Poor old Blair McDougall. He really doesn’t think Scotland can do anything.
What a dismally rotten, hopeless wee province he thinks Scotland is. It must be such a miserable experience to be him, constantly ashamed of your own nationality. (Except, of course, Blair’s nationality is British, not Scottish.)
Because here are just a few of the countries that have managed to conduct elections and/or referendums during the coronavirus pandemic:
But apparently Scotland is much less competent and resilient than Moldova, Papua New Guinea, Surinam, the Falkland Islands, Burkina Faso, Jamaica, Northern Cyprus, South Korea, Bolivia, Lithuania, Syria, Poland, Niue (wherever the hell that is), and the United States of America – at least according to its own media.
Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, is firmly against any thoughts of postponing the election over the coronavirus, although she IS more than happy to postpone independence for the same reason. Apparently only some kinds of votes cause logistical problems.
From this site’s particular point of view, a delay of perhaps two or three months to the election would actually be quite welcome, because it would greatly lessen the chances of the Scottish Government stalling and obstructing its way out of two inquiries into its conduct over the Alex Salmond affair delivering their verdicts before polling day.
(Not least because if the main inquiry doesn’t report before the election, Linda Fabiani, the inquiry’s convener, will have retired as an MSP and presumably no longer be able to act as chair. Goodness knows what happens then. Even if there was some way she could continue as an external convener, it’d be too late to matter anyway.)
Nevertheless, we can see no justification for the election not going ahead. We continue to have faith in the integrity of the Scottish Parliament and trust that both the verdicts and the election will be with us by the spring.