GAZING upon Boris Johnson’s Downing Street press conference was a surreal experience. Millions of us passed through the looking glass but Alice wasn’t there to help us navigate this bizarre, brazen and morally bereft wonderland.

Instead, a Prime Ministerial Jabberwock came whiffling up to the podium and burbled that Dominic Cummings was a national hero. He acted to protect his child and family, contain the Covid-19 pandemic and save lives. No facts. No detail. No specific rebuttal of allegations. No apology. Not even an inkling of remorse.

Nothing other than a blanket dismissal of self-evident double standards in breaking lockdown rules. “I’ve looked at the allegations carefully and am content” said the Prime Minister, that Mr Cummings “acted responsibly, legally and with integrity”. The political equivalent of a decaf skinny latte with extra froth on top.

In one fell swoop the UK Government’s public health strategy in England was gone. Not a whiff of credibility was left in this cornucopia of public health carnage. Lockdown rules were now subject to your own personal judgment and “instincts”.

Yet the English lockdown regulations (SI 2020/35) – just like the Scottish version – are clear. They aren’t discretionary. No person can leave the place they are living without a reasonable excuse. Choosing to stay in a second home because it is more convenient for potential child care isn’t a reasonable excuse in the regulations.

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Leaving your home while infected isn’t optional. This is the wrong thing to do. The whole point of the rules is to prevent and control the spread of the virus.

The idea that people infected with Covid-19 are entitled to traverse the length of a country in a car – stopping goodness knows where on the way – then have a jolly jaunt to a castle while self-isolating is patent nonsense. This is how the virus is spread. If we all did this the NHS would be overwhelmed and efforts to contain the pandemic would be in free fall.

It goes without saying that trust and confidence in the UK Government has been damaged. While the Prime Minister appears to have abandoned the rule of law to protect his chief adviser, it is fair to say that all isn’t rosy in Scotland either.

Until very recently, we followed the exact same public health path as England and made the exact same mistakes and failures.

The Edinburgh Nike conference in February is a case in point. It appears to have been the epicentre for the spread of the virus into Scotland from a Dutch conference delegate; and from Edinburgh it was the source of the infection being transmitted to the North East of England. The failure to be open and transparent about this incident wasn’t the Scottish Government’s finest moment.

Information had to be pulled out by the press and opposition politicians like a stubborn set of wisdom teeth. The explanation on failing to trace those at this event didn’t hold water. We can’t have obfuscation, omission and a drip, drip of information that is clearly in the public interest.

Likewise, the Dr Catherine Calderwood lockdown rule breaks were not a paragon of virtue. These incidents are currently being retold like a heart-warming Hans Christian Anderson tale. Let’s us not forget please that Dr Calderwood, and the Scottish Government, were not upfront and candid until repeatedly pressed by the media.

They sought to bury the incident by claiming it was a one-off trip to check on a second home. That wasn’t true. Dr Calderwood wasn’t for resigning. The First Minister gave Dr Calderwood her full backing until it became apparent, she had indulged in unlawful lockdown rule breaks over two weekends.

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For me, last week was also a particularly sad day for Scottish politics. As opposition MSPs tried to inject some social justice and fairness into the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Bill – to protect tenants, debtors, carers and those with perilously low incomes – the SNP voted with the Tories to defeat almost all of the amendments.

There was a lack of honesty about what the Bill amendments sought to do. They were grotesquely described as being flawed, calamitous, full of unintended consequences and so on.

The truth was these amendments were an attempt to swing the pendulum of fairness a little bit closer to those vulnerable members of the public who have received very little or no real help or support during the pandemic.

We need candour from those who govern us. Politicians only govern on our behalf and with our consent. The public needs to be treated with much more respect. It’s the only way to build and maintain confidence and trust. Until Dominic Cummings goes confidence and trust will remain absent.