FROM THE EDITOR: Moving forward out of lockdown is harder with this sense of unease

There can’t be many more serious situations than a pandemic yet it very much feels as if it is the loudest voices that are getting all the attention and forcing change.

Perhaps you think that is good?

We desperately need our economy back and booming or the number of job losses, and the inevitable consequences, will be staggering.

Even when – and it seems likely to be very soon – the social distancing measure is lowered to one metre, there are lots of businesses in our city that will struggle to operate within that restriction.

The last thing we want is to lose our small, independent businesses but I find it hard to imagine how the littlest will cope.

However, there are also far too many of us questioning whether the government is easing restrictions for the right reasons.

Whispers of wanting to distract from other political issues and money being more important than human life are hard to avoid.

When that comes after 42,632 loved ones have lost their lives, it is hard not to worry and question our leaders’ motives.

I have no doubt that if anybody in my family had died amid talk that thousands of lives could have been saved by locking down earlier, I would be both heartbroken and furious. I am sure there are plenty in Sheffield who sadly find themselves in that situation.

Whatever you think of Boris Johnson and however you voted at the last election, we can all agree that the last thing we need right now is an uneasy sense that we aren’t being led with our own best intentions at heart.

That is worrying for everyone and that is the reason why we must also hear those quiet voices that are just as passionate yet not so easily heard.

Coronavirus has not gone away and every Sheffielder with an underlying health condition thinks of that every minute of every day.

Let’s have complete honesty and openness with every decision.

Let’s send our children back to school with confidence, whenever that is right.

And let’s demand that because our lives, jobs and families depend on it.

We deserve nothing less.