It’s now the 28th of April 2020 and in the UK we have been under ‘lockdown’ since the 23rd March. Let me tell you, a lot has changed since then. Some of it is good and some of it not so much.
One month into our national state of social exclusion, social distancing or running the gauntlet as a ‘key worker’ and many are wondering when we might ever ‘get back to normal’. I, for one, doubt that we will return to our previous normality for quite a while - frankly, if ever. That, for some, might be a relief. For others there will be a great deal of mourning for what once was. So, from this perspective I decided to give an account of what the coronavirus pandemic means from both sides of the fence. You may need to excuse some flourishes of rather sardonic humour - I have been ‘locked down’ now for the best part of 6 weeks after all.
Depending on where you live life is better for some than others and that is a fact. The rules state that you may exercise outside for an hour each day - ensuring that you keep 2 metres apart from others (your family group excepted). Well, let’s face it exercising outside for an hour a day sounds like a concession you might get in another locality, errr which locality? Oh yes, one where you are detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. Prison in other words. As citizens we accept what we must do, but this rule is fine for some, far less fine for others. Let me paint a picture and you’ll see that far more is expected of some parts of society than others. I live in rural Oxfordshire in a village with probably less than 100 houses. I have a garden of about 1/2 acre and as soon as I step outside my front door I am surrounded by marvellous countryside. My one hour of exercise could take me anywhere, there’s plenty of choice. Cut screen to, say, residents of Bethnal Green in the East End where life’s focal point could be a 1950’s tower block on an impoverished estate and you will see that my one hour of exercise is very different to theirs. This is just a simple example to set into sharp relief the fact that the effects of coronavirus on life are far from equal.
The coronavirus has, if nothing else, focused our minds. Yes, it has been appalling, catastrophic and will prove to have had a lasting impact far worse than we could have ever imagined, but even coronavirus, like any cloud, will show that there is a silver lining. Caveat Emptor: I happen to believe that it is an unmitigated tragedy that it has taken a global pandemic, in which so many have died, in order for some of us to realise what matters. Some of what follows may sting. I don’t think I’m going to apologise.
Let’s go for a hefty punch in the guts first and talk about our sense of appreciation for each other. I’m not sure why it took coronavirus to make us truly appreciate the efforts of those who work in the NHS saving our lives. We should be grateful to them - period. Equally, I’m not sure why we needed coronavirus to engender us with ‘community spirit’. What was wrong with us all before coronavirus? - what made us less community minded? This new found sense of caring and congeniality leaves me mildly sceptical - and I don’t want to be - but I do wonder how long it will remain when all of this is over. A long time I hope. If we are very lucky we might move from the era of ‘me’ to a future of ‘us’. I do wonder how many times mankind needs a swift kick in the pants before it decides to wake up. So at least for the moment, coronavirus appears to be making us all a bit nicer to one another. But, it’s making us all a bit more intolerant too. God forbid you come within 2 metres of some people in a supermarket, god forbid you are China at the receiving end of a Missouri state lawsuit, god forbid you have just taken a job in a remote rural community and people think you are decamping from the city to your second home.
And then there are the peculiarities, the freak show stories that you could never have imagined in a million years. I’ve been mentally logging them as I come across them in the papers, here are a few, because one day we won’t believe them if someone tell us they actually happened. They go from the sublime to the utterly ridiculous: crude oil was last this cheap in 1870 and new markets are springing up as oil storage operators are cashing in; this week Euronav has been charging £202,000 a day to store oil in a large crude carrier; Burberrys, the fashion giant, briefly turned its attention to making PPE; a 99 year old army Captain, raised >£29M, £1M more the 2020 total raised by the longest running nationwide charity event, Comic Relief; nostalgia has kicked in as sales of Hornby model aircraft kits have gone through the roof as people try to re-live happier times; the permanently sick retail sector is now on life-support, whilst Amazon shares hit an all time high: Jeff Bezos’ wealth increased by £5.2Bn on one day alone in April; a formula 1 consortium has successfully produced a form of ventilator whilst vacuum manufacturer Dyson attempted but did not get approval and owners of mansions whose staff are now socially isolating at homes have been on online courses learning how to make beds and hoover.
Then, of course, there is the impact on business - some of which I touch on above. It is not perhaps widely known that 99.9% of the 5.9M businesses in the UK employ less than 250 people and 95% employ less than 10. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, which has created catastrophic cash flow issues, 50,000 SMEs go bust every year due to late payments (credit: Merchant Savvy, 2019 UK SME report). From this perspective nothing has hammered home more brutally the mantra - ‘cash is king, revenue is vanity, profit is sanity’ - than the mothballing of UK business. The difficulty of accessing the government’s rescue funding has meant that if support for Q2 rents is not freed up, we may awake from the pandemic to see a dystopian world where our favourite family run businesses simply are no more. There are of course many examples of how small businesses are innovating out of sheer necessity (See our story: Necessity. The Mother of Invention), some examples are shown on our Instagram post.
There have been some fascinating, almost unforeseen consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, again representing some of the more positive aspects. Take for example travel. We are a nation of commuters, in love with our cars. The restriction on population movement has seen car usage fall by up to 80% in Leeds and for the rest of country the decrease is around 60%. These levels have not been seen since the 1950’s and as a consequence air pollution caused by nitrogen dioxide has fallen markedly, potentially helping agriculture and reducing the effects of asthma. Still with a need to perhaps restock for milk and bread we are walking and cycling more and getting fitter, equally though, on the flipside many more vulnerable people are turning to alcohol, tobacco and drugs as coping mechanisms.
So, there you have it, some of the good and the bad consequences. You will have to make your own mind up on whether coronavirus changes society and business for the better.
Did you notice how much more the birds seem to be singing?