Up and down the country flags were hung in gardens and balconies, there was a two minute silence at 11 am, the red arrows flew over the capital, Winston Churchill’s VE speech was replayed on television, Vera Lynn singing We’ll Meet Again was played and the Queen appeared on TV to remind the nation that we have survived before and we will survive again, Maybe that’s the song that should have been played. My recollection from my childhood is that it took several years to rebuild not only the buildings and infrastructure of our country and Europe but the economy and the people’s freedom to buy products freely. Food rationing in the UK was to continue for another nine years.
I’ve had a virtual zoom get together with some good friends today. We didn’t celebrate anything except being friends. A good old chit chat to remind ourselves that life goes on and one day we shall be able to go out for lunch or shopping or a coffee or whatever.
Lockdown rules will apparently be updated by the government on Sunday so that we know what to do next week. No doubt we will all end up just as confused as we have been so far. It depends who you listen to and what you read with everybody making their own interpretation of the guidelines. There is no doubt however that 30,000 plus deaths is something to take seriously.
In the US unemployment has risen to 14.7% with 20.5 million jobs lost in April. This seems to me to be almost unbelievable but the information was taken from the BBC web site. That would be over one third of our population including children.
The idea of lockdown seems to elude some people. Three young men travelled from Berkshire to Dorset to celebrate the birthday of one of them on the beach. They walked at the foot of the cliffs at low tide, and you guessed it, they got cut off by the incoming water. One of them swam back around Old Harry Rock (which I can see from my very floral balcony but I missed this incident) to raise the alarm at Studland and get help. The lifeboat crew, two coastguard teams and helicopters, two ambulances and nine police offices were out to help with the rescue. The two stranded individuals (I don’t feel like calling them men) had climbed up onto the rocks to await rescue. There is a nudist beach at Studland and no one has mentioned if they were wearing clothing or not when found. I can’t help wishing they weren’t.
I hope you managed to wave your flag for victory today and sang along with Vera. You must be tired, sleep well