To laugh or to cry?

 To Laugh or To Cry, That is the Question

 Where to start. In a week which has lurched from crisis to conflict, where any unity within England let alone with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has vanished, any journey anywhere is out of the question, literally as well as figuratively.

The Government introduced formally its new 3 tier local lockdown strategy to much bafflement. Us down South remain in Tier 1, medium risk, i.e. lowest tier.  😆

Liverpool is dragged, kicking and screaming, immediately into Tier 3. Cue headlines of bullying from local authorities. 

London, Essex and assorted others fall rapidly into Tier 2, to take effect at midnight tonight. Neatly scuppering my much anticipated plan to visit my son and partner in London. Thank you Boris Johnson.

Andy Burnham, Manchester Mayor , has simply refused to accept at Tier 3 lockdown, demanding more financial support. Today the PM was forced into a press conference threatening the imposition of law if there is no 'agreement'.

Lancaster did agree earlier today to move into Tier 3, but only after negotiating a substantial package from Government coffers and one which differs substantially from Liverpool, not least in that gyms and leisure centres can remain open there. 

Labour's leader Kier Starmer has finally broken rank with the Government following the publication on Monday showing SAGE had recommended a national lockdown 3 weeks ago which Boris Johnson refused in favour of local restrictions.

Cue Sir Kier demanding this be implemented asap. Nice one. No one wants it but anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that we cannot go on like this.

An ineffectual privatised track and trace system has cost the taxpayer 12 billion pounds and counting , much to management consultancy firms. Corrupt barely does this justice. The testing system is likewise in chaos.  Cases are rising by thousands daily and can no longer be blamed on increased testing. More significantly, the death rate is rising dramatically, today at 136, nearly double from a fortnight ago.

The mothballed Nightingale hospitals are to be put on standby as admissions rise sharply. As predicated the infection rate which originally rose so rapidly amongst the young. especially so  when universities returned has migrated into the vulnerable and elderly.

I simply do not know whether to laugh or cry. I no longer think of this as a journey with a beginning, middle and an end. It is simply a matter of making the best of each day , trying not to look beyond the end of each week, whilst hoping against hope that tentative plans will not be dashed.

On the positive side, I may have lost my trip to London yet with luck and good weather  I can still see my son. Norfolk remains on Tier 1. Will it still be so in 7 days for my planned trip to visit my beloved granddaughters? Only time will tell.  

I would mind less if any of this made sense. In retrospect those barren lockdown months were simple. And , hard though it was, it worked. Economically and emotionally supported, 'we' travelled through that together as one nation.

Now I simply don't know whether to laugh at the futility of this ridiculous charade, or cry. Crying is the most honest answer.