Welcome to the new normal
It's not fashionable to live in the past (although most people do). I'm thinking about all those competitors on TV quizzes who can't answer questions about anything that happened before last year because 'I wasn't born then'.
I want you to think back to the start of the pandemic. That's 4 months ago. We can surely all manage that.
We were all talking then about the 'new normal'. How things would never again be as they had been. How life was all different now. People were on furlough - not working at all or working from home. Or on Facetime. The daily commute was finally seen as being expensive and pointless and had been abandoned. Technology had finally been harnessed to our needs. There was discussion of the possibility of setting up a 'universal basic income'which might free people from being wage slaves. Cars were off the roads and bikes were in and people were prepared to make space for them. Walking was making a comeback.
Not everyone was entirely happy about how things had changed but we were realising there were other ways to do things.
And some people were actually hoping that the old 19th century ways of clocking on, putting in an 8 hour day and the cult of 'presenteeism' were over. Presenteeism, if you haven't heard of it, means turning up at the workplace and filling in the time between - usually - 9 and 5, and being seen to be there even if you're not doing much that could be called useful or productive.
Above all, we seemed to have understood that the usual way of working out the importance of jobs was, frankly, bullshit. Nobody really needs hedge fund managers or data processors. We really need cleaners, care workers, nurses, supermarket workers, ambulance people, delivery drivers, construction and maintenance workers and refuse collectors. Not forgetting mental health workers, teachers who can adapt to working online, and doctors who can handle online consultations. It's only when we come out of lockdown that we start to need police officers and call centre staff.
But that was then - right up to mid-June maybe. Now, in July, it all looks a bit different. The UK Government doesn't even consider these changes as possible. The Westminster government is made up of Tories and it's clear the Tories hate change. So the push is to get everyone out of lockdown, no matter how dangerous that step might be, and get us all back to where we were in February. That may mean sending kids and teachers into schools when it's really not safe. It may mean opening businesses that really should stay closed. It will definitely mean a huge amount of borrowing and creating money in Westminster. But the UK government will do it, because that's all they know and they're too lacking in imagination to adopt any other approach.
A lot of us can see the need for change and the possible directions change could take, but it's not clear what any of us can do in the face of a UK government with a huge majority and an utter disregard for what anyone thinks outside London. So get ready for more lockdowns (pray for Leicester and the other English cities on the verge of being locked down) and for Westminster to go on flying in the face of the scientific evidence (pray for good health for everyone).
I want you to think back to the start of the pandemic. That's 4 months ago. We can surely all manage that.
We were all talking then about the 'new normal'. How things would never again be as they had been. How life was all different now. People were on furlough - not working at all or working from home. Or on Facetime. The daily commute was finally seen as being expensive and pointless and had been abandoned. Technology had finally been harnessed to our needs. There was discussion of the possibility of setting up a 'universal basic income'which might free people from being wage slaves. Cars were off the roads and bikes were in and people were prepared to make space for them. Walking was making a comeback.
Not everyone was entirely happy about how things had changed but we were realising there were other ways to do things.
And some people were actually hoping that the old 19th century ways of clocking on, putting in an 8 hour day and the cult of 'presenteeism' were over. Presenteeism, if you haven't heard of it, means turning up at the workplace and filling in the time between - usually - 9 and 5, and being seen to be there even if you're not doing much that could be called useful or productive.
Above all, we seemed to have understood that the usual way of working out the importance of jobs was, frankly, bullshit. Nobody really needs hedge fund managers or data processors. We really need cleaners, care workers, nurses, supermarket workers, ambulance people, delivery drivers, construction and maintenance workers and refuse collectors. Not forgetting mental health workers, teachers who can adapt to working online, and doctors who can handle online consultations. It's only when we come out of lockdown that we start to need police officers and call centre staff.
But that was then - right up to mid-June maybe. Now, in July, it all looks a bit different. The UK Government doesn't even consider these changes as possible. The Westminster government is made up of Tories and it's clear the Tories hate change. So the push is to get everyone out of lockdown, no matter how dangerous that step might be, and get us all back to where we were in February. That may mean sending kids and teachers into schools when it's really not safe. It may mean opening businesses that really should stay closed. It will definitely mean a huge amount of borrowing and creating money in Westminster. But the UK government will do it, because that's all they know and they're too lacking in imagination to adopt any other approach.
A lot of us can see the need for change and the possible directions change could take, but it's not clear what any of us can do in the face of a UK government with a huge majority and an utter disregard for what anyone thinks outside London. So get ready for more lockdowns (pray for Leicester and the other English cities on the verge of being locked down) and for Westminster to go on flying in the face of the scientific evidence (pray for good health for everyone).
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