Everybody was probably expecting this to come but even so the return of lockdown is so very dispiriting.
At the time of first lockdown, it felt as though it would be a temporary arrangement- the Premier League had originally planned to be back within the month, and the Prime Minister said that we would be through the worst within 12 weeks.
I do not suppose that many people are confidently making that assertion now.
This lack of freedom is an unprecedented challenge for those of us who have not had the misfortune to live through a war. Facing it during the short dark rainy days of an English winter, when a pleasant walk through Ludgrove or Joel Park is not so alluring, makes the whole situation even more difficult, particularly when there is no end on sight.
On top of that, we face the looming prospect of a uniquely bleak and bereft Christmas.
Back in March, there was a widespread view that this was an action that needed to be taken to protect us for a disease that could affect any of us.
The TV pictures of people dying in hospital corridors in Northern Italy were fresh in the mind at the time. I also vividly recall the shock when the Prime Minister was rushed to hospital and was put into an Intensive Care Unit. This was a disease that could affect anyone of us.
What is increasingly clear is that the country is now far less united on what we should be doing.
Some mainstream commentators and politicians are now questioning whether the negative impacts of lockdown, in terms of mental health, loneliness, delays on other hospital procedures and general economic harm, particularly on people with low levels of savings, are of greater damage than the spread of the virus.
Concern
As I understand it, the original lockdown was delayed as there was a concern that people would be unwilling to follow the rules for a prolonged period of time.
The reality was that the rules were generally observed, we were all in it together, and there was a greater appreciation of the often invisible work carried out by the key workers in society. The handful of people in the public eye, with influence on policy who broke the rules, were dealt with.
Unfortunately, this treatment did not extend to the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor, and we will probably never know how much of an effect this had on shattering the consensus, and reminding us that no matter what the scenario is, there is always one rule for certain people and another rule for everyone else.
As the news cycle has been so dominated by the continued impact of Covid-19 and all the tough decisions being made, it has been easy to forget that we have more change round the corner with the implementation of Brexit on January 1.
It had completely slipped my mind, or maybe I had genuinely thought it was a joke, that the Government is planning to lavish £120m on a special ‘Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’, in a slightly left-field way of bringing the nation together after Brexit.
Surely a more appropriate celebration or commemoration that people could genuinely unite around would be to mark an anniversary of the day when we find a working vaccine for Covid-19.
This could be a solemn occasion, remembering people lost to the disease, or a celebration of restoring the freedoms that we had hitherto taken for granted, or maybe a combination of the two. Having something, anything, to look forward to would be good.
