We should be outraged by the rules, not the rule-breakers
Why has it taken the media so long to wake up to the cruelty of lockdown?
This week’s big news that yet another Downing Street party – sorry, ‘work event’ – took place during lockdown has got people looking back at what they were up to on 20 May 2020. The prime minister’s principal private secretary might have been busy inviting staff to ‘bring your own booze’ to the No10 garden in order to ‘make the most of the lovely weather’, but the most the rest of us had to look forward to was the prospect of meeting one friend on a park bench or, cherish the memory, the local McDonald’s drive-thru reopening.
Of course, many people could not enjoy even these small pleasures. Throughout spring 2020 we were barred from visiting dying relatives in hospitals and care homes. Pregnant women had to endure labour without their partners by their side. Funerals were limited to just a handful of socially distanced mourners. Schools were closed, playgrounds were locked and the ‘lovely weather’ only added to the misery of those trapped in cramped houses without gardens. If nothing else, the past few days have provided a timely reminder of the utter inhumanity of lockdown.