We moved into the new year, opened the schools for a day to give the virus lots of opportunities to spread, then went into lockdown again. I find it hard to believe that any government can be so incompetent. Vaccines started, and the NHS are doing an amazing job – if we’d give the NHS the responsibility for track and trace, rather than giving it to Tory friends, we probably wouldn’t be in such a mess. On Tuesday 26 January, the 11th anniversary of our Theo’s death, we passed the 100,000 point of those who have died within 28 days of a Covid diagnosis. I feel angry and impotent.
In this lockdown churches were not instructed to close. We made the decision to do so – worshipping together in our Holy Places is important, but not when it puts people in danger. We have gone onto Zoom, usually with about 65 people attending, then put the video on youtube when we usually find another 20 or 30 views over the following week. If you search for “Peter Barham” on youtube you will find them.
I continued my daily facebook ramblings. Here are this month’s:
Julie and I had one walk at Kedleston, but the rest of the time we stayed at home. There was an incident when Derbyshire Police fined people who had travelled five miles to go to Calke Abbey for a walk. A couple of days later the Prime Minister was driven seven miles so he could cycle and the Metropolitan Police said he had done nothing wrong. The Derbyshire fines were quietly withdrawn! The 27 miles of walking I completed in January were nearly all done round the garden.
