We can’t lose this community spirit – please keep clapping for our carers

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

I disagree with Annemarie Plas, who started the Clap for our Carers scheme in the UK. I congratulate her for starting the scheme, but feel it should carry on until the fight against Covid-19 has been won.

The scheme can only become “political” after this is over, the general public are wise enough to know if it became political. So please clap on, because it is a huge morale booster for our hospital staff, care home staff, ambulance staff, heroes all, and anyone else involved in this war against a merciless enemy, the virus.

The beautiful spinoff from the clapping campaign is that people who have lived side by side for years as strangers, now know their neighbours and are hopefully becoming real communities, for this we owe Annemarie a big vote of thanks.

To keep the community spirit going, we should have an annual street party for children, to celebrate the end of this fight against the virus. Again well done Annmarie.

John Fair
Castlebar

Divorced from reality

Yet another example of how much parliament is divorced from reality when, on returning to Westminster they voted to cease remote voting introduced to deal with the disruption caused by Covid-19. The motion was the brainchild of Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Much has been said of how things might or indeed must change in the post-Covid world. How this is an opportunity to look afresh at how all our institutions function.

One might expect our parliamentarians to at least inch towards modernity. But no, our legislators, ignoring equality laws, passed by them, voted for the status quo. It begs the question, did any of those who voted in favour actually think what they were doing or were they simply being whipped?

Graham Barlow
Wirral

Why is it more important for MPs to be physically present in parliament for a vote than for them to sit through the preceding debate to decide how to vote?

Richard Parry
Appleby

The photo of the queue of MPs stretching across the parliamentary estate – comprising the House of Commons and the House of Lords – graphically illustrates what’s been happening in the ministerial coronavirus briefings that’ll now cease at weekends.

That is, of politicians going all around the houses.

Roger Hinds
Surrey

Micro management

The coronavirus pandemic has put extraordinary demands on the 5.6 million micro-businesses in the UK. They are vital to our economy, and we are now seeing how resilient and innovative entrepreneurs can be, in order to get through these challenging times.

We recently surveyed micro-businesses and found that one in five have moved their business online for the first time during this outbreak – which is nothing short of a second digital revolution.

They have found new ways to utilise social media too, and have changed the products and services they offer, often overnight. We know that consumers have changed as well, with 63 per cent of consumers surveyed saying they have been shopping at small and local micro-businesses during the outbreak.

Even as the country slowly begins to reopen, many of the businesses who have made radical changes to their services and products will keep them in place as lockdown eases. They’ve seen the benefits of their changes, as have their customers.

For instance, GoDaddy customer Knoops are artisan chocolate drink makers in Clapham Junction [southwest London]. During the lockdown they adapted by creating new products and deliveries so people can enjoy their drinks from their own home.

Micro-businesses need support and recognition, so they can innovate their way through these challenging times and help the country on its way to economic recovery.

Irana Wasti
President of GoDaddy Europe and Middle East

Boris’s sorry saga

The cynicism of Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings is breathtaking. In response to a public outpouring of rage that Cummings arrogantly ignored the lockdown rules, what we got was a bizarre set of excuses from him. This was followed by Johnson giving his unqualified support for a man he claims acted legally and with integrity, despite the fact that around the country, lesser mortals have been fined by the police for similar actions.

Their shameful behaviour has, of course, succeeded. By sleight of hand, they have shifted the national narrative back onto the public and accusations that people are recklessly hurrying off to beaches, parks and beauty spots, ignoring social distancing in order to have a good time, thus shaming a public who have clearly been given a message that the bad times are almost over.

We still have four-and-a-half years of this government and probably this prime minister, and after the likely horror of a no-deal Brexit in that time, who will remember this sorry saga? Cynical and shameless and no doubt an indication of how they will deal with all future self-inflicted crises.

Kate Hall
Leeds