Humble in the Face of Nature

 Here we go again. It looks like lockdown 2.0 is with us, from Thursday. 

Yesterday was interesting. The strategy of briefing out to the press backfired. The whole country sighed and thought, “We’ve had enough of being governed by children.” This caused the government to have to pretend to be cross. Someone leaked. This will also be a good excuse to get rid of a minister that they can blame it on. Then they announced a press conference at 4. 

At 4pm the BBC news team were poised. They’d found experts to talk to who could explain the government’s strategy. Those of us watching were beginning to understand. It was too late, again, but it had to be done. If schools were to stay open then it might take six weeks to get the virus to a manageable level. The flu model wasn’t working because of how many people need hospitalisation at the same time when the growth of infection increases at the rate it does. The only solution is the SARS model, which aims to eradicate the disease. The manageable level is one where every person who has the illness can be persuaded to stay at home and not spread it and as we can’t trace everyone that has it because Test and Trace is a failure and too many people are infected we all need to be persuaded to stay at home. It was beginning to sound quite depressing. Almost as if our government were totally incompetent on the issue.

4pm came and went. The rumours came; it has been delayed; it will be 5pm now. The news anchors continued filling, doing a splendid job. At 5pm there was another rumour of delay; maybe to 6pm; maybe 6.30, who knows?

By 6pm the reporters were having to apologise for not being Little Mix. 

Finally, at about 6.45, they appeared. The unholy trinity. Boris in the middle, looking scruffy and bewildered. Muttering about being “humble in the face of nature.”

They then showed a whole load of slides that couldn’t be read, or where the edges were cut off that no one could concentrate on anyway because we were only watching to find out how our lives were going to change. 

I’m not an expert but I do think if you are holding a press conference to prove that you are a competent government who doesn’t leak things to the press to gain public opinion before you implement them then you should probably be on time, get your presentation clear and speak in a way that’s understandable. 

BBC One decided that enough was enough. The nation didn’t need to hear any more. We needed Strictly and so cut the end and the journalists questions off. I switched to BBC news, which had a fabulous sign language interpreter who seemed to be signing what we were all thinking. I’m fairly certain I saw the sign for, ‘Donkeys’ several times.

I can’t stop thinking about the phrase, ‘humble in the face of nature.’ What does that mean? Do we have to go back to watching birds and  watching things (not) grow in the garden (it’s winter)? Are young couples going to have to start meeting up in the woods for illicit sex again? 

I could be wrong but I think compliance will be a lot less this time. When you aim for simple messaging in a complex situation it just ends up sounding like a song.

Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives, hands, face, space, test and trace, humble in the face of nature.