Past, Present & Post Lockdown

I strongly believe that the UK should have followed the New Zealand model to this pandemic, we are both Island Nations and could have kept Covid-19 out of our country. This is not just hindsight for decades we have kept plant and animal diseases out of the country by being proactive, we should do this with human diseases too this will save lives.

Please keep providing us with the best data we have available and if it's not good enough then improve the data gathering systems. Continue with the current hyper-cautious approach of only making a change when it can be demonstrated that it is safe to do so and protect us from those who would take the easy/selfish decisions risking more deaths and setting us back months in our fight against this pernicious virus. The majority of Scots have confidence that our government is doing the right thing and I know from speaking to relatives South of the Border that many in other parts of the UK wish Nicola was the PM.

Finally, it is becoming increasingly obvious that we cannot afford to go back to exactly as we were before. Our environment is much improved, wildlife is flourishing, we are exercising more, people are actively travelling much more than ever before, even in our cities the air is clean and we are seeing a brighter blue sky. Socially our communities have rediscovered what it means to look out for each other, we have learned just how valuable our keyworkers are, the real value of our food and we have seen how much easier it would have been to protect all the people in our country had we only had a Universal Basic Income (UBI). Many more people can work from home than anyone ever thought possible, we really don't need businesspeople jumping on planes every other day to conduct business overseas. People (like me) would happily move over to electric vehicles but the cost is prohibitive. Post lockdown we have to try to keep as many of these benefits as we possibly can, some of these will be simple others may take time but all are doable. If we don't have the powers to do these things we need to get them.
All public key workers should be paid what they are worth as soon as possible, key workers not working for the government need to see the introduction of a Keyworker minimum wage, with a UBI, workers both employed and self-employed will be protected from any future crisis of any sort. Employers need to incentified to enable people to work from home more often, we need to transition to electric vehicles much quicker than currently proposed 2030 at the absolute latest, we can achieve this with a twin-pronged approach; 1st incentivise businesses to buy electric fleet cars, 2nd give domestic buyers a go echo-grant. Increase the tax payable on International business flights or the number of flights an individual can make prior to financial penalties.

Learning from the actions of the best nations around the world, not just with Covid-19 but also with other positive policies. Protecting us from disease, saving lives and some of the selfish people in our society that just want to do their own thing no matter the cost to the rest of the country.
Society has changed for the better as a result of the Covid-19 crisis and we need to incentivise people to keep the positives which have come out of the crisis. We have learned the real value of keyworkers and it's time we paid them what they are worth. We can move more quickly to a carbon-free society protecting our environment. Creating a fairer society, lifting people out of poverty, improving both the physical and mental health of the population. Scotland can have a great future if we step up and claim it.