Category Archives: Op-eds

This is really rather special.

There have been lots of collaborative music projects during lockdown, with varying degrees of success, but the story behind this one is rather different. Churches in many countries around the world have stitched together their version of The Blessing by Elevation Music including The UK Blessing.

In Ireland three weeks ago a group of friends conceived the idea of producing a Blessing with a distinctive Irish flavour. But importantly it was to bring together churches and Christian organisations from right across the island, from across all the Christian traditions and incorporating all styles of music used in worship.

The old Celtic song “Be Thou My Vision” was adopted as The Irish Blessing, the music was arranged, a website was set up and a call went out for musicians to play or sing.  They received 420 responses, representing all 32 counties in Northern Ireland and the Republic. You can see the breadth of the vision in the video – monks, drummers, orchestral players, Irish dancers, singers in every style, even a piper and a church bell, and The Priests put in an appearance too. Contributions came in from churches of all denominations including those serving immigrant communities.

Another rose in my garden – Nostalgia, this time

I haven’t bought any clothes at all since going into isolation. Our (albeit temporary) change in shopping habits is having a huge impact on people in the garment trade, which these days are spread around the world, often in the countries least able to support the workers.

So I was intrigued to read about Lost Stock, an initiative of Mallzee, an online shopping app developed by a company based in Edinburgh. They explain:

During lockdown, we learned of the situation in Bangladesh as retailers were rejecting or cancelling the stock they’d ordered from factories abroad. This is catastrophic for workers on the ground in developing countries. They’re being left with no income, and there’s no safety net in place for them. We’re used to solving big problems, and we’re experts in personalisation which makes us uniquely positioned to do something about this awful situation. That’s why we came up with the idea for Lost Stock.

The concept is simple. We use our data wrangling powers, our logistics partners and our network of awesome influencers to create Lost Stock. We match up clothes that retailers are no longer taking with consumers who are looking for a great deal but also want to do something positive to help factory workers and avoid clothes going to landfill.

The concept is simple – customers in the UK order a mystery box for £35 (plus £3.99 delivery) which will contain three tops or shirts. The contents will be worth, in total, at least double that amount.

The best way to support charity shops at the moment is to store your donations at home. Many of us have been using this time to sort out our cupboards and wardrobes, putting together bags of clothes and other items to go to a local charity shop.

I have been hearing that thoughtless people have been leaving lots of binbags outside charity shops during lockdown. The grim truth is that most of those ‘donations’ will end up in landfill, at the charities’ expense. The shop volunteers haven’t been able to handle, clean or store the items, which will now be contaminated by rats and other animals. The charities will have to pay to have the items removed.

There are over 11,000 charity shops in the UK and they make such an important contribution to the community and to the environment. Charity shops reduce the overall consumption of goods by giving them a longer life, they offer low-cost items to those who can’t afford much, and they raise funds for good causes. They are an important element in the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle chain – it’s a win-win-win situation.

One of my colleagues here on Lib Dem Voice has suggested, somewhat tongue in cheek, that I should write about editing the blog in lockdown. That could be as self-referential as an Escher drawing, but I have risen to the challenge.

At one level, very little has changed. We are sent posts by email, we edit and publish them, sometimes after a correspondence with the contributor about length, or content, or style. Sometimes we turn posts down because they aren’t really relevant or of interest to our readers. Sometimes posts are simply badly written – we try to help if we think they could be polished up. We particularly try to encourage posts from young and/or new contributors.

At another level, everything has changed. It seems that lockdown has thrown people into two camps. In one group are those who are incredibly busy and rather stressed because they are trying to work from home in less than ideal circumstances, while simultaneously attempting to home educate restless children. In another group are those who have far more time on their hands than usual.

Our team on Lib Dem Voice is split in the same way. I fall into the latter camp so have taken on a larger editorial role at the moment, and am trying to support colleagues who are councillors, or working for MPs, or volunteering, who are all spending huge amounts of time dealing with the fallout from lockdown where they live.

Social prescribing is a relatively new concept within health care. It means that health professionals can refer a patient towards non-clinical activities that will improve their health, in many cases for free.

