TALKING POLITICS A united front benefits society

Margaret Thatcher once said: “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.”

The response of the people to this pandemic has once again demonstrated how wrong this is. Communities have united and endured huge self-sacrifice in service of the common good.

We have witnessed a heroic effort in our NHS – from the medical staff through to cleaners, porters, contact centre workers, technicians and paramedics. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

And we also owe an eternal debt to all those who work in the care sector. Whether they are home carers, care home workers, or unpaid carers.

When we emerge from this we cannot simply give one last round of applause and move on – we must revalue the work of carers, of NHS staff, and of supermarket workers too. A revaluation of their status in society is long overdue.

And we must establish a National Care

Service, locally delivered, based on people not profit. Because what has happened in our residential care homes is without question the greatest scandal so far.

Care home residents comprise 0.7 per cent of the population of Scotland yet 47 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths have been in care homes – more than 50 per cent if we take account of residents who died in hospital. That is why we need an independent inquiry – so we can learn the lessons and never repeat the mistakes that have been made.

And it’s why we need to examine whether the human rights of these our most vulnerable citizens – including the right to life, and the right to nondiscrimination – have been violated by the SNP Government.

Local councils have stepped-up and demonstrated the critical role they play. In North Lanarkshire more than 1000 tenants facing rent arrears have been given a hand through a fund established to support those whose financial circumstances have been disrupted.

Despite the Scottish Government removing the statutory obligation on Councils to provide 1140 hours of nursery provision, North Lanarkshire Council is still on track to deliver this to all nursery aged children by September.

The council has also been the first in Scotland to offer all 195 probationer teachers in the area full-time contracts in the coming year and restated its commitment to build 5000 new council homes across the region.

As the lockdown is eased we will survey the scale of the damage to our local economies. We are now facing a massive rise in unemployment especially among young people, the potential collapse of town centres, and entire industries are at risk. That’s why we will be campaigning for a jobs first approach in the economy.

But we will never forget the memory of those we have lost as we resolve to keep fighting the virus and to keep striving for a better future.

Applause NHS worders are among the many heroes of the coronavirus pandemic