Category Archives: Op-eds

Like many of you I had banned single use plastic from my kitchen.

The public campaign to reduce plastic shopping bags had been highly successful. We had all got into the habit of taking our own fabric, jute or reusable bags with us when we went shopping – although I tried not to acquire long life plastic bags, because they do fall apart eventually. But I wanted to take it further.

Clingfilm was the first to go. I tried bees wax wraps, which can be used to cover anything kept in the fridge in a bowl or cup. They are also a useful way of wrapping leftovers, although they do need to be lined with greaseproof paper.

I had gradually acquired a pile of stackable boxes in two sizes and I used those to store leftovers in the fridge. I often cook enough for 4 or 6 servings and freeze the remainder in two portion sizes in the boxes.

Next to go were the tear-off bags provided in the supermarket for loose fruit and vegetables.  Instead I sourced some washable drawstring mesh bags which I took with me when I went shopping.

I then turned my attention to packaging, which can be more of a challenge. Much of it ensures that food reaches the home in a healthy state, and these days a good proportion is recyclable. I do wash and save any plastic that can’t be put in the household recycling and store it. Some of the supermarkets encourage us to return anything like that, so I dutifully take it along with me, hoping that they have found some way of recycling it all. At the moment I am storing packaging in my spare room (along with the shredded paper and other items destined for the charity shop or tip when all this is over).

The Government is exploring the options for easing lockdown and will be announcing their plans next Sunday. The lifting of some restrictions will no doubt be welcomed by most people and we can expect some slightly late, but exuberant,  VE Day celebrations.

However, no-one should forget that, whatever the new normal is, it will make no difference to a large number of people.

Everyone over the age of 70 was told to self-isolate for 12 weeks from 21st March, which takes us up to 13th June.

In addition 1.5 million people have been ask to take the more stringent shielding precautions for 12 weeks. The first wave of those letters were issued during the week when lock down began, and a second wave was sent out around 2 weeks later. So those people can expect to be shielded in self-isolation until the end of June, at the earliest.

Before lockdown Stephen Fry gave some advice on managing anxiety during self-isolation.

Anxiety and stress are almost as virulent as this awful coronavirus.

Take a deep breath and allow time to take on a different dimension, taking more time to do everything.

He says that we would be wise to redefine our sense of time. To do that he suggests drawing up a timetable for each day and allow plenty of time for all the tasks.

We should also turn off notifications so we are no longer constantly being bombarded by headlines, and then decide on a time during the day when we will look in on the news. Some weeks ago a friend advised me not to watch any news reports in the evenings – and I have found that really has helped my sleep patterns.

To reduce anxiety Stephen Fry says that we need to cut out the noise. He makes one very salient point: the real experts, such as scientific advisors, tend to qualify their statements with phrases like “We think” or “It’s possible”. Anybody who claims to know what is going on, with great certainty, probably doesn’t, and we should blank them out.

I have mentioned before that I have been starting most mornings with Joe Wicks. Given my age and general state of fitness, I haven’t been following the daily PE with Joe sessions, although a million other people have.

Instead I have been following his videos for seniors. Each of the five different workouts takes you through a 10 minute set of exercises, which can be varied to suit your capabilities.

I bought a Fitbit a couple of years ago to encourage me to get out for a walk each day. My daily step rate was never very high, reaching 8k or more on a good day. I achieved my highest rate ever of 23k  when I took the grandsons to Disneyland Paris last year. I have been alarmed to see that whilst in self-isolation I have rarely got above 4k.

Apart from a dance class I once attended at a health centre (and a long since abandoned involvement in fencing when I was at University), I have never really taken to exercise or sport, so following fitness videos is new for me. In fact, I am very surprised to find I actually look forward to them each morning.

Last week I wished Shakespeare a Happy Birthday with a photo of the pop-up Shakespeare’s Rose theatre in York in 2018. Friends in Kingston will know the significance of that picture, and it is not simply because York is my favourite city in the UK (and I went to University there).

Soon after I was elected to Kingston Council in 1997 I was asked to represent the Council on Kingston Theatre Trust. Our chair was the broadcaster David Jacobs, who was the Representative Deputy Lieutenant for the Borough and who took a keen interest in the cultural life of the area.

Our mission was to build a theatre in Kingston, and at that stage we were planning a traditional proscenium stage with a fly tower. St George’s plc was being encouraged to bring new life to the river front by building luxury flats and improving the access. The Council owned some of the land in the development parcel, which became a useful bargaining ploy. As part of the planning agreement St George’s was to construct the shell of a theatre, and we eventually got outline planning permission for it.

The Theatre Trust had applied to the Arts Council for capital funding and it was a huge blow when the application was refused. At one stage it looked as though the project would have to be shelved, but, in 1997, with Lib Dems in control, Council decided to go ahead with a feasibility study. The challenge was to see whether we could create a low budget “warehouse-style” theatre.

“A third of Covid-19 hospital patients die“. That is the stark headline in the Guardian today, echoed in other media.

But shouldn’t it read “Two thirds of Covid-19 hospital patients survive”? We rightly applaud the NHS workers at every opportunity, and we do so because they are saving lives.

People are only being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 when their lives are at risk. This is a vicious new disease that no-one knew anything about just four months ago, and yet everyone in the NHS, from the whole range of health care professionals to administrators and ancillary workers, are together contributing to a remarkable success rate in treatment.

Coronavirus and its fallout totally dominate the news at the moment. But we desperately need some good news – what else could explain the phenomenon that is Capt Tom? (Happy Birthday!).

We all need to know that catching Covid-19 is not a death sentence for the vast majority of people. Even in the most serious cases, where intensive care interventions are needed, most people recover. So why are we not being told this directly?

The cupboards that I have been clearing out have been a rich source of memories. I found a large biscuit tin full of marbles.  Some of the contents go back to my childhood and my sons added to them when they were small.

Children don’t play with marbles these days. However, I don’t do “Things were better in my days”.

Things were different, but largely worse for children when I grew up. Children were abused, legally, by the very people who should have been protecting them.

School was horrible. From the age of six we sat all day at our desks in silence. The first school I attended was in a Victorian red brick building. I just remember the Infants section as dark. Outside was a tiny playground, which was an uneven stretch of tarmac devoid of any play apparatus. The toilets were across the yard, and we called one of the cubicles the ‘fever toilet’ because it was filthy with broken pipes.

The building was completely inadequate. One day we arrived at school to be told we were moving to a new Infants school. We walked in a crocodile to the new site. Unfortunately our parents (schools didn’t work with parents at all in those days) had not been informed so apparently turned up at the old school to pick us up at the end of the day.