Sad that the pandemic didn't make us better

Exactly this. The goalposts kept being moved by stealth, to justify restrictions dragging on, and on, and on, and on. And when the vaccines came in, the goalposts kept being moved again. “Restrictions until over 70s vaccinated.” Then over 60s, 50s, etc, all the while coming dangerously close to making vaccines compulsory to partake in everyday life; and it served as yet another way to divide the public.

The conservatives weren’t the only ones partying though, and I’m fed up hearing that as an excuse. I worked in the NHS during covid and there’s far more to blame than that.

I'm grand with Natalie and her aspirations for her children. I'm grand with Natasha who's doing her best for herself, her children and her community. I'm grand with Theresa, her business and her grandchildren. What's wrong with women doing their best for their DC?

The politics of the 2010s made us see eachother as enemies, damaging, annoying, parasitical, lifeforms living in competition.

We have not always been so pessimistic, cynical, hopeless and resistant to facts.

Labour are doing a good job of reminding people another party can stuff up

@JacquesHarlow re So much of Britain is a venal society.
Natalie HAS to have enough money for her two holidays a year, and her Kia Sportage at £350 / month so that Evie-Mae can get to her "activities".
Anything which gets in the way of that is considered an abrogation of human rights.
If Natalie's paying for that from her earned salary, who are you to question that? And if she's paying for it from unearned benefits...is the usual MN cry the same?! 'It's their money to spend it how they will!!'

The thing is that the restrictions simply went on too long. There was a sense of community and a common goal at first, but after the "Eat out to spread covid" fiasco, people started to realise it was all bollocks. Then students were conned into signing up to Uni courses and Uni accommodation on the "promise" of blended learning which in a lot of Unis simply didn't happen and they ended up virtual prisoners in their own tiny student flats. Huge numbers of self employed and freelancers who were prevented from working or suffering drastic sales losses were excluded from covid support schemes and lost their businesses, savings or even their homes. The initial lockdown was right, albeit too late, but that should have given everyone, especially authorities, organisations, NHS, schools, etc, a bit of breathing space to make changes and adaptations for a longer term set of restrictions. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, so further lockdowns were needed (or so they claimed) with no real purpose. Remember at first it was to "flatten the curve" but then with no explanation it morphed into "aiming for close to zero deaths" - a completely different aim that meant draconian restrictions and two more lockdowns were "needed" without any justifying nor logical actual "need".

TBF, the Tory Party had been in power for nearly ten years when the pandemic hit. Ten years in which they cut services to the bone with Austerity, and inflicted Brexit on the country.

Because of them, we were weakened, divided and suspicious. Then we got sicker, the "oven ready" Deal turned out to be wishful thinking and we discovered that they were laughing at us all along while doing whatever they wanted.

Not only were they awful and ineffectual in government, they broke the law, they broke the Social Contract, they broke the UK.

They say a fish rots from the head and that explains why we did not improve.

Absolutely nothing, but some people actually believe the Tories are responsible for all of the evil in the world.

(I vote Lib-Dem BTW).

I shared your sentiment. Out of something so catastrophic, I really hoped life would change for the better. It feels like human nature has only become worse. We've become more selfish, entitled and desensitised...so sad. When I do allow myself to watch the news now, I just keep thinking, "have we learnt nothing?". 😔

Beautifully put, TooBigForMyBoots

In fairnesss I get the "response to public demand" up to a point given the competitive public doommongering that went on, the shrieks of "granny killers" and the countless other stupidities, but leading should involve doing the right thing rather than the (temporarily) popular thing

Fat chance of that though, once they spotted the vast opportunities for gouging

Except a lot of those people(or at least a very vocal part) were coming from a very individualistic and selfish perspective, rather than community mindedness. It was all about “I’m doing lockdown so much better than you” and deriding ,shaming and shutting down anyone who struggled. It was all about self righteousness and look at me clapping and noticing who isn’t out clapping and judging. It was about policing and reporting others and calls of “put the army in the streets “. It was about shaming and berating a pregnant woman for having a snack on a bench outside. It was about anything BUT community.

