Coronavirus second wave row - co-leader says key words missed from context of comment

A council co-leader at the centre of a row over a possible second coronavirus wave said key words were omitted from his original comments.

David Alexander, who co-leads Fife Council, came under fire from political opponents for saying there was not "a cat in hell’s chance” of a second outbreak. The words “at this moment” were inadvertently missed from his quote which, he said, had a significant bearing on the context of the debate.

Cllr Alexander previously stated that there was "no indication of a second wave- none whatsoever in Scotland. " and then went on to say "Where is the second wave? There's not a cat in hell's chance at the moment of coming so the reason for this amendment is false."

Cllr Alexander spoke as councillors at the full council meeting discussed a 52-page report from senior officers which detailed Fife’s response and recovery plan from the pandemic.

He said the “positive” report was “hijacked” by a Lib Dem amendment which urged the council to call on the Scottish Government to carry out an immediate investigation into the handling of the pandemic. He commented that the approved amendment proposed by Councillor Tim Brett "was supported by our administration colleagues but required Conservative votes to win."

He said: “To make this demand in the midst of the pandemic, if successful, would take out hundreds of people throughout Scotland who are already involved in all aspects of suppressing the virus, and move them from current protection duties to analysing the past.”

He described it as “a very political amendment with next to no substance” and added: “The reality is Scotland is performing well and Fife even better."

Scotland’s transmission rate per 100,000 was the ninth best out of 34 European countries at the end of July according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The uk as a whole was 21st.

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Cllr Alexander said: “Scotland has had no hospital confirmed fatalities for 3 weeks. Care homes in Fife are amongst the safest. In terms of fatalities and positive infections Fife’s performance is better proportionately better than Scotland.

“Given that positive performance it was annoying to hear it being trashed with dubious statistics and negativity when we should be proud of the work so many people are carrying out to keep people safe."

Cllr Alexander said that his comment “ where is the second wave, there is not a cat in hell’s chance at the moment of coming” was based on comparing “the very positive situation in Scotland with the very negative one portrayed by the Liberal Democrats who rarely have a positive thing to say about Scotland.”

>> We have updated our original online story to reflect David Alexander’s position and apologise to him for the omission.