A Scotland perspective on Cummings story: journalists here held the Scottish Gov & CMO to account for breaking lockdown rules. It was exposed by Scottish Sun & followed up on. The CMO’s position became untenable after a media briefing and she resigned 24 hours after story broke.

Let us not rewrite history: ScotGov response was to defend the CMO with statements that soon didn’t stand up to scrutiny. Nicola Sturgeon stood by her CMO for 24 hours, even as it emerged she had broken rules twice. SNP parliamentarians tweeted support, and criticised the story.

Journalists did their job regardless of the political push-back. Our audience includes people who haven’t been able to go to funerals or who had their family split during lockdown. There’s genuine anger and people look to journalists to ask the questions they would if the could.

What happened in Scotland has similarities to early stages of Dom Cummings story so far. Journos exposed allegations, others are digging to see if initial push-back stacks up.

Experience says the next UK Gov media briefing will be significant and can show journalism at its best.