IF I have learned one thing during the pandemic it’s that it’s important not to overthink the good days. Given all we have had to deal with over the past year, those truly worry-free moments are fleeting. They are also easily spooked and it doesn’t take much depressing news coverage to chase them away.
I’ve been feeling full of good cheer this week. I suspect it has something to do with the imminent end of my latest bout of home-schooling as my daughter heads back to her proper teacher on Monday.
I’ve also been doing something that hasn’t come naturally in recent months: thinking ahead to better times. I’ve embarked on a huge decluttering mission in anticipation of having guests at some point. I’ve been making plans with friends that are incredibly detailed aside from the fact that we haven’t pencilled in a specific date yet. Speaking of dates, I’ve been thinking ahead to that too – it’s been a very long year.
Forward planning in lockdown is ultimately doomed to fail but it is also incredibly invigorating. It’s a wee reminder that things won’t always be as they are now. The full richness of life is waiting for us on the other side of the hill.
Over at FMQs, Ruth Davidson was looking backwards rather than forwards. She asked the First Minister about the Audit Scotland report on pandemic preparedness.
“Today’s report by Audit Scotland identifies a lack of preparedness on the part of the Scottish Government stretching back over a decade. Specifically, it charges that SNP ministers failed to implement key recommendations made after pandemic planning exercises in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Between Exercise Silver Swan, Exercise Cygnus and Exercise Iris, these reports made 52 separate recommendations. How many of those recommendations had been implemented by the Scottish Government by March 2020?”
Leaving aside the fact that the Silver Swan and Cygnus sound like the first hipster bars that Iris is planning to visit when the pandemic is over, I’m not sure pandemic preparedness of years gone by is the burning issue of the day. Most folk are wanting to know about what comes next, not what the Scottish Government did or didn’t do right in 2015. Especially when Ruth Davidson’s party leader spent the weeks before lockdown boasting about shaking hands with hospital patients and missing Cobra meetings.
In her response, the First Minister said the Audit Scotland report was important. “One of the paramount points that the report makes – and I’m going to quote from it here – is this one: ‘The Scottish Government and the NHS responded quickly to the rapidly developing pandemic.” In terms of the three pandemic preparedness exercises … a range of national and local guidance and plans were updated to take account of the lessons of these exercises.’”
In her questions on the same issue, Jackie Baillie said the First Minister is right to say that this pandemic was unprecedented.
She added: “But the Audit Scotland report makes clear a pandemic should have been anticipated. The Government knew it could threaten the lives of people across Scotland. They were told that the social care system would struggle to cope and they were warned that access to PPE just simply wasn’t good enough.”
It’s a valid and important line of questioning and one which you can be sure will be covered in any future public inquiry. For now, I’m sure most people would rather the opposition scrutinised the Scottish Government plans for getting us out of this mess than take a trip down memory lane.
Jackie Baillie went on to say that the FM needed to stop “hiding behind” staff when being questioned about government failings. “I have – on not one single day since this pandemic struck – hidden or tried to hide in any way, “ replied the FM. “In fact, on many of the days where I’ve been seeking to lead the country through the pandemic.
“Jackie Baillie has been writing letters to the BBC trying to stop me briefing the public on a daily basis. So perhaps it is the fact that this government has shown leadership that Jackie Baillie finds so difficult to take.”
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