IF POLITICIANS learn one thing from this pandemic, it should be that they will never again utter the phrase: “We’re all in this together.”
It wasn’t true when the millionaire chancellor, George Osborne, said it as he ushered in an era of austerity and savage cuts to welfare and public spending – including the NHS. Between 2010 and 2015 poverty soared and the Red Cross became involved in food aid in the UK for the first time since the Second World War.
And it’s not true now with statistics showing deprived areas have seen more than double the number of Covid-19 deaths than better-off parts.
And while we’re clapping for brave health workers every Thursday, the pandemic has also exposed the underbelly of our society: the non-unionised, part-time, agency and so-called gig economy self-employed who’ve been propping up the cash-strapped public services, particularly in GB.
Abdul Gellaledin was an ambulance driver for a private company outsourced to help the underfunded NHS. His requests for protective equipment went unheeded by his employer. He died from Covid-19. He was 53.
Then there was Emmanuel Gomes, another outsourced worker who continued cleaning the offices of the Ministry of Justice in London despite feeling ill, because he wasn’t entitled to proper sick pay. He was taken home by a concerned colleague and died a few days later. The cleaners are paid £9.08 an hour.
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THERE’VE also been many economic losers during this lockdown. I’m thinking of the small cafés and shops which provide an essential role in the community. Some may never reopen.
And I’m also thinking of a young tradesman I know who hadn’t been self-employed for long enough to qualify for the government’s scheme. Six weeks on, he has still to receive a single penny from universal credit.
I WONDER if the current social distancing will have any long-term effect on pda – public displays of affection?
I ask as one who has never been innately tuned to the etiquette of when to hug and when to offer a peck on the cheek or a handshake. I lived in Spain for a year but never quite got the hang of the double cheek kiss without turning it into a head butt. Which side to go to, right or left?
I ended up opting to stand still and just regally accept their proffered kisses. If only I had remembered that tactic when I had a lip collision with a politician.
It was the last programme of Hearts and Minds’ 17-year run on BBC Northern Ireland. I was splashing the Champagne with the panel of guests (I bought it myself, dear licence payer) and, as we said our farewells, he leaned forward but we both turned the other cheek at the same time and our lips connected for a nanosecond. It’s hard to tell who was the most appalled.
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APPARENTLY, one of the features of being on a ventilator suffering from Covid-19, is that many patients have reported having extremely vivid and often disturbing dreams. I have not been ill, thank God, but the technicolour dreams I’ve been having are in direct contrast to the current beige-ness of my lockdown life.
Meath-born TV presenter Angela Scanlon is currently fronting BBC Two's home-improvement series Your Home Made Perfect, which I love. But in my dream, she was showing me round her own house. She was interrupted by the sound of her pet deer (?) kicking the garage doors. Apologetically, she explained she had to keep him in as he was pooing in neighbours’ gardens.
But before she left she insisted I try out her new shower. She zipped me into an inflatable suit filled with warm soapy water. “Wait till you see this,” she said before pressing a button which hurled me into the air and floated me round the room like an astronaut in space.
It was brilliant. If anyone wants to market one, I’m in.
