PEOPLE say coronavirus is like a war, don’t they, so when I was speaking to a 98-year-old veteran and former WAAF on the phone the other day, I asked her if she thought that was true – is the virus like a war? Definitely not, she said, the two situations are totally different, although there was one important thing she’d noticed: people are helping each other more, and being more cooperative. It’s not war that’s broken out, it’s peace.

To some extent, but only to some extent, something similar has been happening in politics. You may have noticed last week that I suggested a Clap for Nicola might be appropriate in recognition of the way the First Minister has handled the crisis and I stand by the thought. Ms Sturgeon has cooperated with the other governments as part of a UK-wide response and we should particularly applaud her comment that, in times like this, the issues that divide us are less important.

But there, I’m afraid, the clapping stops, because there are some in the wider independence movement who deserve not a clap but a shake. The ones determined not to adapt, even temporarily; the ones who are going to nurse their wrath to keep it warm until this crisis is over. What they want – at all times, always – is to emphasise differences with England, and finally, after a few false starts on the virus, it looked like they’d found the difference they wanted in the issue of protective equipment.

The accusation was startling: protective equipment for carers was not being supplied equally across the UK and was being withheld from Scotland. Donald Macaskill, head of Scottish Care, which represents private care homes, said the UK’s largest suppliers of PPE were simply not sending to Scotland and were prioritising England’s NHS and English social care providers.

But could it be true? On the face of it, it was a contradiction of the idea that the UK was working on a UK-wide response and the First Minister said she was concerned about the claims. But fairly quickly Scottish Government sources said it wasn’t true; Ms Sturgeon also said on Wednesday she accepted assurances from the UK Government that NHS England had not demanded PPE suppliers give preference to England.

It’s possible there may still have been some kind of misunderstanding with the suppliers, and if so it needs sorted, but the furore is revealing. This has been a weird time for the angriest proponents of independence whose strategy has been to disagree with Westminster at all times. But suddenly they find themselves in a situation that demands cooperation and, dare I say it, political maturity and they can’t hack it. The First Minister, to her credit, can, and is acting in the national interest.

But the fact that some nationalists are uncomfortable in this new, and temporary, reality goes further and could have serious political consequences for Ms Sturgeon. The First Minister has said and done what a national leader should say and do in a crisis like this one, but it has emphasised a difference with some of her followers. It might also deepen their disillusionment with her.

The problem turns on how some nationalists respond to a crisis, or indeed pretty much anything. When coronavirus first started to bite, Donald Trump called it the “Chinese virus”. This week he also said he was cutting US funding for the World Health Organisation on the basis that it has been biased towards China. It’s how this brand of nationalism works: nationality first, other stuff second.

There are many Scottish nationalists who think the same way – Scotland first – and they mean “Scotland first” even in a crisis that transcends national boundaries. On PPE, they object to the idea that England might prioritise the English health and care system but flipped the other way they would not object to Scotland prioritising the Scottish health system. In fact, this is what they want. Scotland first.

The fact the First Minister hasn’t used any of this kind of language during the crisis reflects well on her as a leader just as some nationalists are demeaned by the fact that they have kept on about Scotland versus England. All of it has also underlined the division that’s been growing between this Scotland First group of nationalists and their leader.

What this particular group keeps asking is: why hasn’t she pushed harder for another referendum? Now they’re asking: why isn’t she going it alone on coronavirus? And they may already be asking: is she really one of us? Ms Sturgeon’s reputation as a national leader may have grown as a result of this crisis, but her problems as leader of the SNP and the Yes movement have deepened.

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