Failures of State by Jonathan Calvert

Author:Jonathan Calvert [Calvert, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-02-05T21:41:07+00:00

The country was closing down over the weekend beginning 21 March. Some people had already been working from home that week and the closing of social venues such as restaurants, gyms and bars helped convince a number of large employers to decide it was too unsafe to continue trading. The bookstore Waterstones reluctantly closed despite a 17 per cent upsurge in demand for books from people sensing they would soon have many free hours at their disposal. The department store chain John Lewis had stayed open through two world wars but on Sunday it announced it was shutting its stores for the first time in its 155-year history. Visit Cornwall sent out an unusual message for a tourist board to potential holidaymakers. ‘Stay away,’ it said. Production of the country’s most popular soap operas – Coronation Street, Emmerdale and EastEnders – was halted to protect the crew and actors.

The clement spring weather over the weekend brought thousands of people out into parks and open spaces in the new world where they could no longer congregate in sports clubs, pubs or restaurants. It was an opportunity for people who had been cooped up in their homes all week to get out in the fresh air. Many chose to walk with their families for Mothers’ Day instead of going out for Sunday lunch, which was no longer an option. That day saw the popularisation of a new word: ‘Covidiots’. The newspapers and television channels were showing crowds of people and vehicles flocking to outdoor venues from Richmond Park in west London to Snowdonia National Park, which had to close its main car parks ‘following the busiest visitor weekend in living memory’. To some it was an extension of the selfish behaviour that had seen people panic-buy toilet rolls and pasta over the previous week. But mostly, people had squeezed into the parks because so many other things they would normally do were unavailable and the importance of social distancing was still little appreciated. This was a highly abnormal weekend.

Johnson attempted to correct his mixed message about Mothers’ Day by tweeting a public information video. ‘You might want to see your mum today, but think about every other mum. Don’t put them at risk,’ it chided. His aides quietly briefed journalists that he had meant that he would be seeing his mother Charlotte on Skype. He skipped the daily press briefing on Saturday 21 March and took a break with Symonds at Chequers. Over that weekend, a further 420,000 infections are estimated to have spread across the UK, taking the total to 1.2 million, according to the Oxford and Imperial back-dated modelling.

Johnson was back for the Sunday afternoon press conference, where he revealed that letters were now being sent to 1.5 million people who had been identified from their medical records as being extremely vulnerable because of existing conditions. They had been asked to isolate in their homes for their own safety. For many it would be too late. The scenes of crowds

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