EARLIER this week, on International Workers’ Memorial Day, we recognised the ultimate sacrifice that our front-line workers have made – particularly poignant this year. On Friday, May 1, it will be International Workers’ Day.

There have been emotional scenes every week as neighbours come together to applaud and celebrate the role that our key workers are fulfilling as we chart a course through this storm.

Without the NHS staff, the care staff, the posties, the shop workers or the delivery drivers, we would be absolutely lost in this crisis. Indeed, there has been a growing campaign to recognise particularly NHS staff with a medal.

A medal would be good. But I’d rather they have a living wage.

This crisis has conclusively demonstrated that it is key workers upon which we rely for our wellbeing and our health. The very groups of workers that our economic system deems as low-skilled and leaves low-paid. And once this is over, we need a proper commission with real recommendations on how best to reward those workers.

Research published by the Centre for Cities suggests that almost a third of Glasgow’s workforce could be hit hard by the immediate effects of Covid-19.

We’ve seen extraordinary action in the past months to essentially put the economy into an induced coma, but the reality is that as we come out of this crisis, the cracks and pressures in our economic system and our public infrastructure have become more exposed than ever before.

We must confront the public health crisis, and cannot rush into any Trumpian decisions to reopen the economy before we know that we can protect people while doing so. But there will eventually come a recovery from this, and in that moment, we will face a choice.

A choice whether to rebuild the economic system that has been so comprehensively discredited by this crisis, or whether we choose a new path. Hannah Martin from Green New Deal UK put it most simply and persuasively a few weeks ago. She said that if your house fell down, you might want to rebuild it and rebuild the bits that you love. But you wouldn’t rebuild it with draughty windows and a leaky roof.

That’s the choice. I hope that we will choose to fix the fundamentals – the draughty windows and the leaky roof – to keep everyone secure in the years ahead.

But the recovery must also come with a long, hard look at how governments have handled the crisis. I am glad that Boris Johnson has been able to recover from the virus, and wish him, Carrie Symonds and their newborn son all the best.

Equally, I hope that the media circus that has followed the personal plight of Boris Johnson, will turn its full attention to the lessons that must be learned from the Government, and from the Scottish Government that has chosen to march in lockstep up to this point.

As we approach International Workers’ Day, we should think about those workers who have sacrificed during this crisis and how we can and must protect them in the future.