Since the Covid-19 pandemic struck in March, the Scottish Government has introduced a blizzard of emergency legislation limiting personal freedom in the most draconian of ways.
It shouldn’t be too much to ask that just one new law be introduced giving an incredibly important new right to people, rather than taking liberty away.
Care home residents are dying at a rate of 300 a week – of Covid and non-Covid-related conditions – without meaningful contact with their families.
They are suffering through their final days, weeks and months in horrifying loneliness, deprived of the most basic human need as a result of barbaric lockdown restrictions.
The expert advice is clear – it doesn’t need to happen and infection control procedures can facilitate safe visiting.
Various attempts to resolve this humanitarian abomination through the issuing of government “guidance” have failed.
Similar legislation in Ontario, Canada, gives at least one family member a legal right to contact with their loved ones by recognising their essential role.
Public health minister Joe FitzPatrick paid for his failure to solve Scotland’s drug death crisis with his job after it emerged more than 1200 people died last year.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman now has the opportunity to seal a lasting legacy for herself before stepping down in May by passing an “essential care giver” law.
