The National:

Mmm. Let’s see. Much of Kent is a car park where, inter alia, hauliers with perishable Scottish seafood, are trapped waiting for the negative Covid test which will, er, put them back in the ferry queue.

The new strain of Covid is seeping out of the South East into the rest of England, and efforts are being made to stop an influx of visitors crossing national borders.

Christmas will largely be a lockdown affair with all but essential outlets closed from Boxing Day and perhaps even more draconian measures coming down the line.

So, quite clearly, the most important story of the day, the one requiring front-page treatment including a “damning” image, was that of the First Minister standing up at a post-funeral gathering without donning her mask.

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Where to start with this kind of mentality? The First Minister, who obviously has absolutely nothing else on in her diary, makes time to go to the funeral of someone who was a friend and valued colleague. She evidently felt it important to let his family know how much he was valued by the government to which he had given such long service.

Yet for someone in attendance (or observing) the first instinct was apparently to take a rare pic of her getting to her feet, socially distant, but not first masking up. What a national scandal eh? I don’t know whether the image was then sold to the Scottish Sun who stuck it on their front page along with other tabloids, or whether it was merely dispatched to make mischief. Either way, it was plain tacky.

The National: 'Much of Kent is a car park where, inter alia, hauliers with perishable Scottish seafood, are trapped waiting for the negative Covid test which will, er, put them back in the ferry queue''Much of Kent is a car park where, inter alia, hauliers with perishable Scottish seafood, are trapped waiting for the negative Covid test which will, er, put them back in the ferry queue'

Not because Nicola Sturgeon was in the right – she wasn’t, and apologised instantly and profusely – but because in the weeks and months of this horrible year, she has probably spent more waking (and overnight sleepless) hours fretting about the pandemic than anyone else. On which basis she deserves better than this cheap stunt.

The obvious comparison is with Johnson’s treatment of his errant former special advisor, who broke every rule in the book, got a Rose Garden press conference courtesy of the boss to explain why he’d done nothing wrong, and then pocketed a £45k pay rise. Or, to put it in context, an uplift of almost twice the average pay packet.

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I have many issues with the Scottish Government, most often over the road and the miles to independence. But I have never for the smallest moment thought that the First Minister’s commitment to defeating Covid has been anything other than full hearted. Or that she has shared information and her government’s thinking in a contextualising way quite alien to those fronting the Downing Street briefings.

Values matter. Morality matters. Accountability and taking personal responsibility matter. I have little doubt that the FM’s self criticism over this lapse will outstrip anything the Sun can come up with. The Sun may think it has had a great scoop. I think they may find it an own goal. Again.