TUESDAY night was grimly memorable, bringing the news of extra Covid restrictions every Scot has been dreading.

But the televised leaders’ speeches that night represented a historic moment, with the Prime Minister and First Minister addressing Scots on the same urgent situation, within minutes of one another, for pretty much the first time. It was a rare and important opportunity for the Scottish electorate to draw direct comparisons between the British and Scottish Covid strategies and leadership styles – and Boris Johnson did not do well. Or, as broadcaster Piers Morgan put it: “He’s unutterably, sickeningly shameless.”

Of course, viewers in every other devolved nation saw their own First Minister in action that night, too. But it’s not too Scotocentric to suggest the performances with the greatest profile and political heft were given by Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson. They govern the largest countries with the biggest electorates in the UK and have diverged most clearly on how to contain Covid. But since Johnson ducks all joint speaking opportunities, the Scottish electorate has had few chances to compare and contrast.

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Tuesday night, then, was grave and unusual. It was the first time the two nations, two leaders and two governments gave their very different accounts of the same crisis to the Scottish electorate, one after the other, on the same platform of primetime BBC1.

It’s true that Johnson and Sturgeon regularly share the limelight.

FMQs follow PMQs every week and the First Minister’s daily Covid briefings are occasionally followed by Boris – when he can rouse himself.

There are leaders’ election debates – or there were before Boris “the Fridge” ruled out ever debating with Nicola Sturgeon in the run-up to last year’s General Election.

And there are TV interviews aplenty, but generally when the two are performing as politicians, not statesmen and women in the face of a global pandemic. So, these back-to-back leaders’ addresses were special, precisely because they weren’t two sides of a conventional, contrived and choreographed party-political clash.

On the contrary, freed from the constraints of broadcasting formats, the two leaders controlled every aspect of their delivery on Tuesday night – from the backdrop to the content, the tone and (in Johnson’s case) the safety of producing another pre-recorded address.

Here we saw the real priorities, the natural defaults, the strengths and weaknesses of both leaders, and two political systems, writ large.

It was a tale of two governments (Westminster and Holyrood), two different approaches to Covid (lax and strict), two different approaches to governance (authoritarian and consensual) – and two very revealing hashtags were soon trending on Twitter.

In response to Boris’ speech, it was #BarnardCastle.

Well quite. Who did the Tory leader think he was kidding?

Gazing straight into the lens, Boris waxed lyrical about the need for individual responsibility – but across the country, two other words were appearing unbidden and as if by magic. Dominic Cummings. You know, the chap who wouldn’t recognise “individual responsibility” after a year’s worth of eye tests – that “indispensable” adviser Boris couldn’t sack after his lockdown-breaking and confidence-busting trip north. Did Boris (or Dom) really believe angry voters had developed lockdown amnesia and forgotten the double standards, blatant lying and personal weakness exposed in both weak-willed men just four months ago?

Do the highly paid Downing Street team think Johnson’s terminal mistake will EVER be forgiven or forgotten?

It beggars belief.

So did Boris’s attempt, during his speech, to absolve his Government from all responsibility for Covid’s resurgence.

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While Nicola Sturgeon took the adult approach by gently observing: “We’re all struggling with this. It’s nobody’s fault, I don’t think we should be trying to blame each other,” Boris manfully tried to blame rising infection rates on young people, family members, pub-goers, hospitality workers – indeed any individual but himself.

It’s astonishing given the myriad volte-faces his Government has presided over.

As one online post observed; “August: Go out, socialise, eat and drink, spend money and we’ll pay for half of it. September: You’ve been selfish. Go to your room.”

Now, I ken it’s unwise to rely exclusively on social media for any snapshot of progressive opinion. But an ICM poll released the same day put SNP support at 60%, for perhaps the first time ever. So, the harsh verdict of the online world on the Prime Minister’s performance seems to be fairly accurate – and it was unquestionably nul points from the English and Scottish juries.

For a while, though, it looked as if Scotland’s First Minister had also bombed, because minutes after her TV address, the Twitter hashtag #SturgeonResign started trending.

It soon became apparent that the phrase only gained traction because thousands of English folk were using it to defend Nicola Sturgeon against blatant, post-broadcast, Unionist trolling. Folk like Kate from the south-west of England, an apolitical lass judging from her profile, who enjoys “vegan recipes, planet and money-saving ideas”. She posted: “For those using the #ResignSturgeon. Down here we just have Boris with no adult in the room. No regular updates, no clear leadership or rules, constant backtracking, no human touch and now the threat of military involvement and fines. She seems alright your Nic!”

Next day, the FM’s biggest and most unlikely fan Piers Morgan praised her ability to talk about love, belief and solidarity, observing that “a bit of empathy from leaders to the people right now goes a long way”. Thanking the FM, who appeared for yet another early morning grilling, the combative Good Morning Britain anchor revealed that Boris Johnson hasn’t deigned to appear for the past 148 days. It’s the same story on the probing and Emmy-award-winning Channel Four News – unable to interview a government minister, never mind the errant head honcho, since lockdown began six months ago.

The tack taken by Scotland’s First Minister has been very different with communication, empathy, detail and patient explanation in abundance – so much so that political rivals have tried to shut her down, not take her on. Now that BBC Scotland has U-turned on plans to curtail her Covid briefings coverage, though, it’s up to others to raise their game.

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Tuesday night’s broadcasts proved that Boris, like her Scottish party rivals, simply isn’t up to the task.

After Wednesday’s interview, Morgan said: “I like Nicola Sturgeon. It’s got nothing to do with politics actually. It’s all about leadership. I just feel like she’s a proper leader.

“It’s not to do with the individual things she does. It’s just the way she conducts herself.”

Yes, it does feel wrong to be point scoring when the whole of Britain is facing up to the likelihood of deaths and hospitalisations again.

But the grimness of our situation means trust in leaders is vitally important.

So, I never thought I’d be saying this.

But I agree with Piers Morgan.

More importantly, so do the vast majority of worried citizens … and swithering voters.