England is in Lockdown Mark 2 for the next month. Pubs and restaurants are closed and so are hairdressers. We are told that we can only meet up with one other person from another household but not indoors or even in our gardens. We have to meet them outside in public places, keeping two metres apart. We are advised over and over to wash our filthy hands and to wear masks to smother our viral breathing.
Okay, if this will help I am happy to "get with the program" as our North American cousins are wont to say. Anything to reduce risk and frankly to stave off the possibility of a premature death. It's awful that we cannot keep visiting our beloved daughter who is now heavily pregnant and working from home. But rules are rules.
Now here's the rub.
While Lockdown Mark 2 proceeds, live football continues. The full programme of professional games advances in almost empty stadia. Players are still hugged when they score goals. Sometimes they even pile on top of each other in heaps of joy.
Teams travel up and down the country to play their matches and the best teams board aeroplanes to fly to every corner of Europe from Finland to Malta and from Moscow to Moldova.
There are also club officials, coaches, physios, TV and newspaper reporters. For all of these people Lockdown Mark 2 seems like an irrelevance. The games just keep happening thick and fast. The squads keep travelling.
Now I am a big football supporter. I love the game but I recognise that when it comes down to it, football is just entertainment. It is not essential. So why does it have licence to keep happening when ordinary people are receiving heavy fines for flouting lockdown rules?
There's a hell of a mismatch. We cannot meet up with our pregnant daughter or sit in a pub but footballers can travel all over the place, score goals, shake hands, hug each other while we watch it all on TV. What kind of a lockdown is Lockdown Mark 2? The players do not even wear masks during games!
I just "justified" this text to make it line up nicely. I wish European governments would "justify" the continuation of professional football during a deadly pandemic but the truth is they probably can't. The fact that the players are tested regularly is a poor defence in my estimation. Could it really be all about the money? Surely not.
It's happening here, too.
ReplyDeletei see how it feel unfair but honestly, at this stage i think anything that can keep some money flowing is probably a good thing. I'm assuming players have to stay in a team bubble?
That's a hell of a lot of people being in bubbles. Many have wives and children plus friends and parents etc.. I cannot see how this would be policed.
DeleteInteresting indeed. Here after a quarantine period footballers were put into a 'bubble' with or without their families in a couple of locations considered virus free. Aside from physical contact during the game, no other contact was allowed and a couple did slip up and were fined. It was hard to imagine how the season could go ahead once our Lockdown Mk II began, but it did and only for the finals were small crowds allowed to attend. It must have resulted in a monster loss of income for the league, but it has and will survive. There will always be lockdown anomalies but as you describe is a rather glaring one in my view.
ReplyDeleteOf course here in England we don't just have big teams like Manchester United and Arsenal, there are also small teams you have probably never heard of like Scunthorpe United and Accrington Stanley. They are all part of lockdown football too. Many hundreds of people involved.
DeleteYou're probably not the only person wondering about this one. Somebody somewhere must have an awful lot of pull.
ReplyDeleteI agree Red. I am suspicious about it all.
DeleteOh did I smile at your "football is JUST entertainment. It is not essential".
ReplyDeleteYes, YP, but it is [essential]. Remember the Roman Emperors' adage "panem et circenses"? Give them, the populace, bread and games. Tummy filled games keep them quiet, not to say distracted from the real business in hand.
Though it appears that "bread" will soon be in short supply, at least for those at the lower end of the income spectrum, "blue collar" workers laid off and the self employed who can't furlough themselves. It's shameful. Still, that's another subject.
My heart goes out to you and grandmother-to-be that your daughter's parents can't see her, touch the bulge, and generally fuss in that most affectionate way that pregnancy elicits. On a practical note: Can your daughter attend ante natal classes or are they cancelled too? Ante natal classes (and indeed post natal) a great way of bonding with other prospective mothers. Will your son-in-law be "allowed" to attend the birth? Bring back pacing up and down the corridor for guys; like the olden days. Except now the freshly baked Dad won't be able to spread the good news down the pub and celebrate. Whilst typing the last few sentences an image springs to my mind; namely that of a "sterile" world, a world devoid of touch and spontaneous cheer. On the upside, think of all those grandad tales you'll be able to tell the little one in years to come: "You were born in the time of Corona." Sounds almost majestic. A claim to fame. Make sure you lay down a few cases of same [beer that is].
Don't say I don't have bedside manners in your hour of need. I don't do it on purpose but find I will invariably hug and sit on where it hurts.
U
Her ante-natal classes are on Zoom and at present rules about fathers' attendance at births vary from health authority to health authority. She has many good friends but has not been able to share her pregnancy with them in the normal way. It's so sad when it should all be so joyful.
