This week, the UK has gone into lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Those of us who can are staying at home and adapting to a new way of life, where we work from home, have hobbies at home and socialise only through video calls.
It is an uncomfortable transition, but it is absolutely worth doing to slow the spread of coronavirus, preventing the NHS from being overwhelmed and saving thousands of lives.
Coronavirus demonstrates how valuable our public service broadcasters are
Responding to the news that the BBC News is to suspend its plans to cut 450 jobs, Liberal Democrat DCMS spokesperson Daisy Cooper said:
"It is in times like this that our public service broadcasters demonstrate most clearly just how valuable they are. The BBC is right to ensure it remains properly staffed.
Welcome to the Weekly Whip. Your one-stop shop for Lib Dem Parliamentary updates, covering the week that was and the week to come.
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Weekly Whip w/c 23rd March
In the last week ahead of Recess; Westminster Hall debates were suspended, and select committees will now continue over video conferencing. Given the ongoing pandemic, we went early to Recess on Wednesday.
Ed Davey challenges government to roll out support package for self-employed
Today Ed Davey, Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, challenged the Chancellor to "move as fast as possible" to roll out a financial support package for the five million self-employed people in the UK.
In an Urgent Question in the House of Commons, Ed Davey highlighted that the self-employed, who are excluded from current financial support for businesses and employees, are under "real stress" and are "literally running out of money" as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Last week, the Government set out a package of financial measures to support UK workers, highlighting just how threatening coronavirus is to our economy and our society.
As soon as these measures were announced, Liberal Democrats stated our concerns that far too little was being provided to help the self-employed through this crisis. Days later, and no new support has been announced by the Government.
Each day the govt fails to protect the self-employed, many get closer to irreparable damage to their livelihoods.
We, with cross-party support, have written to Rishi Sunak calling for urgent action to support the 5 million self-employed people in the UK. https://t.co/nDU6VF8zMS
There are five million self-employed people in the UK. These are our construction workers, our childminders and our delivery drivers.
Each day that we fail to take action to protect the self-employed, millions of people remain worried and unsure of how they are going to support themselves or their families. Leaving them with no reliable safety net is unacceptable.
Ministers cannot keep hiding from the insecurity these individuals have been put in by the coronavirus crisis. It is not good enough to say it is "operationally difficult" to pay them.
The Liberal Democrats have put down amendments to the Government's coronavirus legislation to support the self-employed. They are:
increasing the weekly rate of Statutory Sick Pay from £94.25 to £220
guaranteeing 80% of self-employed individuals' earnings, up to £35,000
