Lockdown diary, day 59

While sunny and not particularly cold, it has been quite a windy day today in West Cumbria.

While heading down to the pharmacy in Lowther Street to collect a prescription (which is of course one of the legitimate reasons to leave one's home) I was nearly blown over by the wind at one or two points. And it takes quite a bit of wind to blow someone my size over.

It occurred to me today that I had seen examples of how to say the same sort of thing done in two different ways on twitter this week, one of which annoyed me, the other just made me laugh.

E.g. how do you attack the government when they do something you approve of?

I unwisely had a go on Wednesday at the people who managed to simultaneously argue that the special award of a knighthood to Colonel Sir Tom Moore was deserved but attack the Prime Minister for making the special recommendation to the queen which enabled it to happen.

(I say unwisely because there is no convincing some people and one place you are never going to change anyone's mind about anything is on twitter.)

Also this week, following the decisions to extend the offer of indefinite leave to remain, free of charge, to the families and dependants of NHS support staff and social care workers who die as result of contracting coronavirus, and to exempt healthcare workers from paying the Immigration Health Surcharge, David Aaronovitch tweeted that by adopting these changes in policy the government had forced him to make what he described as a very welcome rewrite of a newspaper column he was preparing.

 Fellow journalist Nick Cohen replied to the tweet with a one-word tweet of his own: "Bastards!"

 Don't think Nick has ever been in danger of being accused of being a Boris fan: what he wrote could have been seen as just a joke, or as making an ironic point, but in a way very few people would take exception to. 

 Keep well.





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