MORNING SERIAL
THE phrase ‘fast moving situation’ is perhaps overused in political journalism (alongside ‘a perfect storm’) but the last week in March was incredibly fast moving.
The key message in the government’s lockdown was that the public should stay at home. It was permissible to go out only to shop for basic necessities, exercise once a day, any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person (which in two months will become known as the ‘Cummings get out of jail free card’) and travelling to and from work when this cannot be done from home.
The PM encouraged people to try to do their grocery shopping online which led to several supermarket websites crashing.
Life as we knew it was stopped immediately. All those things that simply are life: the school run, young people being educated, meeting friends, weddings, taking your kids to a play area, all halted.
On the same day as the lockdown was announced those still holding on to that common but reprehensible thought, ‘it doesn’t matter it will only affect the elderly’, were brought down to earth when an 18-year-old died of the virus. They were the youngest person to have died so far in the UK. Sadly this would not be a record that would stand for long.
In the face of the dramatic lockdown announcement it didn’t register that Johnson’s messages to the ‘British people’ would become a flash point and source of frustration to politicians in Cardiff Bay and Hollyrood as the crisis progressed. Though in this speech he was correct in addressing the British people as a whole,the rules of lockdown were decided by the devolved nations.
Though at this time, when nations of the UK were ‘walking in lockstep’ (another phrase to become overused in the following weeks and months), differentiating between English rules and UK rules was not an issue. However in about six weeks, when we have English holiday-makers turning up on rural Welsh beaches this is going to become a problem.
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I AM appalled by the amount of litter that has accumulated along main thoroughfares in Caerphilly.
The town bypass, and the route to Ystrad Mynach, and further on towards Newbridge are particularly bad, with all manner of debris littering the roadside and hedgerows.
This is caused by the careless and inconsiderate behaviour of some drivers who show a total disregard for the environment.
They display the same mentality as the hordes who leave their litter behind on beaches for others to pick up.
But it places an additional burden on the already overstretched resources of the council, whose workforce has to clear it up.
Peter Duncan
Caerphilly