South Kesteven District Council leader Ashley Baxter recalls first covid lockdown 5 years ago

Between 2016 and 2020 I often told my children that Brexit would be the defining historical event of their generation but along came a global pandemic to prove me wrong, writes South Kesteven District Council leader Ashley Baxter (Ind).

The first covid lockdown doesn’t seem so very long ago but it is already five years.

The strange thing about lockdown is that everyone was affected but everyone in a different way. Tragedy and pathos became far more common place yet in some ironic way the share experience of trepidation brought the world closer together.

Do you remember clapping for the carers and key workers? It certainly brought my street together while apart, and was a welcome cheerful distraction from the relentless news bulletins and almost daily covid briefings? Cheering for key workers is a covid legacy we should try to hold onto. The work of teachers, nurses, refuse collectors, shop workers and others is just as vital now as it was during the pandemic. Local authority staff were, of course, on the frontline of making sure communities held together.

Remember the hour of daily physical activity? I’m sure some people had never in their lives exercised with such focus and regularity. Five years on, as the NHS and local authorities try to deal with increasing endemic problems of obesity and fragile mental health, there never was a better time to encourage the nation to put trainers on and get out into the fresh air.

The lockdown also prompted some people to pick up a hobby, or improve their skills of baking, sewing and other DIY. Last year’s Booker prize winning novel, Orbital by Samantha Harvey, concerns six people confined in a small space, with only each other for company, showing wonder and concern for the fate of the planet and the human race. It’s no surprise that it was one of thousands of novels written during lockdown.

Another learning from covid was how to love people better at a distance. When we knew we couldn’t see our families and friends as regularly as we would like, many made the effort to set up regular zoom calls and phone calls, and when we did eventually see each other, it meant so much more. The international sense of emergency also prompted many to keep an eye on their neighbours, families and friends more than was usual.

Covid certainly was an exceptional event and one from which we learned a lot. Surely, nothing will beat it for global significance for a few decades? I hope no president of any country proves me wrong!