At the moment any kind of normal seems a long way off. We are living in a fully masked state of paranoia, where seeing friends and family can all too easily become a criminal offence, and going on holiday is about as fantastical as a trip to the moon. As for weddings, well you can get married but by the time you've included the person you're marrying, 2 sets of parents and a child or two, you'll soon find yourself choosing between the best man and the hired cellist.
The outlook is uncertain, and thanks to the media and politicians on both sides, it doesn't look like becoming any less muddier any time soon - if Boris Johnson's flip flop decision making looks chaotic, it would be nothing compared to Keir Starmer's desire to lock down every month from here to eternity.
Seriously? Has Mr Starmer or Mr Johnson ever tried to run a business? Do they have any idea of the ever quickening doom that's enveloping businesses around the country? It's not just the events, hospitality or wedding industries that are being hit, we're all 'getting it' in some way - retail, travel, sport...it's all going to hell in a handcart, and nobody anywhere in the government or media is offering any sense of reality, or any counter argument.
The media is going bananas about 'surging cases', ramping up the jeopardy to the maximum, and seem to revel in every second of it. We are being told about the 'very grave' situation in Manchester where Tier 3 Uber Lockdown is needed as there are 427 cases per 100,000 population.
So, that means that 0.47% of the population has tested positive for it, not suffering from it, not showing symptoms, they just have it. When were we ever bothered about people who had flu but weren't suffering from it? If you take into account recent ONS surveys which suggest around 80% of those 'cases' will be asymptomatic, then the situation begins to look slightly warped...and then if you factor in the false positives produced by testing, our reaction begins to look farcical.
Reducing weddings to 15 people, is as meaningless as it is useful. You're simply delaying a really important event, which most people use as a pivot for bigger life changes. Starting a family, buying your forever home, are all things which follow a wedding, and let's not overlook the elderly relatives who might not be around in a year or so time.
There will be some who will follow Matt Hancock's line of 'don't kill grandma'...all the elderly people I know just want to get on with their lives and see their family. They were always going to die of something, and if that something just happens to be Covid, then as far as they're concerned, so be it. In the winter of 2017/2018, an extra 50,000 people died in the UK over the winter death toll average due to Flu. The country didn't stop. Nothing changed.
Yes, Coronavirus isn't pleasant for some, and it will be the last disease a few people will ever have, but the other side....the lives, education, the economy and the NHS waiting list that currently stands at 4.2 million...isn't it about time we looked at this differently?
