Covid restrictions leave business owners struggling to survive but it appears that they are just being told to suck it up

Well I would suggest they try to tell this to the many business owners and their staff who once again have been forced to shut or hugely restrict their business as they struggle to even survive as things are.

What evidence or data have these businesses been shown to justify their closure? What plan have they been presented with to show what route we are on and Stormont’s long term plan in actually dealing with this virus?

These business owners it appears are just being told to “suck it up” and do as they are told, as if they are children who have no right to ask the big adult questions. Well I think they deserve more respect and at least some answers, after already doing everything asked of them and more to keep their business, staff and the public safe.

How have we even got into the situation in Northern Ireland where we have some of the highest cases in the world?

Our politicians seem intent on blaming the public. Apparently we were the ones who fell out with each other and stopped communicating with the public? We are the ones who attended large scale funerals when everyone else was unable to? We are the ones incapable of protecting care homes and hospitals to stop the virus getting into them? We are the ones who told students to travel from all over the country to return to uni?

We are the ones who stood only three weeks ago saying all these sectors now closed were the safest and it was our houses mixing that was the issue?

We are the ones who diverted from the basic life saving advice and instead kept changing the rules and advice, confusing everyone? Yes folks, it is our fault indeed ...

Protecting the most vulnerable in our communities is the most basic responsibility of any government or administration, but the vulnerable come in all shapes and sizes.

Those vulnerable to this dreadful virus needed protected from it, but what about those vulnerable to the impacts of these extreme and unexplained restrictions?

Are they seen as collateral damage as the politicians and media obsess over a virus they have failed to handle?

Gary Hynds, Conservative, Lisburn

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