IN the week that the UK’s reported Covid-19 death toll became the highest in Europe, the Jeremy Vine Show on Channel 5 asked its panel yesterday: “Should bank holiday picnickers be punished?” There seems to be growing desperation to find evidence that ordinary people are growing rebellious and angry at the continued lockdown.
Ahead of Boris Johnson’s much-anticipated speech tomorrow – in which he is expected to announce an easing of some lockdown measures in England – certain sections of the media have been goading the public. I get it, I do. What this story needs is a villain. Bad behaviour sells papers.
As the death toll continues to rise and NHS workers continue to plead with the UK Government for personal protective equipment, the most obvious bad guy is the man with the dodgy hip who stops for a rest on a park bench when he’s out for his daily walk.
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Maybe if right-wing papers continue to predict a mass flouting of the rules, then that’s what will happen. Everybody and their dug will be out picnicking, sunbathing and engaging in all manner of disorderly lockdown activities.
If that happens, it will become much easier for Boris Johnson to throw his hands up and say “Ah, well, we tried to keep you safe but you aren’t doing your bit – to the pub we go!”
Some Tory ministers are said to be lobbying for an accelerated timetable for ending lockdown because of the impact it is having on the economy. The gloomy economic forecasts should concern us all. And those who have the most have the most to lose. There are company bosses who are sick with worry about the fate of their private islands and investment portfolios. The longer this goes on, the lower they fall on the Forbes rich list.
Despite the distressing sight of Richard Branson wiping away his tears on the glossy ponytail of a female cabin crew member, the public are still largely supportive of lockdown continuing. The reasons for their continued obedience are nuanced and complex, but one theory is that most folk don’t want to die or risk causing the death of others.
While your average citizen may be complying with the rules, there is a section of the population that seems to think these rules don’t apply to them. Plummy-voiced lockdown louts have been running riot ... while single mums without access to a garden are being harassed for sitting on the nearest patch of grass. Those miscreants have been getting up to all sorts of nonsense.
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This week, Professor Neil Ferguson quit as a UK Government adviser after it was revealed that he’d broken lockdown rules to meet with his married lover. While we shouldn’t moralise about the personal lives of consenting adults, there’s no doubt that Ferguson’s actions were irresponsible and selfish.
IMAGINE how all those Tory ministers who are missing their mistresses must feel. There they are, compelled to remain faithful to their wives because of lockdown, while the Naughty Professor is doing as he pleases and dirty talking about curves and peaks.
We’ve heard a lot about those terrible people who have been wilfully buying chocolate, alcohol and other “luxuries” during their weekly shop. Concerns have been raised about whether those goods are really necessary, when porridge and red lentils contain all the nutrients a person needs to survive.
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Are these trips for non-beige foods really justifiable, when the advice has been to stay indoors as much as possible? And what about those poor souls who have more than one “indoors” It must be so confusing for them to decide which doors to stay behind and when.
Maybe that’s why multi-millionaire Tory donor Dr Christopher Moran took a 500-mile trip during lockdown to visit his Highland estate.
He’s not the only one stretching the limits of “essential journey”.
On Good Morning Britain yesterday, Stanley Johnson (who was being interviewed because it’s been a few days since any of Boris’s family were on telly talking about how great he is) admitted to breaking lockdown.
He said he made a non-essential journey to buy a newspaper so he could read about the birth of Boris’s baby boy. Nobody can criticise him for that. Baby Wilfred is Stanley’s 14th or so grandchild, the sixth, seventh or eighth grandchild Boris has given him, so it’s a truly special time for the Johnson clan.
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It’s becoming increasingly clear which groups of people are most likely to break the lockdown rules in the weeks ahead. While we have become used to seeing police officers patrolling parks and beaches, it seems they have been looking for offenders in all the wrong places.
If authority figures want to make an example of rule-breakers then dawn raids at private members clubs across the country would be a better use of their time. They should check on Conservative branch offices to make sure they are not operating as illegal port and Stilton dens for ruddy-faced criminals.
Maybe when they have a few genuine offenders in the cells, they will stop bothering the rest of us.
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