Dilemas

Dilemmas 

The country is in chaos. The lifting of all restrictions in the face of a rising case load has caused shortages due to mass isolation , the dreaded "pingdemic" and created as much conflict and confusion as it has freedom.

Thankfully as I write the steep rise in infections has stopped, for how long who knows. We are all on our own now finding our way through the mess our Government has dumped us in.

Everyone is making different decisions according to circumstance. Me, I m staying outside with friends , avoiding anything inside, but doing whatever I want with my family. I want to cherish this summer with my beloved granddaughters. 

My family members have all made alternative choices as their lifestyles dictate. Those with children have embraced the out of school time, those at work are now back at work, with all the interactions that involved. And all deserve a social life!

My social life is walking with friends on the cliffs and countryside. I have meet friends in pubs for lunch, outside, and coffee, outside. I have been to houses for lunch, outside.

Only with family do i stop looking over my shoulder because this is why I m being so careful with everyone else. Yes, logically, they could well give me covid but it is not covid which worries me, it is the thought of isolating and seeing our precious summer time vanishing. So much lost time already and I cannot bear to miss any more. 

My diary is criss crossed with a messy but full schedule devised to allow me to optimise time with family across the country.

Please Gods give me these summer weeks to enjoy before the empty weeks of winter when the schools return and my diary is blank. Please Gods keep us infection free and healthy for our time together. 

" Freedom Day"

 Freedom Day? Huh? 

Monday July 19th. Boris Johnson decides , against every scientists advice,  to go ahead with the lifting of all restrictions in England, the stage 4 of his roadmap out of lockdown, postponed from June. Our much lauded Freedom Day. 

The UK has the highest number of Covid cases per population in the world. The world. There is a sharp rise in the number of hospital admissions andour death rate,  whilst low thanks to the mass vaccination programme, is slowly but surely creeping upwards.

The world thinks we are mad. So does most of the population. It is madness. Boris Johnsons popularity has sunk to an all time low. 

I am now part of a bizarre social experiment. The Governments rationale is that with a highly vaccinated population we can live with the virus. The summer holidays are nearly here so okay there is some merit in the "if not now than when?" argument.

But the obvious answer is simply just " not now". 

Mass spectator events including hosted the final of the Euros at Wembley where 60,000 spectators watched England snatch defeat yet again from the jaws of victory, losing on penalties, have become super spreader events.

The football ended in defeat in more ways than goals. We reached the final. England was more or less united for once is a breathless state of bemusement. There was a positive vibe of unity even I, a non football fan, felt. Even i watched the match.

Then the riots, the disgusting behaviour of drunken fans, the violent crowds breaking into the stadium. I felt ashamed to be British. Again.  

Thankfully racist abuse directed towards players who missed penalties was matched by an outpouring of love to balance an overwhelming sensation  everything had gone so horribly wrong. 

I now know many people now who have Covid, caught during pub nights to watch the football or simply a passing contact with someone else who has it, This Delta variant is incredibly contagious. 

The ludicrous situation is summed up by the pingdemic sweeping the nation. Come to close to someone infected and your app will ping. 10 days of isolation follows. Cue much deleting of the track and trace app, one many of us, including me, never added in the first place as its not a legal requirement and notoriously unreliable.

Farcical. On Freedom Day the PM and Chancellor and the Leader of the Opposition were in isolation as the Health Secretary developed Covid. Shortages in shops and services as half the workface across the land is in isolation.

You couldn't make it up.