The new rule of six is worth it to keep hold of the semi-normal life we have now

I was prompted this morning to do a compare and contrast of life in my outer London borough today versus life in April and May.  

It’s because Redbridge suddenly has the unwelcome label of “coronavirus hotspot”. Confirmed cases are rising faster here than anywhere in London, with the number of positives trebling in a week.  

It doesn’t look too pretty in the neighbouring boroughs either – Havering and Newham have also seen spikes. But, even though misery loves company, that’s about as comforting as putting a Band Aid on a broken leg.

The conclusion I drew from the exercise? With a local lockdown looming large, the shaky semi-normality we have now is infinitely preferable to what went before.  

If you’re willing to take the risk (and to be fair not everyone is) you can go out for a pizza, watch a movie, visit the shops, make use of the local cafes. Pubs and bars are open, although I’m still troubled by that one, given alcohol and social distancing don’t exactly make for happy bedfellows. But they’re there if you want to use them.  

Plus the kids are, for now, back in school. It’s a strange sort of schooling, with masks, and bubbles and staggered entry. But at least they’re there.  

All this is surely worth preserving, and not just because it makes life considerably more pleasant than it was during lockdown. It’s keeping people employed. The latter is becoming increasingly important given the Chancellor’s mulish insistence on ending his job furlough scheme at potentially the worst possible time.  

But are enough of us willing to accept the very minor inconveniences necessary to keep it that way? I’m not so sure.  

There will always be recidivists: a corps of anti-social scoundrels who think that rules don’t apply to them. These are the people who, upon encountering a 20 miles per hour zone outside a primary school, decide to put down their right foot on their BMW’s throttle. They scatter litter within spitting distance of the bin in the local park and set off fireworks at midnight in residential areas two weeks before 5 November.

They ignored the anguished pleas of NHS workers, who took to Twitter after 12-hour shifts caring for the dying during lockdown, and instead followed the example of Dominic Cummings, who drove his car up the M1, taking the virus with him, and then tested his eyesight by taking a trip to a local beauty spot. They abuse the staff at shops who have to ask them to wear a mask.  

But their numbers are mercifully relatively small, at least outside the confines of Westminster. Redbridge’s woes have not been caused simply by the actions of the great British blockhead.  

It’s a wider issue than that. It involves people who mostly care about their neighbourhoods and their fellow citizens viewing social distancing as optional, and face coverings as necessary only where the law says it’s compulsory, who think washing their hands for 20 seconds is too much of a hassle.  

I vividly remember visiting a local supermarket where the customers were largely complying with the requirements to wear face coverings but the staff mostly weren’t.  

Then there was the queue outside the cafe in my local park, which is partially open via a window to allow for the sale of coffee, and especially ice cream, where social distancing had been completely abandoned because, of course, you can't catch it outside.  

Complacency has become widespread and this is why it was necessary for council leader Jas Athwal to take to the local paper to plead with people to take the virus seriously. “We must act now,” he said.  

From my experience, the response appears to have been, “Ok, but I want my choc ice first”.

Polls have suggested overwhelming support for local lockdowns if that’s what it takes.  

To me that indicates that we’ve got this upside down and arse about face.  

Their looming imposition should rather make us angry because they ought to be unnecessary. They would be unnecessary if people listened to local leaders like Athwal and accepted that it’s far better to endure a few minor inconveniences than end up with the misery of a major one.  

What we have now, this semblance of normal life, is not perfect. Watching sports with piped-in crowd noise is weird. Live music is off the agenda. Travel is fraught with the risk that a quarantine may be imposed at the drop of the hat. We now have a “rule of six” which if you have more than a couple of kids… well, you can see the problem there.  

But it’s still infinitely better than what preceded it. It’s time we woke up to that.