COULD the Isle of Wight lead the way when it comes to planning for easing lockdown?

Island MP Bob Seely thinks we are perfectly placed to do so.

It comes in a week when some criticised the suggestion we come out of lockdown early, saying Islanders would be 'guinea pigs'.

But My Seely believes being an Island means there are other ways we could trial elements first, such as mass testing and pilot healthcare schemes.

Below is an article, first run in today's Daily Telegraph, written by Mr Seely.

The lifting of the lockdown will, at some point begin to ease: when is unclear, but come it will. It is a question divided into two. When to do it safely, but also how?

To help us, we should look at what role island communities can play. Scientists like islands, and especially the Isle of Wight, because we are geographically separate from the North Island (our little joke to describe the rest of Britain) and have a wide age-range and urban and rural populations.

Of course, there is no question of lifting the lockdown to ‘see what happens’. Government wouldn’t allow it and we wouldn’t want it, until it is safe to do so. But the elements for planning lockdown easing - as well as long-term Covid suppression - can be put together on a measurable scale - in miniature if you like - on the Island.

For example, for quickly establishing temperature checking sites, we have only six ferry entry points, one central bus station and a single, branch railway. The logistics of mass testing could be investigated here with our population of 140,000 prior to a national roll-out to 66 million. Contact tracing and movement apps can be trialled due to our self-containment. Many of our elderly are online so we can collectively use apps and tech. We have a very strong volunteer community to support projects.

Let’s take this opportunity to pilot schemes to support healthcare in the longer term. For example, some Island care homes have ‘telemedicine’ links to doctors’ surgeries. We could roll that out, Island-wide, prior to a national scheme, to include telemedicine kit in peoples’ homes, to feed daily health stats to GPs for proactive, not reactive, medicine. This will be one of the ways we suppress viruses and keep us all healthy as this century progresses.

I have my own reasons for exploring all this. I want to ensure that our at-risk Islanders to get maximum attention. I want to make sure the Island’s NHS - and care homes - get the support they need. Island-wide testing and tracing will help reassure our older folks. We also need to restart in-school education and our economy to protect the lives of younger people. By being at the cutting edge of scientific study, I can look after Islanders best.

The Island already has a reputation for innovation. True, we’re famed for being the sunniest place in Britain and for having some of the most beautiful beaches and downland in England, celebrated by poets and painters for 200 years. But we also ‘do’ science. Much of the original work in wireless communications was conducted by Guglielmo Marconi by the multi-coloured sands of Alum Bay. Julia Margaret Cameron pioneered experimental Victorian photography here in the windswept West Wight. The hovercraft was built here, and the Blue Streak rockets tested above the chalky cliffs of the Needles. Today, many of the elegant and energy-saving curved wing-tips you see on modern jets are made in East Cowes. Our Island is an island of invention as well as of natural beauty and art.

Nationally, the lockdown is not a trade-off between lives or the economy; it is between saving life now versus saving life later. Cancers are at risk of going undetected and heart conditions untreated, whilst business bankruptcies will lead to stress and possibly a rise in suicides. Vulnerable children are in potentially unsafe homes longer and women suffering domestic violence at higher risk. Young people are missing their education. We need our economy to pay for our public services. We have a moral duty to protect life now - and like other MPs I worry especially about those in care homes - but we also need to protect life in future.

It’s clear we will need to begin a national conversation for the lockdown easing. As we have seen, different experts say - and will continue to say - different things, as Singapore and South Korea, Germany and Sweden, have all shown. Political leadership comes in balancing competing demands, exercising judgment and successful planning.

Some things we’ve got spot on. The Treasury has been impressive in its reaction. Many local authorities, including ours on the Island, have been excellent. The NHS, Government and the Military have made Herculean efforts over PPE, but clearly concerns over that - and testing - remain.

The best way forward now to keep public trust, as MPs and Ministers know, is through transparency. That means preparing a route out of lockdown. A well thought-out plan, put together by national experts with local Island input, in a self-contained community like ours could help. It is also the best way to ensure we protect the community I serve.