THERE was just one death from Covid recorded on Monday.
And yet a country of 66 million people still remains partially paralysed by . . . what, exactly?
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One might hazard a guess that the main culprit is the political night terrors of those who lead us.
One minute, they’re standing at a podium thanking the country for voting them in for yet another term . . . then the floor falls away, an ominous voice intones, “You lifted restrictions too early,” and they see their political career fall in to the abyss before waking up in a cold sweat.
But things always look brighter in the morning, right? So if everyone in government could just agree on which road map we’re using, life would be a lot simpler.
Instead, we’re still being given more mixed signals than an inebriated Morse coder.
For weeks now, we’ve had the carrot dangled that a traffic light system will enable us to enjoy a foreign holiday at several “green list” destinations, i.e. places with little or no quarantine restrictions.
But now PM Boris Johnson is warning there’ll only be “some openings up” because it could risk “an influx of disease”.
So if, say, you’re doubly vaccinated (whilst wielding a negative Covid test to leave the country and one for your return) but STILL aren’t allowed to leave these shores to anywhere but a small handful of places, then, on that basis, the only conclusion is that international travel will never resume to what it once was.
Besides, for every scientist that issues grave warnings about variants, there are others who refer to them as “samiants” and say they pose little threat to the vaccinated.
And, with the weather so appalling, why are we waiting another two weeks for restaurants to allow diners inside?
Then there’s “freedom day,” currently set for June 21.
According to the PM, there’s a “good chance” that current social distancing rules will be scrapped, but Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab hinted that masks and social distancing measures might be needed beyond that date.
If so, it doesn’t sound much like freedom to me.
Around 50 million vaccines have been administered, with 15.5 million people having had both jabs. And then there’s that one death.
The stats always tend to be lower on a Monday because paperwork slows down over a weekend, but on average, just 15 people a day are now dying with the virus — the same level as last summer when none of us were vaccinated yet we had fewer curbs on our freedoms than we do now.
So let’s put that in to context, courtesy of a GP friend of mine who feels it’s time for the Government to look at the facts around other causes of death in this country (see inset box) and implement some common sense.
Particularly as those figures will undoubtedly rise as a direct result of lockdown.
For starters, those going to hospital with chest pain have dropped by around 50 per cent, suicides have virtually doubled, certain cancer treatments have been postponed to deadly effect, and if my local GP surgery is anything to go by, most of us haven’t seen a doctor face to face for well over a year.
So if this current infringement on our civil liberties is based on science, then surely the natural conclusion is that it should also be illegal to drive a car (thereby saving thousands of lives each year), smoke, eat a diet of junk food, not give free mammograms to women over 70 etc etc
Nonsense
It would be a nonsense, right? Because we simply can’t go through life with the mindset that no one must ever be allowed to die of anything. On that basis, none of us would ever leave the house.
In truth, now that the majority of the vulnerable are vaccinated, a far greater threat to the nation’s wellbeing is the woeful attitude to funding preventative measures such as regular health screening which, along with a change in lifestyle, might significantly change those disease death stats for the better.
Not to mention the lack of adequate funding on social care and, in particular, mental health services.
But successive politicians will always tell you that the projections for spending on health care don’t go far enough into the future to show a cash benefit from screening.
The only conclusion being that even though one of the PM’s aides warned him lifting lockdown too soon risked “bodies piled high,” those who die from non-Covid causes clearly aren’t afforded the same political importance.
So wide of the Markle
MEGHAN Markle’s representative on earth, Omid Scobie, says that perhaps the Duchess of Sussex was wrong in her interpretation of why her and Harry’s son Archie wasn’t given the title of Prince.
We know, Omid, we know. As does anyone with even the slightest knowledge of royal protocol. Someone like Prince Harry, for example.
Yet, for reasons that still remain unclear, he let his wife go nuclear with this particular misunderstanding.
One imagines that, in normal circumstances, a married couple might run through the bare bones of what each planned to say before sitting in front of the world’s most famous chat show host.
But either they did, and Harry failed to tell his wife that Archie will be a prince when his grandfather Charles becomes king. Or they didn’t bother to chat it through, which seems pretty reckless.
Either way, they blithely lobbed that particular hand grenade in to the heart of Harry’s family before The Queen calmly tossed it back with the deadly “recollections may vary” missive.
With a little due diligence, it could all have been so different.
A wake up call
SICK and tired of her fiancé spending hours playing Call Of Duty, 25-year-old Siobhan Giles stuck pictures of herself on his PlayStation and controllers.
“He’s on it all the time,” says Siobhan, from Washington, Tyne and Wear.
“I thought, ‘There’s only one way to make sure I’m on his mind’.”
Oh, I don’t know. Walking out and finding someone who appreciates you more might help too.
Score 10 for sexism
LEADING gymnasts have spoken out about the “outdated and sexist” regulations concerning the leotards they have to wear for competitions.
One rule states that the leg length of a leotard “cannot exceed the horizontal line around the leg, delineated by no more than 2cm below the base of the buttocks.”
Which, in layman’s terms, means too bloody short. It’s incredible to think that it’s 2021 and female competitors are still subjected to this outdated stance – particularly as, natch, the men get to wear shorts or leggings.
Perfecting the vertical splits is stressful enough without the added worry of possibly flashing your bits to all and sundry.
Keir is Lewser
IT probably looked good on, er, paper when one of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s team suggested this photo opportunity in Manchester’s John Lewis.
But given that he’d just pilloried the PM’s “poor priorities” for “nipping out of meetings to choose wallpaper at £840 a roll” it seems a little rich that he found the time to pop out for this cheap stunt.
If he wants to reconquer the “Red Wall” at the next election, he needs to stop papering over the cracks of his party’s failings and paint a picture of effective future policies (that’s enough decorating puns – Ed) or, (oops, sorry) he’s well and truly furnished.
Booming
HOUSE prices are booming – largely thanks to everyone rushing to buy before the stamp duty holiday runs out in June.
But doesn’t the boom mean that the poor old first-time buyer is no better off – because what they save in stamp duty they lose in paying over the odds to buy?
