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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Lockdown dis-easing and risk assessment, personal and political

5/6/2020

6 Comments

 
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Arrive late, leave early! Excellent advice for fiction writers pruning the unnecessaries from our scenes. Equally useful for introverts who quickly tire of socialising. But for a public health initiative in a pandemic? The UK is showing the world how not to do lockdown, introducing it too late and loosening the restrictions too early. Could it be that the occupant of number 10, having achieved his ambition of becoming prime minister has been using his undoubted spare time to brush up his skills in creative writing? Could it be that covid-brain has mangled his already
muddled pathways so that he’s imposed a strategy for achieving his next unlikely ambition – if a man of his talents can “lead” first a capital city, then a country, why not go for the Booker Prize? – upon the one of which he’s tired?
When a talking head told me I could now meet with five other people – or is it eight, or is that Scotland or Wales? – outside, socially distanced, I worried my book group would want to abandon Zoom to meet in my garden, which could accommodate twice that number with ease. Worried? This was more than my standard lack of assertion: I realised I was interpreting lockdown loosening as an instruction, rather than an opportunity I could choose whether or not to accept.
Ridiculous! As if I’ve learned nothing from this government’s mismanagement of the whole affair. So I’ll reclaim my neglected pessimism and decline the PM’s invitation to socialise. The benefits don’t outweigh the risks. Which is probably the case for the women in my book group: they’ll have other priorities than driving to sit in my garden in the drizzle or under a scorching sun.
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The nation is as divided over lockdown easing as it was over Brexit – and possibly along the same lines. Should we leave our shelters or remain safely at home? Remainers quote the science that says we’re still at risk of catching and spreading the virus. Leavers say we can’t hide away forever, we’ve got to get back to work.
 
Obviously I’m a Remainer, but that’s easy for me: I’m not sacrificing much to stay at home. I’ve revised my views on silver linings: this virus doesn’t treat everyone the same. The physical risks of contracting and/or dying from covid are greater for certain demographics – particularly BAME communities; likewise the psychological and financial risks of staying at home are greater for some than others. Yet there’s not much evidence of these differences informing the government’s plans. (Okay, there’s not much evidence of any logic informing their decisions, other than detracting attention from their mistakes.)

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How would a grown-up approach this? How have schools worked out how to open their doors to certain year groups from the beginning of June? Public services are accustomed to carrying out risk assessments – action plans to minimise hazards and maximise benefits – for the slightest deviation from the everyday. I’m required to produce one for the guided walk I lead as a volunteer in the Peak District. It even gets a mention in my forthcoming novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home.
 
What if we were permitted to produce and act on individual risk assessments? Instead of the Great British Public being collectively granted the luxury of visiting car showrooms and IKEA, could we be guided towards making our own choices about what we’ll sacrifice for a personal good? Perhaps one person would prefer to cuddle her grandchild, even if that means strict self-isolation both before and after, to meeting with five friends to discuss books? Perhaps another, an extrovert living alone, would do almost anything (legal) just to touch and be touched.
 
Of course it would be chaotic: impossible to police and open to abuse. But that’s where we are already: many are acting on their own initiative, rather than government guidelines, either because they’re weary of lockdown or angry at the absence of consequences for a government adviser who flouted the regulations he introduced.
 
Last weekend, distancing was impossible for many who marked the British tradition of scorching their skin in certain beauty spots while, in others, piles of rubbish were left a neat two metres apart. The neighbours on either side of me each hosted garden get-togethers – one lot actually feeding their visitors indoors – before the groups-of-six rule was legit.
 
Of course it would be confusing if everyone was permitted different things. But it’s confusing already with slightly different kinds of easing allowed in the four separate countries that comprise the UK. Would people have the intelligence to carry out a cost-benefit analysis doth for themselves as individuals and for others they could potentially infect? Possibly not, but dieters manage to count calories and to calculate whether it’s worth skipping dinner to treat themselves to afternoon tea.
 
I have in mind some kind of flowchart taking us through the options available and the potential costs. I imagine that one of my preferences – to sing with a real rather than virtual choir – would lead, as many others, to a dead end. And I might decide that other options aren’t worth the risk. They might even be a way for me to donate my unwanted and underused privileges to someone who has already sacrificed so much more for the public good.

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A pipe dream, no doubt, but, if this virus sticks around for some time, worth considering. Because the alternative – blanket bans that suit some and hurt others, while others will blatantly flout – is grossly unfair. But Anne, you say, have you forgotten, people voted for unfairness just six short months ago? The only risk this government will assess is of being unseated.

