Music makes me feel good .....

Music is very important to me. I sing a lot at home (privately). I sang lots of different styles of songs to my daughter when she was wee and I now sing lots of different styles of songs to my grandson. I love singing, I love music.

Music and singing are also very important for helping cognitive development in babies and it helps them to learn to speak. I talk a lot about music during hypnobirthing because songs can become anchors for expectant mums and I emphasise the importance of singing to your baby.

Music and song can make you feel good, happy, uplifted and can also make you feel sad. Music was very important to me during lockdown and I joined a virtual choir. I’m not really a choir person as I’m not a performer but this particular choir resonated with me loads. It was formed by a couple of people in the ExcludedUK group partly for something to do that was fun that took our minds off our situations of being excluded from all forms of government support whilst earning no money, and partly to help with our mental health.

I was so excited when I discovered the song that we were to sing. It is a parody of a song from my favourite ever musical, Les Miserables (a show I have seen many times and with the original West End cast). I didn’t know what was going to happen with the song but we all had to record our parts at home and send them to be edited and recorded together - and lo, a video was created. This video is now out in the public domain and I am hugely proud to be a part of it. It is powerful; it is about all the people who have been locked out of any form of government funding while the majority received 80% of their salary with no questions asked and others accessed the SEISS. Three million people were refused help - people like me who run small businesses, the self employed, freelancers and people who had just changed jobs at the wrong time. The governement have refused to give us parity, instead calling us fraudsters! They are still ignoring us.

If you’ve never heard of ExcludedUK, you’re not alone as the media ignored us for a very long time but MPs and media are now beginning to take note of our situation. I hope you enjoy the video and I truly hope that you never end up in my situation with no financial support and no income through absolutely no fault of your own.

One Day More by the ExcludedUK Virtual Choir