We’re now in around the 6th week of lockdown, though it’s not really lockdown, at least not like we’ve seen elsewhere: we are still free to shop, to exercise, and go to work if we cannot work from home. Most people seem to be broadly sticking to the rules, which is nice.<\/p>\n
What was a bit less nice is seeing the police getting a bit too keen on their new powers in places- not here- West Midlands Police have been pretty exemplary as far as I can tell, but elsewhere<\/a> police have been attempting to control what constitutes exercise, what people may buy in shops, and whether they may sit in their own front garden: this is dangerous territory: they have no legal authority to do these things at present. It would seem words have been had, following the inevitable backlash, and those stories seem to have settled down. Of course, the Facebook police are still out there, wanting to stop anyone going about their perfectly legal business, just because, well, arseholes gonna arsehole, and they’ll be joined by all the people that were screaming for democracy and freedom a year ago, only to find that when it no longer fits their needs they really love a bit of old-school authoritarianism, getting told what to do by a posh thick twat.<\/p>\n This isn’t to say I think we should lift the restrictions. Our Government’s handling would seem to have been at least unwise during the early stages, and is still lacking. Other countries have done much better, but then, this is the way- we, like the US, have elected a populist clown with no real ability beyond soundbites and bluster. There’s now increasing pressure to loosen the lockdown- and many arguments in favour of it, economically- but given the risks, this seems very unwise. I’d love to see buisnesses working properly, shops and pubs open, life as normal, but I also quite like not being dead.<\/p>\n Talking of unwise, there’s a good amount of social media posts calling for us to disregard the “negative” reporting of the media and to “get behind the government” to conquer the virus.<\/p>\n I’m genuinely wondering if this is an elaborate troll, but I think probably not.<\/p>\n This is, indeed, a time for people to work together. I was going to say “the people of this country”, but I’m sick of nationalism and the myth of British exceptionalism.<\/p>\n It is time for all people to work together: from friends and neighbours shopping for each other, through staff and volunteers working in the health services, people working in retail and volunteers running food banks up to scientists trying to find a vaccine, passing through us all listening to people that actually know, rather than Dave down the metaphorical pub or heads of pub chains getting nervous about how high-geared his business is<\/a>.<\/p>\n Suddenly supporting the current PM will not save any lives, provide PPE to the medical staff risking their own lives or help the idiot “wrestle it to the ground<\/a>” (FFS) because that is not how this fucking well works. Soundbites, rhetoric and bullshit again. If we just believe hard enough, it’ll go away. Maybe if we all clap extra loud on a Thursday evening, that’ll fix it, or maybe we should stop supporting the people that voted to effectively freeze their pay<\/a>? Clapping might make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but it does fuck all at the Tesco checkout. If we want to be nice and kind and reward NHS staff, we should maybe be a bit less collectively selfish and pay our taxes.<\/p>\n It absolutely is not<\/strong> the time to stop asking awkward questions of politicians who fancied the power but have now found themselves incapable of doing the job they sought out so avidly. The argument over whether current journalists are fit to do so is another one. <\/p>\n Speaking of which, the media, for the large part, are churning out sickly-sweet “Keep Calm & Carry On” bollocks at a huge rate. Story after story of pensioners raising money for the NHS, when the the NHS should be paid for by taxation. The pensioners doing this are great, but this is dangerous ground: if we plant the seed that the NHS is funded by charity, then there’s wiggle-room to make that the fact. It’s also a handy distraction from the fact that people are dying- too many of them- because we have a selfish, inept, lying government that, yes, do have a difficult job, but are failing at it spectacularly, even now when they’re actually implementing socialist policies as fast as they can, having decried Labour for even considering them at the last election. This is not to say that a Corbyn-led government would have done better, as that is almost certainly untrue- but it’s an interesting thing that the railways are effectively state-funded at the moment<\/a> and the seemingly mental idea of state-provided broadband<\/a> has become real under a Conservative goverment<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s almost an example that the market economy isn’t the perfect answer people would have you believe if you actually want to look after people.<\/p>\n What odd times we live in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We’re now in around the 6th week of lockdown, though it’s not really lockdown, at least not like we’ve seen elsewhere: we are still free to shop, to exercise, and go to work if we cannot work from home. Most people seem to be broadly sticking to the rules, which is nice. What was a … Continue reading Extended Sentence<\/span>