And here we thought that the world might have contained this disease to the United States. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who has demanded and enforced some of the world’s toughest mask mandates, got caught in a pub bald-facedly chatting up some of her constituents. An onlooker was sufficiently shocked enough to take a picture of it, and the Scottish Sun ran it as a Page 1 story:

Tomorrow's Scottish Sun front page leads on Nicola Sturgeon breaking her own Covid law by not wearing a face mask in a bar while chatting to pensioners

Read our exclusive story: https://t.co/sOAWfjyG6p pic.twitter.com/ujvgCNr8HH

— The Scottish Sun (@ScottishSun) December 22, 2020

NICOLA Sturgeon breaks her own Covid law by chatting to pensioners in a pub without wearing a face mask.

In a photograph supplied by a concerned member of the public, the First Minister was seen chatting to three women as she stood up at an Edinburgh venue after a funeral last Friday.

The photo of Ms Sturgeon was taken in the public part of the venue, not in the function area where the wake was taking place.

The three older women shown in the picture were not funeral guests.

On the same day the photo was taken, Sturgeon announced a draconian lockdown of Scotland for three weeks after Christmas. She also lectured Scots on the definition of their “Christmas bubble“:

The First Minister revealed tonight members of the public can only meet loved ones for 24 hours on December 25.

It was also confirmed that all mainland areas across the country will face Level Four curbs from December 26 onwards due to fears over a new strain of the virus. …

The SNP leader said a strict travel ban to and from England would remain in place over the festive period – even on Christmas Day.

Ms Sturgeon said eight Scots from three households would still be allowed to meet on December 25, but stressed members of the public should stay at home where possible.

Earlier today, Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament that she was “kicking myself” over her violation. “I’m not going to offer any excuses,” Sturgeon promised:

“This was a stupid mistake and I’m really sorry,” First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said after the Scottish edition of The Sun published a front page photo of her talking to a group of women last Friday without a face covering.

“I talk every day about the importance of masks, so I’m not going to offer any excuses,” said the leader of the Scottish Government.

“I was in the wrong, I’m kicking myself, and I’m sorry,” she said.

Yeah … just who does Sturgeon think she is? Gavin Newsom? Andrew Cuomo? Austin mayor Steve Adler?

At least Sturgeon just admitted her violation without any excuses, but even so, her dramatic claim that she’s being tougher on herself than any of her critics rings rather false. If Sturgeon really thought that, she’d resign her leadership position and allow the SNP to select someone less compromised on the lockdowns to take over. This isn’t a “stupid mistake” in a vacuum; she’s locking Scots in their houses for three weeks while pubbing maskless.

This is the basic problem with this contagion of elitism. The masks and the social distancing might be very good ideas, but only if they apply to everyone equally. The very politicians who seem most eager to impose them as mandates keep turning out to be the ones who think those mandates shouldn’t apply to themselves. They shouldn’t be “kicking themselves” — they should be kicked out of office. Hard.