The jaw-dropping idiocy of Margaret Ferrier MP in breaking the Covid self-isolation rules not once, but twice, almost defies explanation.
She offers no excuses herself. She should, of course, offer her resignation.
What on earth came over Ferrier, when she recognised the virus symptoms and ordered a test on Saturday, to take it upon herself to leave the house on Monday and travel by train to London?
What vanity or exceptionalism made her think her contribution in the Commons was so important that the rules did not apply to her?
What then further possessed her, when her diagnosis was confirmed, to turn tail and travel the length of the country again knowing she was infectious?
By the time she comes out of self-isolation, Margaret Ferrier should also be out of parliament.
Suspension, the immediate sanction SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford reached for, does not staunch the wound of hypocrisy.
Ferrier is not just a health risk, she is a political danger too.
Just as Dominic Cummings drained trust away from Boris Johnson, she too will tarnish Nicola Sturgeon’s hitherto solid messaging on what is a damnably dangerous health crisis.
Ferrier, who criticised Cummings in parliament, is a mortal threat to the integrity of the First Minister and the public health messaging on coronavirus.
The SNP has far less to fear from an unwanted by-election than it does from the dripping scent of hypocrisy that Ferrier will carry around.
Unless Margaret Ferrier has gone by sundown she should be sacked.
