Anxious times as Covid rules start to relax

Uncertainty has been one of the few certainties of the Covid pandemic. No one has escaped the impact of the virus, whether it be from a healthcare, employment or social perspective.

Nicola Sturgeon’s surprise announcement yesterday that restrictions on movement will be eased significantly in Scotland from Friday is evidence that society is making real progress in countering Covid.

In a couple of weeks, the longshut doors to hospitality venues will swing open again, bringing with them the prospect of a pint or glass of wine with friends, albeit socially-distanced outdoors.

Every such step is welcome. But the plague the virus has wrought on all our houses will be far from over even once all of the restrictions we are currently living under are removed.

It will take years to deal with the healthcare backlog and the mental wellbeing trauma that has resulted from lockdown and associated isolation.

And rebuilding the shattered economy will take at least as long.

News yesterday of potential further job cuts at Babcock in Fife is a case in point.

Just a few short months ago, the yard was being held up as a bastion of British engineering for its work on the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier fleet.

But now, after a year in which Covid has laid siege to the global economy and losses have piled up, Babcock group has announced it is cutting 1,000 roles in an effort to right-size itself for the challenges ahead.

The firm is not the first organisation to have suffered during this extraordinary period, and will certainly not be the last.

But for the workers at Rosyth, who have already been through so much dealing with Covid on a personal level, these are anxious days as they wait to hear whether their jobs are safe. They are far from alone.

Even with the comfort blanket of furlough underpinning the labour market, there are many households living on a financial knife-edge.

Returning certainty to their lives is a monumental challenge, but it is one we must face.