Coronavirus, covid-19 will indiscriminately impact the most vulnerable people in our communities, leaving them isolated. Today I am asking all of us, as Liberal Democrats, to put our values into action.
We can use our local knowledge and networks to help those who need it the most.
We can make a difference that might mean saving lives.
Many of you will know elderly people who will struggle to keep food in their fridge or suffer from loneliness if they, or we, are forced into isolation.
From today, my local party are reaching out to some of the local groups who are offering community outreach support to see how we can support them with things like offering to print some leaflets for them. There maybe things that we could do to, but reaching out can only be a good thing.
Many people are uncertain what to do, and my advice is simple – one, don’t panic, and two, assuming that you and your team are healthy, to think how you can be most helpful to people in your community.
It is really important that we don’t forget others and act selfishly. Not everyone is able to nip down the road and buy a multipack of toilet roll, and not everyone can afford to buy enough food to last for an indefinite period.
Liberal Democrats in the community can provide great support in what is a scary time for our society. Of course, if you yourself feel unwell or are vulnerable, please do not put yourself at any further risk. But for those who are healthy, and do feel able to offer their time, please do consider helping others less fortunate.
I know that none of you would think it a stretch too far to drop off a pint of milk or loaf of bread or pick up a prescription to your neighbours. Because that is the kind of people we are as Liberal Democrats.
Together, we can help each other through this. Together, we do incredible things. And we all share the values of community and equality, motivated by a desire for all people to live with dignity and access to opportunity.
We can make a real difference here. Let’s do it.
* Layla Moran is the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Michael Meadowcroft: A Liberal of Intellectual Rigour and Uncommon Integrity
Debt-ridden graduates claim they are seen as cash cows
Why non-fiction books need their indexes
Changes in status: Local Elections wrap up
paul barker
Peter Chambers
Mark Valladares
Mark Smulian
Geoff Reid
8 Comments
Innovative solutions to the economic crash were very rare, coalition a good try but, it chose a limited, one size fits all, austerity.
Brexit saw party unity but on separate sides.
Covid 19 can actually change the working and non working attitude, Layla, in the same way I did earlier as a result of the crisis, has advocated universal basic income. The unity in community, action, is marvellous. But keep apart in order to be part of it!
All very commendable, but I fear the economic repercussions may well be worse than the virus – and I speak as someone within a ‘vulnerable’ group.
Do I really believe the virus is going to be snuffed out completely? No. Is it likely to recur? Probably. What would be the consequences of that, given that the current approach won’t have worked? Is a vaccine really going to be the answer? How many people are going to lose their livelihoods and possibly their homes in order to make the world a safer place for me and my ilk? Is that a fair expectation on my part? Do we seriously think the economy is going to recover from this with any form of rapidity?
Makes 2008 look like a walk in the park.
Very sensible comment, Graham Jeffs, though a vaccine would at least get it down to seasonal flu proportions, better if vaccination was available to everyone. The 8000 annual deaths from seasonal flu are regrettable and families are often distraught but we cope with them. The problem is what happens in the year or two years before such a vaccine becomes widely available.
I agree that it is obvious that the economy will not quickly recover. We must start talking about how our economy should work post crisis. Have we learned the lessons of austerity?
In a period when it is not possible to have our traditional meetings, how do we act collectively as a party? It is essential to find a way of discussing at a distance how we should react to events. The internet should play a large part but what about those who have no access?
We must take seriously the talk of this being the biggest challenge since the war. After the war we thought we were becoming prosperous within ten years, but we were comparing our life with that in the thirties. We need realism about our situation and play our part in finding answers.
When this is all over let’s not forget where and how it started. Let’s remember and remind those tabloid journalists and populist politicians who have spent years criticising ‘elf & safety regulations and moaning about EU food standard rules.
@Graham
” Is a vaccine really going to be the answer? How many people are going to lose their livelihoods and possibly their homes in order to make the world a safer place for me and my ilk?”
People need to realise that it is not just the elderly and those with underlying conditions that die from Coronavirus though they do take up the majority of cases.
There are many people with no underlying conditions that still require Oxygen support and possibly go on to ventilation. With a severe shortage of equipment and resources to deal with the numbers we are talking about, it is quite easy for someone who could have been treated with just oxygen support to slip into the sever category and need ventilation, or the critical category because of the lack of resources, each category then obviously has a knock-on effect from moderate to severe to critical.
Then there are the indirect deaths from Coronavirus because NHS services are swamped, Road accidents, workplace accidents, illness etc. it all has a knock-on effect.
The Governments measures are not just about keeping the sick and elderly as safe as possible during this crisis, it is about giving the NHS as much space as it can during this crisis and of course, it is about protecting all citizens until a solution can be found in the form of a vaccine or antiviral meds that can work.
I am not being dismissive of people who are going to lose livelihoods and homes, this is an awful situation, but please don’t make out that this is at the expense of protecting vulnerable and elderly, because it’s not, it’s about protecting us all
“Liberal Democrats in the community can provide great support in what is a scary time for our society.”
We have four Lib Dems on Shropshire Council representing the rural town of Ludlow in South Shropshire and its immediate hinterland. We have been at the forefront of Covid-19 response in partnership with GPs and other community activists.
There are no politics in this. We don’t see ourselves as leaders. It is simply that we are embedded in our community and are in a very good position to advise, help and coordinate.
We helped organise what we think will be our last public meeting for a while yesterday. It was on Covid-19 and how we can draw together our community. (And, yes, we did have social distancing, strict rules, hand gel, gloves…).
Media reports on this meeting and many other developments will mostly be pooled through the local democracy service. Also my blog which has a dedicated coronavirus thread.
We are now all moving online, except the GPs and other health professionals. Much of this will be driven by volunteers as well as councillors and health professionals.
We live in uncertain times. But we are certain about the strength of our community to react.
Something has got to be done about the Grocery situation this is getting ridiculous, you cannot get anything in the supermarkets from where I live for love nor money and no online order slots for 3 weeks.
I do not know how practical it would be for Supermarkets to limit online delivery to Elderly and people who are having to social distance due to underlying health conditions, but something has to be done.
Could they not put in a system where online customers have to upload proof of entitlement through Pension letter or Disability Letter?
There are some wonderful people out there who are shopping for elderly and vulnerable people but supermarkets are having to restrict to 2 items per customer, how is that going to work for someone who is shopping for their own family as well as vulnerable people in the community who they are shopping for?
This is not working and I fear it is going to get worse.
I was horrified on the weekend to learn, My mother in law in Australia lives in rural NSW (5 hrs drive from Sydney) because of the shopping situation in the cities, coach loads of people turned up on the weekend, they cleared the supermarkets of fresh and frozen produce as well as tinned food. I kid you not.
When people are already behaving like this and we are only a couple of weeks in, what are they going to be like in a months time when the numbers really go up.
I already have 2 people in our household in self-isolation due to being in the at-risk category, in 2 weeks time I am having my elderly parents both of whom are in the very his risk category move in with me until this crisis is over, I do not know how I am going to feed 4 people if we cannot get access to online shopping.
This is crazy and calls for drastic measures from the Government to intervene as I do not think it can be relyed upon anymore for human behaviour to see reason and sense