Carol McGiffin: Scary movie 2020
THE WAY I SEE IT... Wise words from our feisty, fearless and funny columnist
‘Since everything stopped being “normal” back in March, it has felt like we’re all living in a dream, like a scary movie. Then, over the Summer, it looked like it was coming to an end, and there was hope.
But last week, they changed the script again. Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance sat there with their prophecies which they were at pains to say were not predictions, OK? It was pure theatre – a horror show, from two men who didn’t even look like they believed it themselves.
If it was meant to scare people into thinking they’re all going to die unless we find a vaccine, I think it’s worked. But just to make sure, the next day, in swoops Big Brother
Boris with the finale. A whole other lecture full of petty enhancements to already unreasonable and nonsensical regulations with massively increased fines to boot. And he’s sending in the Army to help the police make sure you obey. But that’s not all. It’s for at least six months
( bang goes Christmas!) and that’s only if we behave ourselves, if not, it will get worse. How can it? What he didn’t say was how all these authoritarian rules would scare the virus away, so even if everyone did abide by them rigidly, it would still be around – just like it was after the last lockdown. Meanwhile, more businesses will go to the wall, more jobs will be lost, waiting lists will grow, more people will get sick and die because hospitals are on stand-by for the ‘second wave’, and mental health continues to deteriorate. It looks like things never will get better.’