What utter tripe. The reason we in Somerset – and in plenty of other rural areas – don’t want people flooding in here has nothing to do with parochialism or xenophobia (a word whose definition you might want to look up) but is because – if they do come down with the virus – they could put further strain on already overstretched health services. And on other local services for which they probably don’t pay. I suggest you check how many hospitals and critical care beds exist in (say) a ten-mile radius of your normal home in London and then within a ten-mile radius of whichever Somerset town you are in. To get you started, Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton has twelve. It’s a long way to the next ones. Nearest ‘Nightingale Hospital’ will likely be at UWE in Bristol – if and when it opens.
Those ‘overwhelmingly older people’ you see are likely those who have never done an online grocery shop and may not even have the equipment to do so, even assuming they could (1) sign up for an account, which is currently almost impossible or (2) could actually get a delivery slot, which will be at least two weeks away in my experience. Are they supposed to starve in the mean time?
In short, try taking your head out of your sanctimonious *rse.
Well I live in Somerset, near Ilminster and we DO take it all very seriously. It has affected us as much as anyone else and we have this virus and deaths nearby – at Musgrove Hospital in Taunton.
I am clearly one of the many with more possibilities to die from this virus so am being very careful and am aware of what we need to do to stay alive – as are most living here in Somerset. And, like many I enjoy being out with the dog in fields nearby.
Our medical systems are far and few and we have all had to accept that any health issues we have are now on the ‘back burner’ even if life threatening. People arriving here from elsewhere to live in their country homes we are barely aware of- and certainly they are not ostracised or made to feel unwelcome.
It especially concerns me that our local economy- and people down here earn lots less than Londoners for example, may be damaged badly for quite some time… I for one, now feel we cannot ever trust the Chinese again, and object to their ‘wet’ markets, and horrendous animal cruelty. We cannot forget either that this is not the first virus to emerge from China.
After this is over, I shall be checking the origins or anything I spend my money on and will be willing to pay more to avoid anything from China.
Anjela Kewell
4 years ago
Well my lad, as you do not live permanently in Somerset I think you may have a misguided notion of a) elderly people and b) that London epidemic will surely hit a county with wide open spaces and a sensible population.
For a start people who live with space around them have every right to use that space. In our small town we see that it is most.y the young with their bikes and skate boards who are out for their daily exercise. The elderly who tend to live in two up two down Somerset cottages and remember much of the rationing left over from the war tend to have been very smart. They have not visited the supermarkets but supported their local small shops, they have taken their daily constitutional and they have followed the guidlelines.
However, as with most elderly people in Somerset who come from farming stock, they will remember the stress of foot and mouth, whereby a certain Professor’s computer model caused millions of healthy animals to be slaughtered and the loss of many successful family farms. The mental anguish resulting from this disaster took its toll over many years. Most of us will not allow that to happen to us again.
We do not have the tube in Somerset, nor do we have motorways cutting through swathes of beautiful countryside. The M5 runs along the top of the county and the A303 is the arterial road through the middle of the county. Should those families who need to get away from the newer housing estates where they live cheek by jowel, I have every sympathy as the Mendips provide open space and clean fresh air.
David Radford
4 years ago
I really disagree with the view that us oldies who live in Somerset are not following the covid rules. We are not the only ones the writer cocks a snoop at either. Just about every part of society is to blame for something. So what is the point?
Helen Barbara Doyle
4 years ago
Blame Khan for cutting the number of tube trains, not Boris.
simon taylor
4 years ago
A little entitled footstamping, typical of someone from “that London”. And should you even be here, James? We take social distancing very seriously around our village, because of this the local community shop run volunteer deliveries to vulnerable folk, and people out and about observe a strict 2m personal space. What we don`t have is the pessimistic siege mentality you appear to have brought with you.
rosalindmayo
4 years ago
Whilst I agree with some of this article I do think it is rather sweeping in its generalisations about ‘old people’ and the wartime generations, and I think reveals some ageism, which is very prevalent just now, or more so than usual. I live in the Shires, Norfolk, and a short time ago I had a phone call from my parish curate asking if there was anything I needed (I do not fall into any of the vulnerable categories ) Neither have I seen ‘older people’ wandering around. I think we need to be careful in these times ,more than we usually are, in generalising and extrapolating. I hope too many things will change after this is over- among my hope list is that ‘we’ might think through with heart and mind our ethics and attitudes to death and growing old -the undercurrent of ‘euthanasia speak’ in relation to the virus and NHS care, and costs etc, is addressed to us all-who are we, what are we,what kind of country do we want to be.
