One small step at a time is how we are going to get out of lockdown.
Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement that groups of four can meet outdoors from Friday may well save Mother’s Day although Easter becoming the new Christmas is still not a certainty.
The slow process may quicken the impatience of many people for more liberty.
But the figures do not lie.
The virus is still out there and it is still killing people.
Despite the march of the vaccines there is still significant danger
Chris Whitty, the UK government’s trusted medical adviser, issued a grim warning yesterday that another 30,000 covid deaths could come in the next year with modelling showing another autumn or winter surge in infections.
All of that makes the basic rules of surviving this pandemic all the more important. That’s why incidents such as the celebrations in George Square by Rangers fans are all the more disappointing.
Our everyday lives will gradually improve inch by inch and step by step if the current trend continues
There has to be significant gaps in the easing of lockdown to measure the effect of the previous step, that much is obvious.
That is why dates for opening hairdressers, gyms and stadiums have to be indicative rather than definitive.
There is light at the end of the tunnel but we have to step towards it carefully.
Carers crisis
Union leaders had warned there was a recruitment crisis in the social care sector long before the pandemic struck.
Staff regularly complained about long hours, poor pay, and dismal conditions.
Despite such challenging conditions, social care workers are among those most deserving of recognition for their work during the pandemic.
Those working in care homes were at serious risk of contracting covid in the early days of the public health emergency as PPE supplies were lacking and the sector struggled to respond.
Scottish Labour has called for social care staff to be given an immediate pay uplift worth £12 an hour – but it was last night rejected by the Finance Secretary as too costly.
There is much in the Scottish Government’s Budget that is worth praise.
But ministers should now find a way of ensuring social care workers receive a decent wage in recognition of their hard work.
