The Tiers of a Town

Christmas is coming. We have the rules down pat. Please put a mask on when shopping for this and that. If you haven’t got a mask some other face covering will do. If you haven’t got that either then on your tod stay you.

It is all going to end in tiers. What am I saying, it has done already. We are Tier 3 from today. I thought I was safe in Surrey but no, practically the whole country is now Tier 3. The council email tells us what this means with a list of ten bullet points but amongst the pubs closing but shops staying open the most important ones are:

1. No meeting with persons outside your household or bubble indoors.

2. No meeting with persons outside your household or bubble in a garden or most outdoor public venues.

3. Rule of six in some outdoor public venues. (Now that is rife for interpretation for a start.)

Nothing really changes for me as a one person bubble, but the rules are clear. Except, of course, in four days this all goes to the wall and there is a five day free for all. Yes, officially three households mixing but as some do not adhere to the rules outside this so they will not adhere to the rules inside this.

At the beginning of this pandemic there were comparisons with the bulldog die-hard (what a Christmas film that is) spirit of the war years. This is a fallacy. We don’t have this spirit any more as a nation. There are too many people who either won’t listen to the advice of others or just don’t care and do their own thing. After the first lockdown there were some who said it was eased too early and it was, otherwise why did we have a second lockdown. Why was the first lockdown eased? Because of the continual stupidity of people going out in the sun and mingling on beaches and in the parks. We have no self control.

A neighbour said to me yesterday – at a two metre distance obviously – that we should just cancel Christmas this year and people will just have to lump it. We don’t need to go that far. It is totally unfair to the children. However, we can just keep it to one’s own household and use social media for any other interaction. It is not rocket science, just common science.

A final thought occurs to me. The five days of anarchy starts December 23rd so ends on 27th December. What about New Year? The other time when many people feel they have to flock together to celebrate. We should see a deserted Trafalgar Square but will we?

Myxamatosis used to be rife in rabbits but I have a feeling that this Christmas is going to be a human version, mixamycovid. If only there were a cautionary tale about it. Erm…

To my few readers, I wish you as Merry A Christmas as possible under the guidelines and hopefully not an infectious New Year.