Are young Covid rule breakers trying to bump off us boomers?
THe first lockdown seems like ancient history now, something that happened a long time ago, almost to someone else. I remember peaceful, sunny days and long, warm evenings, all very enjoyable in the loveliest spring there had been for years.
I was alone in London, isolated and perfectly happy in my Jan-bubble, foolishly believing that the pandemic and its restrictions wouldn’t last much beyond easter.
Little did I realise that ten months later, things would be so very much worse. Yes, the end is in sight — fingers crossed — but what have we lost in the meantime? a sense of humour, for a start. Why did the chicken cross the road? Because the cockerel behind her didn’t know how to social distance properly.
Once upon a time, that would almost have been funny. now, it’s just a daily exasperation because even at this moment of maximum peril, some people still don’t think the rules apply to them. Out on the mean streets of our cities and deep in the darkest village, there is no shortage of flouters.
a woman in my neighbourhood threw a party for more than 100 people on new Year’s eve, and is now facing a £10,000 fine for her troubles.
can I say something? Good. When police arrived to break up the illegal gathering, they were refused entry.
This had echoes of the rule-breaking birthday bash thrown in a West London restaurant by singer rita Ora in november. ‘sorry,’ she said, after 30 of her nearest and dearest partied all night.
This week, snp Mp Margaret Ferrier has been arrested and charged with ‘reckless conduct’ after an alleged breach of coronavirus rules, which involved her travelling around the country while practically oscillating with covid-19 symptoms.
a group of four in northampton have been fined £200 each after driving to McDonald’s for breakfast — that’s the most expensive egg McMuffin any of them will ever order.
In London, police ordered actress priyanka chopra out of a Josh Wood salon in notting Hill, where she was having her hair done for a ‘film role’.
Meanwhile, the head of the equality and Human rights commission rebecca Hilsenrath was removed by police from her holiday home in Wales, after illegally travelling there from Hertfordshire for christmas.
ALL of this sounds incredibly heavy-handed and authoritarian, but what else are the police to do? people have had ten months to understand and abide by the rules, but many still choose not to.
across society, battle lines have been drawn. There is a kind of war between the young and the old; the smart and the stupid; the liberal and the blinkered.
sometimes I think the young would quite happily bump off all us boomers, so in thrall are they to the notion their world has stopped because of us.
although I might argue their world is there because of us, and those like us who came before us. But I don’t want to make things worse.
Of course, the thought of being stopped and questioned by police or council covid wardens and threatened with on-the- spot fines merely for walking around your own neighbourhood is repellent, but what is the alternative?
Unless rule-breakers are punished, the selfish and heedless will just carry on pleasing themselves.
Have I broken the rules myself? probably. almost definitely. sometimes I go out for a walk twice a day — so shoot me now — but shouldn’t we all just use our common sense?
If we did, it would stop the cops being obliged to rummage through our groceries and ask if that raspberry yoghurt really is an essential purchase.
But don’t hold your breath. as always, the vast majority of lawabiding citizens are being held to ransom by a selfish, lunatic fringe.
On new Year’s eve, exhausted doctors at a central London hospital were left ‘heartbroken’ after being harassed by a huge crowd of maskless revellers chanting ‘covid is a hoax’ at the entrance. I have a theory about conspiracy theorists such as them.
Which is the truth frightens them so much the only way they can cope is by constructing an alternative reality; one that their tiny scraping of active brain cells can process and feel comfortable with.
The truth is that to date in the Uk, 2.8 million have caught the disease while nearly 80,000 have died.
WE are in the darkest days of the pandemic, yet there are those who still won’t mask up properly on public transport or get aggressive when politely asked to mask up/move away/stay home/follow the rules.
It is their misbehaviour — not some evil police yearning to be authoritarian that has led us to this point.
That’s why we have to support the police, not accuse them of ushering in a new police state. The last thing they want — or need — is to waste time making sure people are obeying covid rules, but here we are.
In central London, the sirens blare all night long. What the heck is going on, I find myself wondering.
still, I have made myself a resolution just to somehow get through this third lockdown with good cheer, despite everything. Will you join me? at a distance, of course.