8 Comments

• Tony Dawson 28th Jan '21 - 11:14am

  There are some good points in there. There is, however, a big communications gap.

• Margaret 28th Jan '21 - 5:34pm

  No BAME people in Scotland? It looks awfully white.

• Steve Comer 29th Jan '21 - 8:52am

  Sorry this looks like “Vote Scottish Lib Dem for motherhood and apple pie!”

• Robin Bennett 29th Jan '21 - 9:29am

  No doubt Willie got advice on this, but would he not be more effective in “bedside” mode rather than in a suit on a rostrum? Apart from that, unfortunately the message comes across as “forget about independence” which will be dismissed by the majority who think we could deal with our problems better on our own. This policy does not augur well for the May election.

• John Marriott 29th Jan '21 - 2:01pm

  When it comes to Scotland and vaccines, what would the situation be like had an independent Scotland still been an EU member state?

• Jeff 29th Jan '21 - 2:42pm

  John Marriott 29th Jan ’21 – 2:01pm:
  When it comes to Scotland and vaccines, what would the situation be like had an independent Scotland still been an EU member state?

  Can a country where its elected government is forbidden from buying vaccines for its own people be described as “independent”?

• Robin Bennett 29th Jan '21 - 4:45pm

  @ John Marriott

  The vaccine arrangements are the one example of where the present Government can claim credit for being ahead of the curve. The U.K. changed national medicine regulations in the autumn to enable the MHRA to give temporary authorisation to a vaccine that meets safety and efficacy standards but has yet to finish the licensing process. We only speculate as to what an independent government in Edinburgh would have opted to do

  This mechanism was available to all EU countries, but they opted for a more rigorous licensing procedure in which the companies, rather than taxpayers, accept liability if there are problems. (Source: Politico)

• Jeff 29th Jan '21 - 10:31pm

  Robin Bennett 29th Jan ’21 – 4:45pm
  The vaccine arrangements are the one example of where the present Government can claim credit for being ahead of the curve.

  Much credit belongs to Kate Bingham and her team who rapidly evaluated the various developmental vaccines and backed winners before it was known they would work…

  ‘Coronavirus: UK’s nimble vaccine task force has left rivals trailing in its wake’ [29th. January 2020]:
  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-uks-nimble-vaccine-task-force-has-left-rivals-trailing-in-its-wake-kpbqkpbrv

  When Boris Johnson called Kate Bingham last April and asked her to lead Britain’s vaccine task force the brief was simple: “Stop people from dying.”

  After thinking it over for 24 hours, Ms Bingham took the (unpaid) job and set about it at speed. A biochemist turned venture capitalist, she assembled a small team of private sector experts who knew the science, industry and logistics of making it all work.

  Within a fortnight they had drawn up a shortlist of 23 vaccines from four different vaccine technologies. The key criterion, given the priority of saving lives, was not to find the perfect vaccine but the one (or ones) that would reduce the severity of infection and be ready for market within a year.