I thought about using this space to document the good things arising from homeworking. It sadly seems likely however that there will be plenty more time to research that one further first.
So I will look instead at some “useful” suggestions for things that could change while we are locked down due to Covid-19. I’ve mentioned some of these before but feel a new sense of purpose, having now been locked up for four or five weeks.
You can decide whether I am serious or have lost my mind.
So first off, back to my first ever column in September 2018 which covered why we should change how we measure our economic wellbeing.
Now seems like a great time to take action. We should plan now to make a change from January. As part of that change we can include measures around job security, poverty and a freedom of movement measurement, ie are we allowed to leave home?
I suspect these are things that will feel relatively more important to people now than ever before. They would give a better assessment of wellbeing than GDP. After all, whether the economy declines by 15% or 30% matters little to someone with no job who can’t find a new role, or indeed someone with a job who is unhappy at home.
The February 2020 column focused on Brexit. Mr Farage must surely see his opportunity to close the whole process out now. Joe Public will never notice if it was done now, there is limited movement of people between countries anyway.
Furthermore, prices will soon become more volatile as availability of goods changes. So blame all of that and any Brexit impacts on Covid-19 and we can get Brexit on the sly.
On these first two ideas the beauty of my plan is that politicians can crack on in the knowledge that minds are elsewhere and there is almost no way of proving what would have happened if they hadn’t done it anyway.
I’m on a roll now, in August 19 I wrote about our Golden Mile, Union Street. Now what better time to do some socially distanced digging up than now?
No one is on the street and nightlife activity looks unlikely for a while. So we could pick up the phone and ask for £50 million to reshape the area with the small woodland area I proposed as well as larger new public spaces to help socially distanced dwelling. Job done.
While we are at it we would be as well getting the roads sorted around the city centre too. Granted this is a pretty big job, so to create the fix quickly build a few Trump-style walls or go for old-school traffic cones and block roads off. Not that I’ve been in the city for a month but I hear it’s quiet and so with no traffic this can all get done easily.
When people return they will have forgotten what it used to be like and everything will feel exciting and new.
Another thing we could change is business rates. There are now so many exceptions and workarounds, why not change now? It may be that the way our economy operates has changed forever and I’d suggest old-school mail order/deliveries are about to grow.
Therefore, the time may be right to look at simple sales or other taxes instead of property taxes which bear little relationship to the performance of a company, particularly when we are forced to work from home.
In January last year I suggested that we should be thinking hard about the role of communities, which I felt were about to become more important in the context of global change, localisation and a lack of leadership.
This next issue is not something I have a quick or single fix for but there is a space for something positive to happen.
I have written about how football has an all-consuming impact on my life and that is because it gives me a sense of belonging. That sense of tribalism and group structure is what has helped the sport endure across decades. It feels like there is space for people to get behind a cause in the same way as demonstrated with community support of the NHS.
This all sounds a bit “flower power” probably, but without going into lots of historic examples there is going to be a void that needs to be filled. It is best that it is filled with something positive, full of hope, joy and purpose.
Perhaps this is where politicians can try to think differently and harness this opportunity and build on the sense of community and togetherness. If we do not the alternatives might be worse.
Lots of good ideas I am sure you agree … or maybe just too much time to think.