Feest Isolation Days – 29 May
Be warned, grumpy old man’s rant coming up!
I have watched the British political scene of the last few days with a mix of disbelief, fury, occasional short-lived sympathy/understanding, and a sense of despair. The PM has returned from illness, and since then things have taken turn after turn for the worse! After a bad start with Covid ( the lockdown was clearly one or two weeks late, lives were lost, the PM in charge), I thought the government, in the PM’s absence, did a reasonable job in giving information, giving clear messages, setting up Nightingale Hospitals, dealing with a horrendous increase in demand for PPE from 30,000 nursing homes which they were not supplying before, building up a UK capacity for virus testing from an almost non-existent base, trying to support people economically. And we seemed to crack the problem, the virus is on the decline.
Then the PM returned. First he announced what were small but reasonable and helpful relaxations of the lockdown. Unfortunately he announced late on a Sunday night that many should go back to work the next day, but not use public transport. His message was muddled and attached to a rather vague slogan to “Stay alert”, contradicted by other members of the cabinet the next day, modified . This was a presentational disaster which left many confused about the relaxations of restrictions, which when analysed in the cool light of subsequent days were not unreasonable and offered us significant relief.
Confusion was decreasing, hope was rising, then the Dominic Cummings story broke. Enter Boris again! He completely exonerated him without giving clear reasons, whilst casting doubt on the veracity of some unspecified statements (isn’t there another world leader similarly inclined?). I was so angry watching I had to leave the room! Then Cummings appeared before the press. I had some sympathy for him as he spoke, especially when he said they were often scared in his home because of threats and he didn’t want to be there with a young child if he and his wife were both ill. I thought he may have simply panicked and made a bad decision. Sadly, on reflection, sympathy has gone! He broke many of the rules, expressed no regret, or no real understanding of the people’s anger.
The saddest thing is that this has clouded the more important issues, made people angry, has suggested the rules can be broken – at least by “important” people – and there is a mood of defiance. The risk is that this will lead to such a lack of adherence to the restrictions that we will get another virus wave.
A more able politician would have understood the public mood and the dangers and would have sacked him, with words along the lines of “I personally understand how Mr Cummings felt, but I see how people feel and how it looks, it was a poor action for a man in his position, and he has to go”. We all know Boris cannot manage without Cummings, but he could have kept him in the background in some other nominal role whilst still getting his advice but regaining public trust.
Enter Boris again. Yesterday he came back announcing a few more welcome relaxations, but in the progress ad-libbing about some things, such as having barbecues together – which the scientific advisers subtly refuted – and thus again sowing confusion. And then, with a straight face he told us that with track and trace, contacts must self isolate at home, this is an instruction which must be followed as our duty for the good of us all – without any hint of irony that this was not apparently so for Cummings.
if this didn’t have such potentially serious consequences it would be the most entertaining political pantomime!
When politicians are so inept I am reminded of this quote from the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, sent from prison shortly before he was executed by Hitler in 1945.
In the UK we should be a little worried, but Americans beware!
Rant over. On the bright side, the Covid figures here are still improving, life is a little more relaxed, we don’t have Trump as leader, the sun is shining, the sky blue, the garden a delight, we have goldcrests, goldfinches, blackcaps, jays and many other birds visiting us…and I have been fishing. We are now able to see our friends and family at a safe outdoor social distance. And we can go on long country walks.
On our walk yesterday we saw lambs gambol over an electric fence – not so stupid after all! They gave us a good stare
And they have a good sense of social responsibility –
Keep smiling,
Terry
