Arrogant, Moi?
As Scottish Ministers call on the army for help to prevent Scotland's NHS from collapse it's worth remembering that the soldiers involved are not being paid a Covid bonus for their efforts.
Who gets a Covid bonus of £500, or £250 or even nothing at all is decided at the whim of Scottish Ministers without any explanation as to why some groups seem to be more equal than others - and without any discussion with MSPs.
Nicola Sturgeon set the tone for this nonsense, of course, when she announced a £500 Covid bonus for NHS staff and care workers in November 2020 - not to the Scottish Parliament but to an online SNP conference.
Arrogant, moi?
Sidelining Parliament and Hijacking Holyrood (April 16, 2021)
Hands up!
Who thinks it's part of a normal, functioning, healthy democracy for Scotland's First Minister to announce £200 million worth of public spending to an online SNP delegate conference?
Scotland's 'Sideshow' Parliament (02/04/21)
The SNP are always banging on about the importance and sovereignty of the Scottish Parliament, but yet again Ministers have reduced Holyrood to a mere sideshow when it comes to the public finances.
In November 2020 Nicola Sturgeon announced a new Covid bonus scheme to an online conference of SNP delegates which denied the Scottish Parliament and MSPs any say in how £200 million of public money was to be spent.
Just yesterday, after Holyrood finished its final session ahead of the parliamentary elections in May, Ministers announced a 4% pay rise for NHS staff, again without any questions, clarification or debate.
Now I'm all in favour of better pay for NHS workers although this latest move smacks of an SNP election stunt rather than a serious attempt to tackle low pay or fairly reward those who have played a key role during the Covid epidemic.
Yet again other key groups who have been keeping essential services going during lockdown are excluded, even though their role has been just as crucial as the NHS - care workers, refuse workers, police, food supply/distribution and the army all spring to mind.
To add insult to injury, these issues played no part in the Scottish Parliament debates which only recently agreed the Scottish Government's budget for 2021-2022.
So it really does look like just a cynical, if cunning, stunt aimed at boosting the SNP's chances in the Holyrood elections.
The costs of the package has not yet been made clear, but because they are not accounted for in the 2021-2022 Scottish Government budget, they must be coming from the additional billions in Covid support funds provided by the UK Treasury.
Again the allocation and broad use of public money ought to be debated collectively by MSPs in Holyrood - otherwise SNP ministers are making a mockery of democracy and treating the Scottish Parliament with ill-disguised contempt.
