Where are we all going with this?

Where are we all going with all this?

It's a fair question and we think we're all entitled to ask it. Where are we all going with this coronavirus pandemic? Why do we keep swapping the rules around or are we just walking around in the dark and grasping at redeeming features by way of consolation. You'd be forgiven for thinking that we may just well be back in March because this does feel like a case of emotional tug of war. Sooner or later something will have to either ease up completely or just collapse under the weight of its own complications.

Today we discover that the Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer has had to retire to his own bunker in self-isolation. Now there is every likelihood that Starmer is new to this Shadow leader malarkey so it's best to give him time in the job. You find yourself wondering where his former colleague Jeremy Corbyn might be. Maybe he's in hiding from the public since the Islington man was simply crushed in the General Election and driven out of office quite amusingly it has to be said.

Now though Sir Keir Starmer, once a distinguished human rights lawyer, has been self-isolated or so we believe. It seems fairly safe to assume though that the last time we saw Starmer he did look the picture of health. In fact so fit did he look that some of us felt sure that, with some rigorous training, he might have been good enough for a place at next year's London Marathon. Then again who knows when that'll be because at the moment nobody knows what might happen tomorrow let alone next year?

But the truth is that although the number of fatalities resulting from Covid 19 have now been established people are still wearing masks, snoods, hoods and anything remotely resembling protection from the disease. People are peering over the masks with glazed eyes, suspicious, petrified and even warier than they were yesterday and the day before. Time it seems has become so immaterial that maybe we should wait for the year to end and just hope that the best-case scenario will unfold so to speak.

Britain at the moment is in the grip of testing and tracing itself, busying with the painstaking process of discovering which of us has got the symptoms of Covid 19. We are patiently waiting at testing and tracing stations across the nation, bursting with exasperation and never knowing whether we'll ever be seen or whether it's just a waste of our time. Quite clearly though it isn't a waste of time because we're talking about human lives here and this isn't some temporary illness that will just blow over by this evening.

By the day, week and month, this is beginning to look increasingly like some very sinister episode of Doctor Who or some very outlandish science fiction series that just keeps going on and on and on. What we need to do now is retain a very sober perspective of the daily events. Up until now we've conducted ourselves with admirable restraint and our sanity hasn't boarded a plane to some remote desert island. We are still safe, secure, capable, rational thinking and not panicking. We've got a handle on this disease and we know that by the law of averages it will go and hopefully won't come back.

Of course the swabbing must continue to determine who might be displaying the symptoms of the coronavirus. It goes without saying that all work surfaces and pieces of furniture will have to be thoroughly cleaned and steamed and when you go into any leisure centre, pub or restuarant you may have to be subjected to a complete interrogation if you don't wear a mask. We know this to be true and this is happening now and it can't be disguised. The world is suffering its most catastrophic pandemic since the Spanish flu and we know that millions died way back then. We get it.

But now politicians from both sides of the House of Commons are just bickering unnecessarily, cross- examining, going at each other hammer and tongs, rowing, raising their voices, blowing their top. When are they ever going to stop this never-ending prattling? Criticism is raining down from all sides and nobody is going anywhere with any kind of a seemingly well-constructed argument.

This is not the time though for recrimination nor accusation, it's all your fault and this incessant howling like a wolf. This is the time for all politicians to slow down, remain seated and just listen to each other respectfully, a time for politeness and diplomacy and not losing your rag. In a sense a little quiet and sensible reasoning may be all that's needed. Then again though when did your local constituency politician ever have recourse to the off button? This is not some childish game or competition where the prize for the loudest voice or heckle is two weeks in Disney, Orlando so it may be wise to kindly refrain from any speeches if you don't mind.

We are now in the land of the lowest common denominator where manners have escaped via the back door, very few ministers have the slightest inkling of what they're both doing and saying and the only voices of commonsense are coming from the members of the public who voted them into Parliament in the first place.

Perhaps this could be the time to just slow down, breathe very slowly and just refrain from personal grudge-holding and toxic antipathy, the red mist falling gently across our eyes and obscuring everything within our sight.We may have our doubts and reservations about the current discourse but when somebody tells you that just over 41,000 people have died as a result of the pandemic you may be inclined to believe them.

But once again Prime Minister Boris Johnson stood to his feet, settled himself for the barrage, tried to avoid the flak and then resigned himself to the fact that he was obviously fighting a losing battle. For every plausible defence for his case and the insistence that the testing and tracing operation had to be introduced as soon as possible there were a whole load of Punch and Judy impersonators who told him that he didn't know what he was saying and should therefore be sacked in the morning pronto.

For a Prime Minister who has risked life and limb to get to this point, Johnson sounded truly philosophical. Throughout all this torrid turbulence Johnson has been honest, remarkably pragmatic but then blinded by science. Flanked by his trusty medical and scientific officers he has blurted out all of the relevant bullet points, described the meaning behind all the statistics and then wished that the water next to him was gin or vodka. This has been the worst and toughest times for the Prime Minister and nobody told him this was going to happen when he was elected as Prime Minister just before last Christmas. And yet it has.

And that maybe another valid point. If this goes on for the rest of the year then - shock, horror- Christmas may have to be scrapped. How are you going to fit hundreds of your relatives and family into your home when only six are allowed into the family dining room? What are the kids going to do about their presents if Santa will quite clearly be banned. You simply can't let gentlemen with red coats and white beards to drop down chimneys when everybody else has been assembled from every part of Britain.

Oh well! These are the pressing concerns of the day and we must hope that at some point in the foreseeable future the great social historians will remember where they were when Covid 19 became a stark reality. At the moment it does seem that all of us will never ever forget where we were on the day the world came to a standstill. It may not seem like it at the moment but it's time to look into the crystal ball and remain optimistic. Don't stop now. We're on the right road and we will get there.