Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

Goodbye and good riddance 2020.

As the new year begins we can reflect on the tumultuous events that none of us could have predicted 365 long days ago. Covid-19 has become an ever-present spectre in our national life, threatening our health, grievously damaging our economy and sharpening the grindstone of everyday living.

From the collectivist blitz spirit of spring when we all agreed to “Stay at home. Save lives. Protect the NHS,” through a summer of cancelled exams and educational turmoil for our young people, to a late autumn second national lockdown and into a winter of new, more transmissible variants, remembering the “before times” brings to mind the universal human luxuries of social and physical contact, the democratic luxuries of liberty and freedom of movement and the relative financial luxuries (for some but by no means all) of economic stability.

There have been bright spots of course. The way the nation rallied publicly in support of healthcare and other front-line workers; clapping from our doorsteps as one, draped in the colours of the rainbow. Captain, (now, deservedly, Sir) Tom Moore’s valiant one hundred lap trek around his back garden on his walker to raise over £30m for the NHS. Myriad examples of local and voluntary support groups organising to ferry food and kindness to the isolated and alone. This was and is truly the best of British.

Our behaviour hasn’t been flawless. Injunctions against gathering and socialising were increasingly ignored as compliance fatigue set in.  This was perhaps understandable for reasons valid, for example choosing to prioritise our mental health and, for reasons less so, as a reaction to the ever-changing government-imposed restrictions, broken promises (the five-day Christmas being just the latest example), confused guidance and mixed messaging.

Fundamental trust in the Conservative government’s actions and motives has been damaged too. From the scandal of eye-wateringly large contracts awarded, without due process, or even prior qualification, to the Chumocracy to supply flawed PPE; to its tone deaf refusal to provide free school meals for children who needed them; to the latest example, a national NHS Test & Trace programme (actually run by Public Health England) based initially on the idea that a single technology, developed at the centre, could meet the hugely diverse character and needs of the British population; one worries that our government, just over a year into its term, is in office but not in power.

And they are spending staggering sums of our money in the process; over £10bn was spent on PPE; Test & Trace, the latest failed attempt to build a national technology system, has so far cost the taxpayer £22bn, yes, that’s £22 BILLION!. Only when council leaders reacted with fury at the Test & Trace system’s unfolding and predictable inefficacies did the project pivot to work with and exploit the knowledge and existing networks of local authorities.

Scratching the surface reveals that Serco, one of the private companies leading the effort, have themselves subcontracted twenty other private businesses to help deliver the work. It has been a fiasco and a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money. Come the revolution heads should roll but it is nonetheless rumoured that Dido Harding, the head of Test & Trace, will be rewarded with the position of NHS England Chief Executive on Sir Simon Stevens’s impending retirement. I kid you not.

My hope is that, if anything, the events of the past year will cause us to look again at the type of country we want to build. One in which the public good becomes paramount, one in which health and wellbeing (particularly for the less well to do) become the North Stars guiding politicians and policymakers in their actions, one in which we define anew what constitutes, in both conception and implementation, the affairs of state. If not a bigger state then a more activist state. A state that understands and acts on its obligations to care for its people first and one that recognises that capital does not, as we have seen yet again, a soul possess.

However, I suspect that with a Brexit deal now signed, whatever you think of it on the merits, the government will charge ahead with policies designed to stimulate business and trade. From free ports to enterprise zones, from tax incentives to fiscal stimulus, the government has to rebuild a battered economy. If it is to do so and return itself to our electoral (or at least opinion poll) affections, then it must demonstrate that it has “levelled up” the economy while delivering humane social improvements.

I wish you all a happier, more contented and above all healthy 2021.  With mass vaccinations now underway, I very much hope that will be the case, so that when spring comes around again, we will experience the rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection and regrowth that the season usually promises.

Let’s hope too that the bright, sunny, international trading uplands long promised by the Brexiteers comes to fruition and that the Conservative “levellers” spend the spoils on the areas and initiatives that need it most.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

As 2020 draws to a close, the Stray Ferret looks at the news stories that stood out among a year of extraordinary events. 

Today, we remember all the ways in which our district’s key workers were shown appreciation, beginning with the weekly Clap for Carers. 

As many of us stayed at home to avoid catching or spreading coronavirus, determined key workers continued to put themselves on the front line. Showing their appreciation, people across the Harrogate district took to their doorsteps each week to Clap for Carers – and they didn’t stop there. 

The Clap For Carers lasted for 10 weeks and, as well as individual households, saw the hospital and care homes become focal points for the community’s appreciation of key workers.  

One of the biggest campaigns to support the NHS in the Harrogate district was started by maths teacher Fran Taylor. 

At first planning to sew a couple of sets of scrubs for Harrogate District Hospital, Fran soon found herself coordinating hundreds of volunteers, thousands of metres of fabric – and donations running into thousands of pounds. 

Fran Taylor made use of her church hall to cut out thousands of metres of fabric for the volunteers

With a supporting team helping her to organise sending out patterns and fabric, collecting completed scrubs and delivering them to where they were most needed, Fran managed to deliver an astonishing 4,000 sets of scrubs – on top of looking after her two young children and teaching her St John Fisher students remotely. 

They were sent to staff across the hospital who would not normally wear scrubs but needed clothing that was easy to wash as soon as they got home from a shift. Requests from other NHS and care providers also came in, and were fulfilled by the dedicated team. 

It wasn’t just scrubs that were in demand, however: in April, other vital PPE supplies were hard to access and appeals were put out by the hospital and North Yorkshire County Council.

Straight away, the community stepped up to help. Among them was the technology department at Harrogate Grammar School, which turned its talents to rolling out visors for key workers. Ashville College was also creating visors and scrubs after donating 200 pairs of goggles from its technology cupboards.  

Dancing in the street

Meanwhile, local residents showed their support from home with displays of bright rainbows in their windows. 

And the community spirit didn’t stop there.  

For three months from late March, the country was placed under national lockdown, with residents largely confined to their homes and their movements restricted.  

That did not stop people in the Harrogate district from looking out for each other, though – including finding inventive ways to keep up spirits in the face of adversity. 

For residents in Harrogate’s Mount Gardens, music was lifting the spirits every week. Derry Jones, best known for playing the piano for diners at Bettys, took his accordion to the pavement as wife Jovita sang, and the neighbours were out and dancing. 

Just a few streets away, 22-year-old Lucy Crocker was using her musical talents to give a concert for her neighbours each Friday. 

Playing the viola, she took requests for songs as well as performing some classical tunes she already knew. Her efforts were appreciated by the rest of the residents of Mallinson Oval, who enjoyed getting outside to see each other and chat from a distance every week. 

Fitness classes were held on Spring Grove, Harrogate

And on Spring Grove, residents came outside daily to take part in Mel Milnes’ exercise classes. 

People across the Harrogate district formed groups with their neighbours to ensure nobody went without what they needed. Though keeping them apart physically, the pandemic brought communities together like nothing before.