A couple of posts ago, we talked about the need for mutual aid and solidarity in the face of the crisis we’re facing: Initial thoughts on the reactions to COVID-19. All the indications are that people are stepping up to the plate with grassroots support groups springing up in a number of places. Freedom have compiled a list (which they’re updating on an ongoing basis) of the groups that have been formed – many thanks to them for putting this together:

COVID-19 UK Mutual Aid groups: a list

We have done our best to include all already existing mutual aid groups below. If your group is not listed, or you set one up after this text’s publication, please get in touch and we will fix it. You can reach us either via our Facebook page, or send an email to editor@freedompress.org.uk.

You can see the full list here

The situation is changing rapidly. It would appear that from the small neighbourhood support groups mentioned above all the way up to the Premier League, people are not as sanguine as the government appeared to be last week and have unilaterally undertaken actions to reduce the spread of COVID-19. People aren’t happy about being told they’ll have to accept that loved ones could die and are doing what they can to mitigate the risk as far as possible.

As we’ve already mentioned, it appeared last week that the population is being left to get on with it. The government now appears to be playing catch up and will be bringing in emergency legislation to ban large gatherings amongst other measures. Please don’t for one minute think that they’re doing this for altruistic reasons because they’re not. From what we’ve seen already about what may well be brought in, some of it is pretty chilling. As and when it becomes clearer what the government intend to do, we’ll post up our thoughts on it. Suffice to say, given what the government could allow itself to do under emergency legislation, we may have to be somewhat judicious in how we present our thoughts.