily.

One does not have to be a Wittgenstein logician to see that there’s a question posed here: if all these conditions are true, then could what’s happening in England be putting health at risk in Scotland?

None of this is to say that Scotland has behaved in some marvellous, Platonic way around Covid. Until Mr Johnson’s Freedom Day, the two nations were pretty much in lockstep – the same mistakes mostly made, the same basic policies followed. The only exception is that – as we’ve now heard rightly, but ad nauseam – Nicola Sturgeon was and is a far superior communicator than Mr Johnson. She can present a case, he fumbles and burbles like a schoolboy asking to go to the toilet.

So this isn’t a matter of Scottish exceptionalism – thank God, because that vice is one of the curses of this country. Rather, it’s a matter of observing a collection of facts and noticing that they seem to – I hasten to underscore "seem to" – point in one direction: that Scotland may find itself put at risk by England.

Now, if we lived in a world where logic ruled and emotions were kept slightly more in check, we could have this conversation without mass hysteria. Clearly, unionist hardliners will see even a whisper of such a discussion as akin to the storming of Windsor Castle.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Manchester, has already given us a flavour of this refusal to even discuss the matter. I should point out that if I lived in England I’d be clamouring for Mr Burnham to lead the Labour Party. I’d consider voting for him. So I’ve no axe to grind, as I rather admire him. However, he got matters egregiously wrong when he entered into a social media spat with a Scot who posted: “Visiting Manchester, because every now and then I must. I’m on a bus, wearing a mask. Nobody else is doing that, and some of the people are coughing. They have not even learnt to cough into their hands or elbows. Andy Burnham, don’t cry if Mancunians get banned from Scotland again.”

The Tory benches in Westminster with barely a face mask to be seen

Clearly, the poster is both right on one hand and an irritating wind-up merchant on the other. Anyone half-sane who’s travelled to England lately finds the lack of masks worrying. Our Scottish poster, though, didn’t need to bait Mr Burnham so blatantly.

However, Mr Burnham – with his near-half-million followers – triggered a dog-pile on the poster saying: “Not having this ‘people-are-worse-in-Manchester’ type of Scottish nationalism. And I hope the vast majority of Scots won’t either.”

Firstly, to most folk in Scotland, what’s happening in Manchester, and across the rest of England, is "worse" than what’s happening up here. That’s simply a matter of fact – and masks are the key exhibit for the prosecution. However, it’s not "the people" who are "worse", it’s the London Government. Mr Johnson’s party bears the blame.

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Noticing the difference in regulations and behaviour is not a hallmark of Scottish nationalism. I’d sooner bury myself alive than hold the tenets of any form of nationalism – but that doesn’t mean I, and others of a similar mind, are blind to the differences in responsible government advice and public behaviour.

Mr Burnham might also note that his own party is calling on Mr Johnson’s government to bring in Plan B to tackle the rise of Covid in England. Local public health chiefs in England are breaking from Government guidance and recommending Plan B protective measures to combat the surge. Senior doctors have accused the UK Government of being “wilfully negligent” for not reimposing masks and advising the public work-from-home. The UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak – who’s probably about to inflict more austerity measures on Britain – is firmly prioritising the economy over the health of citizens.

The Johnson Government is committed to the most demented notions of libertarianism. It’s taken the concept of freedom and turned it into selfishness and stupidity. It’s not a mark of my freedom to risk infecting another human being, it’s a mark of my utter disregard for fellow citizens. Your freedom cannot impinge on mine, nor mine on yours – without that rule all freedoms vanish and tyranny comes waltzing in the door.

What’s most sinister is the sneering joy Tories seem to take in this lunatic social experiment they’re conducting. SNP MP Pete Wishart recently noted the “comic” disparity in the Commons with half of the house wearing masks, and the other not. Mr Wishart said he’d counted only 14 Tories covering their faces. In response, Jacob Rees-Mogg sneered and mocked.

With this all considered, if there’s not a question demanding to be answered about the impact of Government-driven behaviour in England on Scotland, then we now live in an era where "the question" is dead.

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