This is no time to follow the crowds – stand apart

TEN months since the first lockdown began, and we are still revisiting the same problems now as what seems an eternity ago. And following a glorious winter’s day on Sunday, people turned out along Southsea seafront in their thousands.

On one level that’s understandable – it’s a lovely place to be on a day like that.

On another it is baffling just how there are so many people there. Yes, we are allowed out to exercise, but we are also told to do it close to home – so how did everyone get there?

This is of course part of the inexorable slide we’ve been on since the not-so-dearly-departed Dominic Cummings and his sojourn to Barnard Castle. And then much more recently we’ve had the PM’s hotly-debated sevenmiles-from-home bike ride.

Without clear definitions of what constitutes ‘exercising locally’, and those in power appearing to bend the meanings to their own ends, what hope have the rest of us got of knowing where the limits lie?

And to those who were there and are complaining about how busy it was, we shall borrow a phrase more commonly used about vehicles on the road: You are not stuck in traffic – you ARE traffic.

It is not as if the high turnout on the seafront was without precedent – it has happened most weekends in the past year when the weather has been anything other than rainy, lockdown or no.

It has left Portsmouth City Council on the horns of a dilemma, though. Benches have already been removed and signs added. The wearing of masks has been suggested, but wearing masks outdoors is not part of current wider rules and would be tough to implement.

There is of course something we could all do, and that is to actually take responsibility for our own actions, have some consideration for our fellow humans, and follow the rules: stay at home.