So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 21st June

I have some sympathy for people who are going out in large numbers to enjoy the later winter/early spring weather. Judging from pictures in the Bristol Post, the centre of Bristol and the Harbourside areas were extremely busy at the weekend. I didn’t join them because I interpret the government rules as best I can to keep my family, friends and third parties safe. Another key factor in my considerations is the fact that pubs are closed and there are no public toilets. At my age, the last thing I want to be doing is scratching around to find a public bog. According to the Post, some people took matters – and their penises – into their own hands by urinating against nearby walls. Nice.

That large numbers went to the Harbourside does not mean there were huge numbers of people travelling miles to get there. If you live in Hotwells, Bedminster and Southville, it’s local. If I lived there, I might have joined them. So when holier than thou virtue signallers express their anger on social networks, they may be attacking locals who are allowed to walk in their local areas. Who knows?

It’s the same thing with the Clifton Downs. It is a vast area with sizeable nearby populations. If you have been locked up for nearly a year, and you live near the Downs, what would you do? But there’s another thing to bear in mind: why is it that you can only catch COVID-19 at the weekend?

Like many people, I work in a busy office and in people’s homes. I occasionally shop, too. Presumably, these things are far safer than wandering around a vast open area? I have twice left well known unnamed supermarkets – Asda in Longwell Green and Asda at Cribbs Causeway to unname them – without buying a thing because they were massively overcrowded and because barely anyone seemed to be applying social distancing. These occasions occurred before I’d had my vaccine and I don’t mind admitting I found both situations scary. But we are told workplaces, offices and supermarkets are safe. How else can you explain the fact that not a single employer has been prosecuted for breaking COVID rules, whilst tens of thousands of people have been fined for meeting outdoors? (The reason really is that thousands of reports have been made and virtually none of them have been followed up. Also, many employees are too frightened to report their employees for fear of losing their jobs.)

So, let’s face it: if you’ve been working in an office or in other people’s houses all week, which are ‘safe’, then how come it’s far more dangerous to walk around harbour? I mean, I’m not going to walk around the harbour but the paradox is playing hell with my mind.

As I have said before, the only reason people are not going to pubs, restaurants, football matches, shops and all the rest of it is because they are closed. If they were all open and the government was merely asking us to not visit them, what do you think would happen? That’s why it’s not surprising people are out in large numbers: it’s because they can. And because many people think it’s already 21st June, which the over-optimistic liar Boris Johnson says is the earliest date when lockdown will end for good.  And they’re going to party like it’s 21st June for the next three and a half months.

If Johnson says on 21st June that he will have to extend lockdown again, he might need to wear a tin hat, as opposed to the tin foil hat he is wearing at the moment.