Evening one and all,
I shall put a slight caveat in that I have been drinking. It was my work's Christmas party albeit virtual and I have now drank my £10 allocation of a bottle of cheap rosé and some cocktail mixers. Sorry in advance for whatever ensues I expect it will be an interesting blog of which I may or may not remember in the morning.
As I embark on my final few days at work, It suddenly dawned on me that I was leaving on Friday despite knowing this for some weeks, however, it was not until I was presented with a box of chocolates and a leaving card from a co-worker that I nearly burst into tears all in the knowledge that this would be the final time I was going to see some of them. It is an odd time and especially so given the recent government information and advice which unless you had been hiding under a rock for the last 72 hours means in no uncertain terms that Christmas is well and truly cancelled, despite Boris Johnson saying it would be “inhuman” in earlier interviews.
In an emergency announcement made early Saturday evening (19th December 2020), Prime Minister Boris Johnson effectively cancelled Christmas gatherings for millions of families in London, Buckinghamshire, Bedford, Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes, Luton, Hertfordshire amongst others as he sought to contain the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. As put by the Evening Standard - Christmas bubbles have been axed and many areas including London, the South East and the surrounding home countries were slammed into new Tier 4 restrictions (basically fucking lockdown 3.0 dressed up in a nice tidy-twating parcel with a bow on top to make it feel extra cunting Christmassy) after spending at less than 24-hours in Tier 3. The Christmas relaxation for the rest of the country (lucky bastards) was dramatically scaled back to three households being able to meet on Christmas Day alone rather than for five days in England, with Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales their own thing.
But oh, what a surprise that this has happened. Oh no, who could have predicted it. Any fucking idiot with a brain could have told you that after locking down for 4-weeks during November the public would be itching to get back to some type of normality indulging in pubs and restaurants not to mention Christmas shopping which had been not possible due to the fact that non-essential shops had been closed. Of course, figures were going to go up, it was inevitable. Also in combination with this, the universities returning back home which, unlike schools, had been mixing with adult peers and sometimes tutors in what were very confined spaces within halls of residence or lecture halls. I very much doubt that Minister's had thought through that these combined issues alone would cause a surge in numbers of the virus.
According to the all-important "science" that the government so incessantly listen to, this comes just as a new fast-spreading variant of Covid-19 was blamed for a surge in cases. The Evening Standard details that Ministers insisted the drastic action was needed to combat the new strain of the virus VUi202012/01 which was said to have been identified first in the UK, mainly in the South East and home counties and according to the newspaper article, nearly 60% of recent new cases in London are believed to be the new strain of the virus, with cases nearly doubling in the past week.
Funny how a new strain of the COVID-19 virus rears its ugly head just before Christmas? No, I do not buy this at all. Despite all of the media scaremongering surrounding it, I call bullshit as it was quite obvious that this virus, which imitates flu-like symptoms, was going to mutate and had started to do so in November, evolving into something far worse than what we have experienced so far this year. Health chiefs have already confirmed that there is no evidence so far that it is more deadly or that vaccines may not work against it. The World Health Organisation recently announced as reported in The Evening Standard article that they are continuing to analyse the available data to improve our understanding but there is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments although urgent work is underway to confirm this.
Boris Johnson claims that the new virus may be up to 70% more transmissible "according to the science" as he announced the somber new Tier 4 restrictions at the Downing Street press conference. Mr Johnson goes on to say he was taking the actions with a “heavy heart” (oh fuck off - You are telling me you are self-isolating with your fiance and baby within number 10? I very much doubt that and instead, I am sure you will be shipping yourself off to your luxe country retreat somewhere out in a less-infected area). Leaving him with no choice, BoJo says that “Without action, the evidence suggests that infections would soar, hospitals would become overwhelmed and many thousands more would lose their lives".
The Evening Standard article continued, Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party said people were getting “confusion where they need certainty”, and whilst people should follow the Government guidance of their tier, he was really frustrated due to the fact that he had raised the issue to surround increasing numbers and a new strain of the virus with the Prime Minister and it was dismissed telling people to have a merry little Christmas – only three days later to rip up their plans. In a statement to The Evening Standard, Keir Starmer said: "I think the British public is entitled to more decisive leadership than that.”
Continuing the blonde-haired baffoon said, "Christmas this year will be different, very different, but we’re sacrificing the chance to see our loved ones this Christmas so that we have a better chance of protecting their lives so that we can see them at future Christmases.” But who is anyone to guarantee that next Christmas we will be spending it with all of those that are here this year? No one. Last year I did not think I would my Scottish grandmother on my mother's side was not going to be here. Obviously, it was inevitable since she was over the age of 80 and had spent most of the last quarter of the year bedbound, however, I still expected her to still be at my wedding and to maybe even make it to see her first great-grandchild. And for that reason alone I am against this whole statement. Boris nor anyone else can guarantee that your loved ones will be here next year, elderly or not.
At the end of the day, I know, as I always have, that there are many more hundreds of thousands of families that are far worse off than I am. Parents who have not been able to provide their children with the Christmas experience they had hoped for. People who have been self-isolating themselves for several weeks now in the anticipation that they will get to see Grandma or Grandpa for the first time in months and possibly for the last time, only to have it snatched away from them at the last moment. Families who had been expecting to spend the big day with loved ones and sharing food which they would have otherwise not being able to afford due to being furloughed or even worse losing their jobs entirely. Now, like us, they need to try and make the best and scrape together to make Christmas as best as they can.
I cannot tell you how low I have been feeling since the news on Saturday, however, I need to keep at the forefront of my mind that things will get better than this for it is only a temporary measure. I know for a fact people were bending the rules to suit them beforehand and now that we are back in essentially what is lockdown again I think the public has well and truly had enough and as a result will break the rules even more-so than they would have if rules had not changed. I just hope that I can stand there on the 12th of June and know that all of this was well worth the sacrifice.
'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx
