For a lot of people, it took BorisWineGate before they were able to feel any compassion for those who suffered due to some of the OTT restrictions of 2020

[greenteafiend]

Because there are a number of people (on here and in other places) who are now finally happy to show sympathy for those who gave birth alone, died alone or were unable to say goodbye to loved ones or hug a suicidal friend, even though they spent most of 2020 supporting even the most insane measures, repeatedly calling for even harsher ones, and saying the most horrible things to people who tried to talk about how desperate they were feeling. And then spent most of 2021 demanding more and tougher restrictions too.

You know who you are. And you can sod off with Boris, frankly.

I see that ghastly Owen Jones (the eternal barometer of weasle-word turncoat politics) is now trying to pivot in this way on Twitter. I'm happy to say that he's being mocked soundly.

Inhumane some of the measures. People dying alone, surrounded by people in masks, old people left alone behind glass windows. I felt things like that were really dark and sinister and completely wrong actually.

@Exhausteddog

The truth is most people followed the rules for the most part because they were scared and they wanted to protect themselves and others. That's it. It doesn't mean most people didn't care about people who were harmed by lockdown.

Agree. The 2 things are not mutually exclusive. I think the whole modus operandi was to instill a level of fear that would coerce people into complying with extremely harsh measures.(the don't kill granny slogan, for example, or "acting as if you have the virus")

Completely agree with this!

Well expressed OP and an interesting point

Everyone suffered because of Pandemic one way or another. You don't sound like a compassionate and sympathetic person at all, OP. Quite the opposite, tbh.

It's so easy to sit back afterwards and say we were all so OTT/inhumane/cruel

But at the time there was a real fear

Working closely with the public showed there was an uncertainty and people complied easily. As time wore on the fear lessened ....like now, nobody is overly scared anymore so they look back with scorn

I don't think the OP was saying lockdowns shouldn't have happened.

There were constant posts saying the lockdown should be stricter, anyone who was struggling should grow up as it's not like we are in the war, etc etc.

I think most people understand that lockdowns were necessary but some of the rules were unnecessary & cruel.

Some of the restrictions were 'unnecessary'....which ones??

I see that ghastly Owen Jones (the eternal barometer of weasle-word turncoat politics) is now trying to pivot in this way on Twitter. I'm happy to say that he's being mocked soundly.

Made yourself look a right dick here OP. It is possible to support the restrictions, empathise with those that find them particularly difficult, and also call out the government for the liars they are. All while campaigning for better funding for the NHS and education, and better workers rights.

You might be incapable of thinking about more than one thing at once, but many of us are. Jones has not changed his opinion on this at all, he's just capable of seeing the bigger picture.

@GirlInACountrySong I don't think children in particular should have to die alone.

I agree. Things I have complained about and been moaned at about and been told I'm selfish, for my thoughts alone, because I never broke any rules!
Those same people are complaining about the same things.

I'm talking about in real life. It's quite infuriating to be honest. Though I'm glad they can see it now, they don't seem to acknowledge their behaviour from before.

I agree OP. I loathe Boris and the Tories as much as anyone, but can’t get all that exercised about the Downing Street parties because I never for one moment expected our ‘leaders’ to be following the rules they’d imposed on everyone else.

While I can sort of see how the latest revelations have been the last straw for those people who stuck diligently to the rules through very difficult circumstances, I’ve found the myopia, denial and general lack of empathy around the impact of restrictions extremely frustrating from the outset. Anyone with the slightest modicum of sense could see back in April 2020 that lockdowns and other restrictions were going to significantly harm the young, the poor and the socially vulnerable, but not only did whole swathes of the population embrace them, many of them called for even lengthier and more draconian restrictions, while denying that there was any negative impact whatsoever.

It wasn’t just that these groups were viewed as acceptable collateral damage in the name of the greater good; in the eyes of many people it seemed that there was no collateral damage from lockdown. So many people were entirely blinkered by the fear that was engendered, to the point of abandoning all normal human compassion.

It really shouldn’t have taken the arrogance and hypocrisy of our ruling class to force people to recognise the considerable harms that were evident to some of us from the beginning.

Some of the restrictions were 'unnecessary'....which ones??

• Keeping playgrounds closed until July 2020 when it was clear from very early on that children were at very little risk from the virus and surface transmission wasn’t really a thing.

• Not allowing school-aged children of 5+ to meet/play with one person outside of their family for long stretches of 2020/21 - especially devastating for only children.

• Preventing outside events such as Park Run from happening in many areas of the U.K.

• Some of the callous and unnecessarily draconian rules around partners attending births, hospital visitors and care homes, which in many cases went on for far longer than the initial ‘tight’ lockdown.

Just a few off the top of my head, but there are many more.

It hasn't even gone away. I read a 'you were only asked to sit on your couch and watch Netflix' here a few weeks ago.

I noticed right at the start that the people I know saying this sort of thing were the ones for whom lickdown had very little impact on their immediate household income, or lifestyle (apart from maybe not going on holiday or out for meals)

However, on other threads recently people have been accused of being idiots "lacking in critical thinking" for following rules, but reality is that a lot were not down to the individual. Regarding patients dying alone - that is horrific and I cried, and did feel huge sympathy when I saw this reported on the news as it happened. But it is not simply a relatives choice to stay away. Presumably they would be asking hospital receptionists, security, and nursing staff (all of whom were in incredibly stressful situations) to break the rules for them, or turn a blind eye. Ditto visiting in care homes.
And when some people met for a walk and a coffee they were arrested (I can't remember on which grounds)

*lockdown!!

