Coronavirus and the Union

Like so many of you, I drank my cuppa on Sunday and watched as our Queen gave her speech to the nation. I cried my eyes out.

The last month or so has felt as long as a year. Some of us have lost loved ones, others have lost their jobs and some of us are dreading each new day. Her Majesty changed this on Sunday, when she issued her rallying cry of British Bulldog spirit. Her message was echoed not only across Britain but the whole world listened to what she had to say with great interest and warmth.

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted just how important the UK is in fighting this terrible virus. As a nation we’ve donated huge quantities of PPE, ventilators, research equipment and money to help find a vaccine. Not only that, within the short space of 3 weeks, the British army has built over 5 new emergency field hospitals and helped keep us safe.

The UK government have announced emergency packages of support for businesses to keep afloat. Right across the UK, lifelines have been given to help protect our way of life and put food on the table. But these ARE unprecedented times. We ARE fighting this together.

Well, most of us. The SNP are still pretending Scotland is acting alone. Nicola Sturgeon is pretending to announce lockdown measures as if she’s the one making these decisions. She isn’t, of course.

Sturgeon can’t even thank the British Armed Forces for building a new hospital within a week. In fact, she can’t even bring herself to call the hospital by the same name as the other UK hospitals. So anti-UK she is, she decided to brief the press of classified meetings with the UK government simply to create the illusion she’s calling the shots.

But enough about her, because the one thing this crisis has illustrated is how much the UK truly works for everybody across these islands. We work together as one, not apart as separate jurisdictions. My own nationalist friends have been impressed by the conservative government in London, and they pay close attention to the press conferences. Nobody I know watches Nicola Sturgeon’s own conferences in Edinburgh, nor do they understand what her own health policy is. We don’t have a clue about PPE for our frontline, nor have we any idea about the circumstances of covid deaths in Scotland.

The ironic part of all this that it takes a worldwide pandemic to truly understand that we are definitely better together.

Blue Beyond

"First Minister Nicola Sturgeon" by Scottish Government images is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0