A DAMNING Commons report was published today – confirming that the British Government's handling of the early phases of the pandemic was woefully inept, chaotic and callous in its disregard for human life, so much so that the report found that tens of thousands of people lost their lives needlessly. 

The report from the Science and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee found that the British government has failed us all on the most fundamental duty of any government – its obligation to keep citizens safe. The Conservatives' mishandling of the crisis, misguided pursuit of herd immunity in the absence of an effective vaccine, slow and gradualist approach and frankly delusional belief in British exceptionalism all contributed to what the cross-party report described as “one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”. The report stressed: "This happened despite the UK counting on some of the best expertise available anywhere in the world, and despite having an open, democratic system that allowed plentiful challenge."

Scotland largely followed the British Government's lead in the initial phases of the pandemic. At the time the Scottish Government was under intense pressure from the anti-independence parties and the predominantly anti-independence Scottish media not to break with British Government advice, any attempt to do so being howled down as tantamount to treason and creating confusion which could risk lives. We now know with the benefit of hindsight that the Scottish Government should have broken away from the British Government's strategy far sooner and far more decisively. Those same parties and media outlets that attacked the Scottish Government for any divergence from British Government advice will now no doubt attack it for doing exactly what they demanded it should do.

READ MORE: Tory minister refuses to apologise to Covid victims ELEVEN times

The failures of this callous, chaotic and incompetent British Government are compounded by the insult added to injury of cabinet minister Stephen Barclay, who no less than 11 times during an interview on Sky News refused to apologise to the families of those who died needlessly due to his government's ineptitude. He even admitted that he hadn't read the report.

One of the loudest and most oft-repeated arguments of opponents of independence is that Scotland requires the British state in order to be able to deal with global crises of the magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic. Every other north-west European nation of a comparable size to Scotland has dealt with the pandemic far better than the UK has. Our lived experience of the past 20 months gives the lie to that claim. During a global crisis, the British Government has put Scotland in harm's way. 

This piece is from today's REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.

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