Covid silver lining is to redress balance

by Ian Murray MP for Edinburgh South

I always thought that Brexit would be the most intense and busy period as an MP.

During the height of the

Brexit debates with key votes in parliament the sheer volume of electronic and other correspondence from constituents was off the scale.

Hundreds and hundreds of emails every day. Every lobby group and organisation that had a mailing list was encouraging their supporters to contact their MPs on every Brexit issue imaginable. I didn’t think we would see the likes of that again.

How wrong could I have been? The word “unprecedented” is overused but the needs of constituents has been truly unprecedented. This is understandable and what I believe the role of an MP is all about. Some of those who have been in contact have never contacted their MP before.

The overwhelming theme though has been that of constituents’ health, jobs, businesses and livelihoods. For me it highlighted that government interventions and decisions can’t assist everyone. The complicated matrix of how people live their lives results in every decision government makes creating more questions than answers.

For those looking after loved ones, running a business, providing for their family, worried about their jobs, and every other issue, my team and I have tried to help in any way we can.

Those constituent experiences should provide understanding of how we respond to the recovery. One size will certainly not fit all. Indeed, one size may not fit many.

The concentration must be on protecting as many jobs as possible. The crisis has created no end of concern for those worried about their livelihoods. Edinburgh as a city is a microcosm of the national problems.

A city underpinned by tourism and culture. Driven by the hospitality trade, our world class universities and the financial sector. All areas that have been among the hardest hit and that will take the longest to recover.

So, as lockdown is further eased, both the Scottish and UK Governments must target in two ways.

Firstly, give support to those sectors that will not be able to re-open and to those individuals and businesses that have fallen through the cracks of government support.

Secondly, extend the current schemes to those sectors that have or will soon re-open but do not have the demand to recover quickly.

There is no doubt that businesses that rely on tourism and volumes of customers will require support until the level of demand returns to a level that sustains their businesses.

This was brought home to me by a local hotelier who said his business was losing more money while open than it had been while closed.

However, on a more positive note, if there is to be any silver lining from this Covid crisis it should be a redress of what we all see as important.

It’s always been obvious to me and the majority of the public that we should cherish the NHS and all it provides. It has not been so obvious for social care. The debate about how to fund and value social care has been going on for too long and it is now time for it to be addressed.

I have long been involved in campaigns about low pay, insecure work, zero and short hours contracts, poor terms and conditions for workers.

Covid has shone a very bright light on to the labour market and I hope we can now address some of the fundamental weaknesses in the world of work, especially around issues of low pay.

All frontline staff that keep us safe, healthy, fed, supplied and connected deserve to be recognised for the jobs that they do and have done day in day out for years.

There is much work to be done to see off of Covid and get the country and Edinburgh back on the road to recovery.

We shouldn’t return to the old politics of pre-Covid society.

We must all work together with a focus on properly funding our NHS, protecting jobs and providing opportunity for all.