New Priorities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. NO! It’s just the most frustrating of times.

But not just frustrating because we cannot go out and do all the little things we thought of as important just a few weeks ago. Is it really just a few weeks? Like going out for a walk or a drive just for the fun of it, like packing the camera bag and Toby in the car and seeing where we end up and what we can see when we get there. And we’re among the lucky ones! We have a decent sized garden which never stops finding new jobs which need done and if it ever does Mary will soon have a list for me anyway.

But it’s frustrating when we see some of the rank stupidity which is going on. Like the numpties who turned up at one of our local supermarkets (14 miles away) and asked if they would take back 9 packs of toilet rolls, with 24 in each pack. Then had the cheek to get stroppy with the staff when refused!

Like the “journalists” who still think it’s important for them to go out and do each interview live. With a “journalist”, a camera person and a sound person in each car they drive around telling us how important it is to stay home, stay safe and protect the NHS. We even had one tv shot of all three, and that meant another person who was taking that shot! What makes it ok for tv crews to make these unnecessary journeys like a herd of Dominics!

Like the people who tell us that we are all in this together and then proceed to make out their particular interest is a” special case”. They need more of whatever is going be it government cash, relaxed regulations for their industry or trade etc. How we need to look after them until we return to “normal”. Don’t they understand yet that there will be no return to “normal”.

This virus will change how we do just about everything in our lives.

For our leisure industry there must be real concerns. When this is over, how long will it be before we are ready or willing to risk going out for a nice meal or a drink far less the cinema or theatre? When football, for example, is allowed to play again will the fans be willing to take the chance of sitting next to total strangers be it in the grounds or as you travel to and from the game? Will the ritual pint before or after the game still hold the same attraction?

We will lose thousands of businesses large and small. Particularly in the service sectors which makes up a huge part of not only Scotland’s economy but the global economy. It’s hard to stay afloat in that sector if your customers are losing their livelihoods. Pubs for example, keep not only the brewers going but all the folk who supply them with ingredients, transport, catering, accountancy, advertising, cleaning as well as you and I with a well-earned glass of orange juice etc.

For the travel industry, I fear greatly. Once the all clear has been given will you be willing to get on that aluminium tube with 3 or 4 hundred others and travel to countries like Spain, Italy or the US with the infection rates they’ve suffered? Will you still fancy that all-inclusive fortnight where total strangers are using the same facilities and utensils? And that concern will be just the same across the world. Why would healthy tourists want to come to the country with the highest death rate in Europe?

Not to mention the small matter of how many jobs will be lost in the aftermath. Not just in the businesses which never reopen but in those who do but find that they cannot survive either because they cannot re-employ the staff or because their customers are no longer able or willing to spend

There is a major re-alignment of the entire economy coming and it’s frightening that although people see it coming everyone seems to imagine that it will not hit them.

We are all agreed that there will be a major shake up in everything we do once we get past this damn virus. But how many people – be they business owners or workers – are trying to imagine what the new models might look like?