Indyref2 obsession blamed for grim economic outlook
● Small businesses hit by slump as jobless figures show mixed picture
Scotland’s has the bleakest economic outlook in the UK after the country’s small businesses suffered their worst slump in revenues for four years, a new report has found.
It came as another mixed jobless picture emerged north of the Border, with a 15,000 fall in unemployment overshadowed by a massive 27,000 rise in working-age Scots who have given up seeking a job and become “economically inactive”.
The Scottish Government is now facing fresh industry demands to introduce a “competitive” tax system north of the Border, with calls for MSPS at Holyrood to focus on policies which boost the economy. It emerged last week that Scottish GDP shrank in the final quarter of 2016.
Opposition parties claimed the focus on a second referendum is undermining economic confidence and demanded a change in
Ebola survivor Pauline Cafferkey is planning to return to Sierra Leone for the first time since she was struck down with with the killer virus.
The Scottish nurse said she hopes the fundraising trip next month will help to bring “closure” after a “terrible couple of years”.
Ms Cafferkey contracted Ebola in 2014 and has suffered a series of further health scares due to complications linked to the disease, at one stage falling critically ill.
The 41-year-old also faced disciplinary proceedings over events surrounding her return to the UK over which she was later cleared.
Speaking to the BBC she said going back to Sierra Leone will be “psychologically important”.
She said: “It’s where things kind of started for me and I’ve had a terrible couple of years since then.
“So it will be good to go back just for things to come full circle for me and a little bit of closure.
“Most people have been supportive if they know that I’m going back. I’ve had a few people, like family friends, who say ‘just be careful when you get back there’.”
Despite her experience Ms Cafferkey, who lives in Glasgow, said she was “excited” to go back and is “not going there with any trepidation”.
The nurse will take part in a 10km run during the fundraising trip for Street Child, a UK charity which helped youngsters affected by the epidemic.
It estimates around 12,000 children were left orphaned, with 1,400 still critically at-risk and struggling to survive.
Ms Cafferkey said she has the ordeal of contracting the virus in common with its African victims, although their experiences were “very different”.
“The Ebola patients in Sierra Leone didn’t know what they were going home to, or who was left alive in their family. They might be going back to sheer hell,” she said.
During the 2013-216 Ebola crisis which swept Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, more than 28,000 cases were reported, resulting in more than 11,000 deaths.
Ms Cafferkey, a nurse of 16 years who had carried out aid work, travelled to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to volunteer at an Ebola treatment centre with Save The Children in 2014. She returned to the UK on 28 December that year for what was supposed to be a break as part of a rotation system but she was quickly struck down herself.
There were fears for her life but her condition was said to have stabilised by early January and she was discharged from hospital later that month, with doctors saying she had completely recovered and was not infectious in any way.
However, she was readmitted to hospital three times.
The past two years have been the toughest of Pauline Cafferkey’s life. The nurse contracted the deadly Ebola virus after volunteering to help sufferers in Sierra Leone, and was very seriously ill. She recovered, but had a relapse and also developed meningitis. In addition, she had thyroid problems, hair loss, and for a time required the use of a wheelchair. She also had to face a hearing over misconduct charges, of which she was cleared. By any standards, it has been a grim time.
The Scot could be forgiven for not wanting to set foot in the West African country again, but she has said that she wants to return there, to seek “closure in a positive way”.
It is a typically brave response from Ms Cafferkey, who took the leap of faith required in 2014 to offer help to those who desperately needed it, in dangerous circumstances. What has often been overlooked during the past two years is that Sierra Leona is now Ebola-free. That was only made possible by the sense of service which saw medical professionals answer the call in a time of emergency. Over 100 healthcare workers lost their lives during the epidemic in Sierra Leone, including around a dozen doctors.
We should not judge those who choose to take risks with their own personal safety, responsibly, in a bid to help others who are sick. Without such selfless actions, an epidemic such as that experienced in Sierra Leone would have a far greater toll than the 4,000 lives that were lost.
Pauline Cafferkey has gone through more misery than most of us could ever imagine, and as she seeks to move on, and get on with the rest of her life, we hope that her trip brings her exactly what she is looking for.