Some good things should result from this awful *Covid* experience. Where would you like to see improvements ?

What a wonderful response. The suggestions and remarks on here are really interesting.

I think that the triple lock pension should be abolished and other non-means tested benefits for older people e.g. fuel allowance should be abolished. Money saved could be spent reducing national debt and investing in new industries and training young people.

I'd like to see more apprenticeships or training on the job, with day release for College/University.
I'd also like to take the lessons learned in the world of work in this pandemic - that it can be done from home, thus reducing the amount of pollution that transport of most kinds spews into the air.
Fantasy thought - that someone could find a way to use the elements of sun and wind power to fuel flight.

Along with others I would like to see manufacturing in this country increase to make a more balanced economy. This is one of the good things that could result from this awful episode. We are going to need more and more vaccines and adaptations to vaccines in the future, we can increase the capacity to do so in this country as we already have an established vaccine industry which could be expanded. These would be high quality, high skilled, well paid jobs.

I can see the attraction of turning office spaces into homes, but the buildings are not always of a high enough standard to do this easily, might be better to demolish and build more planned housing, trying to build a community into the design. Not necessarily more expensive to do as so many adaptations needed to turn offices into homes.

Also agree about less travel, not only between countries but to try and reduce the need for so many short car journeys by, again, planning new communities to include local office spaces for home workers to rent, doctors surgeries, NHS drop in centres, the sort of places that bring people together.

I would use 'non jobs' differently- the jobs you describe are usually essential and they keep the economic wheels turning, it also happens those workers are most subject to exploitation which obviously needs to change. For me 'non jobs' are jobs that contribute nothing such as many middle management and all agencies (parasites). David Graeber explains beautifully in his book 'Bullshit Jobs'.
So post lockdown I'd like to see everyone who wants to continue to work from home allowed to do so, real jobs shared more widely so everyone can have a better work life balance (so more part time and flexi time), and all day care for under 3s closed down.

With the threat of 300,000 arriving in this country soon from Hong Kong and so many business premises now empty, I think where suitable, should be turned into housing, with our own homeless given first refusal.

I’d like to see some respect for the natural world. No one seems to acknowledge that the disgusting and disgraceful practices regarding animals is how we got this in the first place. If we continue to rape nature we will bring worse than this on our heads. This is just a gentle warning.

I would like to see freedom valued.

i would like to see better trained staff - despite checking that the NHS appointment had the land line as the primary contact the covid testing team rang the mobile which is only turned on for emergencies. the message was not seen till 12 hours later and told it was too late. the contact team had 2 telephone numbers but only one was used . When i used to work i would use all telephone numbers to try and make contact. These people are not trained well at all -.

Infectious people understanding they should not mix.

Bluedaisy I really don’t think that is at all feasible. Unfortunately because of our pressure on the world and our awful use of wet market practices etc there will be many more new viruses emerging, as they always have, and our global lifestyles ensures rapid spread unfortunately. Therefore we have to look at how we care for the planet and animals much more seriously and pressure places like China to improve the bio health of such awful environments like wet markets (ban them ideally but it won’t happen).
Otherwise I’d like to see much more home working being the norm. It was lovely to see many more people walking locally in the first lockdown and increased the number of socially distanced chats with near stranger neighbours. I’d also like to see many more people doing things With their children- bikes, picnics, walks etc like before as that noticeably dropped off as the first lockdown eased. I enjoyed the lack of planes in the sky, more birdsong, more sense of community and less cars around during Lockdown 1 and actually think the air felt nicer to breathe. Maybe I’m getting just old and longing for a simpler less rushed time lol

We all love and admire the NHS but it does need a massive shake up in the way it is run, in my opinion.
I think it is appalling that so many youngsters are encouraged to go to university, thereby getting into debt for years, when they want to be nurses or teachers or policemen. Why on earth should they need a degree for that?
And I agree that the awful no contract jobs should be stopped and workers should be entitled to job security.
I hope that all of us, (including myself who loves travel)!) should stop and think more about what we are doing to the planet.

We have all seen the value of the care given by our NHS, but I'd like to see the NHS reformed so there is less waste and more recycling. They are always wanting more funding but can seemingly afford to not re-use crutches for example and in our case tell us to "pour away and waste 30 complete boxes of dialysis fluids and whole unopened boxes of fluid collection bags, connectors etc (enough for 30 days dialysis) which are in date and all in airtight sealed plastic bags which could easily be cleaned and sanitised in the same way you would clean any plastic surfaces. The people who supply them will not take them back, the hospital dialysis unit doesn't want them and the Kidney foundation hasn't replied to me. I have no idea of how much these must cost to buy in (they come from Singapore!) but even if each box cost £10 (though I suspect it would be at least double that) they are throwing away £300 plus the cost of the other items! Multiply this by however many other people are being told the same and they are tossing away a small fortune! Their care is second to none but their organisation and spending is disastrous!

