Rightly not, in my view. And I'm certain that there are many like me. The various strains of coronavirus are merely under control - more or less - and have not gone away. Nor will they. One or two people I've spoken with on holiday - I'm still on holiday - seem resigned to living with 'the virus' for years to come. It's hard not to grimly agree with them, although I do remind them that the devastating 'Spanish Flu' that killed millions after the First World War eventually petered out, permitting the froth and frivolity of the Roaring Twenties. Maybe the virus will mutate into something less virulent. Organisms can take themselves down blind alleys - just consider ourselves. But I do agree that 'the virus' in its various forms is probably here to stay, and will always be with us, in a relatively harmless or dormant form perhaps, but there nevertheless.
So it seems completely sensible to remain careful about who to mix with, and in what circumstances. There are an awful lot of silly people around, who behave as if they haven't a clue about hygiene, nor indeed good health generally. I'll be watching out for them. All adults - I mean 'all grown-ups': not necessarily the same thing - ought to know the right thing to do. Children - who may be word-perfect on what they have been taught about staying healthy - are impulsive, and can't be so readily trusted. So it seems wise to stay away from any family cluster, or any obvious group of friends whether young or old. I wonder how long before such caution will earn a scowl, with perhaps a remark on the lines of 'We're not lepers, you know' or just 'What's up with you?'
I see other problems looming, now that we can congregate freely, and mostly have a choice about wearing a mask or not.
There's peer pressure. You may find you are the only one of a group of friends who ever puts a mask on. The rest don't bother, and they will start asking you why you are bothering, at least while in their company. The asking soon turns into ridicule with an edge to it, and unless you are very strong, you'll give in to escape the unkind chortles. I don't think my own group of friends would ever laugh me out of wearing a mask when it might help, but I can easily imagine other types of person who will attempt - in the name of 'coolness' or 'group conformity' - to enforce unwise behaviour. Boisterous groups of sporting men having a drink, for instance.
Then there is ordinary social pressure. Although many of us are insisting that we will carry on voluntarily wearing a mask in shops and crowded places, I'd be surprised if this good attitude survives for very long. Soon enough, the mask-wearing habit will fade, because it is after all inconvenient and uncomfortable, and now it's no longer compulsory in most situations. Soon enough, anyone wearing a mask will stand out, and it may become the mark of an annoying and unfriendly person who is Making A Point. Unless adopting that role is intentional, most of us will quietly drop wearing a mask, if it gets in the way of an easy life, or brands us as a killjoy.
And mask-wearing could even become contentious. Just as 'Taking The Knee' - originally (and briefly) a spontaneous gesture of respect and support for black footballers - has morphed into a slavish (and probably insincere) gesture of political correctness, so I can see 'Wearing The Mask' will become politicised, and used to promote protest on this or that. It will go from 'I am being careful about my health and yours' to 'I am an environmental activist', and then finally to 'I am a general troublemaker, prepared at any moment to cause a disturbance'. At which point, the police may take a heavy-handed interest.
Sigh.
Will the widespread abandonment of masks make news? Will it make a stir of any kind? No - unless poor Mr Johnson is caught following the lead already given by ordinary Brits. How unforgiveable of him!
But the flagrant hypocrisy, blindness and fickleness of the electorate is a fact of life for politicians, for the Head Honcho especially. Politicians deftly navigate the turbulent waters of ordinary life, and I think ordinary life moulds their behaviour. They take their cues from what they think we do, or would like to see happen. It's a pity they read the papers and study the tweets, and get only a skewed version of What The Nation Thinks.
Those waters of ordinary life are full of rocks. It's hardly any surprise that top politicians seem preoccupied with steering a safe and prudent course, with an eye to both wind and tide, but do occasionally shipwreck and sink.
I really admire how well they cope with such a precarious existence. I wouldn't last five minutes in that game. I'd hate pandering to a party machine. I'd hate getting horrible but useful people on side with promises I don't want to keep. I'd find it monstrous to play one person off against another.
I'd soon blow my new career as Prime Minister. I'd quickly tire of weasel words and sanctimonious claptrap, and I'd show it. I'd teach a sniping backbencher a stinging lesson and earn their lifelong enmity. I wouldn't tolerate bigoted nonsense from anyone. Straight talking with a vengeance would be my style - and what fun, if said in the House, where there is protection from libel suits. There would of course be utter uproar, and I'd be forced to resign on some crazy point of procedure, or else because of some cooked-up and utterly false slur on my character - which would nevertheless bring me down, and force a rapid exit into private life. But I'd go down speaking my mind; and would immediately commence a bestselling book about How It Really Was.
It's sad, though, that it doesn't take much to unseat a politician who isn't careful enough, or finds it impossible to lie and backstab. No wonder so few persons of genuine talent ever go into public life.
