(C) OpenDemocracy This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Covid inquiry: Nicola Sturgeon admits Scotland lockdown regret [1] [] Date: 2024-02 Nicola Sturgeon has said one of her biggest regrets is not locking down Scotland two weeks earlier as coronavirus spread across the country in 2020. Speaking at the UK Covid inquiry on Wednesday, the former first minister admitted that action should have been taken earlier. “I don’t know that anybody can say with certainty what difference it would have made in the overall trajectory of the pandemic and the outcomes of the pandemic, but of the many regrets I have, probably chief of those is that we didn’t lock down a week, two weeks earlier than we did,” she said. Scotland’s first national lockdown was announced on 23 March 2020. At the time, Sturgeon told the nation: “The stringent restrictions on our normal day to day lives that I’m about to set out are difficult and they are unprecedented. They amount effectively to what has been described as a lockdown.” What do you think? Win a £10 book voucher for sharing your views about openDemocracy. Tell us Others giving evidence at the Covid inquiry have expressed similar sentiments. Chief scientific advisor to the UK, Angela McLean, told the inquiry in November that there was sufficient data to lockdown a week earlier. Sturgeon’s admission came as she was quizzed on accusations by Michael Gove that she had breached confidentiality and “jumped the gun” by banning mass gatherings in Scotland before the UK did, following a meeting between the four nations. Arguing that these were Scottish government decisions, Sturgeon said: “I did not breach confidentiality, I am not bound by confidentiality in the UK government sense.” “I would go further than that and suggest that given the situation we were dealing with, the whole notion of confidentiality is a bit absurd,” she added. Political agenda Sturgeon denied there was a political agenda in her management of the pandemic – something also suggested by Gove in his evidence on Monday. “None of those decisions were influenced in any way by political considerations or by trying to gain an advantage for the cause of independence,” said Sturgeon. “I was motivated solely by trying to do the best we could to keep people as safe as possible.” According to Sturgeon, on 18 March 2020, her constitution secretary Michael Russell wrote to Gove saying the government was suspending all work on an independence referendum. But cabinet documents show a note on 30 June that year saying it had been “agreed that consideration should be given to restarting work on independence and a referendum, with the arguments reflecting the experience of the coronavirus crisis and developments on EU exit.” Sturgeon denied this became policy, saying: “I did not leave that cabinet thinking we were about to restart work on independence and I would have made my views clear that that was not going to happen…We didn’t restart work on independence.” The inquiry continues. openDemocracy is fundraising to pay reporters to cover every day of the public hearings. Please support us by donating here. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/covid-19-inquiry-nicola-sturgeon-lockdown-two-weeks-independence/ 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/