I HARDLY ever refer to “him indoors”, shy chap that he is. But thanks to the PM, he is coming round to my conspiracy theory. He’s in that cohort (age-related, with underlying mild to severe health issues) that the PM refers to when he talks about “losing loved ones’.

My golden oldie is worried, if not for himself then for others. Might the move to “no testing” except in hospitals not refer to a lack of sufficient medical kit, or be related to the run-down of the NHS in England, but be an attempt at confidence boosting to keep the public unaware in the short term of the actual numbers of infected people?

READ MORE: Routine coronavirus tests to stop in Scotland, says Calderwood

Since many of his generation don’t use social media, and give up on the phone when told to “please hold” or “press one/two/three”, could the inevitable happen? That many golden oldies will just fade away, in self-imposed isolation? Old age strikes again, a statistic not directly relatable to the virus.

His generation is the “make do and mend” of World War Two, well used to sacrifice, so why not make that ultimate sacrifice? After all, they’re repeatedly told they’re responsible for bed-blocking and selfishly don’t downsize from their empty-nested homes to allow younger families to move in and up the property ladder.

READ MORE: Scotland does NOT plan to ask over-70s to self-isolate

Such heroic action would also ensure additional “social benefits” including lowering the numbers of pensions being paid out, fewer patients throughout the NHS system in general, less footfall in the chiropodists and fewer sets false teeth required. If this could be extended to the homeless and rough sleepers, the benefits are increased yet again. Add in the potential of similarly depleting the prison population and reoffending will drop. Is this the type of modelling that has been going on in No 10? Does my conspiracy theory cover it? After all, this is the regime of levelling up, perhaps through population engineering.

The UK’s “modelling” appears uniquely confused, contradictory and definitely different to that of other countries, but so good it has to be kept under wraps, kept secret. Could such modelling be the golden ticket the PM requires since the OECD tells us the UK has a grand 2.5 beds per 1,000 population, but Italy has 3.2 and France has 6.0 beds per 1,000? Good job then that we’re on the way to taking back control, or does No 10 believe it’s making rUK great again?

READ MORE: Coronavirus: All Scots schools may close from end of Easter break

My golden oldie was much impressed following the pre-emptive, unilateral actions taken in Scotland over the last few days and laid out so clearly by the FM, Catherine Calderwood and Jeane Freeman, but then my conspiracy theory gained traction once Westminster cancelled democracy with the halting of local elections in England for as long as one year. The latest news that there are plans to rush through emergency laws for the UK as a whole, for a possible two-year period, including the ability to detain virus victims, halt transport and close ports, has sent his blood pressure rocketing.

Will Holyrood endorse this by voting for the same?

Do we believe Westminster’s line that Scotland – along with England, Northern Ireland and Wales – will be allowed the flexibility to enact relevant changes if, when necessary?

Him in doors believes in the hand-washing and self-imposed hibernation whilst staying in contact with family, friends. But more so, that there’s the need for recognition. That this is where localism needs to meet internationalism, where generational respect and co-operation comes together, where all sections of society are regarded and considered. If schools close and kids dependent on school meals go hungry, if benefits are late, or worse, denied. Our zero-hours workers, the self employed. How we treat our weakest, our most vulnerable is how we will be judged, Whoever, wherever, we cannot leave even one of us behind.

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh