Nicola Sturgeon explains why false promises of a semi-normal Christmas were made

In October, Bishop John Keenan was told that his suggestion for a Christmas amnesty was not worth taking forward due to Covid-19 not also agreeing to the break in the gunfire.
Nicola Sturgeon says pragmatism was the driving force behind the Christmas relaxationsNicola Sturgeon says pragmatism was the driving force behind the Christmas relaxations
Nicola Sturgeon says pragmatism was the driving force behind the Christmas relaxations

However, in November, Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon told their respective domains that it was now time to plan – not for a normal Christmas but for a truncated, slimmed down Christmas.

On Friday, those plans came crashing down with the announcement of a new highly transmissable strain of Covid-19 that threatens, once again, to overwhelm the NHS.

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For the First Minister, the messaging around Christmas has always been cautious, including during media focus on national clinical director Jason Leitch’s “digital Christmas” comments.

The leader of the SNP was asked why she had taken the decision despite seeming uncomfortable with it and what she and the Scottish Government had pushed for in the four nations meetings around Christmas earlier in the year.

Speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon said that "pragmatism and a recognition of real life” was the driving force behind the promises that turned out to be impossible to keep.

She said: "I am responsible for my decisions. I don’t allow myself to get forced into decisions that are mine to take.

“I would challenge the fact that Bishop Keenan was derided for that, I think there was commentary about whether the language of an amnesty was the right one because the analogy was the wartime Christmas day ceasefire and I think people legitimately made the point that that’s not how a virus operates.

"But the underlying sentiment that he was expressing was genuine and legitimate.”

The First Minister added her job would be “a lot easier” if decisions were made in a laboratory setting but said that was simply not how real life works.

She said: “I have always been pragmatic. However much I might have liked to just have said all along you must not see anybody all over Christmas no matter what, I knew that would be so difficult for some people would decide on different arrangements.

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"If we simply had just buried our head in the sand and said our advice is do nothing then people would have to come to their own judgements. We tried to put some sensible parameters around it but still advise people that these were parameters for things only if people felt them necessary."

Describing the new strain of Covid-19 as a “game changer”, Ms Sturgeon added that without it, Christmas plans would have stayed as planned.

She said: “It has made us all think afresh about the level of risk we are able to take.

"I totally get why sometimes the decisions we are making right now might seem as if they are not entirely logical and rational right now.

"I also get why some people, even if they understand the logic and rational, will vehemently disagree with some of these decisions, that’s understandable.

"But there usually is, almost always is, I hope quite a lot, of reason and logic behind these decisions but also always the need to be flexible in them because this virus doesn’t always behave the way we would like it to behave and that’s what’s happened over the last couple of days.”

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