The government’s emergency support package totally overlooks factories like mine – how are we supposed to survive?

Send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

I am writing to you today to try and get our voices heard during this Covid-19 pandemic.

We are a small family-run business that has been trading for over 35 years. Our business is supplying the entertainment industry; we supply printed garments and merchandise for large music festivals, theatres, tours and sporting events. With all of these events being cancelled, it has left us with no orders or jobs at all.

Boris Johnson stated on Thursday that the government would do “whatever it takes” to support jobs, income and businesses. It has announced many support packages for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, however, we do not fall into any of these categories even though we support and supply these sectors. We are classed as a factory and workshop premises and we are being offered NO support.

We have not been given rates holidays or grants that the other industries have been given.

We have contacted the local council and our local MP, we have spoken to the government helpline and all we are being told is to wait and see. We cannot wait. We have employees to support, wages to pay, rent to pay, insurance to pay, rates to pay – but no work coming in to support this.

We have offered whatever support we can to the government; we have sent emails, made phone calls and offered warehouse space, people power, anything to keep our business afloat and to keep our staff in work and job security.

We will not be the only people in this desperate situation, and we want our voices to be heard. We do not want to collapse, we want to survive this!

When will the support come to the factories and workshops that have been overlooked in the economic support packages?

We are the core industries that provide products and services, and yet we are being forgotten. We hope that we can be the voice for others in the same situation as us. We will get through this if we stand together!

Amy Potts (office manager at Atwork Clothing Ltd)
Leicester

Universal basic income is not the answer

Universal basic income (UBI) was always a snake-oil policy but suggesting that it is a sensible response to the Covid-19 crisis is, in my opinion, frankly crazy.

The problem that needs to be solved is maintaining people’s incomes if they cannot work because of illness or temporary redundancy. People, as best they can, adjust their outgoings to their incomes. UBI is a one-size-fits-all payment. The correct response is for the government to underwrite payrolls for the duration of the emergency. If that were done there would be no need for rent or mortgage holidays for workers or income tax/national insurance exemptions for employers.

Carol Wilcox
Christchurch, Dorset

Stockpilers should be reprimanded

Perhaps it is now time for our government to stamp very hard on those who are buying up all they can to strip the shops of comestibles. I have tried to find a suitable word to describe such selfish humans and it seems that the English language does not have any such word. If it does, it can only be one which publications are reluctant to print.

If it were up to me, any such person, on summary conviction, must face a minimum fine of £1,000 plus court and prosecution costs; a subscription to charitable help services commensurate with the magnitude of their sin, and confiscation of their hoard for distribution to the needy. Anyone found to be black-marketeering should be given a non-negotiable prison sentence, say a minimum of five years.

This would not stop the activity but it might slow it down, and, if the perpetrators are publicly identified, they might feel a little contrition for they are not deserving of pity.

David Loxley
Pickering, North Yorkshire

Words, not deeds for Windrush

Although surprised by the contrition, I do sincerely welcome the apology from Priti Patel over the appalling treatment metered out to some people of the Windrush generation.

Trying my hardest not to be cynical, I must add that only time will tell if we see genuine change at the Home Office with regard to all immigrants and asylum seekers.

Anyway, now that we have a precedent, I must ask one question: when can we expect similar apologies from Theresa May over the hobbling of our police force and Chris Grayling over the destruction of the probation service?

Or will they be apologies too far?

Robert Boston
Kingshill, Kent

The long-awaited independent Windrush Lessons Learned review into the Windrush scandal has finally appeared. Wendy Williams, the author of the report, declared at its launch that “the Windrush generation has been poorly served by this country, a country to which they contributed so much and in which they had every right to make their lives. The many stories of injustice and hardships are heartbreaking, with jobs lost, lives uprooted and untold damage done to so many individuals and families.”

Williams insists the Windrush scandal was “foreseeable and avoidable” and that those targeted by it were the victims of “systematic operational failings” by the Home Office, which acted with “ignorance and thoughtlessness” and whose motives were “consistent with elements of the definition of institutional racism.”

Priti Patel, the current Tory home secretary, is no less hostile towards immigration than Theresa May or Amber Rudd and has unveiled draconian anti-immigration policies designed to make good her promise to last year’s Tory conference that she would “end the freedom of movement of people once and for all”.

Under Patel, the Home Office resumed mass deportations earlier this year in circumstances which echo the injustices meted out to the Windrush generation. Only a last-minute judicial ruling prevented Patel from deporting 33 of the “Jamaica 50” in February.

Yet Patel has the gall to respond to the Windrush report by saying “on behalf of this and successive governments I am truly sorry”.

Patel’s apology to the Windrush generation is worthless given that the Tories remain committed to building their racist “hostile environment”.

As far as I’m concerned, the racism of the Windrush scandal remains at the heart of Tory politics.

Sasha Simic
London N16

A light at the end of the dark tunnel

Thanks to Hamish McRrae for his thoughtful piece about the longer-term impacts of the pandemic (“From productivity to entertainment, coronavirus will change our world more than we think”). However, I think he may have missed something very important. All over the country, informal groups of neighbours and volunteers are acting swiftly to support older people living alone, those forced to isolate themselves at home and parents who now find their children sent home from school.

Here in my village countless small acts of kindness and support are taking place, many of them recorded on newly created Facebook groups. Some of this activity will continue when the pandemic is over. As a result, our villages and urban communities will be better places to live where more people connect with their neighbours. People form new friendships across generations and look out for those who are lonely or need help. For me, this is just a little bright light at the end of the dark tunnel we are in right now.

Kevin Curley
Belper, Derbyshire