Good morning from a dull and wet Keswick. It is a lovely town where I got married for the first time some thirty-four years ago. My wife knows my history, and she knew before we came here, but one thing that even I didn’t work out was that as I sit here writing this post, today (Saturday 16th) is the thirty-fourth anniversary of that wedding to the day!
We were married here as this is where her parents lived at the time, so I wonder if my ex-wife is in town. As she was serving in the RAF near Nottingham when we separated, or should I say when I left the marital home, I have no idea. But I wonder if she lives in the town as her parents owned a B&B and did she take it on as her living, I have no idea, and I don’t know what I would do if I saw her, would I even recognise her? So we will see as the week progresses.
We had a lovely walk up Latrigg Fell yesterday, coats off as we walked up as it was warm, coats on at the top when the temperature dropped, and we had stopped walking to capture the beautiful views over the town and beyond. We don’t need the hassle of travelling abroad when we have so much lovely countryside here in the UK.
We got back to town, and the first cold pint of lager went down very well, I must admit, and I was more than happy to sit and chill whilst my good lady went off for a look round the local market.
At home later in the afternoon, I had forgotten it was FA Cup Final day, that was until I switched on the TV. I had wanted to watch the first big sporting event in fourteen or fifteen months to have crowds attending, and I believe some 21,000 were there, and I am one that was pleased to see people out and mixing and enjoying themselves. However, I wonder how much a used ticket to this final will be worth in fifty years as it will always be unique and special.
As someone who follows Manchester United, I enjoyed the game, and I wonder how much having fans back actually contributed towards that enjoyment, because, with the pandemic, I like others I know, have lost interest in football because it has just not been the same being played in, and watching it in an empty stadium!
But it was a good game, with a great goal from Youri Tielemans, a Belgian footballer, settling the game with a fitting goal to win any game, let alone a cup final. And on a side note, Youri was one of eighteen foreign players starting the game, with only four Englishmen starting the English FA Cup Final. To me, it just doesn’t sound right and is a little concerning. If it was the opposite way round and there had been eighteen Englishmen starting, maybe, just maybe, England could go that step further in the major competitions. I know it certainly makes Gareth Southgate’s job a lot easier with only having to watch four players during the game!
But well done to Leicester, and I was glad that they won, not just as the supposed underdogs on the day but also because of their recent tragedies surrounding the club ownership and the family, and so a fitting win and fitting celebrations to the man who helped take the club to where it is today – well Done Leicester City.
As you would probably expect from one of my posts, there is a ‘but,’ and as many of my posts have done, it centres around the pandemic and how it affects us and our lives.
Many of us have had jabs, and I firmly believe that people think that we have all been saved, and whilst it certainly helps us, it doesn’t stop us catching the virus, as the Health Secretary Matt Hancock is presently telling us on the Andrew Marr Show as I write this on the Sunday morning. The new Indian variation is certainly a cause for some worry, and it shows that the variations are out there and causing concern.
So back to Wembley yesterday, let’s take a look at this photo direct from wemblystadium.com. What is it telling us to do? Slightly obvious to me, but I have to ask why bother, and this is my ‘but,’ because just looking at the other photos, I would say there were as many people not wearing masks as were wearing them!
I understand that people were having fun, they were excited and pleased to be one of the 21,000, and it was a good day for our nation, but what is difficult about enjoying yourself when wearing a mask, as many did? I recently delivered a prescription to someone on my bike, and I had to wear a face-covering when I went to their door; it wasn’t until I was about half a mile or so up the road that I realised I still had my covering on. So is it difficult? No, it’s not!
People may say ‘relax, chill, give it a rest’ or similar, and in one respect, I get that, but a pandemic doesn’t differentiate between FA Cup Finals and shopping in your local supermarket. I see that people were expected to arrive an hour before kick-off, let’s say two hours for the game, and half an hour for celebrations, if your team wins. Is it too much to ask people to wear a face-covering for three and a half hours?
