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Some Scottish nationalists are calling for the border (they mean with England of course) to ensure Scotland can 'beat' the virus. Their separatist newspaper The National headlines this.
The statistics tell a different story.
The rate of infection in Scotland is *marginally* higher than England. The rate in Wales is much higher than either England or Wales
If closing borders were a solution, England should close its border with Wales and might find some marginal benefit in closing its border with Scotland.
The idea that corona in Scotland can be 'eliminated' (The National) by closing our one land border is nonsense. The virus is here already and even under lockdown people travel back and forth by ferry to Ireland and by flights to other countries.
Some of the earliest cases in Scotland that caused clusters of infection came direct from the Netherlands and Italy. https://mercinon.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/the-border-buster-250-celebrating-the-border-that-unites-us/
The virus will probably only be eliminated when a safe vaccine has been proven to work and is in wide use.
There might be a case for greater restrictions in particular areas of the UK based on evidence (for example, as currently being mooted for Leicester) but that's not the same as 'closing the border'.
Finally, is it not a remarkable coincidence that the vast majority of people promoting the closure of the border as a solution to coronavirus are also Scottish nationalists (including politicians)?
None of those nationalists, as far as I know, are qualified virologists or epidemiologists. They do however want Scotland to separate from the UK. There has to be a strong suspicion *that* is their main motivation in promoting the closure of the border.
PS Post-corona we need a thorough, honest and objective public enquiry into the pandemic. What happened? What did we do well? What could we have done better? What should we do differently in future? I fear it won't happen, at any level.
