It takes all sorts

One aspect of the ongoing pandemic crisis that occasionally irritates me is the stupidity of other people.

There, I’ve admitted it.

No doubt it springs from my own smugness, racism, snobbery, personal stupidity and arrogant lack of tolerance; however, I cannot help it – listening to people spouting crap on television or radio gets my goat.

There was a classic case on Radio Five Live yesterday, to which I listen via a Bluetooth-able ear piece connected to my smartphone every time I undertake my daily walking expedition.

A listener had phoned in to the Emma Barnett Show, which was covering such current topics as the Black Lives Matter rallies taking place in the UK and other countries in response to the killing of George Floyd in America and the latest Government initiatives announced on the coronavirus pandemic, including the fact that those with underlying health conditions who have hitherto been ‘sheltering’ for almost ten weeks could – as from yesterday – at last now venture out and meet with someone from another household, provided of course that they maintained the “two metre” social distancing stipulation.

A gent of my generation, or perhaps slightly older, the caller first detailed his various medical and other conditions included COPD (or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) which undoubtedly placed him in the ‘to be sheltered’ category.

However, his purpose in calling was to berate the Government for its new pronouncement that he and others like him were now allowed “out”.

He pointed out that he had obeyed the instruction to ‘shelter’ himself from the outset. People had been very helpful in providing him with food and other supplies etc. and he had remained on high alert for the entirety of his incarceration.

His overriding concern was that he – and those like him – were ‘at risk’. He was mindful that if he came into contact with anyone, displaying symptoms or not, who had coronavirus, it might easily have fatal consequences.

In this context the Government’s latest stipulation under its ‘gradual relaxation of the lockdown’ was an outrage.

Were he to venture out, it would inevitably place his life in danger on a daily basis.

How dare they? It was tantamount to ordering him to commit suicide.

At this point, about three minutes into his conversation with Emma Barnett, I spotted the obvious answer to his problem.

I have a good deal of respect for Barnett, who has gained an enviable reputation as a ‘caller to account’ of pompous politicians, not least those ministers who take turns to do the rounds of the television and radio stations spouting ‘politico-speak’ by the yard peddling the Government line on the issues of the day.

Ordinarily by now – given her ‘no nonsense’ and superior brain power to mine – I would have expected her to have reached the same conclusion as I had long before me.

However, dealing with the call in question, she was still in encouraging, sympathetic understanding mode.

The longer it went on, the more frustrated I became.

On and on the call went, probably for more than eight minutes.

The flaw in the caller’s rant against the Government’s latest edict was, of course, that he had failed to understand that it was a new option, or choice – not a mandatory instruction.

He was apparently under the impression that he had been ordered to come out of self-isolation and mix with other people against his will.

He hadn’t, of course.

If he didn’t want to mix with other people – as anyone in his ‘at risk’ situation might not – he could always stay at home!