Andy Richardson: 'We’re gradually returning to habits of old'
We’re getting tired. We’re falling into bad habits.
We no longer clap on Thursdays, Downing Street press conferences are wearisome, the self-serving nature of politicians no longer shocks us, nor does their ineptitude. Two metres is now one metre, for most, or none. Bubbles are already multi-bubbles.
Rules are bent not just by Government ministers – and, yes, we haven’t forgotten Dom Diddy Dom Dom Dominic Cummings – but by the masses, whether it’s a trip to the beach or a protest prompted by the moral outrage of systemic racism.
It’s not just Matt Hancock who tells us to practise social distancing then forgets to do it himself, we are creatures of habit and we’re gradually returning to the habits of old.
Even the voices of people who’ve had a good war are losing their tenor.
Such characters as Piers Morgan, and whodda thunk the nation’s most perpetually outraged person would now be widely respected by the left as well as those from the centre and right, no longer cut through as they once did.
Covid-19 has already changed Britain.
Those we once took for granted – care workers, binmen (and they usually are men), nurses, hospital porters, doctors, fruit pickers and others in professions once considered low-skilled – now get the kudos they deserve.
On the risks of Covid, however, we have become desensitised. We have become immune to the horrors of a disease that can destroy lungs.
Those who ought not to have got away with their failings are slowly changing the narrative – and we might look at Government ministers, in that regard, for putting us top of the world league for most economic damage and in the top three for worst fatality rates, for both were avoidable.
The disease has lost none of its potency.
Though we are three months into lockdown, we are in a worse position now than when it began. The risks have become greater, though people no longer see them. It is surely a matter of time before there is a second wave or a series of mini spikes.
The world keeps on turning, for most. We must not forget those who made sacrifices and those who lost lives. We are doomed to repeat the mistakes of our history if we so quickly forget.
