Lockdown: Increased traffic a sign people are ignoring the rules – Christine Grahame

We must remember that NHS staff and others in frontline jobs are becoming sick and some are dying from Covid-19, so we must continue to abide by lockdown’s restrictions, writes Christine Grahame MSP.

We can help NHS staff stay safe by sticking to the lockdown's rules

I was trying to work out how long I have been socially distancing (I am over 70) and, as I have been keeping a daily Covid diary, I think it has been since 19 March.

But I am lucky as I have my daily work and have those virtual meetings with staff twice daily: morning to discuss cases and afternoon to check over the day’s work.

Early cases were mostly to do with accessing supermarkets online and scares during the toilet roll stampede. Now it’s mainly businesses needing financial support, accessing dentists, asking if you can flit and so on.

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

The key for me is to keep a routine in the days that stretch out. Housework I keep for the weekends as I do gardening. The windows have never been so sparkling and this coming weekend is the Big Dusting.

Having a garden especially, small though it is, has been a saviour. I can sit outside and just observe. Neighbours nearby have a regular badminton match over their fence.

In one of the tenements, a chap has lowered a ladder on to a flat roof and sits there when the sun is hot enough. In the other tenement block, a large gazebo has appeared on the drying green where two young women danced under its protection accompanied by a stream of bubbles.

I have sown lots of seeds and shared them with my young neighbour over the fence and will have many spare runner bean and lettuce seedlings to share soon. But there are far too many folk for whom there is no personal outdoor space and that must be miserable in this spring weather. Living alone too can be tough but for some ironically it makes life indoors easier. There are folks stuck with unhappy relationships, fractious children, resentful teenagers, little money coming in.

At least I just have to cope with Mr Smokey (rescue cat). He is in feline heaven having me around all day. I miss people contact of course: the grandchildren, my extended family and colleagues.

Yet I know we have to just bite the bullet and keep going with these restrictions for some weeks. But there is no denying the huge increase in road traffic from the days when you could almost walk down the centre of the main road.

This is not a good sign. It lacks consideration for the medics, the care workers, the van drivers, the posties, the checkout folk, the volunteers and many more keeping us with some sense of ordinary in extraordinary times. People in these front-line jobs are becoming sick and some dying while the few ignore the rules.

And we have a new vocabulary: coronavirus, social distancing and isolation, lockdown, shielding, the R figure. Face masks and coverings are the new normal.

Yes, there are big questions which need answering. When we saw what was happening in Wuhan Province in December 2019 did we think we in the West were immune? I certainly did not foresee this for us. Did governments act too slowly and if they did could we have avoided lockdown? Could it have been shorter? Why are there so many deaths in the UK? Could care homes have been better protected? Questions not for today or tomorrow but which will need answers, some of which governments may not like. Stay safe. Stay home.

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

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