To The UK Boy Racer Covidiots, Slow Down Before You Kill Someone

Lockdown has not been eased but there are a lot of people driving around in their cars and walking around or loitering in groups.

Music blaring, gusts of marijuana billowing from their rolled down windows, and pedestrians running across roads and scrambling back onto the pavement to avoid being mown down in the Retail Park.

The tranquillity on my way to and from work has disappeared.

The ability to pop into Sainsbury’s at 08.30 to buy a pair of reading glasses is gone.

Dashing into Marks & Spencer for a yummy tomato and salad cream sandwich because I forgot to bring mine from home is lost.

Queues of socially-distanced individuals or pairs hug the walls of both supermarkets morning and evening.

The car parks are fuller than they were two weeks ago, from five cars to nearly half full. I was kidding myself to think nature could take a breather for a few months, wasn’t I?

In England, 30,651 are dead from COVID-19 as of 7th May. Thankfully less in Scotland. Coronavirus (COVID-19): daily data for Scotland:

Scottish COVID-19 test numbers: 7 May 2020

A total of 67,097 people in Scotland have been tested through NHS labs. Of these:

• 54,173 were confirmed negative
• 12,924 were positive
• 1,762 patients who tested positive have died

There is talk of easing the lockdown with more exercise but nothing concrete yet.

The government hasn’t officially announced the easing measures. Yet, people are out doing their shopping. In droves.

This could possibly be due to housebound vulnerable or elderly folk now being given a second thought by Tesco. Thus reducing the number of slots available for all the couch potatoes who could have got off their arses and combined their exercise or walk home from the bus station with essential shopping at the start of lockdown. Perhaps it’s just me who does that.

I gave up my driving license five years ago. I don’t miss driving at all. I do realise it’s impractical for most people to not have a car, especially families.

Fortunately, neighbours and particularly a next-door neighbour’s daughter-in-law angel called Kerry does my mum’s, as well as three other vulnerable, elderly, and housebound people’s weekly shop.

Last week, Kerry couldn’t pay for the shopping with Mum’s contactless payment card (we don’t know why). With Kerry and the cashier not knowing what to do another angel, next in the queue, said she would pay the £33 for my mum’s shopping. Kerry asked for the kind woman’s contact details.

My mum couldn’t believe the news and immediately found the good samaritan on Facebook to thank her profusely.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Prime Minister has suggested we wear masks.

But we don’t. The UK government is not forcing masks upon us. So we don’t.

A vulnerable, elderly seventy-year-old. My mum is housebound with the exception of a painfully slow walk to the nearby park with her beloved dog, Daisy.

On the walk, she is often forced to stand unsteadily on the grass verge to avoid groups of teenage covidiots, who blithely saunter past while looking at her as though she were an alien.

When combining a doggy walk (or a dawdle as I call it) and a trip to the local shop for scarce items such as loo roll — they had some — and kitty litter, which they didn’t have, my mum needed to put the poo bag in the bin outside the shop.

The group of menacing teenagers loitering around it (commonly known as loiter louts) could see that she needed to access the litter bin. They didn’t move though until she asked them to for their and her safety. My mum is not shy.

When she fell on the path weeks ago, before lockdown, she tried for ten minutes to get off her hands and knees before two amazing carers rushed — yes rushed — to her aid. A sign that someone somewhere is looking out for people like my mum.

Food choices under lockdown.

Of all the places to open, KFC and McDonalds. Because we need more junk food to strengthen our immune systems, right?

I get the need for comfort food, truly I do, but fruit and veg are essential to stand a better chance of fighting any virus or bacteria thrown at us.

I think the UK government is incapable of getting anything right and I fear for us all.

The Great British spirit.

So this is a time when we are working together in communities, caring for those who cannot care for themselves due to the inconsiderate ignorant thousands (millions if we count the people who voted for Brexit).

Many people and supermarkets are helping those who need it the most. Morrisson’s and Iceland were the first to offer priority delivery within 24 hours to vulnerable people.

Marks & Spencer are supporting the NHS by providing what they do best, food and clothing.

This is the British spirit we should use to galvanise and rise up against Johnson and Brexit— yes, it’s still happening, but with gatherings banned it’s not the best time to peacefully protest in the streets, is it?

We might even see the police using their new power to arrest anyone they think is a danger to others during this time.

Perhaps they’ll be making their presence felt outside local shops to disperse loiterers and patrolling retail parks for speeding weed tokers.

Here’s a tune to pick you up.

Thank you for reading.

I enjoyed this article by Desiree Driesenaar recently.

Plus an unexpected but delightful piece of collaboration from Isabela Vasiliu who finished off a poem of mine beautifully.