Sturgeon backtracks on Covid (again)

Oh dear. It was just two weeks ago that Mr S remarked on Nicola Sturgeon’s unfortunate habit of sneering at journalists who criticised her Covid policies – only to then quietly backtrack days later, without apology or remorse. And now another U-turn can be added to the growing list, after the First Minister today announced she would cut the self-isolation period to seven days.

The move is in keeping with Edinburgh’s record throughout the pandemic in moving glacially slow to recognise the wisdom of anything done in London. For England changed its Covid rules on 22 December so that infected individuals can stop isolating after seven days rather than ten, so long as they test negative on day six and seven. On 30 December Wales followed suit, and a day later Northern Ireland followed – leaving Scotland as the only outlier.

And even more embarrassingly for the First Minister, it came less than a month after she ridiculed Scottish Daily Mail political editor Michael Blackley – one of the nicest and most respected journos in the Holyrood lobby.