AFTER the excoriating Sunday newspaper critique of Boris Johnson and his Government’s mishandling of the current crisis, a lot has been written about whether Scotland should be taking a different path. Many argue that the facts speak for themselves. However, although I know it may disappoint some, I am not going to second guess Nicola Sturgeon’s strategy in this column. Put simply, she has the responsibility of running the country. I don’t. She also is privy to information and advice which none of the rest of us has.

Some excellent analytical pieces have been written in this newspaper by independent commentators like Lesley Riddoch and Kirsty Hughes. The FM herself has said her Government’s strategy may diverge from the UK Government’s strategy going forward and we will hear more about that later this week.

However, some of those who have chosen to snipe at the Scottish Government rather than produce the sort of thoughtful analyses referred to above seem to have conveniently forgotten the realities of devolution and the rejection of independence in the 2014 referendum.

The devolved Scottish Government simply does not hold many of the powers crucial to dealing with the fallout from this crisis, because these powers are reserved to Westminster. They cannot deliver business bailouts or the basic income which I, along with long-time advocates such as Ronnie Cowan MP, have demanded. This is not because Scotland is an economic basket case or would be if independent; it is because Scotland’s government does not have the powers to shape macroeconomic policy.

The National:

It simply isn’t fair to criticise Nicola Sturgeon for not emulating Jacinda Ardern. Scotland is not New Zealand. Scotland is not an independent country. Scotland also shares an island with England and Wales and, as the FM has said, the virus does not respect borders or boundaries and border control is the responsibility of the UK Government.

READ MORE: Joanna Cherry urges Priti Patel to start testing at airports

That is why, as the SNP’s shadow home secretary, I have raised the issue of the lack of health checks and quarantining measures at our airports and ports with Priti Patel.

Significant numbers of people are continuing to enter the UK at airports without any health checks or quarantining. When I first raised this with the Home Secretary before Easter, she said it was largely a matter for the Department of Transport, and that the current approach is based on advice from Public Health England but subject to review by the Scientific Advice Group for Emergencies (SAGE).

However, border control is a matter for the Home Office and in contrast to the UK many other countries across Europe and the world have some form of health checks at airports plus quarantining for arrivals.

There seems now to be general agreement that we should be moving to a system of testing, contact tracing and isolation. As we do so, new systems will need to be put in place. I have suggested to Priti Patel that Covid-19 assessment points are set up at airports after border control with health checks, including virus testing, and instructions and advice for quarantine as a condition for admission to the UK.

I fully accept that health checks, even testing, would not catch every case of the virus that comes into the UK before communication. Some people may not yet have developed symptoms, and that is why health checks must be combined with 14 days’ quarantining or self-isolation for all who arrive, as happens in Ireland. Moreover, given the rate of transmission of this virus, any significant interruption of the chain of transmission would surely be worthwhile.

The National:

Border health control measures of the sort adopted by other countries would also serve to increase public confidence and support for the general approach as we move towards consideration of the conditions for a relaxing of lockdown.

The UK Government keep saying they are following the science but it’s hard to understand why their approach to border health checks is so out of step with other countries who are presumably also following the science. The scientific advice is not uniform. Political decision-makers still have agency.

If Patel fails to act, then there are measures the Scottish Government could take. Health protection is devolved and Schedule 19 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 gave Scottish ministers the power to make regulations “… for the purpose of preventing, protecting against, controlling or providing a public health response to the incidence or spread of infection or contamination in Scotland (whether from risks originating there or elsewhere).” This specifically includes requiring persons to submit to medical examination and isolation or quarantine.

However, the reality is that only about 3% of the 260,000 passengers continuing to enter the UK on a weekly basis come through Scottish airports. The vast majority arrive at Heathrow first and then take onward flights to Scotland or travel elsewhere internally. To demand that the FM “closes the border” with England is not realistic. There is no border to close and no means for her so to do.

That is why Patel must act. Why doesn’t she? Perhaps because this is not about keeping foreigners out, which seems to be what normally floats her boat. Regulations would apply equally to British citizens and residents returning home from abroad. This is not about immigration control; it is about health.

We need to keep the pressure up on this hapless Tory Government. Decisions taken, or not being taken, at Westminster are shaping our lives as never before. The First Minister has said that the time has come to look at what we can do differently. We may well be in the realm of damage limitation given what has gone before and the limited powers of Holyrood, but the time has surely come to use the latter to the utmost degree.

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