I hope that you had a good Easter weekend. You’re staying at home in large numbers and I wanted to put on record my thanks to everybody who stayed at home.

I know in the circumstances it was very unusual, and not a normal Easter as we know it. The weather perhaps wasn’t a normal Easter as we know it either, so that was good news.

As I said in my latest video message (above), if you did go out to our parks, thank you to those who only exercised there in the ways we have asked you to do – by following the social distancing rules, not picnicking, not sunbathing, not using gym equipment, not using the play areas. It means that we can continue to keep the parks open.

Also, it was a weekend to celebrate different religious festivals. It was obviously Christian Easter, Jewish Passover, and on Monday we had Sikh Vaisakhi. A huge thank you to everybody for celebrating at home and, by doing so, we know that we are protecting our NHS and saving lives. I would also like to welcome the PM’s continued recovery, with him being discharged from hospital at the weekend. We wish him well and it is good news for his family and for the country.

You should have also received over the weekend the latest edition of Around Ealing which was a COVID-19 special. There were various articles in there about social distancing and also about exercising and keeping fit indoors at home.

Have a look at those and all the other informative articles that are in that edition. You’ll also see that there was a piece about domestic violence. We want the message to be loud and clear to those who are suffering domestic violence during this lockdown that they shouldn’t feel unsafe while at home and that those social isolation rules don’t apply to them. If they are in that situation, they can leave home and they can get the help that they need. If they need to ring the police on 999 those response services are still there and the council’s support services are still there.

There is also a social media campaign that I have been involved in: #YouAreNotAlone

This involves placing a heart on your hand and I hope that people will get involved in that social media campaign to stop domestic violence and support those who are suffering from it.

Can I finish by repeating my thanks to all of you who stayed at home: You are protecting our NHS and you are saving lives.