LATE ON SATURDAY night the Sun published pictures of Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood out for a walk with her family and dog on Earlsferry golf course. She was spending the night at her holiday home in the Fife resort.
Caught with their pants down, the Scottish Government’s immediate response was typically unapologetic: “Since this start of this epidemic, the CMO has been working seven days a week preparing Scotland’s response. She took the opportunity this weekend to check on a family home in Fife as she knows she will not be back again until the crisis is over. She stayed overnight before returning to Edinburgh. In line with guidance, she stayed within her own household group and observed social distancing with anyone she was in passing in the village.”
If Prince Charles’ flight to his Highland holiday home was a PR own goal, this is tantamount to being caught rigging the whole game. Twitter is inflamed with demands that Calderwood be sacked.
With good weather forecast for the weekend, politicians have been falling over each other to reinforce the message that people should continue to observe social distancing and stay home. The First Minister said “the single most important thing anyone can do to show our support for the NHS is by staying at home”, while she urged people to “stick to the rules”. She tweeted: “As we head into 2nd weekend of lockdown, thank you again for sticking with it. I know it gets harder every day – especially as weather improves – but PLEASE don’t be tempted to gather in parks, beach etc. Staying home gives us best chance of controlling the virus & saving lives”. The SNP’s Westminster leader took to the press to plead with people not to visit holiday homes in the Highlands: “Anyone coming to the Highlands on non-essential business is putting Highland communities at risk and is threatening the ability of the NHS to do its job and manage the pandemic here”.
The hypocrisy could hardly be more acute. Calderwood has been on the nation’s screens daily hammering home the message “Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives”. She, her husband, three children and dog were all photographed outside their Edinburgh home, waving in the mass “show of love and support” for the NHS on Thursday night.
Even more than Prince Charles, Catherine Calderwood illustrates how there is one rule for the rich and privileged, and another for the little people. Anything that throws the spotlight on social division is dangerous in times of national emergency when collective action and solidarity are paramount. In this regard, it is striking how little media attention has been paid to how the Covid-19 crisis is hitting the poorest and most disadvantaged hardest, and how they will suffer lasting harm.
Councils and the third sector across the country are frantically preparing for anticipated rises in domestic violence, mental illness, homelessness and addiction-related harm. My own council has created a food resilience plan to enable the distribution of thousands of food parcels to the most vulnerable. As a councillor, I am already seeing a spike in casework relating to anti-social behaviour complaints by neighbours. The pandemic is making life harder for everyone, but for those already on the breadline, struggling in cramped accommodation and dealing with mental health issues, the crunch will come much sooner. It’s a completely different ballgame for well-feathered families with secure incomes (such as from government jobs) and spacious homes, or even second homes.
Of course, it’s such affluent families who have the wherewithal to bend the rules to make life more bearable. Wherewithal doesn’t just mean money and opportunity, but also know-how and confidence. Preeminently, Calderwood will know that public health messaging has to be simple and universal to be effective. She will also know that means it is massively simplified and subject to a thousand and one exceptions. When I was pregnant twenty years ago and balked at my health visitor’s advice not to drink a drop of alcohol for fear of causing foetal alcohol syndrome, she admitted to me that the advice really applied to “teen mothers on estates who were smoking away and downing bottles of vodka”, but more differentiated instructions would be socially unacceptable.
A simple message was easier for everyone.
