We are heading rapidly towards the fourth anniversary of the first lockdown, due to Covid. Anniversary makes it sound good, huh? I can’t think of how else to word it - I can’t call it celebration, jubilee or red-letter day!
I feel that now would be a good time to reflect on what actually occurred. I cannot possibly know the motives and intent behind what was done, but I can certainly see what it has caused.
In March 2020, the UK Government ordered the populace into a lockdown, which started a chain of events that was bound to end badly. When we didn’t escape the lockdown after the initial three-week period, I felt that something sinister was going on.
By the end of April, I was telling my neighbour down the road (and anyone else who would listen!) that these draconian rules would collapse the economy - and you need a strong economy to fund the National Health Service. Hence, the ‘Protect the NHS’ message was, essentially, horse shit.
And apparently, no cost/benefit exercise had been done before the lockdowns and restrictions. Was it because they couldn’t have gotten away with carrying them out, had they shown, in advance, what the fallout would be?
During these times, which in my humble opinion were utterly tyrannical, the economy did indeed suffer severely. So many businesses were forced to close, and so many jobs were lost, along with the tax revenue they could have provided.
So many people were unable to see loved ones. So many children were made to miss school.
Births, weddings, funerals; there was nothing sacred at this point in history. England’s wedding Covid restrictions lasted from March 2020 to February 2022! Weddings were banned, then only thirty guests, just fifteen guests, next only ‘deathbed’ weddings allowed. It truly was a travesty to meddle in innocent people’s lives to that extent.
Some folk seemed to revel in implementing the rules. I once had someone eagerly tell me how they helped a patient in hospital, possibly gravely ill, by holding an iPad for them so that they could view their loved ones on screen. I felt queasy as I listened and not a little angry. How barbaric to keep poorly people apart from their families at such a time. There is no justification for that, under any circumstances, surely?
At this point I would like to borrow a phrase I heard on James Delingpole’s The Delingpod, an absolute favourite listen of mine. His guest was Tania Edwards and she recounted an anecdote about a train journey she had undertaken, where she observed a woman trying to put a mask onto a young disabled man in a quiet railway carriage. She said to the woman that the young man didn’t need it. “It’s good for him” she replied. Tania then said to James that during the Covid times, she realised that “we were being asked to admire people who were being cruel”. Bingo!
Sadly during these times, some were driven to despair. I found myself yelling loudly out of the bedroom window one frosty, dark evening at the beginning of January 2021, at the smothering, meagre existence we were enduring, with no end date yet in sight. After that, I pulled myself together, determined not to let the sods win.
Lockdowns and restrictions were like throwing a stone into a pond: the ripples went on and on. And on. The collateral damage was immense and will be felt for many years. And the Covid injectables? A story for another day…