Italy's parliament approved on Wednesday the creation of an official inquiry into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, angering opposition parties who were in power at the time and fear it will become a political witch hunt.
The World Health Organization says more than 195,000 people died of COVID-19 in Italy, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain.
“Can those elected to lead us, and those appointed to assist them, have the full and frank discussions necessary for good governance if they expect that every word of those discussions will eventually be made public?”
No, of course not.
“Can teams forge good working relationships in dark times without the ability to relieve pressure by sharing a private joke?”
No, let’s not be silly.
After this week, I wonder: what is this inquiry actually for?
For those of you unfamiliar with the constitutional politics of the Anglo-British 'union', Alister Jack is the Secretary of State for [sic] Scotland. In effect, he's the equivalent of a Roman Proconsul overseeing a colony or province.
I'll leave these screenshots here for you to draw your own conclusions about the hypocrisy, double standards and sheer spite demonstrated by Jack, and what that says about Scotland's position in Jack's "precious union".
It's a co-ordinated campaign. Sarwar, DRoss, Jack plus of course The Daily Mail, The Express, the BBC et al: all in lockstep. They tee'd it up and they got a hole in one.
Jack postponed his session until after NS. He also deleted all his WhatsApps from the pandemic, got off with barely a murmur today while NS got the third degree for hours yesterday about the same topic.
This #CovidInquiry is a bloody farce. It has no credibility whatsoever (they think our heads zip up the back).
Lesley Riddoch: Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy will be decided by bereaved families
"I can’t recall if Johnson was asked whether his lifelong commitment to Unionism encouraged him to ignore the devolved nations throughout Covid, whilst pressing on with his own political project of delivering Brexit. "
"Misreadings and misrepresentations have been something of the order of the day during evidence sessions of the #CovidInquiry in Scotland."
"Did Dawson not have his questions prepared before Tuesday evening? Or did he drop one which he decided wasn’t as important as raising a ramshackle hit piece from an opposition newspaper?"
The final question from Jamie Dawson KC to Nicola Sturgeon today:
"The story of Covid in Scotland is the story of the hubris of Nicola Sturgeon, is it not?"
I'll leave it up to you who read this post to decide what that says about, as The Times online puts it, "the smiling KC tearing into the SNP" and the nature of the United Kingdom #CovidInquiry.
Just another day of #BBCbias, feeding the unionist propaganda machine.
"...Ms Sturgeon is accused of "playing politics" when she should have been focusing on public health. This is an allegation she has always strongly denied.
The specific charge is that she sought divergence with the UK government for political ends - to appear more compassionate, more cautious and, well, more Scottish."
My big concern is the hysterical comment and "coverage" of the Scottish media of the #CovidInquiry which has reached fever pitch in the run up to NS's appearance today. If the process is about learning lessons and putting those learnings into place for future crises, and not a blame game, why is it being turned into a witch hunt by the media and others?
The rabid right wing Unionist media in Scotland are foaming at the mouth on the run up to today's #CovidInquiry hearing in Edinburgh.
This "journalism" is what we endure every day from pathologically obsessed (typically male, misogynistic) headbangers writing in titles ranging from The Telegraph to The Times to The Scotsman to The Daily Express and The Scottish [sic] Daily Mail.
@TheNational "SNP fire back at ‘grossly misleading’ Nicola Sturgeon burner phone claims."
"[Gove's] report shows that he fears the strength of our independence arguments. But as counsel pushed him at the #CovidInquiry, it is also clear that the UK Government intended to use the Covid tragedy for political purposes. This was deeply inappropriate.
“During this time of national crisis, the UK Government should not have been plotting over the constitution, but laser-focused on how to save lives, and nothing else."
“I think almost all the time decisions were made in the public health benefit of the people of Scotland but I think the Scottish Government believed that its handling of these matters was somehow superior to that of the UK Government and that people would appreciate that and be prompted to think how much better might life be if we gave the Scottish Government more powers and moved further down the path towards independence.”