Sturgeon locks down Scotland

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The highest level of lockdown restrictions will be introduced in eleven Scottish council areas, including Glasgow, on Friday, with non-essential shops, restaurants, pubs and gyms forced to close their doors. The restrictions, which will put around half of Scotland’s population in an effective lockdown, are due to remain in place until at least December 11.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today told the Scottish parliament: “A number of local authorities across central Scotland have case numbers and test positivity that are significantly above the national average. And while the situation in many of them has stabilised, it has done so at a stubbornly high level.”

Scottish retailers responded negatively, arguing the restrictions are coming at the “worst possible time” for small businesses. “There is little evidence shuttering shops does much to suppress the spread of Covid, but it’s undeniable closing high street stores in November and into December during the crucial Christmas trading period is a hammer blow to hard-pressed retailers,” said David Lonsdale, Director of the Scottish Retail Consortium.

Last month, Sturgeon declined to join Boris Johnson’s month-long lockdown, claiming that the restrictions her government imposed on the Scottish central belt in late September were “starting to slow” the virus’ reproduction rate.

Scotland today recorded 1,248 cases of coronavirus, up from 832 a week ago. There are now 1,249 people with coronavirus in Scottish hospitals, up from 1,239 a week ago.

Corbyn back in Labour after 19 day suspension

Labour has reinstated Jeremy Corbyn’s membership. The former party leader was suspended last month over his response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into antisemitism in the party under his leadership, in which he claimed that the issue of had been “overstated.”

Corbyn today issued a clarification stating that “concerns about antisemitism are neither ‘exaggerated’ nor ‘overstated’”, which was enough for the party to drop his suspension, but stopped well short of an official apology.

In a furious statement, the Jewish Labour Movement said: “It is extraordinary that just weeks after the EHRC found that the Labour Party had discriminated against Jewish members through political manipulation of the disciplinary process, it appears that the party expedited this case for a hearing by a factionally aligned political committee.

“After his failure of leadership to tackle antisemitism, so clearly set out in the EHRC’s report, any reasonable and fair-minded observer would see Jeremy Corbyn’s statement today as insincere and wholly inadequate.”

Boris’ devolution blunder

Six months before crucial Holyrood elections, Scottish Conservative leader Douglass Ross has again been forced to denounce Downing Street after Boris Johnson yesterday described devolution as being “a disaster” and “Tony Blair’s worst mistake”.

The comments, made in a meeting with northern Conservative MPs, have scuppered Johnson’s plans to reset his premiership and triggered a wave of anger amongst both Unionists and Nationalists north of the border.

While Ross was quick to contradict the Prime Minister, saying “devolution has not been a disaster”, SNP supporters have latched onto the quote, claiming it is an example of Johnson’s contempt for Scotland.

Hot off the block, Sturgeon was quick to tweet: “Worth bookmarking these PM comments for the next time Tories say they’re not a threat to the powers of the Scottish Parliament – or, even more incredibly, that they support devolving more powers. The only way to protect and strengthen the Scottish Parliament is with independence.”

Downing Street is in full back-peddle mode. “Devolution is great – but not when it’s used by separatists and nationalists to break up the UK,” said a Number 10 spokesperson. It is worth noting that 74 per cent of Scots supported devolution in a 1997 referendum.

‘Unacceptable conduct’ by Grenfell Tower cladding company 

A former employee of the company which made the combustible insulation for Grenfell Tower told the Grenfell Inquiry that the company  had committed a “fraud on the market” and misled people over its fire safety tests.

Jonathan Roper, a former assistant product manager at Celotex – a subsidiary of the French construction materials company Saint-Gobain – told the inquiry that the firm had “over-engineered” a cladding fire safety test to achieve a pass, and that he was asked to produce slides for the sales team that would not mention an earlier cladding test which had failed.

The slides were “downright misleading” Roper said. “I felt incredibly uncomfortable with it. I recall going home that evening, I was living with my parents at the time, and mentioning it to them. I felt incredibly uncomfortable with what I was being asked to do.”

Celotex has acknowledged that “unacceptable conduct” by some employees was involved in the circumstances around the testing, certification and marketing of the materials. It claims to have “taken concerted steps to ensure that no such issues reoccur.”

The inquiry will continue into the new year.

Trump asked for options to bomb Iran

Donald Trump asked senior advisers last Thursday about options for bombing Iran’s main nuclear site, according to the New York Times. The outgoing president, who has yet to concede the election he lost, was dissuaded from conducting a military strike by his most senior advisers who warned that it could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of his presidency.

While aides left that particular meeting believing a military strike was off the table, Trump might still be looking at ways to strike Iranian assets.

The situation is very much ongoing. On Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran’s uranium stockpile is now twelve times larger than permitted under the Iran Nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew from in 2018.

Mutaz Ahmed
Political Reporter