IT'S often said that a week is a long time in politics, and that may be well true, but for Glasgow and Scotland’s beleaguered hospitality, tourism and leisure sectors, languishing in the government's revolving cycle of business-crippling lockdown levels, a week can mean anything from seven days to over 15 months. It can be more, depending on the business – eg nightclubs and live music venues – and its postcode.
Will our notoriously risk adverse FM Nicola Sturgeon today stretch Glasgow’s stressed and worried business leaders' patience and pockets yet further, and decide to keep the city at the disastrous Level 3 for another long week? Or will she and her government, as they have already indicated, finally change tact and direction, and factor in the low hospital and ICU admission rates, not just the R number, as key indicators in their decision making process, and allow Glasgow to join the rest of Scotland at the less restrictive, and for many businesses, economically viable Level 2.
Stating the obvious, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf says it’s a “critical decision" and that the government obviously want to see cases per 100,000 and test positivity falling. He added they want look at hospital admissions, which he believes is key to determining Glasgow’s level status. He also said that the 'yo-yo effect' of going up and down levels isn’t helping anyone. You don’t say, Humza, not helped by the fact that this particular yo-yo seems to be attached to an over-cautious, never ending government bungee rope.
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The FM, to everyone’s surprise, also gave us a reason for a modicum of cautious optimism, saying: “We are monitoring whether and to what extent vaccination might be breaking that link between rising case numbers and significantly rising cases of serious illness and death. If that is the case, we hope that our response can evolve.”
Well, it goes without saying that Glasgow, indeed Scotland’s wider business community, which include our distressed retail, aviation, wedding, comedy and live music sectors, as well as our almost forgotten hospitality and night-time industries, all desperately hope that her government’s response evolves, develops, and matures quickly before these sectors hit a dead end, on what has been a very disjointed, dysfunctional and directionless route out of lockdown. A process so long it could have its own entry in the periodic table.
That the government now fully focuses, with pin-point, laser-guided accuracy, on Scotland’s economic recovery, and that it delivers on their manifesto pledge that their Covid recovery plan will be their main priority in the first 100 days of government. Especially now that the vaccine has been proven to significantly reduce harm, spread of infection and, most importantly, save lives.
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I and many others desperately hope that over the coming weeks and months the FM and her new cabinet moves the country forward and out of all restrictions and embraces the national recovery with as much alacrity, surefootedness, and confidence as they undoubtedly did at the beginning of this crisis. A crisis that test results from the Brit awards and other pilot events in Liverpool conclusively prove is now almost over.
But if they’re to do that successfully then they need to stop their tinkering and instead fully engage, and wholeheartedly support, Scotland’s business community, multi-billion-pound sectors led by knowledgeable people who know how their business works, how it all connects, and what needs doing to stop the rot and get the country moving again. Governments don’t, they almost invariably lack the knowledge and the necessary skills, they might set the course, and try and steer the ship, but it is business, the private sector that almost always powers the journey,
I hope I’m wrong but given the almost contemptuous way my sector has been treated of late, my trust in government has been shot to pieces. I can’t help feeling that all is not what it seems, that the yo-yoing is not yet over, and that more pain is on its way.
The cynic in me also wonders if it were not for Euro21 arriving in Glasgow in two weeks’ time then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
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