Morning,

The government have recently sent out a letter to those in England that says- (paraphrasing). As of 1st August those that are currently clinically extremly vulnerable are able to go back to work and social distance as long as the workplace is COVID safe. Does anyone know whether this is the same for Scotland? thank you

What I would like to know is how one can declare that a work environment is 100% COVID safe? I have yet to see a formal, detailed statement from our leaders as to how one can arrive at this blissful state.

Originally Posted by: Mark-W

I have no idea why she is a week later.

She is using long shanks sassenachs as guinea pigs.

Mark - have you been following the "free press". If so, perhaps time for a reality check.

Scotland decided to mandate the use of "face coverings" two weeks BEFORE England.

In a world where the data on infection rates is far from adequate not least as a result of information about "Excess Mortality" being only intermittently provided and as Covid testing (of various types) is still rather thin on the ground each of the four countries that make up the UK have to read the advice given by their medical experts and then make decisions based on a mix of risk and politics.

So, even though the "R number" is lower in Scotland than in England, Nicola Sturgeon has chosen a generally more cautious path to relaxing lock down than Boris who appears to have looked at the R number as a whole (perhaps with an eye to largely blue constituencies in the South East) and broadly dropped the 2m social distancing rule despite significant variations in the R number in English regions.

Rather quickly, there have soon been some hot spots in English regions and some restrictions have been put back there.

It's not just Scotland, Wales and NI are also making their own decisions as to when and how to relax restrictions, with broad approval from their citizens. That is how devolution works and the majority in Scotland would like a lot more of it.

In Scotland, the polls show that Nicola's positive approval ratings have soared, whilst Boris' negative ones have plummeted even further.

Doesn't help with the messaging when Michael Gove goes on the Marr show on Sunday to say that face coverings in shops should be used by the public using their common sense, only for his pal to overrule him the next day. So much for joined up Cabinet thinking.