A second lockdown in the UK is starting Thursday and will go on for a month at least. Given how stubbornly Boris has resisted this and the overwhelmingly bleak portrait the experts have been painting of what is going to happen if things continue as they have been, I think there is an unspoken acknowledgement that people are likely to do whatever the hell they please around holiday season regardless of what the UK government says, and it could be even more of a disaster than it already has been. This is LONG overdue, really - we should have gone into lockdown back in September.
Honestly, the Conservative government has made an absolute mess of its handling of the pandemic, and if not for the fact that the Labour party is in complete tatters I wouldn't expect them to get in again when the next election rolls around. I am glad for the extension to the furlough scheme, though. It's not enough, but any support is better than none at all. I feel extremely fortunate to be part of a company that allows me to work from home, now on a permanent basis even once we're all out of this. Stress and anxiety of the job aside, they've been extremely good to me, and my parents are also both lucky enough to work in essential services - postman and teaching assisstant/IT technician, respectively - so none of us have lost our jobs. One of my aunts has lost hers, though.
For me this lockdown comes at a disappointing time because my grandparents were going to visit at the end of next week and I haven't seen them at all this year, but in some way it's a blessing in disguise because I was very concerned about them coming down and staying in a Travelodge - my grandfather was in the shielding category during the first lockdown because of his blood cancer treatment, and my grandmother's health is a worryingly unknown quantity. Having them safe at a distance is obviously better than having them here and at risk. We can still talk over the phone or Facetime. I talk to them every weekend anyway, so nothing will change there.
The biggest worry for us now is my father's place of employment, which is not Covid secure and it really should be. tbh I don't know how he stands it and as he plans to retire in March I wish he would just retire early because if his colleagues aren't going to wear face masks in such a confined space it's only going to get more dangerous as winter progresses. We're having regular tests for when my brother visits - and my mother is probably going to panic over the next month as she won't see him at all - so that's somewhat reassuring, but it doesn't change the fact that there is still an aggravating amount of unnecessary risk for us because of it.
