We need radical measures – and we ALL need to do our bit

THE coronavirus pandemic is set to sow a bitter harvest this summer for Scottish workers. Thousands of jobs, livelihoods and businesses are on the line. Our economy is on life support.

We need to rescue the country’s way of life from catastrophe. If we don’t, a generation of Scots will be denied the opportunity their parents had to get on in life.

I accept that Ministers in Scotland and across the UK have a fine balance to strike in tackling this challenge.

Open up the economy too quickly, and we risk a return of the virus later this year. But we need Government to step up to the plate with a radical plan to rescue jobs and the economy before it’s too late.

Nowhere is this crisis more likely to be felt than in the high street. I fear an autumn where Scotland’s towns and cities are disfigured by boarded-up shops and pubs, with their owners having packed it in. I’m calling for the Government to spearhead a Town Centre Rescue Plan. The Welsh Government has already got one under way.

The aim should be clear – to help those small, local businesses that are the lifeblood of our communities.

The core problem, bluntly, is us, the consumer.

Understandably, most of us are wary of going out and spending money.

So, even when lockdown is relaxed, the risk is that the economy still won’t revive, because most of us are too wary about coming out and spending.

So we need a radical plan from the SNP Government to help things along. For example, the Government could relax laws on outdoor eating and drinking this summer. It could permit pubs and restaurants to spill out onto pavements.

It could also temporarily scrap parking charges in our town centres.

Another idea is a scrappage scheme, granting one-off discounts for inefficient boilers, fridges and other household items, to encourage families to spend money on new and more environmentally efficient goods.

Then there’s the simple power of a clear message. I’d like the Scottish Government to launch a major new ‘Buy Local’ summer campaign, urging people to spend money in their local shops.

Every decision we take, from spending money in local stores, to supporting a locally run café, might be the difference between an apprentice joining the Jobcentre queue this Christmas, or staying on track for a great career.

Without radical action, we risk plunging Scotland into the deepest economic depression of modern times.