Good to hear Matt Hancock telling us at today’s coronavirus briefing that Boris Johnson was self-isolating after coming into contact with someone last week who then tested positive with the virus. “Boris is a national hero,” Hancock didn’t say, but might as well have done. “He’s holed up in Downing Street setting an example to us all.” I was hoping one of the journalists present might think of asking Hancock was still being paid while Johnson was off the job, so to speak, but today’s journalists rarely think about the lives of ordinary folk.
This stuff matters. Johnson is reportedly worth circa £3 million, which probably makes him one of the poorest members of the government, and receives a trifling £150,000 a year for his day job. If he doesn’t get paid when he’s self-isolating, it is unlikely to send him off to the local food bank. For millions of people who will not be paid if they are forced to isolate, it could deny them the ability to put bread on the table.
I know people who have been told to isolate and because they would have no income have declined to do so. I won’t go into any detail other than to say I do not judge them on their individual decisions, nor do I condemn them. In our broken and divided country, there is one rule for the rich and powerful, basically the illiberal elite, and another for the rest of us.
To be fair to Johnson – and I really hate to be fair to Johnson – he is able to ‘work from home’ whilst self-isolating. Those engaged on ground work and in other insecure forms of work will not have that option. Stay at home and starving is not exactly appealing.
Yet again, COVID-19 exposes the fault lines in 21st century Britain, in this case the government telling people to self-isolate but not making sure that all of them will have enough money to eat and heat their homes. Johnson and co don’t give a shit about this stuff and Britain’s tame journalists haven’t even noticed. What a time to be alive.
