Five years ago this week, the country formally locked down as restrictions on movement and gatherings due to the threat from the Covid pandemic took effect.

None of us knew then how long this state of suspended animation would last or indeed how we would be impacted by it. The subsequent two and a half years delivered some of the most oppressive and difficult peacetime restrictions in our lifetimes and the effects for many will be profound and life-long.

The opportunity to exploit any crisis was firmly grasped with both hands as examples of naked self-interest and greed saw the UK Government rewarding patronage with its egregious VIP procurement lanes that enriched many and benefited few. The anger that gripped the nation following the revelations of the Downing Street parties led to the downfall of not just one Prime Minister, but undoubtedly set in motion the ingredients for the toppling of the next two.

A bungling Boris Johnson whose grasp of detail and lack of gravitas defied the seriousness of both his office and events was routinely compared to Scotland’s First Minster Nicola Sturgeon whose near daily addresses to the nation saw her venerated by many, canonised by some, and despised by others. When the dust settled style mattered little as on every metric Scotland’s Covid stats were amongst the worst in Europe and despite the clownshoe in charge south of the wall, worse than in England too.

There were moments of madness, of sadness and even of inadvertent levity as the state flexed its might against its people in ways few could have imagined then or........

© Herald Scotland