The financial impact of coronavirus
COLUMNISTS looked at the financial side of the coronavirus outbreak in the weekend’s opinion pages. So what did they have to say about how the UK and Scottish governments are handling the crisis and what is to come once lockdown is over?
Scotland on Sunday
Bill Jamieson argued in Scotland on Sunday that the response to the outbreak has sown the seeds for financial recovery.
He wrote: “It is tempting to despair at the prospect of a prolonged lockdown and faltering recovery. But the past two months have shown how the impossible can be achieved – from those emergency Nightingale hospitals to the delivery of food to the housebound. In the response to this tragic pandemic and the way in which so many have responded are the seeds sown for national recovery.
“For this reason, I do not share the pessimism of some of a faltering and chaotic recovery, though the immediate prospect is grim. The priority, for now, is to get immediate cash help for tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses and the myriad of self-employed workers for whom state help announced by government has still to arrive. Government departments have struggled to cope with the deluge of applications – another critical front line in this pandemic.”
He added: “Immense challenges now have to be faced as the lockdown persists. But such is the pent-up demand when it is lifted that the torrent of orders will soon be felt right along the supply chain. While many products and services will take many months to recover, there will be a spring-back for many as the pandemic abates and confidence starts to recover after this epochal shock. It cannot come soon enough.”
The Sunday Times
Michael Glackin claimed in The Sunday Times that the crisis grant for the Scottish Government “is more elusive than Moby Dick”.
He wrote: “It seems to me the accusation that Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop ‘misled’ Parliament on rates relief by failing to replicate Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s business grant scheme in Scotland – as she and the First Minister had promised – could be easily resolved. Or at least, I thought it could. More of that in a moment.
“The gist of the row is that
Holyrood’s decision to allocate the Westminster-funded grants, worth up to £25,000, on a per business basis, rather than per property as the Treasury has done in England and Wales, is shortchanging Scottish businesses.
“Nicola Sturgeon insists that by limiting the grants to one per business, she has ‘enabled more businesses to benefit’, though she has failed to provide a single piece of evidence to support this.”
He added: “I got in touch with the Scottish Government last week and asked for a detailed breakdown of where the £2.2 billion allocated to Holyrood for business support was being spent.
I wanted to know which sectors were being covered in Scotland that were not being covered in England and Wales, and the precise amount of the £2.2bn each sector was receiving.
“You could be forgiven for thinking the SNP would welcome the opportunity to show carping businesspeople that it can account for every penny. Sadly, you won’t be surprised to learn that the Scottish Government failed to provide anything that resembled a detailed breakdown. A spokesman did, of course, reiterate that ‘every penny we receive from the UK Government for this purpose is going directly to support businesses’. However, the few figures it did list only added up to £1bn, less than half the sum Westminster has made available. Where’s the rest?”
The Observer
Andrew Rawnsley argued in The Observer that the toughest decisions over economy versus life-saving have yet to be made.
He wrote: “When this crisis broke, I suggested that ministers would be faced with hideously difficult trade-offs between curbing the menace to life posed by the disease and the damage wreaked by widespread bankruptcies, mass unemployment and the implications for Britain’s future ability to finance public services, all of which will have effects on mortality.
“This is the sort of decisionmaking that prime ministers are elected to lead. When members of the Cabinet wish a speedy recovery for Boris Johnson, it is not just because they want to express sympathy with a poorly boss.
“It is because they know that the toughest choices of this crisis have yet to be made.”