Leader of the SNP and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is under mounting pressure to announce an end to Glasgow lockdown after leading experts suggested the city could be moved into a lower level of restrictions to allow businesses some support.
The First Minister is once again set to confirm on Friday afternoon whether Glasgow can join the rest of mainland Scotland in Level 2 restrictions, businesses have expresses serious concerns about the ‘last-minute announcements’ that are costing them thousands in wasted stock and booking cancellations.
Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city is currently the only place in Great Britain where residents can’t visit each other inside their homes and hospitality businesses can’t serve alcohol indoors.
“If you’re balancing different harms and you want to take into account all the range of harms, to support businesses in Glasgow you would move them into Level 2,” said Prof Linda Bauld, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh.
“The issue is how cautious does the government want to be on the public health policy front,” she told The Daily Telegraph, adding that “the first line of defence should not be lockdowns” but rather “vaccinations, surge testing and tailored support for self-isolation”.
The news comes as many businesses have been stressing the importance of trade over the “essential” bank holiday weekend.
“We’ve got the bank holiday which will bring income, income is exactly what this industry needs so rather than leaving it to the last minute, tell us in advance either way because at the moment we’re trying to second-guess the scenario and no one’s got a clue,” said Colin Clydesdale, co-owner of major establishments including Ubiquitous Chip, Stravaigin and Hanoi Bike Shop.
“No other business has been treated like this and it’s not just a business – there are tens of thousands of jobs in Glasgow alone and that’s just in the establishments… there’s fishermen that aren’t landing catches because Glasgow’s not buying it at the moment,” he said, adding that another last-minute announcement on a Friday is “not enough”.
The Scottish Conservatives have warned SNP ministers that they “can’t continue to leave businesses and individuals in the dark” and must “urgently give them some hope”.
“It was welcome earlier this week to hear Nicola Sturgeon recognise the vaccination rollout has been a game-changer. That means that we should be looking at hospital admissions and deaths more closely rather than simply looking at case numbers when imposing restrictions,” said shadow health secretary Annie Wells.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We’ve been clear since the beginning of the pandemic that we will continue to follow scientific advice, keep plans under review and accelerate the lifting of restrictions when possible.
“We understand the difficult situation faced by local businesses as a result of Glasgow remaining in Level 3 and are doing all we can to mitigate against the impact of the continuing restrictions.
“We continue to closely monitor the situation and will look not just at the case numbers but also the data on hospital and ICU admissions before making a decision later this week.”
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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