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A week ago I received my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine at
a nearby surgery. I had been notified by
text by my GP a few days earlier and, having followed the link provided, booked
myself an appointment 3 days hence. Old
habits die hard and I arrived 10 minutes early, intending to conduct a timing
holding pattern for a precise arrival. “I’m
early,” I informed a door monitor. “Not
to worry Sir,” she replied, “please stand in this space and await instructions.” I did exactly as I was told and less than 5 minutes
later, suitably perforated, I was given an information leaflet with the time I
was permitted to leave the building written boldly on the front. I felt elated as, from the evidence of
excited conversation, were others. In my
RAF career I quite often encountered people doing difficult jobs under pressure,
so I know what good morale looks like and the evidence of a sense of pride and achievement was all around the
Tadcaster clinic. Thank you everyone
concerned!
But to listen to the news or press briefings it would seem
that Covid matters are not going well. Actions,
like Goldilocks porridge, have been taken far too early or far too late. The vaccination schedule is a shambles with
London and Scotland missing out because of vindictive incompetence by this wretched
Government. Schoolchildren are being
deliberately starved to death and single mothers driven to desperation to provide. NHS beds are full and staff overwhelmed with
the system in crisis. Brexit warnings
are coming home to roost with food shortages in Northern Ireland and fishermen
in Scotland screaming we told you so.
Lorry drivers who failed to fill in customs declarations are being
turned away from border controls. Even
the England Cricket Team, losing the toss to Ceylon but still managing to bowl
the hosts out for under 150 and be within sight of overhauling the first
innings total for the loss of only 2 wickets on the first day, found their
efforts merely described as a ”decent start” on Classic FM. All told, any elation at receiving my vaccination
has quickly evaporated and I am back in my normal lockdown depression mode.
How much better things must be on the Continent, the European
Union which we have just, stupidly, abandoned?
An old colleague now living in Southern Germany tells me that they are
maybe hoping for the vaccine to reach them in, “a couple of weeks or so.” Bild,
a German newspaper, is rather more impatient using side headings such as, “pitiful,”
“stumbled,” and “mocked,” when discussing the roll out of a vaccination
programme in the EU. Bild concludes, “the
most bitter irony for Europe is that the one foreign politician our liberal
commentariat have most mocked for years - Boris Johnson - is also the only one
who acted swiftly and decisively when it came to securing the vaccines. The
number of doses the UK has available speaks for itself. And it was the sensible
federalist Europeans who have failed so miserably.”
If even the German version of the Sun red top
has it in for the EU Covid response, surely it is time for the media to
acknowledge that the UK, excluding the rebel Nicola’s SNP enclave of course, is
doing something right? Time for us all
to wake up to the possibilities of leading the world Covid recovery – my glass
is half full and the sommelier is hovering.
