There are moments in a crisis which somehow catch your attention more than the regular livestream news feeds so many of us will be following.
The Prime Minister’s comments grimly acknowledging that "many more families are going to lose loved ones" through the coronavirus was one such moment.
So too was observing a contractor work her way through my subway carriage cleaning the handrails with disinfectant. It finally dawned on me how different this crisis really is.
Before the Chancellor of the Exchequer presented his budget last week Glasgow Chamber of Commerce asked for support to smaller businesses faced with the impact of the coronavirus. Our judgement was that it was going to have calamitous impact on the cash flow for businesses especially in tourism, hospitality and retail whose customers will simply disappear for weeks.
We wanted an extension of the HMRC Time to Pay scheme for VAT and payroll taxes. We wanted relief for business rates. We wanted emergency loan funds to be made available. The Chancellor delivered on all of that and threw in the re-imbursement of Statutory Sick Pay and small cash grants for some businesses. Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes then announced a £320m rescue package to support businesses through the outbreak.
But as each new step towards social distancing emerges, the scale of the economic impact dwarfs these measures.
Our banks have been responding with Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyd’s Banking Group announcing funds they will be making available to businesses needing help. We have also seen some generous sharing of the approaches businesses are adopting to deal with the practical impact on daily working.
Andrew Dobbie, Made Brave’s founder and leader, has been especially active on social media explaining how he is working with his team both to look after his clients and to make sure colleagues watch out for each other.
I know that has had an impact on our own thinking about the Chamber’s working practices. Like every other small business we are having to make radical adjustments in the face of an event that I would suspect featured on no company’s risk register.
It has also been important that the messages coming from both the UK and Scottish Governments have, for the most part, been the same. Nothing would add more to the anxious atmosphere than conflicting, contradictory statements from our political leadership.
We are listening closely to the guidance our political leaders are offering and we want to avoid any confusion about what the science tells us to do.
But as we absorb each new step in our war on this virus, we must acknowledge very reluctantly that if the disruption to normal life continues for several months then many small, independent businesses will find it near impossible to survive.
For some the complete collapse of demand for an extended period will be hard to solve even with all the banks and the governments are doing. Some perfectly good businesses will fail through no fault of their own and many people will lose their livelihoods.
I am optimistic that banks, governments and their agencies will be trying as hard as they can to keep the number as small as they can and for as long as the businesses can propose solutions to keep themselves afloat we should listen to what they say and be prepared to respond. We will be asking for even more extensive government action in the weeks ahead.
Our mission as a Chamber is to support our members and to champion our local economy. We have our work cut out for us in the weeks ahead.
Stuart Patrick is chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here