Virus has brought out the best - and worst - in people
None of us can remember a time like this.
I’m sitting at home and there’s an eerie silence outside.
No planes overhead, no cars, the distant rumbling of the railway silenced.
The only precedent I can think of is Spanish flu, which swept across the western world from 1918 to 1920 killing millions.
It disproportionately affected young adults.
I remember my grandma telling me about it and how terrified she and her friends were.
Censors tried to downplay reports of the pandemic’s ferocity, in an attempt to maintain morale at the end of the Great War.
Censors are a thing of the past in today’s multi-media society.
The danger for us isn’t too little information but misinformation, either maliciously spread, or else disseminated through ignorance.
As we try to work out how to cope with these next weeks and months, one thing is clear: we must listen to the experts who are united in telling us how this deadly new virus is spread.
It comes at us through saliva and mucus particles. It can enter our system through the mouth, nose, and eyes. It lives on surfaces those infected may have touched.
So the advice is unambiguous: stay at home, avoid close contact with other people. Only go out for necessary shopping, exercise, and medicine.
My staff and I are all working from home.
The team is deluged with constituency casework and we are handling it as fast as we can.
I’m not alone in recognising that this crisis brings out the best and worst in people.
The UK foreign office isn’t covering itself in glory. I have had constituents stranded across the world and, whilst many countries have repatriated their citizens quickly, the foreign office has been floundering, telling travellers to“return home”- a wholly unhelpful instruction given that it’s been well-nigh impossible for many to do so.
Which brings us to the airlines, jacking up prices and cancelling flights.
Some of my constituents have run out of savings having bought multiple overpriced tickets, each one cancelled and an instant refund refused.
But amidst all the darkness there are countless heroes - the shop workers and food producers working long hours, the emergency services, and our peerless NHS staff exposing themselves to risk to save lives.
Our community has rallied together as we knew it would.
Thank you to everyone working so hard to keep us safe.
Residents of a Perthshire village have dialled in to the area’s renowned community spirit and set up a new project designed to support people during the coronavirus pandemic.
A ‘village larder’ has been started in the former telephone box opposite Muthill’s graveyard.
Corinna Robertson, who works at the local garage, saw a similar project was under way in nearby Blackford, and floated the idea of setting something up in Muthill on a community Facebook page.
She said the aim was to provide a local place where people could either drop-off items of food they felt others may need, or pick-up something for themselves or their neighbours.
It is also hoped the informal concept will help people cut down on any unnecessary journeys outwith the village.
Corinna explained: “I saw something similar in Blackford and thought it was a great idea.
“I posted something about it on the Muthill Past and Present Facebook page and since then it’s grown arms and legs.
“People are maybe struggling financially at the moment for one reason or another and there’s a lack of transport as a lot of the buses and taxis are off just now – and there are a lot of people who don’t drive.
“What we’re saying to everyone is ‘take what you need and leave what you can’.
“It’s not a ‘food bank’ as such - it’s for use by the whole village.”
The distinctive red box – which has been earmarked to house a community defibrillator in the future – has been kitted out using shelves donated by Muthill in Bloom.
Chair Susan Crawford said members were more than happy to lend their support to the project during what is being referred to as a ‘gap year’ for the environmental group owing to restrictions brought about as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Susan, who has been helping Corinna monitor the project and was one of the first to drop-off a donation, said: “The reaction has been very heartwarming.”
News of the project has been shared widely on social media and both Corinna and Susan were quick to thank the many generous locals who have already donated items since it started last week – including local businesses.
Children have also added a further splash of colour by designing rainbows to decorate the larder’s base.
Corinna concluded: “It has put Muthill on the map.”