Delete"Pacing up and down the corridor"? My dad had to go to a phone box and telephone the maternity home to find out if anything had happened.
DeleteThen when the lad was born, Mr Dunham Senior bellowed down the phone - "We'll call him Tasker after the ferret I had when I were a lad myself!"
DeleteA lot - I dare say most - of it is about the money, I do not doubt that. But I do not know (and, frankly, do not care enough to investigate) what rules are in place for the football teams; yes, I know they are constantly being tested and probably have to keep within their bubble of team mates and staff.
ReplyDeleteIt is really sad that you can not see your daughter as you normally would right now.
Over here, hairdressers are open while cosmetic salons are shut - where's the difference? A hairdresser gets just as close to their customers as the staff at a cosmetic studio. Restaurants, bars, pubs etc. are shut, only allowed to offer pick-up or delivery. Shops are open, schools as well. Face masks are mandatory almost everywhere now.
Yesterday, our main news were full of the prospective vaccine. The US presidential election came second.
Of course, compared with other European countries, Germany has done brilliantly but I see that 16,668 new cases and 203 new deaths were reported yesterday. Thank God there's a real prospect of effective vaccination now.
DeleteIt's so sad that you can't see your daughter. It must be even more frustrating for Shirley - a girl needs her mother at a time like this.
ReplyDeleteWill you all be able to enjoy the arrival of your first grandchild as Frances gives birth via Zoom? Or is that an intrusive step too far - even in this age of "show all and tell all"?
What we understand is this - that when the baby arrives we will be able to form a "care bubble" and our two households can connect. Shirley is a nurse with a lot of experience of dealing with babies so her practical support will be extremely helpful. I doubt that Frances will want the birth shown on "Zoom". Besides, who would hold the camera? The midwife?
DeleteHaving seen so many births on TV these days, there is probably a remote camera set up to record every moment.
DeleteHopefully your son-in-law will be present to welcome his first child into this uncertain world.
MoneyMoneyMoneyMoney
ReplyDeleteYou ate not getting any from me young man!
DeleteWhy don't you form a new football team, The Pudding Wanderers, and sign up all the members of your family as players? You could then get together for matches between your A and B teams and televise them via TikTok.
ReplyDeleteJust a suggestion.
And if I might say - a thoroughly ingenious and wonderful idea too. I would also like Pudding Wanderers to play Sheep Shed Shaggers from Ireland and The Isle of Man Kippers managed by Lord Peregrine of Peel.
DeleteJayCee - you are a genius!
DeletePudding Wanderers would hammer Titusville Titans!
DeleteDae nae play the pi***cks fra Glesga. They dae nae play faiyer.
DeleteI rather suspect that our Friend Mr Haggerty will not appreciate that remark. Prepare for Bannockburn the Sequel!
DeleteAs Jung said, the god is present whether called or not.
DeleteHamel(d) is nae a god, no even a godfayther, but Tasker's on his way tae divinity, as far as Ah'm concerned.
As for Glasgovia, ye can keep it, Yorky. Hamel(d) is flittin tae the auld West Riding, as John Braine insisted on calling your green nook.
Ah may even join (we say jyne) the Queerfellows, is that the Masons by another apron, like?
Ma best buddie's an An Arch of Solomon Mason, he thinks Jesus was an Egyptian magus.
No Queerfelows ken? It's Oddfellows ye wee stoater!
DeleteDo ye mind sweeties called Oddfellows? You could buy them in R.S. McColl's, there was always one beside a cinema, with sunblinds in summer.
DeleteI used to buy their Rum and Raisin Toffees and Soor Plooms (hard candies tasting of lime) and Pascall's Fruit Gums or Fruit Lozenges.
There was aye a Wee Stoater who worked there, a pretty gal who dressed up like Joan Collins in her day.
It is all about the money and it's bullshit. But I do like JayCee's idea, it's brilliant!
ReplyDeleteJayCee is a remarkable woman.
DeleteYou noticed!!!
DeleteBread and circuses?
ReplyDeleteToo late, Ms Moon. I beat you to it. Not that I am competitive. I am not, as my VERY competitive sister will confirm. And hate me for "winning" not by design but default.
DeleteU
It would be like shelling peas if Sheepshead United ever played Sheffield Ramblers.
ReplyDeleteYah! Yer all talk ye Lanky Paddy! You want some? You want some? Yah!
Delete"Your going home in a Saint John's ambulance".😊
ReplyDelete✌ (Two fingered gesture)
DeletePeace man.
ReplyDeleteI was joking YP.
ReplyDelete