The Hunger Games

 It was a big news day yesterday. Certain sections of the press couldn’t contain themselves, despite the official roadmap document they had been given being embargoed until after the Prime Minister had finished his speech in the commons. Since the document was published last night little bits dripped out on Twitter and people knew everything before he’d even opened his mouth. By the time Boris was due to address the Nation in person at 7pm (a late Boris is always more important than a 5pm Boris) every paper, tv, radio and other news platform had the whole document analysed and twisted to their own agenda. The Mail insisted that the public were clamouring for everything to be opened even sooner (polling data shows  that most people think they’ve got the balance about right). Even news sites that usually know better kept forgetting the words ‘not before’ or ‘at the earliest’ . My little Anxious Annie brain found this quite difficult because I worried about how people and the government will react if the conditions aren’t right on those dates. 

By the time of the late Boris there was no option left for him to throw in a few phrases that would have us sniggering again. He had to get our attention somehow. He described the road map as a crocus of hope peeking through the frost. When you have to use a metaphor to describe a metaphor things might have gone too far. 

This current approach is going to be a hard sell to lots of people. It’s true, we do all want to get our normal lives back but we’ve spent a whole year being told that the coronavirus is a big scary monster that’s going to eat us. That description isn’t going to stop because they want us all to get vaccinated (possibly with twice yearly boosters). We have seen that some Countries have managed to successfully adopt the zero tolerance approach but we are now being told that we have to live with it, like any other respiratory illness.

This isn’t an approach I’m against, providing the NHS can now cope with the number of people who go into hospital, as we learn to live with it. The official document is probably the most balanced well thought out plan the government has hard so far. However, it’s a risky thing politically, after you’ve been showing people the daily deaths.  None of us wanted a second or third lockdown. Even less of us will cope with another one. If we are to learn to live with it we also have to forget about it, like we do other risks and that is going to take some work.

It was no coincidence that Boris started his speech with a line from the Hunger Games. “May the odds be forever in our favour,” he said optimistically. You just have to hope that you are not the tribute chosen from your district because everyone is still watching.