A few things that caught my eye this morning when I got up and was having a cup of tea on this, day 23, of the lock down.
People being shamed into social distancing or reported, even shouted at in the street and the supermarket. I have actually witnessed this and it really is a bit of a mix. There are people who will just over react, the ones who are phoning the Police every two minutes because two people have the gall to stop and chat to each other. But there are others who are terrified, who are suffering from serious anxiety, those are the ones I’ve seen in the supermarket. I’ve had the experience where I’ve had to walk past someone breaking the two metre guidance and they have about had a heart attack, I feel for those people where going out during this time is a genuinely frightening experience, the ones who just report and shout, I’ve no time for. They are your Daily Mail readers who would happily see the UK become a Police State if they had their way, probably unionists.
Some people are starting to ask how we exit the lock down? It’s a valid question and one that needs to be asked. We do however have three weeks to consider it and we will be able to look at how other countries do it over the next few weeks. Italy are starting to allow some shops to open with safety measures in place, I believe they are also going to look at schools opening gradually over the next few weeks. I am not so sure about the schools to be honest, especially in Dundee where they are in many cases over crowded but surely we can start to think about some shops using common sense. I wouldn’t go as far as allowing football, concerts, pubs, or nightclubs to start opening again as that would probably be asking for trouble but it is a discussion that needs to be had now I think.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is warning of dark days ahead for the economy. He is also using the same language as George Osborne in that we are all in this together. If there is one thing that we can guarantee is that we are NOT all in this together that’s for sure. The wealthy will be fine, the politicians will be fine, the bankers will be fine, the Windsor’s will be fine. Who won’t be fine are those who live in poverty, are poor or vulnerable, are unemployed, live hand to mouth, no they won’t be fine in any shape or form. You can bet that we are going to face super austerity when this is over and when we should be looking at a citizen basic income we will be making cuts. I fully expect my own job to be under serious threat next year as I am non statutory in the public sector. It is us at the lower end who will suffer even more. When the next set of elections come around we need to seriously think about our vote and what it means. England I suspect will remain Tory pretty much so that means the SNP have got to push for independence urgently and if they don’t then the members have to replace the leadership or we need to form a new party that will fight for us. The next two years are crucial to the independence debate and we better be ahead of the game or we will suffer like our great grandparents did with austerity that might make the great depression seem like a walk in the park.
The PPE debate rumbles on and as always it is the lowest paid care workers who are suffering the most. I know people who work in social care and they are heroes, maybe even more so than the NHS in many cases. I know that the PPE they receive is the most basic as they travel from house to house delivering vital care to elderly and vulnerable people in the community. I know I have mentioned this before but we need to seriously force a change in attitude and the value we place on these workers, they deserve better and we will never have a better chance to make the kind of change that should have happened years ago.
Well that’s my grumpiness for today, my blog has had double the visits since this crisis started which is amazing and if you have the time I would really like to hear what you think about the points I am making and what you think in general. This blog has been always been about me expressing an opinion but also a chance to share and learn from each other, so if you have a comment then please feel free to make it, we can all learn from each other.
Stay safe and with a bit of luck it might actually start to feel warm and people can sit outside if they have a garden or at least open a window, I must admit as I’ve gotten older and had the chance to go to places like Spain and Italy I enjoy being able to stick on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and just sit outside and enjoy that for what it is, don’t really want to go out in the cold these days.
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