Two weeks ago, the whole country united to #clapforourcarers – all the doctors, nurses and other staff who are on the frontline in the fight against #Covid19. Another round of applause is scheduled for tonight and there are calls to make it a weekly event.
Quite right too. But what about another clap-fest, this time for the thousands of workers who are helping to make our daily lives work?
There are people we see – stacking shelves and manning tills in supermarkets; delivering packages, parcels and post; driving lorry-loads of food to our homes and fixing broken pipes in the street.
But there are thousands of people we don’t see, working behind the scenes in warehouses and factories; in power stations and energy plants; around reservoirs and sewage plants – all plugging away to keep the country going, even as most of us are in lockdown at home.
In the past two days alone, I’ve spoken to companies employing several thousand of these silent heroes.
They are not on furlough. They are not on the NHS frontline. But we couldn’t do without them.
How about a round of applause for all these key workers – to show them we know they are there and we are grateful?