Professor John Robertson OBA
In the National 24 January 2025:
Mark Drakeford: Tories’ ‘suspicion of the Scots’ hindered UK in Covid THERE was an “inherent suspicion” in the way the UK government dealt with its devolved counterparts during the Covid pandemic because they were “worried about the Scots,” the former first minister of Wales has said.
The above table is summarised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on page 101 of UK Poverty 2023 published on 26 January 2023, as:
Scotland has the lowest mortality rate per 100,000 people for every degree of deprivation across the UK [p100]
https://www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2023-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk
That the above variation was due to the actions of the devolved government in Scotland was confirmed, at the Scottish Covid Inquiry in February 2024, by Professor Thomas Hale – Associate Professor in Global Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government; Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford, when he made this statement:
The expert report provided to the Inquiry by Professor Hale also detailed international comparison of deaths per capita noting that over the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, England experienced the 19th highest number of deaths per capita on a global scale and was 15th amongst European countries while Scotland experienced the 38th highest number of deaths on the global scale, and the 27th among [44] European nations.
The last two paragraphs are of particular significance.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Wow, the English Government are trying to blame their disgusting Covid (none) response (I am sure they just saw £billions signs for themselves in PPE etc and NHS sell off for not coping well) for their incompetance? They basically murdered people, they held Scotland back deliberately, Boris Johnson bumbled about with a smirk on his face and pretended to have Covid, what a disgarce they were and are.
So is that where we are at now? Is it true there are idiots on FB demanding N.Sturgeon be locked up? This is all very sinister, hence their faux ‘security threat’ rubbish as well. Watch out Scotland they are circling the horses.
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Meant they are trying to blame Scotland and the SNP and of course Nicola Sturgeon.
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The only criticisms of NS that stand up to scrutiny are related to nursing homes (universal across UK) and exclusion of everyone but a small number of colleagues (a more general criticism of NS governance).
it seems bizarre to me to now criticise her for not moving quickly enough (when furlough payments were under Westminster control) and also being confusing by having a different approach from Westminster. The simultaneous criticism that she was only doing things differently for political reasons just looks bizarre when one examines the excoriating criticism of Johnson’s government’s approach.
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Nursing homes? No, see:
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/05/02/jeanne-freemans-quick-action-saved-many-lives-in-care-homes/
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Thanks for this information- I was unaware of it.
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