Credit Where It's Due

It's fair to say that the UK government's handling of the Covid-19 crisis has been absolutely abysmal - a monstrous death toll, disastrous economic consequences, and vast amounts of public money given to chancers largely for no results. In general, the Scottish government have been doing better, though as I said in another post it's a difference of degree rather than type.

But where the vaccine roll-out is concerned, I feel I do need to give credit where it's due - after a slow start, the UK government have reached a very good rate of delivery, such that there's some genuine hope for the future. (Although there is one massive caveat - I'll get to that momentarily.) And, on the topic of vaccine delivery, I'm afraid the Scottish government just isn't doing as well, nor indeed is it doing well enough. And, again, it's a difference of degree rather than type, which means that the same caveat applies.

(That caveat concerns the increased delay between doses, where they were approved for a 3-week delay, the manufacturers recommend a 3-week delay (although it should be noted that they are obliged to do so), and yet the government has elected for a longer delay of up to 12-weeks. That's one hell of a gamble, and we must all desperately hope that they've got it right - the consequences if not are too horrible to contemplate.)

So I feel I must offer a very cautious congratulations to the UK government on this part of the process. And ask that the Scottish government please up their game.