So there I was, sitting on my couch, minding my own business, when a tousle-haired buffoon popped up on my telly to tell me to go get my anti-Covid booster.
Now, normally I would do the exact opposite of what Boris Johnson suggests on the grounds that he is, well, Boris Johnson.
But, in this case, I was able just to say: “Well ahead of you there, Tory boy”, because I am thrice-vaxxed, and flu jabbed for good measure.
Never mind the messenger, though, the message is a vital one. It’s pretty obvious that Omicron is running rampant and needs to be stopped in its tracks.
You don’t roll out a massive booster programme across four nations for no good reason. And you certainly don’t start offering drop-in booster clinics to all and sundry unless there is a serious threat to lives and to the NHS.
So, we can only hope that everyone with an ounce of sense trots along and gets their sleeves rolled up to do their bit.
However, it must be said that the powers that be need to up their game, too.
Parties weren’t ‘deferred’ – they were cancelled
Normally, I’m in agreement with how the Scottish Government has been handling the response to the pandemic – we are lucky to have Nicola Sturgeon leading us through it. But there has been the occasional misstep, and we saw another one last week.
Public Health Scotland advising people to “defer” Christmas parties was a blow – and not just because some after-work drinks I had lined up vanished like snow off a dyke.
The problem is that this advice, supported by the first minister, once again cawed the legs from under the hospitality sector. Parties weren’t “deferred”. They were cancelled.
A sector already hammered over and over again found one of its biggest money-spinners of the year – the office do – removed. But, there was no mechanism in place to compensate the pubs and restaurants now sitting looking at empty tables that should be packed with people eating, drinking, making merry and spending money.
We need transparency from leaders
It was Christmas cancelled by stealth, and massively unfair to businesses still trying to find their feet for reasons that weren’t crystal clear.
If the advice doesn’t seem to join up, it makes it easier to ignore
For example, I met up with family for a Christmas lunch at the weekend, which we were perfectly entitled to do. The five of us sat at a table in a restaurant rammed with other groups of folk – friends, ladies who lunch, or families like us. So, what’s the difference between that press of folk and an office Christmas party – other than having no juicy gossip about who did what come Monday morning?
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Please be patient & bear with us as system is experiencing v high demand.https://t.co/Jes096bl2e pic.twitter.com/Cs0pq0NHfY
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) December 13, 2021
Yes, I know, the argument is that it’s better to advise against office parties than go back into lockdown – no one wants that. But, if the advice doesn’t seem to join up, it makes it easier to ignore. And, once people ignore bits of it, there’s a fear they will question all of it.
We are in for a bumpy ride in the coming weeks. Our leaders need to be open, clear, concise and fair to ensure we are all committed to staying on track.
Scott Begbie is entertainment editor for The Press & Journal and Evening Express
Read more by Scott Begbie:
- See the person not the ‘junkie’ to help end Scotland’s drug crisis
- Moronic thinking on Omicron is depressingly predictable
- We all need to wage war on food poverty
