NO: Why should I be treated like a prisoner in my own home?
SAYS BEL MOONEY, 73
SOMETIMES I feel I’m a character in a cartoon, banging my head against a wall until the stars whirl around and my eyes turn into catherine wheels. And all the while I’m screaming ‘Lemme out!’ like a prisoner frogmarched down to the cells.
The red mist descended when I heard the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty (a man I have admired since the beginning of this crisis) pronounce that over-70s like me may well face a continuation of lockdown until… when was it? The end of the year? Or might it be this-year-next-year-sometime- never?
Who knows? The one thing I am sure of is that no government can possibly consider locking up a whole generation until it finally decrees they can go out.
Law-abiding, upright citizens and supporters of the NHS we may all be, but there comes a point when you cry: ‘Enough!’ And the British Medical Association agrees with me, saying age alone should not be the criteria for this blanket ban.
Let me explain that I’m not opposed to the lockdown. In fact, I decided to selfisolate even before we were all told to – because I have a history of asthma and became afraid. I also love being at home and my routine as a writer has not changed. Family life is another matter but, like most people, I’ve accepted the situation and saw nothing but sense in the Government’s lockdown strategy.
Yes, the sight of grandchildren standing outside their grandparents’ windows was sad and the thought of people not being allowed to have proper funerals was disturbing, but it seemed to be the price we had to pay. And if Boris tells us
that we still have to be patient, then that’s fine. But if my generation were to be segregated, then it’s not.
When this crisis began we were told to lock ourselves down to protect the NHS, and we obeyed. But when you conclude that the orders are unacceptable both to your reason
your emotional intelligence, then you will rebel.
There’s much talk about ‘the science’, as if it were holy writ and not a number of different opinions. But I have my own ‘science’, which used to be called ‘mother wit’. This is when instinct and sense unite to tell you what’s right and wrong.
For a start, lumping people together according to age is clearly absurd. I am slim, fit and healthy. For 15 years I did pilates and a gym session once a week. Though I currently have a bad hip which has put paid to more strenuous forms of exercise for the time being, I continue to do stretching exercises and I still feel very healthy.
Intellectually, I cannot accept that I am more at risk than an overweight man of (say) 45 who has eaten so many burgers and fries in his life his heart is crying out for mercy.
WHY should that man be allowed out of lockdown, while I had to stay at home? It would make no sense at all. And when people’s common sense cries out ‘absurd!’ the whole consensus starts to fall apart.
Human beings are sociable creatures – we love to meet up with family and friends, or pass the time of day with people we meet. For those of us who are older, contact with other people is all the more essential.
Loneliness is a modern scourge – we cannot all be expected to isolate ourselves indefinitely.
Every week since this lockdown began I have received heartbreaking letters from those over-70s unable to see their families and vice versa.
Our mental wellbeing is as important as our physical health, and to allow everyone else to be reunited with their loved ones, while our elderly remain alone would be nothing short of cruel.
I think a turning point for me came when I was admonished by a total stranger for leaving the house to take my parents – who are 98 and nearly 96 – food. ‘Your son should have done it,’ she sniffed.
Honestly, it was a busy-body intervention too far! In what universe am I not going to drive for 15 minutes to see if my parents are OK, take them a hot meal and cheer them up a little by chatting from a responsible distance away on their front path?
That’s what I mean by emotional intelligence. It improves with age. We over-70s are much more responsible than some of the younger generations. We can be trusted to know what’s best for ourselves and our families.
Over the last few weeks we have all shared fear, sadness, irritation and some unexpected emotional uplift too.
But the current situation will not last forever. Britain has to get moving again. Though there will be risks, my generation has a valuable part to play in the rebuilding of our lives.
And we will do it. Out in the world, not in prison.