Anyone flouting coronavirus lockdown should get a special community service sentence – Christine Grahame MSP

Selfish people who hit the beach over the Easter holidays despite the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic should face tougher penalties, like community service making deliveries to those who can’t go out, writes Christine Grahame MSP.

If you are planning a jaunt to Porty beach, think again (Picture: Mark Scates/SNS Group)

Strange times indeed. I think back to a few short weeks ago when, like you, I watched the coronavirus spread through China and then Italy and I’ll be honest, it didn’t really dawn on me that we were on the same path.

In all my 70-plus years I have never known anything like this. In my childhood we had whole streets where children fell foul of measles (nasty in itself), chickenpox and even polio was not unknown and mother’s warnings were not always heeded.

In my childhood I caught just about everything going – measles, chickenpox, German measles, tonsilitis and even pleurisy, and in adulthood, like you, colds and even pretty nasty bouts of flu – but this?

Christine Grahame is the SNP MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale

I think at the beginning there was a false sense in some folks that if you were not in the vulnerable groups, at worst, you might get just mild symptoms (whatever those are) and, yes, if you are like me, being over 70, the risk of it being pretty bad is higher.

However, not only seeing what is happening to Boris Johnson (and I wish him, as I do others, a speedy recovery) but to young, fit people, I think has been a harsh dose of reality for some folks who thought it was business as usual.

And there are all those good people on the front line – carers, medics, police, posties, at checkouts and in delivery vans, who let us get by in our lockdown homes by putting themselves at risk every day, some paying for it with their lives.

Learn the value of selflessness

If there is anyone now who thinks that with this beautiful spring weather they can take a wee drive to Silverknowes (though I know parking has been of necessity restricted) or a jaunt to Porty beach, then they should have another think coming.

Frankly, I don’t think the penalties are strict enough. So many of us are trying to do the right thing for ­ourselves, our families and our friends but most importantly for strangers we will never know. For those who abuse the restrictions, not only should there be fines, but if it were up to me I’d divvy out community service – doing deliveries to folk who can’t make it out for whatever reason.

If they will be selfish, I’d make them learn the value of selflessness, to meet folk who are really having a hard time.

Deadly serious

By the way, as an MSP, each day me and my staff, working from home – and I suspect it’ll be the same for colleagues – have enquiries from constituents losing jobs, losing contact with children, being unable to access online shopping, stuck at home with children with severe autism, with limited mobility and incarcerated in flats.

Now, I don’t recall the wartime spirit which is being evoked – that was my parents’ generation – so I don’t now how much that rings out a message today (yes, I know I’m in my 70s but that was the Beatles/Elvis/ miniskirt generation). What surely now has got through to us all is this is deadly serious. Not one of us can claim immunity from this virus or our responsibility to our communities, our country and indeed the wider world.

So while the sun shines and the garden begins to blossom bear this in mind, coronavirus is not on holiday. Please stay safe.

Christine Grahame is the SNP MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.