The lifting of lockdown

So there are now dozens of visitors around the town, a pub is open and Tesco is as it was until the lockdown came in.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but I feel quite strongly that the location of the Outer Hebrides (a couple of dozen miles off the Scottish mainland) would have enabled a chastity belt of protection surrounding the lifting of lockdown restrictions.

However, our elected representatives, obviously not endowed with a braincell between them, failed to spot this opportunity. Lockdown could have been lifted the way it has been done thus far with one major exception. It should and could have been maintained for the ferries and the planes. Essential journeys only. No tourists.

Yes, I agree, the economy has to get going again. But look what's happening now. Many B&Bs are staying closed, campsites (e.g. Horgabost) are shut - and how many restaurants are open? Few facilities if any. Oh, and what about our friends in campervans? No facilities for them either, so they'll be dumping effluent in a ditch - as I've heard it described in previous years.

Will tourists be welcomed?

I am not going to write a public response to this letter on Hebrides News. Will tourists be welcomed - I do not discern a positive response from any quarter in these islands that I can glean. I don't want to become personal to someone I do not know, but I'm disappointed to note that the writer appears to be unaware of local sentiments in what he terms his homeland. If he cares this much for his home turf, he should not even have contemplated a visit at this time. So many people think Coronavirus is a thing of the past now, lockdown restrictions lifted to a large extent and all that. Coronavirus is here to stay, and we should think of each other, not just ourselves and our precious holidays and trips down memory lane.

Coronavirus - 1 July 2020

A few thoughts on the pandemic, six months after it all started in China, and three months since the commencement of lockdown in the UK. All the frivolity of our existence was stripped away at the outset, and the priority became survival. The worldwide run on toiletpaper spoke volumes. Planes stand idle, as do cruiseliners.

When normality appears to be in the offing, people can't wait to go on a trip. Whether this be on the ferry (as here in the Outer Hebrides), or on a plane away from lockdown hell.

Temperatures rose into the high 20s low 30s last week, so half a million people flocked to the beach at Bournemouth. Five hundred thousand.

When a noble cause reared its head (Black Lives Matter), thousands flocked to the streets. It wasn't about BLM. It was about getting normality back, and going on a rally is normal. One side-effect: coronavirus had a great opportunity to spread.

Because nobody bothered with the two-metre rule.

Normality had its last year in 2019.
A new normality will be established in 2020, and nobody likes it.