23rd March 2025 marks five years since the UK was put into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the five years that have elapsed, there has been no change for those UK taxpayers who were excluded by the UK Westminster government from receiving financial parity of support.
Here in Scotland, we acknowledge the monumental effort of Tim Pravda in England and Stephen Davis in Wales in bringing about the formation of a new Westminster APPG. The APPG currently has 43 MPs who have pledged their support, and we thank them all for taking that step.
However, given that this is the fifth anniversary, those with lived experience also note with cynicism that joining an APPG is easy and requires minimal effort. Two meetings per year satisfy the minimum mandated requirement for an APPG to be considered active.
What is needed from this APPG is actionâfast. It is not about retreading old ground or listening to stories that have been in the public domain for five years now. MPs who have already signed up in support of the APPG should be completely au fait with these stories and should be arriving at the next meeting in May with actions and proposals to bring about tangible resolutions.
The âthree asksâ from the Excluded community remain the same:
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An apology
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Parity of financial support
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An assurance
However, the most pressing issue is the assurance that the wilful and deliberate exclusion of millions of taxpayers through discrimination will never happen again should the nation be plunged into another national lockdown. The reason this assurance is most urgent is that the scientific community warns that infectious diseases are on the rise. During the last pandemic, we were told it would not be the last. So where is the resilience, five years on, to protect the millions who were excluded?
Measures must be put in place to ensure that when the UK government states, âEveryone will be supported, and no one will be left behindââthat is exactly what happens. Never again should 10% of the UK working-age population be abandoned by the government despite having paid into the same system as those who received Covid-19 financial support. We note that infectious diseases are rising, and UK health officials are sufficiently concerned to issue warnings.
Resources: For those who are not up to speed with the lived experience of the Excluded Communityâespecially APPG membersâplease read:
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ÂŁxcluded Voices â True Stories of Social Injustice During COVID-19 by Stephen Liddell
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The briefing papers prepared by Dr Sonali Joshi while Director of Communications for ExcludedUK, written in February 2021
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Search the Internet for interviews and news articles pertaining to the plight of the ExcludedUK Community of which there are hundreds public domain.
