‘We can’t hide forever’: Shoppers refuse to let Omicron fears spoil Christmas
NHS becoming overwhelmed and government on the back foot, but hardy shoppers tell Coin Drury ’tis the season to be jolly
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She’s got a trolley full of presents from a morning shopping and has had her haircut ahead of the holidays. She’s effectively going on tour. Christmas eve at daughter one’s. Christmas Day at daughter two’s. And Boxing Day at daughter three’s. Then on to her son’s for new year.
“Lockdown?” she splutters when The Independent raises the possibility of new coronavirus restrictions. “They’d have to lock me up first! Never again.”
She’s boosted up, she says, and complied (and agreed) with all earlier restrictions when the world was still figuring Covid-19 out. But no more.
“I don’t know how many Christmases I’ve got left,” she says. “I’m not missing another one. I’ll make my own rules up now.”
Like Boris Johnson does, some might say? Exactly, she nods: “if they [the government] are all having a carry on, why shouldn’t we?”
Britain feels, to some extent cleaved in two right now.
On the one hand, there are daily headlines of an NHS in danger of being overwhelmed by soaring Omicron cases; of a hospitality industry facing meltdown because of punters staying at home; and of a government – conceivably discussing the whole situation over wine and cheese – which is doing a passable impression of not being acquainted with what might be termed A Grip.
Yet on the other hand, speaking to people in Sheffield today – unscientific perhaps, but undoubtedly enlightening – two observations become apparent. Firstly, there is, among many, a distinct lack of fear around Omicron. And, secondly, there is a distinct lack of respect for any potential restrictions which might be set by a prime minister who most appear to believe has repeatedly broken previous rules.
Take Mrs Hague’s shopping companion, Sheila Watts, also 84, also a great grandmother, and also planning a Christmas seeing friends and family. One, indeed, where she, herself, will be cooking dinner – turkey and pork – for eight people.
“We can’t keep hiding away forever,” she says. “We’re sensible enough. We wear our masks, try and keep our distance from people but staying inside all the time like last year – that’s just being killed another way,” she says.
Would she follow the rules if household mixing got banned again? “Well, I wouldn’t want to be fined,” she replies. “But” – a long pause; civil disobedience doesn’t, one suspects, come easy to her – “we’ll have to see what happens.”
A few tables down, it’s New Year’s Eve that Alison and Matthew Murray - a hairdresser and school caretaker - are looking forward to: the couple, from Glossop, have booked a night in a Premier Inn in Barnsley and are planning on exploring the town’s pubs.
Why Barnsley? Why not? They’ve heard it’s a decent night out, and, after a torrid couple of years – Alison’s cancer has just been decalred in remission - they are wanting to start 2022 like they intend to carry on: enjoying it.
Yet, with Nicola Sturgeon banning new year parties in Scotland and ruling that pubs must become table-service only, are they worried something similar may yet be enacted here?
“I could live with table service,” says Mr Murray, 55. “But if they close the pubs again, I’d go mad. Because we know that Boris won’t be having a miserable new year. It’s just people like us that have to do as we’re told.”
The couple, they say, wouldn’t break any rules if they were implemented. “But,” says the father-of-three, “I’d remember it when it comes to voting.”
The argument that the NHS cannot be allowed to be overwhelmed holds some sway with the pair. Yet to make this point more widely is to often elicit the same broad question. Why wasn’t the country better prepared for something like this happening?
This, indeed, may be something of a crux point.
For the last 18 months, people stopped by The Independent in the streets and shops and pubs of different towns and cities have repeatedly empathised with a government they say has been attempting (sometimes well; sometimes not) to deal with an unprecedented situation.
Such empathy may now be disappearing for the simple reason that this situation no longer feels unprecedented. Different variants have become a fact of life. That the government does not appear to have a strategic plan for dealing with them – save for making it up as they go along – is not necessarily playing well with the public at large.
“How far down the Greek alphabet do we have to get before the answer to every new variant is not blind panic?” asks teacher Steve Waining.
He, wife Zohra and their baby daughter will be leaving the South Yorkshire city to spend Christmas in London – currently so hard hit by Omicron, it has been nicknamed Plague City. They have no intention of cancelling although they have reduced a couple of social engagements.
“I’m not personally worried about it because the vast majority of people you hear about in ICU are unvaccinated” the 40-year-old says. “But you don’t want to be giving your mother-in-law Omicron for Christmas.”
Not everyone, it should be said, is anti-lockdown.
At his stall selling cosmetics and hair extensions, Wiqi Ali says he would support some short, sharp extra restrictions now to stop longer impositions if cases get more thoroughly out of control. “We don’t want to have to a lockdown for two-three months again,” the 32-year-old says.
Yet he, too, is frustrated that there seems to be no coordinated government plans when new variants emerge.
“We were in this exact same position last year with Delta but it’s like no lessons have been learnt,” he says. “It’s all reactive. Nothing proactive.”
As it happens, his one-year-wedding anniversary has been this week. He got married during last December’s lockdown. Just a dozen people attended his wedding. Less than attended the now infamous Downing Street staff parties.
“Sickening,” he says. “Disgraceful. Prime ministers aren’t just there to rule. They should motivate too. They should set by example. We’ll beat this virus but it won’t be because of him.”
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