 | | | Sam Shedden | | Engagement Editor |
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Good morning, Welcome to your midweek newsletter from The Scotsman Fighting the Covid-19 pandemic is a long and extremely costly endeavour for the world's governments. But what exactly is all the money spent on? It's an important question to ask. In a report into the billions of Covid-19 spending in Scotland, the auditor general said “difficult decisions lie ahead” for the Scottish Government in the face of “uncertainty and volatility” facing the budget. Holyrood estimates have put Covid spending last year at £8.8 billion, with at least £4.9 billion to be spent by the end of the 2021/22 financial year. Yet money spent by Nicola Sturgeon's administration on its response to Covid-19 is becoming harder to track as Scotland comes out of the pandemic and into recovery, Conor Matchett reports. In London it seems Boris Johnson is finally taking things seriously 18 months into the pandemic, writes our Westminster correspondent Alexander Brown. Mr Johnson made a measured pitch to the public over the risks of the pandemic in winter and, as he so often does, presented two different responses. Plan A includes issuing test and trace, investing £5 billion into the NHS for the next six months, and keeping robust border controls. Plan B is less solid, with a surge in England risking a return to making members of the public wear face masks. The second part of Plan B are the dreaded Covid passports, a political minefield. Read on for more of our top stories. | 
