More of our elders will die before their time, Hook claims

GEORGE Hook has told how we have to lift the lockdown to save the economy – but admits he can’t stop thinking about dying.

The veteran broadcaster said there are two diseases in our society, Covid-19 and the economic scourge – adding that the county is going to have to accept that more of our elders will perish.

George, who turns 79 next week, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “This isn’t going away.

“I think eventually we’ll just say more older people are going to die than before, young people aren’t going to die, it’ll be the old.

“When [Donald] Trump said this is just like a very bad flu epidemic, a certain amount die from it, well that’s what it becomes like a bad flu and more people die.”

The Corkonian former rugby pundit admitted it’s not a nice thing to discuss but it’s a reality.

He said: “I think it’s going to come to the point where the Government are going to have to let people die.

“Now that doesn’t help when my children are carrying my coffin out of Foxrock Church.

“The reality of it is can you have a country where essentially nobody’s working?

“There are places now where they’re getting 350 quid a week from their employers but some of these shops and restaurants will never open again.

“Eventually just simply draw a balance between the economy and death. We open our paper every morning and there are death notices and we saym ‘Ahm Jaysus Jo died, well now we open the paper and say Jo, Mary, Mick and Franky died’. “That’s just going to be the way it is. One thing that cocooning does and I’ve talked to my mates of a similar age about this, is that we are all thinking about death.

“I never thought about death but now here we are.”

George took aim at the Government for establishing arbitrary restrictions.

He said: “Boris [Johnson] is an eejit and he talks claptrap on the telly on Sunday and we accept it, it makes Varadkar look good.

“The more you make the lockdown seem stupid and less people will support it.

“That’s what happened in Britain, there was so much horses**t, saying you can go back to work on Monday, but you can’t.

“Since Tuesday I’ve been able to go for a walk, sleeping was very difficult, you were in a house all day and watching TV and drinking gin.

“Now I’m doing a walk every day and sleeping better, a simple thing like a walk is so important to us older people.

“My wife Ingrid cut my hair during the lockdown, we had one of these clippers and I said let’s go for a blade one.

“Then I decided to go the whole hog and I shaved my head.”

My wife Ingrid cut my hair during the lockdown GEORGE HOOK ON LIFE DURING THE PANDEMIC