Covid in Edinburgh: Why I can no longer support the SNP government over city's tier-three lockdown – Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP

Will Edinburgh be stuck in a state of near-perpetual lockdown until the pandemic ends, wonders Alex Cole-Hamilton (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

I say this as context for what follows, because I am no ‘Coronavirus Cavalier’.

Indeed, the government have enjoyed my support for the measures they have deployed to protect the public from this devastating disease.

That is, until last week. Eight days ago, Nicola Sturgeon got to her feet in the Scottish Parliament and apparently chose to ignore the advice of her public health officials, keeping Edinburgh at level three – the second-highest threshold of lockdown.

This was crushing news for the city after the council had been quietly told to expect a downgrade by government scientific advisers.

What’s more confusing is that the First Minister announced this in the knowledge that several areas, who remain at level two, have now surpassed Edinburgh’s infection rates, test positivity and hospitalisations. Indeed, Edinburgh first achieved the metrics required for level two status several weeks ago.

The only explanation she could offer was that these decisions are a blend of science and of judgement and that, in her judgement, Edinburgh at Christmas time was too much of a magnet for people coming here from other regions.

That may well be but it undermines confidence in her ‘legally enforceable travel ban’ and it’s also not something we can readily change. Edinburgh will always draw people to it.

Pre-Christmas shopping and revelries will give way to the January sales, Auld Reekie will always be the jewel in the crown of Scotland’s eastern seaboard and people will choose to come here – we can’t just turn that off.

If that is her judgment then it begs the question, under what circumstances will she decide to step us down to two? When every other region achieves that level? When we’ve all finally got that needle-prick mark in our arm?

There wasn’t much about her statement that offered hope for anything other than a state of near-perpetual lockdown for Edinburgh until the pandemic ends and that, itself, is harmful.

It means that the hospitality sector can’t plan or function sustainably, the retail sector will continue to founder and those toiling alone and desperately isolated without the company of others will have to do so with little hope of relief.

As I said, this virus terrifies me. I recognise transmission levels may be on the rise again and wouldn’t dream of asking the First Minister to take any risks in how we manage that.

But we all agreed to a clear five-level framework and the hinge-points and measurements that would define transition between those levels. Being an attractive destination for shopping and hospitality was not a factor in that framework. So, she’s changed the goal-posts, just when people were starting to understand where they stood.

Public confidence in and compliance with the measures are vital if they are to succeed. That requires consistency of application and a clear line of sight to the basis for each decision. By apparently making it up as she goes along, Nicola Sturgeon is undermining both.

Alex Cole-Hamilton is Liberal Democrat MSP for Edinburgh Western

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