In Note Form

[poliphilo]

The last time we gritted our teeth like this was when Tony Blair invaded Iraq.

I'd rather be fighting germs than people.

The Internet is going slow. Ailz says it's because people are working from home, placing huge orders with supermarkets, communicating by video rather than face to face. And so on.

Bumping elbows is a jolly way of greeting people, but I prefer Prince Charles' choice: hands steepled, a slight bow from the waist. Namaste.

Football is over for the duration. The May elections have been cancelled.

Life as usual is on hold. As Gaby Hinsliff points out in the Guardian, we may well change our minds about some of the things we do "as usual" when we find they're unnecessary or even rather silly. Epidemics- like wars- speed up social change. The world will be a different place when all this comes to an end.

Comments

[cmcmck]

A lot of Indian folk have been suggesting the namaste greeting.

[poliphilo]

I wonder if it'll catch on...

[almsfortheinsane]

I thought it was kicking legs?? :o I'd rather be fighting nothing.

[poliphilo]

Fighting nothing? Me too.

[almsfortheinsane]

:) <3

[qatsi]

Some of us gritted our teeth in the financial crisis of 2008. I think that was more abstract: something was badly wrong, but it wasn't clear how it would affect the day to day.

There's nothing the media like more than a crisis. It sells copy.

Did things change after 2003? After 2008? They probably did, in some ways, but I'm not sure I could say how. Iraq cemented Blair's reputation; the financial crisis cemented Brown's. Johnson has taken a gamble so far; if it works it's a smart move, but he could still be punished for it. (Which would be ironic, given so many other things he ought to be held to account for.)

[poliphilo]

I see that a poll published today suggests only 36% of the electorate "trust" Johnson on the coronavirus. That woeful score is the outcome- I think- of the erosion of trust in politics and politicians that has been going on for decades and was surely helped along by the events of 2003 and 2008. Change is often incremental, evolutionary. Looking back we can see that change has happened and pinpoint landmark events, but we can rarely be sure that attitude y is the direct outcome of event x.