@Bordois

I wonder if the Spanish version of MN had posters abusing those in mental distress too, or is that a particularly MN way to show compassion? 🤔

People are fundamentally the same all over the world.
Whether we live in a penthouse flat or a mud hut, we all worry about our families, laugh at the same things, complain about how we're being governed, despair of "the youth of today", and so on.
We were worrying about these things in Ancient Rome, and will be worrying about them in 3022, when we're all living on Mars.

@blackcurrantjam

Inhumane some of the measures. People dying alone, surrounded by people in masks, old people left alone behind glass windows. I felt things like that were really dark and sinister and completely wrong actually.

Me too and I'm glad people are allowed to speak about this now without instantly being shut down. I think it's wrong to say that it's only being brought up now with the benefit of hindsight. There were many voices trying to be heard at the time, arguing that the restrictions didn't make sense and were in many ways cruel and damaging but in the fear and panic nobody was prepared to listen.

@Bonifacethethird

I totally agree. The whole thing about the parties at No. 10 feels like a bit of a pantomime/side show to me.

People are just preoccupied with "Tories bad" when there are much bigger issues at play. Like the fact that the public have been subject to some hugely damaging policies without them being assessed for impact or proportionality - obviously not talking about all of the restrictions but some should never have been unquestioningly accepted. People in some other Western countries continue to live with pointless and overly authoritarian measures.

Totally agree 🙌🏻

@Lalalablahblahblah

See this opinion from the OP is just as polarised as the opinions from people calling for more restrictions and 'policing' what other people were doing. The truth is most people followed the rules for the most part because they were scared and they wanted to protect themselves and others. That's it. It doesn't mean most people didn't care about people who were harmed by lockdown.

Bejng scared is one thing but demonising groups of people, reporting their neighbours to police for breaking restrictions and the callous indifference showed by large portions of the population to other very vulnerable portions of the population is something I shall never forget long after this pandemic is over.

@Flyonawalk

I know how you feel.

I am also angry with people who said ‘children are resilient’ when posters talked of the despair and disadvantage suffered by our most vulnerable, ie children and young people.

Exactly.

Children from infants to teens are hugely vulnerable as they are still growing and developing, and yet many dismissed their deprivations as fine because of this supposed resilience.

Exactly @Lilifer and that went so much further than I ever would have thought possible. Its scary at just how easily people fell into that and believed they were doing the right thing.

@TheChip

Exactly *@Lilifer* and that went so much further than I ever would have thought possible. Its scary at just how easily people fell into that and believed they were doing the right thing.

Yes @TheChip and one of the things I find most egregious is the fact that whilst as humans we do have resilience in the face of incredible hardship, it is and always has been the support and contact we have with others around us that make life worth living, that help us to carry on through awful times. People take solace in each other. We need human contact abs this basic thing that is hard wired in to us for our own survival as a species was thwarted throughout lockdown and still lingers with the ongoing messaging to limit contacts, social distance etc. Messing with something so fundamental to human survival is going to have an effect on people, it already has we can all see that from the utter devastation in mental health amongst all ages and stages. We dehumanised humanity and I only hope that we can recover from that.

Its the same attitude that resulted in the furloughed being tarred as the new benefit scroungers. What people should be stopped from going to work & not receive any money & not complain!

To agree with your statement OP I would have to think that it was wrong that we were restricted from the same things Boris and co were doing at points in 2020; I don’t, I think they should have been doing what the rest of the country (indeed world) were doing.

I still believe that the actions taken at the time were necessary and right despite the effect it has undoubtedly had on people, including those I love. I resent the implication that people don’t understand/empathise unless they are absolutely in agreement with a particular world view, especially as it seems to involve rewriting a lot of recent history.

I firmly believe that those effects were unavoidable and would have been worse with no intervention. We saw this in action to some extent over Christmas, there were no restrictions bar isolation of infected yet people restricted their own behaviour and there were knock on effects to industries and peoples general behaviour. There is also evidence from countries that didn’t take action (brazil is the one that springs to my mind) and I’m not sure their population would necessarily agree with the idea that they’ve had a better time with covid. Reports from there certainly don’t suggest that.

@whitedahlias

Well said, OP.

I doubted at the time that those making the ridiculous rules for the plebs had any intention of following them themselves (looking at you: Prof Ferguson, Dom, Matt, Margaret Ferrier et al). They had behavioural experts all lined up advising how to make people feel more "personally" frightened.

The utter stupidity of taped up outdoor picnic tables and locked park toilets (no equalities impact assessment there!) for starters.

I'm not a covid denier by any means but I am quite frightened by how easy it was to whip the general public up into a state of frenzy.

Support the NHS, of course, but also exercise some rational thought ... is there a problem if somebody needs a wee while at the park? Or sits down while on a walk? NO. But what if LOTS of people did it? STILL NO!!!

Yes it seems stupid now that parks etc were taped off ,but hindsight is a wonderful thing ,the fact is most of us suffered in one way or another ,people were terrified at the time ,we had no way of knowing how many people would be affected or how ,I remember being terrified of going to the supermarket and catching COVID ,two years on my son has had it twice ,with very few symptoms and I didn't catch it either time ,I'm still cautious but a lot less worried I m also fully vaccinated including booster ,but we have much more knowledge now .