MODERN FAMILY
WE ALL have stories of what we were doing in June 2020, and none them are likely to include cakes, singing and having people round the house choosing which fancy £840-a-roll wallpaper to have on the walls of the living room.
My husband’s birthday was the day after Boris’. We didn’t see his family, and while two friends called into the garden because the restrictions had been eased slightly, they came in shifts, brought their own food, drinks, plates and glasses, sat more than three metres away, and didn’t come into the house.
We were really lucky and were grateful after weeks and weeks of not seeing anyone. There were far more distressing stories of people only inviting 10 people to the song-less funerals of their loved ones, elderly relatives spending their last ever birthdays alone, families having to mouth the words to happy birthday and trying to smile at their loved ones through the windows of the care home.
Some government ministers have come out trying to defend the latest news of a party at 10 Downing Street during lockdown – apparently it is not a party.
Thirty people in a room, singing happy birthday with a cake was definitely not something allowed in the rules at the time, even if it did last less then 10 minutes.
There always seems to be an excuse. It was “just 10 minutes with a cake”, it was “just a few staff in the garden having a work meeting with alcohol and a buffet”, it was “just wine and cheese”, it was “just a childcare bubble”. The point is, it was just not what everyone else was doing, because the majority followed the rules and wanted to put public health at the front of what we were doing.
Ignorance of the law is not really a defence, especially when you are the one actually making the relevant laws. Before inviting our friends round for my husband’s birthday, we read and re-read what you could and couldn’t do.
The information was out there, easy to find, and easy to follow, even though it was difficult not being able to see friends and family the way we were so used to.
Honesty, transparency and leadership should be at the heart of every government, and it seems to have been severely lacking while the rest of us were struggling through months of lockdown.
But while their conduct deserves all the scrutiny it is getting, the serious issues currently facing families in the UK should not be forgotten because the headlines are dominated with what happened 18 months ago.
We also have to look to the future. The inflation rate is at a 30-year high, tensions with the Russia over Ukraine could have a serious impact on our lives and rocketing fuel prices are going to be hitting the pockets of our most vulnerable come the spring. While an investigation into what happened during lockdown at Downing Street is needed, we also need to make sure our eye is not taken off the ball on what is happening in the here and now.