Beggars belief

Cont’d

"I know how important this advice is and I do not want my mistake to distract from that.
"I have a job to do as chief medical officer to provide advice to ministers on the path of this virus and to support the medical profession as they work night and day to save lives, and having spoken with the first minister this morning I will continue to focus entirely on that job."

So - an ‘as you were, Catherine’ from the SG basically. It beggars belief.

And here we are - the ‘sorry I got caught’ apology from Dr Calderwood

“While there are reasons for what I did, they do not justify it and they were not legitimate reasons to be out of my home."

“While I and my family followed the guidance on social distancing at all times, I understand that I did not follow the advice I am giving to others, and I am truly sorry for that."

Catherine Calderwood has been the face of the stay home, save lives message for weeks now.
And yet she flouts the message in a particularly stupid way. Her actions are indefensible and highly embarrassing to to the Scottish government. Who is going to listen to her now?
She has lost my respect.

My SiLs 19 year old son is stuck alone in his student flat, his med student flatmates being ‘elsewhere’. SiL is more than concerned about his welfare, particularly mental & would love to go & fetch him. He can’t. End of....

We would love to go and check on our holiday home in the West Country, especially during this lovely weather but we are observing the rules and staying away.

It will be interesting to see what happens to this woman.

My guess is she will issue an apology, saying on reflection it was ill-judged and that will be the end of it.

Or another even more worrying interpretation could be that people like her who spout the rules for others, but fail to keep them themselves, actually don't believe they're necessary or effective. If she does believe they are critical to beating this virus why would she flout them?

If you're working 7 days a week there wouldn't be time to go off to your holiday home with the family and go for a nice long walk.

Baggs, the risk to others is always there. We know that people are most infectious before they get any symptoms (if they get symptoms at all).

Moving to another area and then perhaps going out, exercising, shopping locally etc. runs the risk of bringing infection to that community.

I feel it's so important to lead by example. How can we ever respect those who bend the rules?

Ignore that 3rd paragraph

The SG appear to be defending it which is hugely concerning:

A Scottish government spokesman said on Saturday: “Since the 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.”

So what is it - we can travel to our second homes and observed social distancing with anyone she was in passing in the village.”

I’m confused - the Scottish public can make non essential journeys? They can visit their second homes? If they’re working 7 days a week then they can pretty much do as they want? It’s OK to visit other towns and villages but only if you keep 2m away from the locals?

Or, janipat, she has no common sense whatsoever.
Which is rather worrying.

The only point is she thinks she and her family are special and don't need to obey the rules like everybody else. They didn't just drive to the house and stay inside (even that is flouting the rules) they went on a lovely family walk on a golf course. Not a thought they'd be held accountable. Then to read the defence of her that she's been working seven days a week, well so have thousands and thousands of others. Can they now flout the rules with impunity?

No-one is irreplaceable, Granny23.

She certainly can’t do any more appearances where she exhorts us all to Stay at Home, Save lives.

Behind the scenes she can probably still do valuable work.

Or maybe not, if she can’t take in a simple principle....

Granny 23 I have no idea if Cath is a member of the SNP ,I only know her from her TV appearances.IF she is she should know that anything she does wrong will be escalated in the media.Its what they do and she should have been aware that SNP bad is the order of not just today but EVERY day in the msm .
For that reason alone she should have stayed put at home.To flout rules she's asking others to follow is unacceptable.I;m a huge fan of Nicola and I hope she deals with this openly and makes sure people dont flock to their holiday homes just because they think If she can do it why cant we .

Granny23 I didn't suggest sacking her

However, if she has any moral compass, she will do the right thing and offer her resignation.

It is no good instigating rules for the good of all, expecting the plebeians to adhere to them and flouting them yourself.

If driving to a holiday home to check security is okay then it should be okay for my DD to drive here, pick up her dog who she hasn’t seen since February and drive straight home! If she did, however, she would be stopped and fined!

eglantine describes the main point (not my point) well when she refers to the "if she does why shouldn't we?" attitude. The main point is giving a good example to others. That does not invalidate other points.

Not really the point though Baggs about the risk to others

Yes, I know. But it is still a valid point so why shouldn't I mention it?

She has a political role Granny. I’m amazed that anyone is attempting to defend her behaviour - she’s effectively stuck two fingers up at the Govt, the police, NHSS and the Scottish public.

Yes she is a public servant but she is also someone who stands on a podium on television telling the rest of us to stay inside. And doesn’t do the same thing herself. This makes me so angry!!

It's reported that Carrie is back with Boris in flat now.

Apologies Granny23 that was my typo error. The rest of my post stands.

Corona doesn't care who she is.

She is a public servant, not a politician.