(C) OpenDemocracy
This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Covid inquiry: Sturgeon told off for attacking Brexit [1]
[]
Date: 2023-07
Nicola Sturgeon was told off for criticising Brexit at the official Covid inquiry today.
When asked by chief counsel to the inquiry Hugo Keith whether she felt the diversion of resources, money and time away from pandemic planning to deal with preparations for a no-deal Brexit was “a false economy”, the former Scottish first minister said: “I think every aspect of Brexit has been a false economy.”
Keith then interjected: “That is a witness box, not a soapbox.”
Sturgeon told the inquiry she “deeply regrets” the impact no-deal Brexit planning had on Scotland’s pandemic preparedness.
Help us uncover the truth about Covid-19 The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened. Make a donation
She said resources were diverted from multiple areas – including updating the Scottish and UK governments’ pandemic plans – to the Operation Yellowhammer preparations for a no-deal Brexit.
“Brexit obviously was something that was happening completely against the will of the Scottish government, so we were not at all happy about what we were having to do,” said Sturgeon, adding that some pandemic planning work continued in the Scottish government, though largely for a flu pandemic.
“To put it bluntly, we had no choice (...). The consequences of that would have been very, very severe. The planning assumptions in Yellowhammer were grim.”
Sturgeon was Scotland’s leader throughout the pandemic and Scottish health secretary from 2007 to 2012. She resigned as first minister in February.
Last week at the inquiry deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden defended the diversion of resources from pandemic planning to no-deal Brexit preparation.
But the former first minister said the fact that planning for a no-deal Brexit had affected every aspect of the Scottish government’s work was a “matter of deep and extreme regret and frustration” at the time.
In her opening remarks before giving evidence, Sturgeon said there was “not a day that passes” that she didn’t think about those who had suffered as a result of Covid.
“I know that every day, the government I led did our best to take the best possible decisions, but equally I know that we did not get everything right,” she said.
In Scotland, to date, 17,530 have died with Covid-19 mentioned on their death certificate.
When questioned by Keith about the UK government’s pandemic planning strategy, produced in 2011, Sturgeon said she accepted it was too focused on planning for an influenza pandemic.
She said while she agreed with comments from previous witnesses that the 2011 plan was inadequate overall, she maintained that parts of it had still proved useful.
Reflecting on lessons learned from pandemic exercises, Sturgeon said emergency plans needed to be more flexible and adaptable, citing her experience of the swine flu pandemic.
“[Swine flu] thankfully turned out to be milder than we had anticipated,” she said. “There was a period when the government was trying to make the pandemic fit the plan, rather than adapt the plan to the pandemic.”
During her evidence, Sturgeon briefly mentioned Scotland’s response to the pandemic – a subject which will be more fully explored in module two of the inquiry. She said there was still a question of whether the Scottish government should have done more to suppress Covid.
“It was never the case that we simply accepted there is a level of harm that is going to be done by this virus and we accept that,” she said. “It became, later on, one of the points of difference between the Scottish and the UK government that we were seeking to suppress as opposed to live with the virus.”
Sturgeon was also questioned by Aamer Anwar, the lawyer representing the Scottish Covid Bereaved Families group, at the close of her evidence session. Outside the hearing, Anwar gave a statement on behalf of the families.
“The evidence of multiple politicians and civil servants has exposed a culture of impunity, of denial, of arrogance, and blaming everyone but themselves (...). The dead cannot speak for themselves but their families deserve the truth,” he read.
Anwar’s statement drew attention to the Scottish government’s handling of Covid in adult care settings, in particular the discharge of untested patients from hospital into care homes.
“The families want to know whether the Scottish government blames Westminster or if they were in agreement. Did they fail to follow the science or did they march a few steps behind Boris Johnson into this carousel of chaos?” Anwar read from the statement.
“The vulnerable and those impacted by inequality and austerity hold little or no consideration in the mind of those who were responsible for planning for a pandemic as a result of which thousands died.”
The inquiry continues.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/covid-inquiry-nicola-sturgeon-scotland-no-deal-brexit/
Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/
