Covid passport shambles is a sign of how badly Scotland is run – Brian Wilson

Well, there’s a surprise. The introduction of the Scottish Vaccine Passport App has been a shambles. But never mind, it’s got a Saltire on it.

The NHS Scotland Covid Status App has been having some problems

Three months ago, the UK government introduced an app for England and Wales which seems to work. Ironically, it is not even required for purposes unique to the Scottish government. Could we not just have joined in?

This episode is a metaphor on how Scotland is run – ie badly. The imperative of doing things differently trumps common sense. Covid passports should never have been announced until there was a credible scheme in place. The exact opposite happened.

In the (wrong) expectation of the UK government requiring them, Ms Sturgeon had to get in first but without the groundwork done. Crazily, the app was not to be ready until the day before implementation.

Now it is described by Roddy Dunlop, dean of the Faculty of Advocates as “literally, the worst app I have ever tried to use". And he is at the polite end of the spectrum.

Since the initial announcement, we have had dilution to “spot-checking” – good luck with that – and a fortnight’s delay to enforcement. Ms Sturgeon blithely passes this off as “pragmatism” which is a euphemism for chaos followed by retreat.

Has there been a single public health benefit from any of this? What has been the cost to businesses? How much public money and civil service time was wasted? Does Scotland not deserve better?

Thank goodness there are also unheralded people trying to do the real work involved in reaching the unvaccinated without the aid of a dodgy app.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.