I first came aware of social prescription in Kingston when our GP referred us both to the Get Active programme, which is a 12 week course under the supervision of a trainer in a local gym.  It was free when we did it, but they now charge a small amount per session.

GPs in my NHS area can also refer a patient to one of several local slimming clubs, entitling them to 12 weeks free membership. It makes so much sense – the patient has the benefit of expert advice and a support group, and the cost to the NHS is much less than through their own programmes. To qualify you have to live in the Borough, have a BMI greater than 28 and be over 16.

These activities, and very many others, were all pulled together about 6 months ago in Connected Kingston. This is a joint project run by Kingston Council, the NHS and Kingston Voluntary Action, our umbrella organisation for the voluntary sector. Local residents can search for advice and activities on just about anything that is provided by local voluntary or public services, and health providers can prescribe quite a number of them.

So lockdown has reached Ambridge at last, just as the rest of the country is beginning to ease itself back to normality.

The Archers is the only soap I follow these days, and I only got sucked in properly during the Rob and Helen coercive control storyline over four years ago. Before that I had dropped in from time to time, often listening in the car as I was driving to evening meetings. In fact, “Dum di dum di dim di dum” had echoed throughout my adult life.

I can actually remember the shock that reverberated through the village when the unmarried Jennifer got pregnant and refused to say who the father was (although it was later revealed to be the result of a fling with the cowman).  Adam, her son, is now over 50. He is married to Ian, the chef at Grey Gables, and has recently become a father, through surrogacy, to young Xander – which demonstrates neatly how things have changed in 50 years.

Episodes of the soap are written and recorded in six week cycles, some time ahead of the broadcast date. The actual recordings take place over the course of one week, which is why, if an actor is unavailable for that week they have to be written out of the show for six weeks. Tamsin Grieg, who is much in demand for stage and TV work, still pops back occasionally, but her character Debbie now conveniently lives in Hungary (I can’t remember why).

When lockdown was imposed on the rest of the country on 23rd March there were still five weeks’ worth of broadcasts in the can. The producers decided to cut down from six episodes per week to five, which gave them an extra week’s grace. However, this had the odd effect of getting The Archers even more out of sync with the rest of the world, and they appeared to be celebrating Easter (with the church still open) on a Wednesday.

It’s a Bank Holiday – and, miraculously, the sun is shining! That’s not very British, is it?  It’s also quite ironic, given that many of us can’t get out and about to enjoy the day. The Government is, apparently, considering an extra Bank Holiday in October, but we can be pretty sure that the weather won’t be like today.

The UK tourism industry is really suffering this year. Already several hotel groups have collapsed or are struggling, and here and here. The coach industry is ‘decimated’.

Travelling abroad is a non-starter for most people because they will have to go into self-isolation for two weeks on their return. Hotels and other holiday accommodation will have to remain closed at least until 4th July, but even then will only be able to open if they can show that they are sticking to the guidelines.

In practice a number of hotels have remained open through lockdown, but not to their usual guests. Some are providing accommodation for rough sleepers through their local Councils, or to key workers who can’t return home, or are acting as refuges for people escaping domestic violence. Others are providing meals for key workers or for people in need, while some are housing food banks.

Coach tour operators are in a particularly difficult position, because for some reason they are not classified as being part of the leisure industry so can’t claim rates relief. Understandably, they think they should be treated at this time in the same way as hotels.

I haven’t ordered a takeaway since going into isolation, hence the query in the headline. Should I?

I am scrupulously careful with anything that comes into our home. Anything that can wait is left in the hall for a couple of days before I open it. That can’t be done with any food deliveries that need to go into the fridge or freezer, so I wipe bags and packages with antiseptic wipes and wash my hands after handling them. In any case, I am pretty confident that the major supermarkets are taking protective measures, so am not too worried by the things I order from them.

Takeaways are another matter. Many local restaurants that were already providing takeaways have had to focus on the delivery side to keep their businesses going. Others have ventured into deliveries for the first time, including some high end restaurants. It is really important to support these businesses, but are we taking any risks in doing so?