4 minute read
BARTLEBY
Politicians & puritans
Well, here we are again. If you can remember as far back as April you may recall my neighbour’s parting words of wisdom about dealing with snow and/or coronavirus. “When it comes, you just get on with it.” So it came, we got on with it, and as I write these words the ‘end’ of lockdown is about to be celebrated with a mass opening of pubs. Is this a good idea? You tell me.
Advertisement
I’ve never had a problem with uncertainty. In fact I would say instead that I do have a problem with certainty. When someone claims to know exactly how things are – or how they should be – it tends to set my alarm bells ringing. On the national, local and domestic levels our liberal democracy is based on disagreement and debate. Differing views are expressed and compromise reached. It may be a messy and inefficient approach but it’s better than what’s on offer in some other parts of the world.
Time will tell whether our government has handled things well or badly, but it was pretty clear back in March that it would be tricky to balance our cherished freedoms with the need to restrict those freedoms. It was amazing, I think, how readily people gave up their pleasures – and in many cases their livelihoods – for the greater good. Of course there’s been a bit of barnardcastling here and there, but in the main we all knuckled down.
Despite the vagaries of The Science, lockdown was ruled by a single certainty. Stay at home and everything will be okay. So we grew sunflowers in pots and tried to teach our children maths we never really understood ourselves, and emerged on Thursday evenings to clap. I don’t know how families with young children coped, but there was always an underlying sense of purpose: imprison ourselves for a while, and then everything will go back to normal.
You didn’t need to be a social scientist to perceive that any relaxation of the restrictions would be greeted with enthusiasm; hence the mad rush to the seaside that sizzling week in June. I suspect that, likewise, the pubs will be fairly busy, and the carnival scenes will elicit lots of tutting – some of it from modern puritans who’d really prefer pubs not to exist at all. For people who like a quiet, orderly life, lockdown held a considerable appeal, but lockdown is over and we now find ourselves in a strange new world. Now the only certainty is that there are no certainties.
Will our emergence from hibernation trigger a second wave? Perhaps. Will the economy recover? Maybe. Is a vaccine about to save us all? Possibly. There could be a spike in Bristol next week and we could all be back in lockdown. Or not. This whole episode could be ‘over by Christmas’ (as they said of the 1914 war) or it could go on for years. As a freelance I’m currently surviving only by the grace of the chancellor, so what will happen next? I don’t know.
I don’t know and yet, somehow, I’m optimistic. Not because I have faith in a particular politician or set of beliefs, but because I know from experience that something always does happen, and that it is (usually!) neither as gloriously good or desperately bad as you think it’s going to be. Our uncertain future will no doubt bring heartache to many – myself possibly included – but it will also bring opportunity. The weird world of coronavirus already has its stars (e.g. Joe Wicks) and its business success stories (e.g. makers of hand sanitiser). In the new online world anyone with a laptop, an internet connection and the will to succeed can make something of themselves.
Of course it’s unlikely that coronavirus will be remembered as a force for good that helped the government achieve its stated aim of ‘levelling up’ the country. But then again, maybe it will. ■
T H E BR ISTOL M A G A Z I N E
Follow us on Twitter @thebristolmag
See more online www.thebristolmag.co.uk
Contact us:
Publisher Email:
Steve Miklos steve@thebristolmagazine.co.uk
Financial Director Email:
Jane Miklos jane@thebristolmagazine.co.uk
Editor Tel: Email:
Assistant Editor/Web Editor Tel: Email:
Production Manager Email:
Jeff Osborne production@thebristolmagazine.co.uk
Advertising Sales
Liz Grey liz@thebristolmagazine.co.uk
For advertising enquiries please contact us on: 0117 974 2800 Email: sales@thebristolmagazine.co.uk
The Bristol Magazine is published by MC Publishing Ltd. An independent publisher.
The Bristol Magazine is distributed free every month to more than 20,000 homes and businesses throughout the city. We also have special distribution units in the following stores and many coffee shops, hotels and convenient pick-up points.
T H E BR ISTOL M A G A Z I N E
Bristol and Exeter House, Lower Approach, Temple Meads, Bristol BS1 6QS Telephone: 0117 974 2800 www.thebristolmagazine.co.uk
© MC Publishing Ltd 2020
