Many readers will have received the April Newsletter from the party. It begins promisingly:

Our teams in Westminster, Holyrood, the Senedd and Council Chambers across Britain have been doing their best to help their communities through this crisis and to hold the Government to account. You can read more about their work in this newsletter.

Except I can’t – read, that is, about what our devolved assemblies and local councils are doing.

We are given some news about the leadership election and the election review, followed by articles from four of our MPs – on the Labour leadership, NHS workers, homelessness and the needs of students. These are all worthy causes, but where are the voices from Holyrood, the Senedd and from over 400 local councils?

In fact, local councils are another front line in the coronavirus emergency. Not only are they directly responsible for social care to their most vulnerable residents, but they are also stepping up as community leaders to co-ordinate the responses to self-isolation and lockdown.

In my own (small) London borough of Kingston upon Thames, the council has worked with local charities and organisations to set up a volunteering hub, which has already attracted over 1200 volunteers. There is a dedicated helpline for anyone who needs support, and they are proactively contacting people like my husband who is on the extremely vulnerable list.

Council officers are doing a fantastic job keeping essential services going, such as bin collection, and providing support to people with financial challenges at the moment.

Lib Dems are in control in Kingston – but I am not making a political point, because I know that councils around the country are all taking similar action.

It was right for Ed Davey to issue a statement about working with Keir Starmer. But locally, like many other MPs, he has been working closely with the council to make sure that information about local community actions is being widely publicised. He has put together an excellent page of advice and sources of help. Ed also sends out a regular email to residents highlighting specific initiatives, such as my local florist who has transformed into a greengrocer and now delivers veg boxes instead of flowers. It is in marked contrast to the inward-looking email from HQ, which concentrates on political campaigning and ignores what is really happening on the ground.

For example, our local councillors have set up phone banks so they can phone elderly residents, and are themselves heavily involved in bringing support to those who need it.

The daily email update from the Council itself is very different from the party’s newsletter. It calls for food donations and praises the local organisations who are distributing food parcels. It highlights the work of the library staff, who are now co-ordinating the volunteers, as well as creating new online resources for residents, such as rhyme-time for the under 5s. It also provides useful guidance to people who are helping friends and neighbours, plus links to online home workouts. Each day its newsletter features different activities, calls for action or sources of advice.

So I’m pretty cross about the rather blinkered approach from HQ – why can’t they see beyond the Westminster bubble and recognise the front line that is being managed by local councils? And why can’t they, for once, say Thank You to them.

Please note

We have been in full self-isolation since 16th March to protect my husband whose immune system is compromised.

If you are in self-isolation then join the Lib Dems in self-isolation Facebook group.

You can find my previous Isolation diaries here.

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.