Nicola Sturgeon, fresh from being praised by Iain Duncan Smith, takes a shot at Tory austerity – John McLellan
Everything is politics, said the German author Thomas Mann, whose most famous work Death in Venice was appropriately set against the background of an outbreak of cholera.
And even if his claim is a perfect example of philosopher Karl Popper’s theory of unfalsifiability, it has been put to the test by the Covid-19 outbreak where the public has been sold, and to a great extent bought, the idea that politics doesn’t matter, only what beats the virus.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“I have never been less interested in party politics than I am right now,” said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on March 18, when the official death toll in Scotland stood at two. And as the number of Scottish fatalities approaches 2,000 this weekend, the overwhelming impression is that her view is unchanged.
Six weeks ago the political parties united behind her, but the strain began to show as opposition parties realised it serves no-one to suspend criticism and Labour was quickly out the blocks to challenge Conservative handling, only pausing briefly when it became clear the Prime Minister was seriously ill.