The Numbers
Still over 4000 new cases are being identified each day and that is only people who have been tested. The total death rate has risen to 31,241, a rise of 626 since yesterday.
The News
Today is the 75th Anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. It does put a bit of context around what we are going through now.
In the UK, 449,700 people died over the 6 years of the war. 382,600 were military and 67,100 were civilian.
The war killed largely young, healthy people and lasted a very long time. The enemy was real and visible.
Covid-19 is an invisible enemy which is killing largely (but not exclusively) older people and people with health conditions and the pandemic is unlikely to last more than a year or two.
The big questions is what happens next? Will the economic impact last as long and be as severe as that which followed the war. Rationing persisted in to early 1950’s. The post-war period was a time of enormous social change. How will out society change in the wake of the Coronavirus? We will see …
Wales have allowed people to exercise for unlimited periods of time and have allowed Garden Centres, Libraries and Re-Cycling Centres to open. Oh, but the changes don’t apply to people who are shielding.
Scotland have announced that they are making no changes to their lockdown except to allow people to exercise more than once a day.
We will hear from Boris on Sunday.
The New Way of Life
It’s a glorious day again! We both got up reasonably early. M had some bits of work to do. I made some egg sandwiches for our planned big bike ride. I also cooked a lamb curry for tonight.
We set off on our bike ride around 1pm and got back about 4pm. We did a 15 mile wander around the countryside using the Bikemap App. We stopped for a break in a Business Park, assuming it would be deserted. It was, almost, but there were still a few construction workers on a big building site, and a couple of people walking through. We sat on a couple of benches and ate our sandwiches.
Lots of bunting and Union Jack’s everywhere and even a few socially distanct “street parties”. A few flags of St George – did I get it wrong? Did England win the war? I thought Scotland, Wales and Ireland were involved too! Sorry, not sorry, for the cynicism.
No quiz tonight because of VE Day but I’m going to have my big weekly wine session nevertheless!
jswritingservices.com 