All MPs find themselves in pretty much the same situation at the moment. Meetings and events with people at parliament ceased a couple of weeks ago and we were advised to avoid public engagements. The parliamentary estate became a pretty eerie place last week; MPs were there but all in their individual offices, and so when you walked from one place to another you did so through largely empty spaces. No-one was allowed to be in the House of Commons unless they were listed to speak. I am still conducting my surgery appointments, but by phone, rather than in person. And the high volume of email that we usually get on a whole multitude of subjects is just as high but now almost entirely on COVID-19, whether questions about the help that is available for employers, the dos and donts of the current advice to stay indoors or from constituents who have been on holiday abroad and now need our help to get home.
It is completely understandable that COVID-19 has taken over in this way. But rather than talk more about the nature of the virus and the actions we have to take – which you are hearing 24/7 on the news – I wanted to highlight 2 things which I hope are of interest at this time.
The first is the huge community response that has taken place. Visit https://www.oxfordshireallin.org/ and you will find lots of groups across the constituency that have sprung up to support their neighbours. Sometimes these have been set up by people like Gareth Clarke, Chair of the Residents Association at Great Western Park. At other times they work in partnership with charities, as is happening in Wantage with the Ray Collins Charitable Trust. One is being run by Sofea (pictured above), using its established Community Larder programme. The Community Larder already provided a weekly grocery supply to 700 individuals and families, feeding up to 2000 people in Oxfordshire, as part of a membership which also provides additional support and discounts on things like utility bills. They’ve now repurposed their efforts to support those self-isolating as a result of COVID-19. These initiatives all need people who can make calls, make visits, drive, help package up supplies and, of course, donate. Please help if you can – within the current guidance.
The second thing I wanted to highlight is Open University’s free to use learning platform, OpenLearn. It has over 15,000 hours of online courses to help people improve their knowledge and skills. Given so many of us are spending a lot more time at home, it’s one of the tools that might help us keep mentally active when we are unable to be as physically active as we’d like.