With America grieving for another brutal police murder of a black man, and for the response to the protests it evoked, it seems wrong to shift attention to anything other than #BlackLivesMatter. Yet that’s what the British media did yesterday morning with headlines about the identification of a suspect for the abduction of a four-year-old from a Portuguese holiday resort thirteen years ago. In trying to understand why her parents don’t only arouse compassion, my 99-word story has turned into another protest poem.
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Entitled

They could’ve stayed in the apartment with their three sleeping children.
They could’ve grieved in private, they could’ve owned their guilt.
They could’ve recognised all families face tragedy and some tragedies loom larger than theirs.
They could’ve searched for ALL abducted children, campaigned for all victims of parental neglect.
They could’ve accepted police budgets have limits, that lost-cause investigations siphon resources from elsewhere.
They could’ve used their power, their professional contacts, their shiny media profile; they could’ve raised their white middle-class voices to shout for justice for all.
In their shoes – or flip-flops – would you have done the same?
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
6 Comments
Charli Mills
5/6/2020 11:04:05 pm

Since I already swore once this week, the barrier is down when I say we should call the UK and US management of this pandemic Clusterfuck COVID. And here I thought you were all handling it better across the pond. Now we have protests, those some wear masks. I found myself wondering if teargas or pepper spray cleansed the virus from mucus membranes. Michigan citizens even protested our governor for the right to decide their own viral fates. As you say, many are already acting on their own initiative.

I read an article about how Canada is initiating "double bubbles." As they slowly re-open, a double bubble is two households joining as one. I liked the idea because I have a friend who is a Remainer and conscientious about any interactions, so I invited her to be my double bubble. Another friend parked her car in the shade of my back garden as I sat in a lawn chair and we conversed, socially distanced. I like the mindfulness of making such decisions. Perhaps, it gives me the illusion of control. ;-)

As for your flash, Anne, spot on! It is easy to be an armchair participant, saying could've, could've, could've...but until we have been in their flip-flops, we don't know what we would've done. Why is compassion in short supply?

Reply
Anne
6/6/2020 04:44:57 pm

The sad thing is that the UK IS handling it better – just because the situation in the US is so dire! I think the notion of "double bubbles" was mooted here a while back – although I don't think it had a name – which I thought a good idea although for some families it would be like the decision of which grandparents to go to at Christmas – or in your case thanksgiving. Also potentially problematic for those whose preferred buddies didn't want them! I wouldn't have minded, but I imagine that my husband and I wouldn't have been anyone's first choice – not because we are so horrible but that others would probably prefer to see family. I'm glad you're managing to work something of yourself.

Well, your reaction to my flash is interesting as it didn't initially have that last line! I'm actually with the critics on this one as, although I hope I have some compassion for their loss, I think white middle-class entitlement is part of the problem both here and with the George Floyd case. Yes, in a life-or-death situation any of us would probably use the resources available to us to protect ourselves and our loved ones at the expense of others, the fact that this is possible, is an injustice. Nowhere near the same amount of resource has gone into investigating the abduction of a young child from a working-class family a couple of years earlier. And if it were a black child – well, would it have made the news except to criticise the parents for leaving their child unsupervised while they went to the bar.

Reply
Norah Colvin
6/6/2020 07:42:15 am

I'm a remainer, Anne. Although we've done well to flatten the curve here, I hope we are not relaxing too soon. There is quite a bit of pressure for restrictions to be eased even further, but I'm happy to wait and see how things go. I'm not in a hurry to rush out into the crowds again yet. But, as you say, my livelihood is not at stake and I know not everyone has been equally supported by government initiatives. Not everyone is at the same level of risk.
I found your flash interesting and I think there are a few ways of interpreting it. On my blog, you asked what happened on Queensland Day and I responded that recognition is given to those who have contributed to our communities. This year, two of the recipients are Denise and Bruce Morcombe whose 13 year old son was abducted and murdered 17 years ago. As a response, they set up the Morcombe Foundation and have educated Australians to be more aware of dangers to, and the need to protect, children. The Foundation is now synonymous with child protection. They are inspirational.

Reply
Anne
6/6/2020 05:26:24 pm

I wonder how you interpret my flash and how you think I did? As Charli and I seem to have a different perspective.

A nice coincidence that your Queensland Day plaudits have gone to the parents of an abducted child. I'm often a bit cynical – maybe too cynical – of charities set up "so that his/her death warrant have been in vain", but they can be therapeutic both for those who have directly suffered the loss and the communities they serve. Sounds like this has been a good one.

Reply
Norah Colvin
11/6/2020 12:23:19 pm

I agree with you about charities that are set up for 'those reasons'. There are too many of them trying to do the same thing and often not effectively. But the Morcombes have done an excellent job and a lot of effort goes into educating children at school. There is even a Daniel Morcombe day to increase awareness and make their own safety in the forefront of children's minds. It was such a terrible tragedy and I feared for the parents but they seem to have come through it together with strength. I guess my mentioning them was in response to your flash. They did what you seemed to be 'accusing' the others of not doing - of crying out for all, not just the one. Would I do the same? I'm very grateful to have never been in that position and that makes me unable to answer for sure.

Anne
12/6/2020 05:06:14 pm

Yes, I could see you mentioned it as a more positive outcome to that in my flash, and a charity that seems to have been a good outcome for everyone.




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