As you know some people like to claim that we are all overreacting to Covid. If you consider, that is, essentially, true. Why: because to react proportionately requires information people simply don't have. If I, for example, catch a bus, how can I know if there's a dollop of virus all over the seats? Buses are a vector for seasonal bugs like nobody's business. If I visit a shop, can I see germs on the shelves?
No, obviously. So we all have to make best guess judgements. I haven't caught a bus in seven months. That's unprecedented for me. But that doesn't mean buses aren't viral heaven, nor does it change the fact they are over priced, or that having to rely on them is a pain in the arse. That was always true; having to wait, deal with other passengers, the fiddly ticket system, the noisy bus station (oh GOD!). What this crisis has done is forced me to reevaluate whether such journeys are worthwhile. Now, because of the restrictions and the virus - the advice has always been "act as if everyone's infected" - I have to consider how economical it is for me to go into town. Is it worth it to pick up a few odds and sods, stuff I can get either locally or even online, perhaps paying a bit more? My answer, now as it has been throughout, is no. Judging by the state of the buses I see going past, I'm not alone in this.
Or, rather, I am. That, after all, is the wound within society right now. A few isolated faces on starkly vacant buses (which may ironically mean they are cleaner) is a sad reflection of desperate days. Unfortunately I don't have any answers. Even more unfortunately, neither does Boris Trump and his demon puppeteer. We are in it for what appears the long haul. The only stop on this road of oblivion appears to be the mirage over a cliff's edge called Brexit. Sunlit uplands...sharp drop into a ravine filled with stones, sharks and corona crocodiles.
Robert Jenrick seems to be doing the rounds on behalf of Tory messaging right now. I'm not entirely sure why. The guy is corrupt, but that doesn't seem to matter of course. Who among them isn't? His mission is to defend the government ignoring sage advice (literally as well as figuratively). I smell the slimy hand of Gove in this; after all he and Cummings are the real government, and Gove is famously contemptuous of expertise. Who needs science in a pandemic, right?
The death toll is rising. The government is inept. The finality of our oncoming fimbulwinter is stark. If they don't lockdown...
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