The continuation of lockdown for another month, which Nicola Sturgeon all but confirmed in her statement to Holyrood, had an inevitability to it.

The spread of the new Delta variant, which now accounts for 96% of Covid cases in the United Kingdom, has confounded calculations for opening up society this month.

That creates a major headache for the hospitality industry in particular. Pubs and restaurants can barely get by with the social distancing restrictions, and for nightclubs and live venues it means keeping doors closed.

The anger of the industry is understandable and the frustration that furlough payments are being tapered off despite the extension of lockdown means there is bound to be an effect on staff. But if anger is to have an outlet then let it take aim at Boris Johnson.

It was the Tory Prime Minister’s fortnight of failure to close the UK to flights from India, where the delta variant originated, which allowed the strain easy entry.

Johnson’s planned, but later abandoned, trade visit to India kept the country off the red list while neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh were added on April 9, leaving the door open to the Delta variant.

An astonishing 20,000 arriving from India in that month carried the virus in, leaving little hope for containment.

It was another gaffe from the Prime Minister who has breezed his way through numerous mistakes in this year of lockdown.

At least Labour and the SNP have started calling the PM out on his grievous blunders. It is time to stop being a “constructive opposition” and time to start holding Johnson to account.

Drug law plea

Dean Gray is just 13 but has already written to the First Minister on behalf of his family.

The schoolboy from Edinburgh has asked Nicola Sturgeon for help as his parents struggle to pay the huge monthly bills for cannabis oil needed to treat his younger brother Murray.

The cost of medical cannabis for the eight-year-old, who has a severe form of epilepsy, is a whopping £1300 a month.

The benefits outweigh the cost – Murray has not suffered a seizure in more than two years.

Currently there is a near total block on NHS prescriptions for the type of medical cannabis the Gray family rely on.

Drug laws are reserved to Westminster but this is a case the First Minister could highlight as proof of the need for urgent reform.

If she can answer Dean’s letter and in some way help the Gray family with their continuing campaign then all the better.