Today, @covidinquiryuk heard that the government instructed PPE suppliers to prioritise English NHS settings over Scotland.

Just as shocking, the government withdrew embassy support from Scottish government officials negotiating PPE deals in foreign countries. pic.twitter.com/hSZmBlTkfJ

— Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (@CovidJusticeUK) March 24, 2025

Professor John Robertson OBA

Thanks once again to AR for alerting me to this.

Ignored, of course, by BBC Scotland and somewhat downplayed by STV in ‘Scotland didn’t have a Covid PPE VIP lane and we didn’t need one’ at https://news.stv.tv/politics/scotland-didnt-have-a-covid-ppe-vip-lane-and-we-didnt-need-one, this is a shocking revelation of how, when the going got tough, Scotland did not benefit from the Union but, rather, was actively harmed by it.

The above short video is a must watch and share for any who doubt the true nature of Scotland’s position in the UK.

Nearly 5 years ago we knew this but the ‘Scottish’ media tried to hide it:

BBC Scotland and the Herald, predictably, leaped gleefully on the apparent rebuttal of the story that UK PPE suppliers were refusing to deliver to Scottish care homes because English ones had the greater need, but before they could sit down, everything changed again.

In the morning Jason Leitch had provided them with the headline they so wanted but by midday his boss, the FM, was saying something quite different. She said they would be investigating the claims and, ominously:

‘Any situation where supplies were being diverted from one part of the UK to the other without consultation or any sense of co-operation would clearly be unconscionable and unacceptable.’ 

Remembering the words of Dominic Raab, yesterday, reassuring his English audience that his government was doing its best to make sure that, explicitly English care homes, were getting the equipment they needed, I smelled the casual contempt.

At the time, all we had were Dr Macaskill’s words but we now have more, much more.

First, the First Minister clearly knows that Leitch spoke too soon. She knows something.

Second, Matt Hancock has cancelled his meeting with Jeane Freeman, with no explanation, after she messaged him to warn him that he could not unilaterally divert supplies of this kind as there is a UK-wide agreement.

Third, we have the horrific tsunami of death in the latest ONS statistics for England and Wales, for just last week. Raab and Hancock knew these were coming and like the Tory schoolboys they are, they panicked and reverted to the bullying they remember from their schooldays.

Fourth, we have this astonishing revelation in the Times at 12 noon today:

Major manufacturers of personal protective equipment (PPE) are refusing to send supplies to Scotland because they are prioritising England. The global supply chain is under severe pressure as countries try to protect their frontline health and care workers during the pandemic. Gompels, which is based in Melksham, Wiltshire, has said that it will not supply Scotland or Wales under a contract that it holds with Public Health England. “You must be registered and operating within England — apologies to Wales and Scotland, we are told you have different processes for getting emergency supplies,” its website states.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-in-scotland-ppe-manufacturers-put-england-first-gqdcsxzb3

The First Minister’s advisors will have told her about this just before she came on at 12.30.

And fifth we have Hancock agreeing to change his ‘plans.’

Also, reported here but probably now forgotten:

Scotland helps England out with PPE despite Hancock’s attempts to cheat us

NHS Scotland ‘get their finger out’ and SNP Government uses ‘two pronged strategy’ to ensure PPE supplies’