As Lockdown #3 begins I walk the dog through our local woods, trying to pin down an elusive thought. There's a scene from a movie that sums this situation up, I think. Somewhere, rattling around in the back of my memory, it's there - but I can't quite touch it. It floats elusively on the edge of my consciousness, just out of reach. A child - IS it a child? - commenting on the fact that he - I think it was he - was back where he started. Was there a car involved?
I can't quite grab it. It'll come to me, eventually. For now, I try to focus on the beauty of my surroundings, on the sunbeams angled through the empty branches, the patter of the dog's feet through the leaf litter under the bushes and the crunch of gravel under my feet, but instead am swamped - again - by anger.
It's distressing to consider how little progress has been made by the UK over the last ten months, and how many opportunities to learn have been ignored in our encounter with Covid19. That's not to discount the herculean efforts and sacrifices that have been made by so many, the fortitude of even more. and the astonishing speed with which individuals and companies have marshalled themselves to battle both circumstance and this pernicious virus. But just as this situation has brought out the best in some, it has highlighted where our government has come up short. Their lack of foresight or interest in learning from their mistakes, the shocking cronyism that has seen good money thrown after bad, their absence of confidence that the majority will follow sensible rules and, of course, the lack of accountability when they are caught ignoring their own advice; all of the above have brought us to the current parlous state of affairs. Again.
Those are the thoughts I have as I stomp crossly along, wrapped up warm against the cold snap. Eventually though, the calm of my surroundings works it's magic and I start to focus on simply breathing in, and out, in, and out, and begin to look forward to a cup of tea and a flapjack (because, Lockdown) when I get home.
As I reach the gate at the end of the fields my brain has cleared enough and finally, the memory I was grasping for comes to me. When I get home I check and - even if I do say so myself - I was right. This scene, from a movie that is nearly 30 years old, perfectly sums up how I feel about where we in the UK are right now.