I don’t think it is, but that’s just me. I know people will find it difficult to wear a face covering, but I also know that people don’t wear them because they just don’t want to, but worse than that because they just don’t care or can’t be bothered. I was in my local bookies last week, and a young man came in without a face covering, and I had to ask if he had a mask; his answer was ‘I’m exempt.’ With my silly fifteen minutes being up, I had to leave, but as I walked out, his mate came to join him playing their slot machine. Lo and behold, he must have been exempt too, as he wasn’t wearing a covering either! In my opinion ‘the don’t care couple’ were in town! And there is another strange rule for the pandemic! Why is it I can only stay in my local bookmakers for fifteen minutes, but my wife can go to her favourite high street shops for as long as she wants? Last week, she told me that in one store people were queuing for forty-five minutes, just to pay for items, never mind the shopping itself! I don’t quite get it.
What has that to do with the FA Cup Final? Well, the number of people not wearing face-covering because they are exempt doesn’t stack up. I believe even people who do have breathing conditions could wear a face shield or a loose-fitting cloth mask of similar design to a shield, and that was backed up by a person on the Radio 2 Jeremy Vine show recently, who suffered with breathing difficulties and who happily told us that wearing a face-covering wasn’t a problem and people were using it as an excuse not to wear them. I appreciate all those who have breathing difficulties couldn’t wear a mask, but he proved that some people with difficulties can wear them without any problem!
So, in my opinion, most fans not wearing a face covering at yesterday’s game could have been wearing one; let’s be honest, a lot not wearing a mask had it around their neck, so why wasn’t it being worn properly?
From a stadium point of view, where we’re the tannoy messages reminding people of their responsibilities, why were the security staff not politely reminding people to put their mask on, why wasn’t more being done to ensure it happened, where was Wembley’s ‘duty of care to everyone?
But onto another aspect of the stadium’s guidelines, where was the 0.9-metre distancing that was supposed to be in place too, and again the duty of care just wasn’t there, and no one seemed to care, especially the stadium authorities.
Yes, it’s the downside to a happy and joyful day, but then someone has to look at this. I believe the Government have failed the population with this pandemic. When we went into lockdown, our borders should have been closed to essential visitors and UK citizens only and no one else. Anyone arriving here and not in those two categories should have been sent home – simple.
I wonder how many people have lost their lives to COVID, and that can be linked to people being allowed into our country freely and with no control because there will be some, and that can’t be denied? And so as it was yesterday at the Cup Final, the Government have also failed in their duty of care, but then my local shops also fail as they won’t enforce the wearing of any face coverings, or one way systems or control people.
However, the one noticeable part of the Cup Final coverage was when the BBC interviewed the Sports Minister Nigel Huddlestone. He took great pride in telling the nation what a success the day had been, thanking everyone and finishing by telling us that people had done what they were supposed to, they had done this and that and had worn face coverings. Yet, as he said those words, the camera panned to the crowd, and most people in the shot weren’t wearing masks, watch a replay – and in an MP’s world and as part of our Government that is deemed as a success, just like everything else the Government has done to control the virus! Sorry but if that’s a success, then no wonder we are where we are in the world.
And finally, and to finish, I wanted to mention the control and compliance with the wearing of face coverings, and so compare that to the presentation of the medals and cup. First, players had to pick up their medals as they walked past HRH Prince William as there was no touching allowed. Then William picked up the trophy and gave it to Kasper Schmeichel, the Leicester captain; no touching for medals, but touching for the cup is okay – really?
Now admittedly, it has reduced the contact, but there was a simpler solution so that the players would always remember the day a future king presented their medals, and that is this:
- William puts on good strong disposable gloves.
- He presents medals and the trophy with a fist bump, as he did to some players without gloves!
- He takes the gloves off, as we all do without touching the outer part, and disposes of them safely.
- He disinfects his hands as a precautionary measure.
- If necessary, a sanitising station is there for players after receiving their medals should they choose to use it?
Not exactly rocket science is it, and it upholds the tradition of the FA Cup and completely safe for all, even our future king, unlike those not wearing face coverings and being less than 0.9 metres apart whilst the game progressed as should have happened! So why be so concerned about the presentation of the medals and cup, and basically not giving a jot about the social responsibilities when the game was being played? Special care for special people – I wonder? But once again I am fortunate as it is something I have no control over, so no anxiety for me but what about others, maybe?
Anyway, on a more cheerful note, I am going to mention the rain, as unusual as that sounds, it’s because it looks like it has stopped and so I will go and make some breakfast, and maybe we will get out for a walk, more lovely scenic views and some fresh air, all socially distanced of course.
Thank you for reading, and stay safe.