Corona sinners ’n’ winners — we all know who you are!
The lockdown is not going to end any time soon and I for one am profoundly grateful for that. Surely it would be too hasty and too rash to peel away now from the path of self-isolation and locked doors?
With the number of deaths still terrifyingly high and heartfelt pleas from NhS workers for everyone to stay at home, we must all do our best to hold the lockdown line.
It is hard, of course. And it is harder for some than for others.
I’m thinking of parents who have to keep young children amused and entertained. Those sequestered at home with no access to outside space. The isolated elderly, who keenly feel the pain of family separation. The vulnerable, the ill, the confused. Those who are worried sick about their financial future or how we will recover — physically, emotionally and economically — once this is over.
But we simply must persist: all of us. If not for ourselves, then at least for those workers putting themselves at risk for the comfort and safety of others. We owe it to them to keep out of harm’s way as much as possible; to be a tiny inspiration, not a fireball of contagion.
It is particularly hard right now, just as this eastertide blows in on a dizzying front of balmy weather and blue skies. Outside my window I can see the trees coming into leaf, and the air in London smells fresher and sweeter than at any time in the decades I have lived here.
Ois beckoning and tempting, yet simultaneously remote and more or less out of bounds. It is a torture. All of a sudden, the prospect of a sunny Bank holiday weekend like this one seems as meaningless as the days of the week. I’ve been self-isolating alone for five weeks now and don’t know when I will see my loved ones again. Yet I consider myself incredibly lucky, in so many ways.
To have lived my life in Britain during a time of prolonged peace and prosperity: that is already winning the global lottery.
Most of us have grown up being able to do exactly as we please, within limits. To go where we want, do what we want, buy what we want instead of what we need. And if our preferred brand of baked beans or perfume or Chablis was not available today, then it would be back on the shelf tomorrow.
Now things are different. It is only 144 days since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in China, but the world has changed beyond measure. here in the uK we now can’t always get what we want. We have to queue, Soviet-style, just to buy bread.
Incredible restrictions have been placed on our freedoms. Park benches have emergency tape on them so people can’t sit down and picnickers have been moved on from beaches and beauty spots. Would-be holidaymakers have been stopped by police on motorways and sent home. We have been denied our liberty — and we don’t like it.
But if we want to protect the most vulnerable in society — the nurses and doctors, the bus drivers and shelf-stackers, the elderly and the ill — then we must stick together and do it. Of course, some of us are doing it better than others. here are my Covid- 19 Winners and Sinners so far...
WINNERS
1. THOSE doctors, nurses and medical staff who came out of retirement to help. There simply are no medals big enough for each and every one of you.
2. AND not forgetting those who signed up to join the NhS volunteer army. The Government wanted 250,000 but three times that number joined to help relieve pressure on the NhS, supporting 1.5 million people considered at risk. You are the very best of us.
3. The Queen and her We’ll Meet Again speech. It made me cry and cheered me up at the same time. I also loved seeing her face being displayed on the electronic billboards at Piccadilly Circus.
4. SPeCIAL mention to out- ofwork British Airways pilot Peter
Login, who has a new job as a Tesco delivery driver. having ‘hung up his keys’ to the cockpit as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, he is now delivering goods to self-isolators.
5. TO SeLf-ISOLATOrS everywhere, each and every one of us. This will all be over one day soon. But not yet, and thank goodness for that.
SINNERS
1. ThOSe picnickers, sunbathers and barbecuers on the beach who have been moved on by the police. Go home, you covidiots!
2. AIrLINeS that charged customers ‘extortionate fees’ and high penalties to get home before the coronavirus lockdown. Plus those who have yet to refund customers for cancelled flights and holidays.
3. Tycoons such as Philip Green and richard Branson — both knights of the realm, give me strength — who want the government to pay some of their staff payroll instead of relying entirely on their own millions. They want bucket loads of cash to help to support their workforces.
4. A reAder tells me of a grocery shop in remote west Cornwall that put its prices up when the virus struck — in full knowledge that the elderly in the community had nowhere else to go for their groceries. £3.40 for a cabbage! The owners should be ashamed.
5. ThOSe for Whom The rules do Not Apply. Like Scottish Chief Medical Officer dr Catherine Calderwood, who was caught making repeated visits to her second home in fife, after telling everyone else to stay at home. Maybe she was worried she’d left the iron on. disgrace!