Businesses have been paying insurance companies for business interruption cover for decades to guard against the unknown and the unforseeable. Now that we face a genuine crisis which has forced millions of businesses to close, insurance companies are not paying, claiming that businesses won't have purchased cover to compensate for their business being closed as a result of the totally unprecedented coronavirus, as if we all should have pre-empted this previously non-existent contagion. These companies need to face up to their responsibilities like every other business is having to do.

My wife and I run two bars (The Cornerhouse, pictured above in it's current boarded-up state) and had recently taken over the running of our local cricket club bar. All are now closed. We were due to complete on a house purchase in April but now we are not. Instead, the money we saved for years will be used to pay staff wages and the bills of other businesses as difficult times do not entitle you to abandon others. Our staff have willingly accepted slightly reduced hours so that everyone's mortgage can be paid and we've had suppliers offering to submit only partial invoices. These are not people with a lot of money but they are people with a lot of heart and belief in community. 

Insurance companies are a part of our society, too, and cannot be allowed to simply opt out of the system when things become too difficult. If they cannot afford to pay all claims in their entirety, they must pay what they can. The Prime Minister confirmed in one of his recent 5pm press briefings that insurance companies would of course do their bit in this global disaster and it is for all of us to bring to bear enough pressure on insurers by signing this petition and forwarding it to our local MPs to ensure that happens.