One of the lucky ones

I hope you're all OK. I hope you have everything you need.

I've been trying to keep my blog posts upbeat, devoid of politics, as my contribution in lockdown. Sometimes this is hard.

Yesterday was good.

I got out on my bike and went in a new direction. I saw my first bluebell wood:

I unexpectedly met a friend en route and had a physically distanced chat with her;

Chrissie brought me some food treats I'd asked her to add onto her click and collect shop, and I had a delicious tea;

I made sound progress with the painting I'm working on.

This morning I woke up and read the news and felt sick. Apparently the PM regards the way he and his ministers have dealt with the pandemic a success, ignoring the fact that we're on course to have the highest death rate in Europe and possibly even the world. 

Millions of Brits think he's a good guy, doing his best. And then there are the people like me (also millions) who know that this government was not well prepared for a pandemic; that the last ten year's austerity measures have blighted the NHS and the civil service's capacity to respond to emergencies; that Johnson took ten days holiday this spring when he should have been planning our response to the pandemic; that he made light of it and went on shaking hands with people; that lockdown came too late; that they have followed a herd immunity policy; that they have been willing to sacrifice people in care homes, presumably because it will help to ease the care crisis they have no solution for; that they have been willing to sacrifice NHS staff and care workers by not providing them with the PPE they need, despite UK companies having the capacity to provide them; do I really need to go on? 

What can we do?

The Trussell Trust reports that food banks have had an unprecedented spike in need. They are asking us to write to our MPs in support of a call from a coalition of charities, including Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), Children’s Society, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), StepChange and Turn2us, for the government to introduce a temporary Coronavirus Emergency Income Support Scheme to ensure people can feed their families.

If you want to write to your MP to support this scheme, follow this link.