THE list of inquiries and reports to be published into all aspects of this inept and ineffective Scottish Government grows ever longer, highlighting the litany of failures borne by the people of Scotland. We have an education report to be published but, helpfully for the SNP, not until after the Scottish election; a care home inquiry which will help-fully not start until after the pandemic; the Salmond inquiry; and the Hamilton inquiry looking at potential ministerial code breaches. Further, we have a suspended MSP Derek Mackay, who has not crossed the front door of the Scottish parliament in nearly a year, still claiming his full salary and expenses. We have MP Margaret Ferrier being charged after an alleged breach of Covid regulations. This catalogue of failure and error is topped off by the report issued by the Auditor General for Scotland highlighting the failures to implement the appropriate pandemic planning over the past five years across care home capacity or the PPE requirements. The report, and it is an independent report, damningly says the Scottish Government ‘could have been better prepared to respond to the Covid pandemic’. Bluntly, this lack of preparedness has cost many lives. Perhaps now those with the blinkered view that the First Minister can do no wrong will open their eyes a little wider and realise that all is not milk and honey under her and her divisive, divided and deficient administration. RICHARD ALLISON, Edinburgh.