The National:

FINALLY, Scottish Conservatives have woken up to the realisation that failing to condemn Dominic Cummings for his 250-mile lockdown trip wasn’t doing much for their credibility.

After Douglas Ross resigned as a UK Government minister over the scandal, several Scottish Tory MSPs have publicly called on Boris Johnson’s chief adviser to resign.

Even Jackson Carlaw got in on the act, though he stopped short of calling for the PM to sack Cummings.

Evidently, Scottish Tories have noticed that Cummings’ disregard for the rules, and his dumbfounding explanation for his actions, outraged Scots who have had to miss loved ones’ funerals because they were acting in the best interests of everyone and sticking to the measures.

Not everyone has seen the big picture, however.

MSP Michelle Ballantyne, who previously said people on benefits should not “have as many children as they like”, is one such person.

She claimed the Cummings scandal was merely serving as distraction from care home deaths and an economic downturn.

“Instead of talking about those things, we’re spending our time talking about hounding somebody,” Ballantyne told STV.

“I think it’s an awful situation and I think there are people benefiting from it – the Scottish Government are loving this because they’re no longer being held to account for the things that are going wrong.”

READ MORE: Jackson Carlaw FINALLY calls for Dominic Cummings to resign

Clearly, the daily press conferences at which the Scottish Government is held to account have escaped Ballantyne’s attention – as too have the UK Government’s extensive failures in dealing with the pandemic.

Commenting on the Cummings row yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon urged him to admit he “made a mistake”.

She added: “A lot of parents will have heard that as suggesting that he was following the rules, that they didn't act like good parents. And I think that is really really unfair and correcting that suggestion and that impression should be something he should consider doing."