How businesses have shown more of a moral compass than the Government during Covid - Ismail Mulla

Then there are the revelations that the Government had been flouting its own rules all the while people and businesses have been making sacrifices.

The sacrifices that people have made should be the story of the year. Those are the ones that should be honoured.

While Downing Street was hosting parties, I was listening to stories of teachers trudging through the snow to deliver hot meals to families with children on free school meals.

Meals that had been cooked by people like Ben Franco, owner of The Barn restaurant in Almondbury, and publican David Stanley.

North Yorkshire-based manufacturing firm Ellis Patents returned the £130,000 of furlough it had received.

The business saw it as a “social obligation” to return the money given that it had ended the year in profit.

In May, when the Delta variant was tearing through India, Sharon Jandu, director at Yorkshire Asian Business Association (YABA), rallied businesses to help with the supply of oxygen cylinders and other vital medical provisions.

Then there are business owners like Katrina Cliffe, who have been quietly absorbing the impacts of Covid on their business for the good of their staff.

The managing director of Huddersfield-based Wild PR opened up about the challenges of having a key member of her team off work with long Covid.

Yet her overriding concern was to do the right thing by her employees.

Recently, vehicle leasing firm Zenith cancelled its Christmas party and instead chose to raise funds for charity.

Put simply, business owners have shown more of a moral compass than those at the heart of Government.

However, we seem to live in a society where tackling inequality, doing your bit in the midst of one of the gravest public health crises in modern history and feeding hungry children is looked down on.

It’s funny seeing politicians throw around the word ‘woke’ as if it’s a pejorative. An adjective that is defined as being alert to injustice.

Businesses that do their bit are dismissed as ‘woke’. Journalists who ask questions about injustices are branded as ‘woke’. People who want to tackle inequalities in society… you get the picture.

What is actually wrong with being alert to injustices?

What is wrong with ensuring that schoolchildren don’t go hungry?

Frankly, I’d bin the term altogether but it is instructive as to the people who use it as a pejorative.

We can thank our lucky stars that many businesses are not only recognising but embracing social obligations. All the while, Boris Johnson and those in his inner sanctum renege on theirs.

Now images have emerged of more revelries at Downing Street. This time from May 2020, when us mere mortals couldn’t even see loved ones during the first lockdown.

Downing Street seems to have held more parties under lockdown than any student accommodation during a regular pre-Covid Freshers’ week.

Number 10 insists this was a “work meeting”. Perhaps the PM and his Chancellor can hold a work meeting right now to help stricken hospitality businesses, who once again are on their knees, partly down to a lack of planning by this Government.

I’d suggest putting away the wine and cheese for any such meeting.

Maybe the reason why the Prime Minister is insistent on forcing everyone back into offices is because he’s concerned that people are not working but nibbling on cheese instead.

But rather than just dwell on rule-breaking by lawmakers, I wanted to tip my hat to the small firms, in particular, who have put doing the right thing at the soul of their business.

Even if that means sacrificing short-term gain.

The Government can certainly learn a lesson or two from our SMEs.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson