May day or are we still in the middle of nowhere?

May day or are we still in the middle of nowhere?

Now today of course should be May day which it is. But you'd be forgiven for thinking that we're still in the middle of March and nothing has moved for what seems like an eternity. The world seems to be crumbling around us, sinking into the quicksand and never returning for some time. Or is it? We keep being lulled into a false sense of security quite literally because everything is precariously balanced on the edge and this looks as if it might be going nowhere very quickly. Hold on though, the news did give us a tantalising hope that things are on the upward.

Yesterday Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister declared to Britain that Covid 19 has now reached a peak which could mean nothing to some but everything to others. The implication here is that the coronavirus infection could be dwindling away, slowly declining and not nearly as lethal as it was about a month ago. The medical bulletin was, at long last, positive and you can all begin to sigh with relief. To quote that lovely cliche, we're not entirely out of the woods but we can see a clearing.

And yesterday the Prime Minister, looking increasingly chipper and much more sprightly than he was a couple of weeks ago, gave us chapter and verse on the simple joys of walking and running with complete freedom and going to the shops in the conventional way. But we are not to step out of line though. We are not like those naughty school children doing detention and lines, ruffians with no manners, troublemakers who are quite clearly intent on causing all manner of disruption in class time. We want to observe the rules and regulations.

Mr Johnson, quite unexpectedly, resorted to a couple of moments of poetic analogy and vividly descriptive commentary. In his opening gambit he thanked the whole of his nation emphatically for keeping their respective social distancing, obeying the laws of the country and not trespassing into areas where they shouldn't be. But things were working quite effectively and those objectionable people who insisted in sticking together and having picnics in the park should simply be ashamed of themselves.

But yesterday Boris gave us a different slant on topical matters. According to the Prime Minister we were about to emerge from an Alpine tunnel and out into the green, sylvan pastures of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and anywhere else that had been cordoned off and closed back in March.

He then warned us that we should still be cautiously optimistic since to do anything too hasty could be a recipe for yet another disaster. Johnson said that if all those restrictive lockdowns were lifted now simultaneously it would just be completely daft. The blond haired one from Uxbridge and Eton school went on to point out and was at pains to points out that we'd just hit a mountain. The sunlight would prove too much for our vision and all of this would indeed be a false dawn.

You were now tempted to imagine what Johnson might have been thinking had this Downing Street daily media conference been taken to an even more natural conclusion. Perhaps he should have added that England's green and pleasant lands could once again blossom in joyous shades of pink, red and yellow, that the sunflowers would dance a thousand salsas, the cornfields flourish with a bountiful harvest and the sun dappled forests would shine brightly for ever and ever. You'd be amazed what a good, old fashioned reference to Yeats, Keats and Wordsworth can do for the soul.

The truth is though we are on the first day of May which is normally reserved for trade union marches in the centre of London, huge flags and banners of dissent, militant unrest and loud voices booming out across the whole of London. In Russia of course they'd have been descending on Red Square for their annual and well disciplined march in perfect formations. Hadn't we forgotten all about Communism though or maybe this is just another opportunity for the good folk of Russia to take a long striding walk?

May, by its very nature is a merry one, according to the old rhyme, but now it looks doom laden and the ultra pessimists are forecasting the end of the world by midnight on Midsummers Day. But oh no things will definitely get better, dramatic improvements are on the way and the feeling is that very shortly Union Jack flags are about to be dragged out of your cupboard, trestle tables put up and triumphant street parties will be the order of the day.

There is a feeling that those ghostly streets of London will once again explode into life and all that is dead at the moment will burst into life. The neon signs at Piccadilly Circus will be transformed overnight into some spectacular light show, Londoners will be racing into department stores like there was no tomorrow and those responsible for those amazing outdoor concerts in Trafalgar Square will be insisting on one of the greatest house parties for the public ever held in the capital city.

The whole of Britain will be released outdoors en masse and in great hordes. Loud rock and soul music will blast uninhibitedly out of giant speakers and flashing signs will herald an exciting new dawn. There will be vibrancy, rejuvenation, resurrection, a sense that the doom and gloom that had fallen over the world seemingly indefinitely was just another dark and brief episode in our history.

Finally, the people of the world will be allowed to fling open the saloon doors, breaking into pubs and converging on bars like the desperate souls who get lost in a desert and then discover water completely out of the blue. We will once again be surrounded by our loved ones, our wonderful families who knew this couldn't last for much longer. We will be flocking to the cinemas with their multiplexes and hundreds of films to choose from. We will then take ourselves off to those stupendous West End musicals, those provocative plays, the comedy clubs with their improvised routines, theatre land in all of its acting grandeur, the thespian life and how good it is to see you again.

Above all we will have that licence to do whatever we like within reason of course. We'll paint the town red of course we can and why not? Turn the clock back 75 years and it may feel like that anyway. We won't feel as though we've overcome a major foe, beaten down a mad and murderous tyrant who just wanted to destroy the world. But we'll be happy because the lives we've been living have been temporarily taken away from us and we've just felt very alienated and cut off from everyday living.

So here's the plan. In a matter of weeks the world will once again be free, free of fear, uncertainty, indecision, delays, extensions to weeks of not knowing whether things would ever see light at the end of the tunnel. We'll get into our cars, buses and trains and run along hitherto dormant and deserted seaside promenades, licking a million ice creams, savouring that much coveted plate of fish and chips, packing out the amusement arcades and doing the things we used to because we do deserve it.

Still, let us not forget we are in coronavirus lockdown, the disease that continues to send a shudder of terror through us if we so much as give it a thought for a moment or two. May has carried a couple of April showers with it but this is the time to venture forward and be upbeat. Anybody for a spot of Maypole Dancing? It is May after all.