From the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK government and the Scottish government responded to it differently in many ways. This was not because Covid-19 took one form in Scotland and another in England. It did not. The virus killed much the same proportion of both populations. The differences of approach arose mainly from human and political causes. The two governments not only saw the role of government differently. They also mistrusted one another’s motives, not without reason.
Lady Hallett’s UK Covid inquiry has spent the past two weeks cross-examining many members of the Scottish political and medical elite about their approaches and actions between 2000 and 2022. Lady Hallett and her team will shortly move on to Wales and to Northern Ireland. But the story she heard in Scotland was not an uplifting one. True, the Scottish elites’ record during Covid did not descend to the level of the often chaotic indecision and recklessness of the UK response – which would have been hard. But the Scottish government has not emerged covered in virtue or glory either.
This has distressed the bereaved Scottish families, as they made clear on Thursday in the closing session. It may also disappoint the many who rightly admired the generally sensible public approach of the then first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, during the pandemic, especially when compared with the slapdash egotism displayed by Boris Johnson. But Ms Sturgeon’s reputation today is not what it was. Her preference for governing through a small clique, of which there was more evidence at the Covid inquiry, was the same fault that eventually brought her down in 2023. The revelation this week that she had destroyed her WhatsApp messages, having said in 2021 that she would supply them all to the inquiry, will have made things worse. At least Ms Sturgeon appears chastened, which is not true of Mr Johnson.
Mistrust between Ms Sturgeon and Mr Johnson was not just personal. It was political too. It was rooted in their mutual dislike of and disrespect towards the UK devolution settlement. The approach of Ms Sturgeon’s SNP government was coloured by separatism; they seized opportunities to behave differently from the UK and present themselves as a sovereign government. The SNP adviser Liz Lloyd told the inquiry that they were looking for a “rammy” with London over furlough policies.
Mr Johnson was the mirror image, preferring to ignore the devolved governments when he could, delegating the task of talking to them to Michael Gove, and behaving as if devolution did not – and should not – exist. He was not alone. At the inquiry on Thursday, the UK’s Scottish secretary, Alister Jack, could hardly contain his contempt towards Ms Sturgeon and the government she dominated. “Having seen first-hand the interaction between the UK and Scottish governments during the pandemic, my view is that the approach and decision-making should be a more centralised one,” his witness statement said.
That is the wrong conclusion to draw. Neither Ms Sturgeon nor Mr Johnson is likely to be in government when the next pandemic strikes. But the UK, if it exists, will probably still have a system of devolved government. This will need to work better than it did during Covid. Here is a question to which the Hallett inquiry may provide useful answers. In the end, though, it would help even more if the UK and Scottish governments are headed by politicians with a truly devolutionist mindset.