I hope that the extra cleaning being done in public buildings will continue, and that those working cash registers will still be protected by perspex shields, so we don't get an increase in colds and other infections once we are all vaccinated and "safe" from corona.

I would also like to see people really stopping to think whether they need to travel by air or own a car themselves in the interest of protecting the environment.

I doubt it will happen. As soon as corona recedes into history, I imagine people will pick off where they left off.

I would love to see more value placed on family time. This last year has reintroduced back garden birthday parties, lower key Christmas, and home-made Halloween etc. What a joy it has been to see families making their own entertainment instead of relying on corporate provision.
And while I’m on the subject of family time I would love to see the abolition of Sunday and bank holiday retail. Members of my family forced to work on Christmas and Boxing Day and every weekend is terrible for families.

Quite agree jane1956 about hitting China in the pocket. I also think we should learn from this pandemic that if a country ever causes something like a pandemic again through carelessness or ‘accidentally on purpose’ they should be made to pay all of the countries affected costs, even down to having to pay for costs for wages, medicines and funerals for individual people it’s affected. Also stopping travel to said countries so it hits their travel and tourism industry etc for maybe 2 years to make any country that even poses a threat such as what we are suffering now to act responsibly towards other nations and think twice.
It seems to me nobody mentions where this came from, makes me wonder what vaccine China had ready to give to their citizens as they only had such a small amount of deaths and their country has recovered so fast. Sorry if this sounds political, I don’t mean it to be but nobody ever seems to mention the cause.

young people? I think they are wonderful, do they have a worse time than we had,, I think we all have...a worse life.

I grew up in the war years, at least we had companionship, human touch,, that is the worst thing now.. imo.

education, needs to evolve imo... use technology more...

oh proper distribution of "wealth"

so much needs to change, to improve.... shall we take this opportunity? I wonder
ah yes,, Brexit,, manufacture our own goods,, not being so reliant on other countries, surely that comes under the enormous heading of "distribution of wealth"

I would agree with all those that said about the reorganisation of the NHS.
My first job was working for the NHS, many moons ago. All the people in a managerial position in each hospital knew the system from the bottom up and had qualified on their way.
Now the NHS is run as a business, the CEOs often have no background in medical or the care sector, are just accountants being paid a huge salary from day 1 and if they don't fulfill expectations and have to move on, they get a huge pay off equivilant to several years of their salary ! Us mere mortals would be lucky if we get a month if we don't come up to scratch! The amount of money that is wasted in the NHS on cosmetic changes - in my local hospital, they spent a fortune on redecorating the ground floor, with wallpaper, different colours, new furniture etc, while up in the wards, the nursing staff spend time each day on running around , trying to find even enough pillows for patients and the curtains at the windows and between beds are just about colourless and see through, they have been laundered so many times!

I'm hoping that government will use the opportunity to re-tool British industry and commerce so that we have less impetus to import finished goods from overseas. Replacing cheap foreign labour with expensive British labour means modern high-tech machine tools and software - and it will take more than the current tax breaks to properly incentivise their take-up. We need a decent spread of grants and soft loans; if we get anything out of Brexit, this should be it, the chance to get British business back into Britain.

people stop buying junk from china hit them where it hurts in the pocket

Good lord, university is not just about attending lectures Poppyred, there are tutorials, labs, textbooks to read, etc. If anyone is on a course with one or two lectures it is not a degree course.

Cutting degree courses from 3 years to 18 months would seem sensible all round. Most students seem to only have one or two lectures a week and paying ludicrous amounts of money for the privilege!

Yes, Hetty58 We have seriously abused our planet. We are now paying the price.

Yes, I would definitely like to see our children and young people valued more.
Starting with the way they are referred to. The term 'kids' instead of children always grates with me. A slang word which is now so commonplace used often by our PM on bulletins.
And the government has the KickStart scheme for young people to get into work.
Why not YouthStart or something like that, because I'm sure if there was a scheme for any other age group with the word Kick in it there would be an outcry.

I’d like to see a reduction in all travel not just business travel. According to BBC’s More or Less, 25 million people arrived in the UK in the first three months of 2020. Roughly 10-12% were said to be in transit to elsewhere but the majority were UK residents. So 22 million UK residents travelling overseas in just three months. That’s a third of the population on the move. Most of these were air travellers but the 25 million includes those arriving by boat and rail. Staggering, isn’t it? The energy consumption and pollution caused by this incessant need to travel is frightening. And of course, all those people on the move explains why Covid was able to get such a fast and firm grip in the UK.