" 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.