NICOLA Sturgeon and John Swinney have been accused of being Covid management freaks — after it was revealed they kicked up a fuss about “flooring arrows” on the peak of the pandemic.
Assembly data disclose that, as virus instances hit a brand new excessive, the brand new First Minister and his then boss have been hitting out over the elimination of markings from the Scottish Authorities’s HQ.
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The paperwork, launched beneath freedom of information legal guidelines, additionally present Ms Sturgeon’s “annoyance” that speak of a possible circuit-breaker lockdown in 2021 was leaked to journalists.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser hit out: “These minutes affirm two of the previous First Minister’s worst traits — her want to micromanage every little thing and her aversion to transparency.
“The latter explains the shameful choice to delete all her pandemic WhatsApp messages regardless of having promised she’d retain them.”
Papers from a Gold Command assembly on August 26, 2021, inform how Ms Sturgeon mentioned restrictions with then deputy Mr Swinney plus Chief Medical Officer Sir Gregor Smith, technique chief Dominic Smith and Professor Jason Leitch, the high-profile Nationwide Scientific Director.
A day later the First Minister introduced Scotland’s highest variety of each day Covid instances for the reason that pandemic — with 6,835 infections.
The minutes word that Mr Swinney requested her whether or not “she was clear we weren’t returning to restrictions”.
Ms Sturgeon replied that she was “unable to rule this out”.
The Deputy First Minister moaned ScotRail have been “not imposing face coverings”. And Ms Sturgeon informed him it was “worse than that as Lothian Buses had tweeted they weren’t imposing face coverings because the Authorities don’t count on them to”.
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Mr Swinney then warned they could should “flip up the dial” on restrictions. And he stated he’d been shocked by the elimination of flooring arrows in St Andrew’s Home, Edinburgh, to point out civil servants the place to stroll to limit contacts.
The then SNP supremo informed him the transfer had occurred two weeks earlier and she or he was “not consulted”.
Ms Sturgeon was stated to have been “trying to get the sectors corresponding to supermarkets to take laborious actions”.
The notes added: “She expressed her annoyance that she had learn in newspapers ‘somebody near SG planning’ leaked that the federal government is planning a circuit breaker.”
Scots Lib Dem chief Alex Cole-Hamilton stated: “Nicola Sturgeon and a tiny group of advisers took management of every little thing from lockdowns to flooring arrows. There was nobody who might push again when errors have been made.”
A Scottish Authorities spokesperson stated: “The Scottish Authorities is dedicated to responding to each the Scottish Covid-19 and UK Covid-19 inquiries, as studying classes from the pandemic is significant to organize for the longer term.
“It will be inappropriate to touch upon the element of proof being thought-about by both Inquiry whereas hearings are ongoing.”