Anything to challenge those whilst behind the wheel is certainly seen as if violating their human rights. Though nothing new, I remember the objections to being required by law to wear a seat belt.

I agree.

I also think any other Tory leader would have responded a lot sooner. Especially Jeremy Hunt or Michael Gove, the two most likely ones to have been leader instead of Boris Johnson.

I think it's because those people who went along with solidarity, community and the Greater Good realised after a time that they had been totally exploited, shafted and despised by the cynical individualist profiteers, and they will not be so fooled again

This is an odd response tbf.

Not to worry, not only did I observe all mask rules for the whole of the period, I also wasn't one of those who decided that what other people had on their faces was my business!

Pretty thick of @JacquesHarlow to presume I was talking about myself there really, but it says a lot when someone thinks the only way anyone could have a concern about people with a particular vulnerability if they happen to be one of them.

I think as long as @Orangeandpurpletulips isn't doing as was oft seen on here "I can't wear a mask, but everyone else needs to, to protect ME!" that's fine.

Your post is a potent combination of supercilious and stupid.

The first point to make is that I'm not talking about myself, which is why there was no 'I' in that sentence. This is because I'm not one of those who'd be fucked over. Mask wearing was never a problem for me. Also if it had been, I'd have been fine to fuck it off with impunity, because I'm not the sort of easy target that mask bullies liked to have a go at during the pandemic. I also don't have a chronic condition that makes me cough, so nobody would be entitled enough to think I should wear a mask basically all the time in public to make them feel better. But such people exist, even though you don't think they're worth mentioning.

Naturally, the total lack of fucks you give about any of the people who would struggle with means the attempt at the moral high ground is laughable. As I said, you're not morally better for prioritising one group over others. Don't delude yourself.

What Covid reminded me about a lot of British people (yes I am British) is how absolutely obstinate we are.

We have a teenage mentality to public life. We want to rebel against anything that looks like being asked to confirm. We are waiting for our politicians to fail us so we can blame everything on them in a fit of anger, and not have to make our own good choices.

It is also reflected in our newspapers, which instead of having a good clear debate about an issue, is instead looking for the salacious stuff, the sensational, and then to tell it in a childlike and provocative way to evoke as much emotion as possible.

It is why we will FOREVER have people on here saying how they couldn't see their aunt so they will forever despise the vaccine takers and mask wearers because they went along with the regime that enforced lockdowns.

So much of Britain is a venal society.

Natalie HAS to have enough money for her two holidays a year, and her Kia Sportage at £350 / month so that Evie-Mae can get to her "activities".

Anything which gets in the way of that is considered an abrogation of human rights.

2025 and people are still arguing about masks.

So let me get this right @Orangeandpurpletulips

A cultural expectation of mask wearing, which is what would happen if it caught on sufficiently, fucks over people who struggle to wear them.

So you would rather that more people caught colds and flu, to make up for your social discomfort in being expected to wear a mask?

yeah that kind of sums up to me the weirdness of this country I was born in and live in.

💯 this.
Not everyone spent the lockdowns sat at home on furlough, banging pans and perfecting their sourdough.
I was on building sites with no social distancing, sharing fingerprint scanners with dozens of others. I then went home to my dc and we were not allowed to sit on a park bench when out for our permitted 1 hour of outdoor excercise. The rules felt ridiculous to me, and the effects will be felt for decades.

Why would the idea it would make anything better be an idea in the first place? I never assumed it would do anything, I dont get the idea of making a blanket statement about a collective group of people then acting surprised they don't do what you have decided

People dont all have the one controllable brain

I will say that the period made me even more invested in my immediate community and loved ones. However, much of that is because I live in a community where people stopped strict adherence very early, and also in my family we decided that our children and relationships would not be collateral. It was like we were looking out for ourselves, but I was lucky to have a wider 'us' and 'we' than most.

That was a real privilege though. Which is ironic because the area is... not usually viewed as such!

I'm not in the UK and often see people in the supermarket or out and about wearing a mask. Before Covid the only people who wore masks were Asian, but there seems to have been a shift since then.