On/off

A day of calls at one hour intervals. Useful and interesting topics discussed such as tourism development, partnership paperwork, biodiversity sampling at marine sites, the use of analytics and technology in producing maps and understanding impact, and how to develop enterprises to both bring benefits and fund our work.

The government’s guidance on distancing, meet-ups and masks is inconsistent and smacks of gaslighting and window-dressing. There was clearly a slow response by the UK which has come back to bite the country in the arse and hasn’t protected the economy which is what Boris and co were so keen to do initially, even though they didn’t outwardly state so.

However there’s an immediate rush by the public and the media to denounce the guidance that does exist as overly confusing, I suspect without fully trying to absorb the information available. With some effort, it’s easy enough to understand the basics of maximum group size, who groups can be comprised of, and where masks need to be worn. I am seeing a lot of disingenuous interviews with members of the public that leave me perplexed and frustrated. Families are prematurely up in arms that they won’t be able to gather in more than sixes at Christmas, due to the actions of reckless young people or others who have been lax with their social responsibility. Over the summer unless people were shielding pretty much everyone has compromised on the rules by hugging family members, visiting shops more often than necessary, sharing cake on VE Day, or failing to distance during raucous family BBQs in the garden. Whilst we’ve all made varying degrees of effort and sacrifice from our norm, I don’t know if anyone can truly say they’ve followed everything religiously. There are also the subjective sacrifices which are not about breaking the regulations but come down to sensible distancing, such as turning down that meal at Chiquito when it was going to be a fiver for a burrito instead of the usual tenner. People have constantly been tempted to do the less safe thing, and many of us have done so at times, as that is the reality of the society we live in.

Blame culture is toxic for our society and we must all own our personal response, reflect on our actions and improve if we feel we should. I am sure the people who are interviewed to complain about others’ behaviour have also not been model coronavirus citizens. I don’t understand the point of those interviews other than to pit the public against the government, when objectively everyone does agree that some measures are necessary to combat the spread. Whether on a day-to-day basis people will adopt measures is another question that depends on each person’s discipline and sense of responsibility in the moment.

The entrance archway that leads to our building. It’s a pleasure to be going back through it once more.