Dick Mitchell
4 years ago
I’m not British but, if the author is correct about the “wartime generation” then his town is swarming with people who are 95+ years old. I’m guessing that’s not correct. In fact, I would hazard a guess Mr. Bloodworth was not a student of history or arithmetic. Perhaps my being a “xenotype” and a postwar arrival to the planet has caused me to mistake WW2 with the Falklands War. Add in the author’s intolerance and deliberate misunderstandings and I hope he wasn’t paid for this effort.
Michael Dawson
4 years ago
I hope James does not pay his rent and forces his landlord to pursue it through the courts. Surely the mortgage moratorium does not mean a subsidy to landlords, who collect their rent in full, but have their repayments suspended in full.
As i understand it, the mortgage holiday just defers payments it doesn’t cancel them. In other words the missed payments just gets added to the end of the bill.
gstevefoster
4 years ago
‘Boutique stalinists’ – come on James, that’s unworthy of you – you can do better than that.
I have to say the only thing I liked about the article was the phrase “boutique stalinists”.
markluchesasmith
4 years ago
Yes, it’s also true of the elderly in Cheltenham. They are being quite careful about keeping a safe distance but there seems to be no intention of staying safely indoors, they are all out and about despite all the offers of help with shopping etc. I think some feel it is not worth spending their last few months of life confined to barracks, and if they have agreed not to take up a hospital bed if they get the virus that is fair enough.
Patrick Cosgrove
4 years ago
“Something similar has occurred in the United States under Donald Trump, despite his clumsy (to put it mildly) handling of the pandemic. “
You couldn’t resist it, could you? He’d set up a task force to deal with it in mid Jan and banned travel from China on the 31st. They’d have made better progress if Pelosi hadn’t tried her impeachment stunt. Concentrate on your own leaders half assed lockdown, his scientists ‘models’ that predicted 500,000, then 20,000 now 5,700 fatalities, the coroners faking the death certs and leave America out of it.
Because of the lockdown. The numbers are falling because of the lockdown. I have no idea whether the model is right or not, but this is a very basic rebuttal to your half-assed critique.
What utter tripe. The reason we in Somerset – and in plenty of other rural areas – don’t want people flooding in here has nothing to do with parochialism or xenophobia (a word whose definition you might want to look up) but is because – if they do come down with the virus – they could put further strain on already overstretched health services. And on other local services for which they probably don’t pay. I suggest you check how many hospitals and critical care beds exist in (say) a ten-mile radius of your normal home in London and then within a ten-mile radius of whichever Somerset town you are in. To get you started, Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton has twelve. It’s a long way to the next ones. Nearest ‘Nightingale Hospital’ will likely be at UWE in Bristol – if and when it opens.
Those ‘overwhelmingly older people’ you see are likely those who have never done an online grocery shop and may not even have the equipment to do so, even assuming they could (1) sign up for an account, which is currently almost impossible or (2) could actually get a delivery slot, which will be at least two weeks away in my experience. Are they supposed to starve in the mean time?
In short, try taking your head out of your sanctimonious *rse.
Well I live in Somerset, near Ilminster and we DO take it all very seriously. It has affected us as much as anyone else and we have this virus and deaths nearby – at Musgrove Hospital in Taunton.
I am clearly one of the many with more possibilities to die from this virus so am being very careful and am aware of what we need to do to stay alive – as are most living here in Somerset. And, like many I enjoy being out with the dog in fields nearby.
Our medical systems are far and few and we have all had to accept that any health issues we have are now on the ‘back burner’ even if life threatening. People arriving here from elsewhere to live in their country homes we are barely aware of- and certainly they are not ostracised or made to feel unwelcome.
It especially concerns me that our local economy- and people down here earn lots less than Londoners for example, may be damaged badly for quite some time…
I for one, now feel we cannot ever trust the Chinese again, and object to their ‘wet’ markets, and horrendous animal cruelty. We cannot forget either that this is not the first virus to emerge from China.
After this is over, I shall be checking the origins or anything I spend my money on and will be willing to pay more to avoid anything from China.
Well my lad, as you do not live permanently in Somerset I think you may have a misguided notion of a) elderly people and b) that London epidemic will surely hit a county with wide open spaces and a sensible population.
