We do not
suppose anyone is actually enjoying Lockdown, perhaps merely congratulating
themselves that they are still alive and coping as well as they can, in a gawd-awful
situation. We can raise a rare laugh, of the gallows-humour variety, observing
the antics of the local Covidiots as they crowd out the oldies from the
pavements, party noisily with their friends - or take the long drive to Durham
and Barnard Castle à la Dominic Cummings!
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| Lockdown London's deserted West End |
We live on
deliveries from supermarkets, as actually to visit one involves untold hassle,
social-distancing, cheerless queueing and regular empty shelves. We sharpen up
our expertise on video-conferencing and all manner of communications, as
certainly working from home will be very common post-plague and pre-vaccine –
will anyone ever want to get squashed into a fully populated, germ-jammed lift
to the 15th floor of the office again? Public transport is by its
nature very crowded and unadaptable, so you walk, or revert to the difficulties
of taking your own car – costly just to enter city centres, let alone park. Even
European holiday travel seems unlikely this season – German towels have already
booked the best loungers by the pool – so the magnificent Bernese Oberland, delectable
Florence, invigorating Athens and the serene Dordogne will have to be 2021
treats, if there are any airlines left flying. As for further afield,
California, Rio and Capetown will fade away in our memories like Shangri-La, El
Dorado and the remote Cathay of old.
Leave our
dreams on one side; it is grim reality that we face today. A few timid steps
towards loosening Lockdown have been badly received by our rattled population.
We have been terrorised to stay at home these last 10 weeks, not much comforted
by contradictory statistics, confused medical opinions and unseemly political
controversy. So used has much of the working population become to living idly
at the taxpayers’ expense that it will be hard to tempt them back to the daily
grindstone. Social distancing takes away much of the joy of life – how can you
woo your latest beloved, tell jokes or share bottles separated by 2 invasive
metres?
The sad fact too
is that our government has not inspired confidence. I am an ardent fan of
Boris, who has the wit and cojones to run an effective administration,
has championed the liberating Brexit policy and who won a deserved landslide
election victory. But the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed his weaknesses. Poor
chap, he had a brush with death in early April when he was rushed to intensive
care with breathing difficulties. He has more or less recovered but he lacks
his earlier bounce and self-confidence. He was always a great delegator and
fatally he has not always mastered his brief, in the unfamiliar world of
viruses, PPE and Lockdown rules. Under interrogation and scrutiny from
Parliament and Press, too often he has brayed and blustered, and defended the
indefensible. His handling of the Dominic Cummings affair has been clumsy; his
chief adviser committed a technical but definite delinquency: Boris should have
reprimanded him, reminded him to set an example and elicited an apology: if
Cummings is indeed a vital adviser, he should be kept on. Instead a major
furore was stirred up by Boris’ weak defence and unwillingness to engage. This
was poor leadership.
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| Dominic Cummings, Boris' indispensable Svengali |
Boris’
ministry has talented members – Raab, Gove, Sunak, Patel, Hancock et al
are all people of ability. This ministry is beset by many bitter enemies. The
list is long: a Labour Party, newly invigorated by sensibly forensic Keir Starmer
and furious at the loss of their heartland: a fanatical rabble of LibDems,
still trying to reverse Brexit: an SNP sustaining itself only with hate-filled
forays against England: a sad band of sour Remainers unable to accept reality:
Tory malcontents who lost office or whose hopes of office were dashed: the most
biased media outside Russia, wallowing in denigration.
And yet all
is not misery and conflict. The Lockdown has helped dispel old prejudices
against immigrants working so effectively within our community; the Thursday
evening NHS clap has broken barriers between neighbours who had never talked before:
there is a warm new spirit of toleration growing. It is all grist to the mill.
Maybe Boris can be fortified by the example of his hero Winston Churchill. While
awaiting Dunkirk, Churchill was being dunned by his creditors, but he saw it
all through past the fall of Tobruk, the loss of Singapore to desert victory,
the D-Day landings and the German surrender.
May Boris
overcome his setbacks and deliver a workable arrangement with the EU, a
suppression of Covid-19, a restored economy and a contented nation. We can echo
Hamlet -
‘Tis a
consummation devoutly to be wish’d!
SMD
30.05.20
Text
copyright © Sidney Donald 2020
