Was the Scottish Government as culpable as the Westminster Government over the delay to impose lockdown at the start of the pandemic? IAIN Macwhirter s comment that “the Scottish Government made exactly the same mistakes as Mr Johnson. She [the First Minister] similarly delayed lockdown in March 2020, halted community testing and failed to protect care homes” is riddled with errors ( Sturgeon could be caught in the Cummings crossfire , The Herald, May 26). First, is he unaware that until the end of March 2020 the devolved governments did not have the powers to declare a lockdown? The lockdown in Scotland on March 23 may have been too late, but the powers to do so lay at Westminster at that time.
Updated: 8:35, 1 May 2021
NICOLA Sturgeon this week hit out at the “stench” encircling Boris Johnson’s Tories.
But the SNP have been strongly criticised for problems of their own over the past five years, when the party has lurched from one scandal to another.
11
The SNP has been rocked by a series of controversies over the past five years
Controversy has dogged the once-disciplined Nats throughout their whole term in office, including Finance Secretary Derek Mackay pestering a schoolboy with hundreds of texts.
Despite this and a list of other scandals, Ms Sturgeon insisted the SNP doesn’t have reputational problems, claiming: “When issues arise about the behaviour of individuals, then we deal with those appropriately.”
John Swinney learned of sexual harassment complaints against SNP MP after they surfaced in newspapers
The Deputy First Minister was quizzed on the sexual harassment claims made against Patrick Grady.
10:14, 15 MAR 2021
Deputy First Minister John Swinney attends First Minister s Questions at the Scottish Parliament (Image: PA)
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Scottish Government response to ferry inquiry branded ‘disdainful’
The two ferries will be delivered in 2022 and 2023 respectively (Andrew Milligan/PA)
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The Scottish Government’s response to the outcome of an inquiry into the procurement of two ferries has been criticised.
The inquiry was launched by the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee in 2019 after it emerged that hulls 801 and 802, being built at the Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited (FMEL) shipyard in Port Glasgow, would be delivered late and at more than double their initial cost.
| UPDATED: 14:42, Wed, Jan 13, 2021
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About 25 letters and emails released under Freedom of Information laws between January and November last year reveal SNP ministers have been holding discussions with EU officials making the case for Scotland to rejoin the EU. But Ms von Der Leyen refused Ms Sturgeon s apparent request for a role in the negotiations.