Every day seems to invite more normality. This in turn rubs up against precaution. I see plenty of traffic, people going about their business, travelling to and from work as they would normally. At the same time I'm wearing a mask because I'm heading to Tesco. I don't know how you square this. The virus isn't going anywhere, but it stubbornly seems to be refusing to proliferate further. Of course it could, hence the precaution. This reality invites cognitive dissonance. It is unsettling.
I'm still uncool with riding a bus. Judging by the vacant seats on those that I see so are most everyone else. Not a scientific appraisal to be sure, but I'm certain buses used to be way more busy. So much so that I started carrying sanitiser int he winter because of the bugs I picked up from public transport (I assume). How will things fare this winter when those same bugs coat the surfaces and seats as normal? Can the public transport system survive without customers? I am guessing they must be in receipt of state support.
The local little league shouty football teams have returned. Following on from the cricket. I don't really see much social distancing, but then it's probably safe, we just don't actually know for certain. Again precautions.
I suspect by Christmas masks will be forgotten. How that bodes for Christmas shopping I do not know. The demand for seasonal 'normality' will be intense, certainly given how the high street is currently bleeding. The government will certainly want to give in to pressure and open more stuff up.
A most unsettling period is on the horizon, at least potentially. Unfortunately it will be helmed by idiots. We can see the next phase of the planned destruction fo the NHS with the dismantling of PHE and the new project set up to replace it. My MP is the husband of the clown running it. A man who cares so much about the NHS that he's overseen the closure of his local AnE department at nights and done nothing about it. The cutting of pastoral mental health support services and done nothing about it, as well as drug addiction services. All of these have had predictable outcomes, but that doesn't matter to people like this. Their goal is simply to put public money into private hands. The revelation that he contributes to a crappy neoliberal 'think tank' is no surprise.
His wife is Dido Harding. She's a baroness because of course she is. Responsible for the disastrous but arrogant decision to keep the Cheltenham Festival going at the rise of this crisis. Once ran Talk Talk and oversaw a massive breach of security, though according to Matt Hancock this is success. She's also been running the track and trace system which hasn't been particularly well received. No one else was interviewed.
Yes, I can smell it too.
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