For a start people who live with space around them have every right to use that space. In our small town we see that it is most.y the young with their bikes and skate boards who are out for their daily exercise.
The elderly who tend to live in two up two down Somerset cottages and remember much of the rationing left over from the war tend to have been very smart. They have not visited the supermarkets but supported their local small shops, they have taken their daily constitutional and they have followed the guidlelines.
However, as with most elderly people in Somerset who come from farming stock, they will remember the stress of foot and mouth, whereby a certain Professor’s computer model caused millions of healthy animals to be slaughtered and the loss of many successful family farms. The mental anguish resulting from this disaster took its toll over many years. Most of us will not allow that to happen to us again.
We do not have the tube in Somerset, nor do we have motorways cutting through swathes of beautiful countryside. The M5 runs along the top of the county and the A303 is the arterial road through the middle of the county. Should those families who need to get away from the newer housing estates where they live cheek by jowel, I have every sympathy as the Mendips provide open space and clean fresh air.
I really disagree with the view that us oldies who live in Somerset are not following the covid rules. We are not the only ones the writer cocks a snoop at either. Just about every part of society is to blame for something. So what is the point?
Blame Khan for cutting the number of tube trains, not Boris.
A little entitled footstamping, typical of someone from “that London”. And should you even be here, James? We take social distancing very seriously around our village, because of this the local community shop run volunteer deliveries to vulnerable folk, and people out and about observe a strict 2m personal space. What we don`t have is the pessimistic siege mentality you appear to have brought with you.
Whilst I agree with some of this article I do think it is rather sweeping in its generalisations about ‘old people’ and the wartime generations, and I think reveals some ageism, which is very prevalent just now, or more so than usual. I live in the Shires, Norfolk, and a short time ago I had a phone call from my parish curate asking if there was anything I needed (I do not fall into any of the vulnerable categories ) Neither have I seen ‘older people’ wandering around. I think we need to be careful in these times ,more than we usually are, in generalising and extrapolating. I hope too many things will change after this is over- among my hope list is that ‘we’ might think through with heart and mind our ethics and attitudes to death and growing old -the undercurrent of ‘euthanasia speak’ in relation to the virus and NHS care, and costs etc, is addressed to us all-who are we, what are we,what kind of country do we want to be.
I’m not British but, if the author is correct about the “wartime generation” then his town is swarming with people who are 95+ years old. I’m guessing that’s not correct. In fact, I would hazard a guess Mr. Bloodworth was not a student of history or arithmetic. Perhaps my being a “xenotype” and a postwar arrival to the planet has caused me to mistake WW2 with the Falklands War. Add in the author’s intolerance and deliberate misunderstandings and I hope he wasn’t paid for this effort.
I hope James does not pay his rent and forces his landlord to pursue it through the courts. Surely the mortgage moratorium does not mean a subsidy to landlords, who collect their rent in full, but have their repayments suspended in full.
As i understand it, the mortgage holiday just defers payments it doesn’t cancel them. In other words the missed payments just gets added to the end of the bill.
‘Boutique stalinists’ – come on James, that’s unworthy of you – you can do better than that.
I have to say the only thing I liked about the article was the phrase “boutique stalinists”.
Yes, it’s also true of the elderly in Cheltenham. They are being quite careful about keeping a safe distance but there seems to be no intention of staying safely indoors, they are all out and about despite all the offers of help with shopping etc. I think some feel it is not worth spending their last few months of life confined to barracks, and if they have agreed not to take up a hospital bed if they get the virus that is fair enough.
“Something similar has occurred in the United States under Donald Trump, despite his clumsy (to put it mildly) handling of the pandemic. “
Here’s an interesting account of the extent of Trump’s mishandling: https://m.youtube.com/watch…
You couldn’t resist it, could you? He’d set up a task force to deal with it in mid Jan and banned travel from China on the 31st. They’d have made better progress if Pelosi hadn’t tried her impeachment stunt. Concentrate on your own leaders half assed lockdown, his scientists ‘models’ that predicted 500,000, then 20,000 now 5,700 fatalities, the coroners faking the death certs and leave America out of it.
Because of the lockdown. The numbers are falling because of the lockdown. I have no idea whether the model is right or not, but this is a very basic rebuttal to your half-assed critique.
Trump’s approval rating is at it’s peak. Your propaganda attempts are boring and irrelevant. Your approval rating appears to be dropping.