WE ARE gently easing out of lockdown. At home we created a small family bubble and enjoyed a few get-togethers, a lunch out in North Berwick, a visit to an old dear friend who had been shielding.

The gnawing fear at the start of the year is subsiding.

Going to Edinburgh for the first time recently felt different. The city was quite busy with queues at a few shops. Others were eerily quiet; many, sadly, boarded up. Buses and trams were running empty but for a few masked passengers staring forlornly out of windows.

Cafes with outdoor seating were popular with customers hovering, patiently waiting for their chance to enjoy some ‘new normal’ socialising.

As I made my way around the town, the mood became clearer. The farmers’ market tucked behind the castle had far fewer stalls than usual. I bumped into a lot of well-kent faces: restaurateurs, managers of familiar hangouts, local suppliers who stopped to chat. They are fine... just.

They are glad to be back at work and are managing to carry on. Many are opening fewer hours, some only four or five days a week.

The salutary message from them all, however, is that to survive there will be far less employment; skilled colleagues have already lost their jobs. The atmosphere was one of sadness but also one of stoicism and a pragmatic attitude to ‘do what it takes’ to get through.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak used these very words, “to do what it takes”, at the start of the year when lockdown was imposed.

The furlough scheme, reduction in VAT and ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ have, indeed, helped a great deal but for the long term are merely sticking plasters applied to so many businesses to prevent them collapsing.

If Government support is not extended after October and the risk of Covid-19 diminished, I fear news bulletins will be announcing more business deaths to add to the dreadful human cost we have already paid.