Back to the way it was’

MSP and council leader say there will be a ’new normal’

BOTH Dundee MSP Shona Robison and the leader of the council believe Scot la nd w i l l have changed forever once the pandemic is over.

Ms Robison and Strathmartine councillor John Alexander said they believed there would be a “new Scotland” once the crisis is over, with Ms Robison saying in particular, foreign travel may never be as popular as it once was.

When asked about how people would react if, hypothetically, lockdown restrictions were lifted by August, the former Holyrood health secretary, said: “We certainly won’t be back to what we knew before by August 1, and I think there will be a new ‘normal’.

“Social distancing will be a part of that reality for quite some time to come – perhaps in workplaces that gradually begin to go back once some of the lockdown restrictions are eased.

“These are incredibly complex decisions, so it will be a long time of gradual changes, and then maybe a pulling back from some of those, if it looks like there’s a potential for another spike in Covid-19.

“So there’s not a clear, straight road on this. It will be very much a winding road that has twists and turns as we get to this ‘new normal’.

“And there are some things we need to reflect upon, about the idea of foreign travel – I think it will be a long time, if we ever get back to some of that, and we have to kind of rethink whether or not that is something that we would ever get back to in the way that we used to. It will be a new

Scotland and we need to work together to make it one that includes everybody.”

The Dundee City East MSP added: “There’s now a flexibility around the way people work – businesses are now more likely to support staff working from home, because (many) can do their business from a home environment.

“So I think there might be more flexibility around working practices, and I think that actually might be quite a good thing.”

The country has been in lockdown since March 23, with businesses across Dundee closed as a result.

Council leader Mr Alexander believes social lives will be entirely different once the lockdown ends – and the chance of people getting straight back into a normal routine is unlikely.

He said: “I think it will be a gradual process, personally. Would I just go back to normal?

“Would you be down the pub with your friends, would you be going out for meals straight away, would you be booking your next holiday? I don’t think you would be.

“I think things have changed significantly. None of us are necessarily going to want to go back to what normality looks like, and I think the First Minister has been very clear about the possibility of us just going back to normal...is very unlikely.

“I think the reality is, this will be an adjustment over the next 12 months, if not longer than that, and we’ll get back to a different type of normal.

“None of us have a crystal ball to see what that looks like right now, but it is going to be different, I think that’s the reality.”