Coronavirus could easily have made us cynical, even unkind – but in recent weeks, the great British public has seen a resurgence in neighbourliness. In these times, many for whom life is already a struggle are facing unprecedented challenges. But as an MP, I’ve been heartened by how people and small groups are also pulling together to ease the pain within communities like mine. While social separation has heightened the power of a smile, wave or clap, many – including The Independent, with its Help the Hungry campaign – are stepping up to do more. Those stepping in are what Whitehall calls “civic society”, but the rest of us know them as family, friends and neighbours.
In my Aberconwy constituency, individuals and community groups were first in responding to restrictions on movement. They connected the people who could help with those who needed it, and at astonishing speed. A mother, friend, post-master, neighbour – these are not formal roles with set responsibilities; the straight lines of structure and state. They are citizen activists, part of a living local network, a natural reflex fed by kindness and concern; one that seeks out, fills in and holds those it finds.
Local charities followed. They set up foodbanks in churches and community centres, found drivers and organised ring-arounds. These are the groups who know the “hard to reach” as “Owen up the road” or “Jenny’s neighbour”.
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These are also the 40 per cent of UK charities with annual incomes under £10,000; charities without reserves, because they give everything. Helping those who help others is a British tradition – and at a time like this these, charities will go bust without our help. MPs and campaigners should call on the government to prop up small, local charities at a time when it is impossible for them to raise funds, and when the people they serve need them more than ever.
By contrast to these immediately impactful initiatives, the tools of government can seem blunt, impersonal and unwieldy. As an MP for a Welsh constituency, I recognise how essential it is that local, devolved and central government work together to deliver to charities the support they need. Conwy Council, for example, recently created a web portal that processed one thousand applications, and released £17m to help small businesses hit by coronavirus – all in just 48 hours. But unless all of the various gears of government are aligned, they will grind and jam.
When this pandemic has passed, as it will, we must mourn, but also reflect. We will also need to rethink the role of small charities within our society. These charities – the same ones we have so long taken for granted, that will have seen us through this difficult time – must be allowed space to flourish, protecting the kindness they practice, alongside our public services.
Robin Millar is the Conservative MP for Aberconwy.
