I have folk ask me, increasingly, why I don’t have a go at @NicolaSturgeon @JohnSwinney @KateForbesMSP @JeaneF1MSP et al when I’m on TV and radio and in the papers. Why don’t I junk them for their #COVID performance like other commentators do to Johnson, Hancock etc. A thread...

Firstly, at a high level, I think that by the end of this most countries will look about the same. They all have good months and bad months. I can’t count the number of “Sweden’s awful” headlines the day after a “Sweden’s great” headline. This is a long game.

It’s also damn near impossible to accurately compare countries. Demographics, geography, population density, health service structure, propensity to attract visitors - all of these things skew the headline figures and render international comparisons almost pointless

Primarily, though, what I want as a citizen are leaders who are (a) smart and (b) benevolent, so that I know they are making the best decisions they can with the information they have. I continue to believe we have those leaders (and, by the way, I include the UK government)

You see, everyone has their own Covid lens. Hospitality has a lens. Public health has a lens. Gyms, tradespeople, tourism - they all have a lens. The difficulty for the politicians is that they have to look through all of these lenses at the same time. That’s indescribably hard.

I have a lens, too. Schools. Because (a) my wife is a community paediatric doctor (b) I have 4 kids (c) I sit on the advisory board of a kids mental health charity (d) I’m in the business community which needs parents to be working.

I see all medical, scientific, economic evidence telling us that schools must be open, particularly when online learning is iffy. Children’s Commissioner, RCPCH, the list goes on and on. On the other side of that is the EIS, which in my view is misbehaving. A bad actor.

In the middle, @JohnSwinney. As a parent I feel like he’s on my side. I hope he splits primary (low/no covid transmission + poor online learning) and secondary (higher transmission + better online learning). Primary teachers I’ve spoken to want back on the 18th. Let’s make it so.

But that’s my lens. He has more. And at a time like this, I’d rather pat my leaders on the back than kick them in the head. Call me soft if you like. Many are. But I feel like this is a good time to wrap ourselves in silver linings rather than standing under clouds. Ends.

Oh, and with the aim of spreading a bit of positivity in mind, read me in tomorrow’s @heraldscotland on why I think there’s a bit of life in @scottishlabour yet