All Yesterdays Parties: a matter of class as with COVID deaths
You probably wont have missed the continuing furore about the Christmas Party at Downing St on 18th December 2021. We don’t know who was there (Johnson almost certainly wasn’t-though he was at a leaving party on 29th November where he gave a speech)but the Tier 3 Lockdown restrictions then in place in London means it would have been very difficult to hold such an event legally.
I wasn’t a great fan of making lockdown restrictions law. Often they were badly written, not properly scrutinised and not understood by police. Further they were of course impossible to police except selectively. Most of those arrested and convicted who challenged it seem to have had matters over turned.
Even so the restrictions were law and that included for those attending No.10 parties whether they liked it or not, just like everyone else.
We know that deaths of people from COVID perhaps particularly in the first wave from March 2020 were a matter of class. Far more of the less well off, and particularly ethnic minorities died. They were in often essential jobs- like bus driving- where they could not work from home. Poor sick pay meant they avoided taking time off ill and housing conditions were also often poor.
So also with policing restrictions. The police would have had to let people into the Downing St event. It’s a gated and secure area. They did nothing, In Ilford, a working class area of East London a few miles away, a party that also took place on 18th December 2020 is currently being prosecuted. Again a matter of class.
I attended no parties in December 2020, met no friends or relations inside during lockdown and generally stuck to the rules. It can be argued (as above) whether the legal framework was helpful but I entirely accepted that the rules were there for a good reason and stuck to them. So how come the people who made them decided it was ok for them to be ignored? And how come the police ignored the matter under their noses as it were?
A matter of class arrogance and potentially a deadly one. Don’t imagine for a moment they were the only well to do people who ignored the lockdown and were left alone to get on with it. Try it in working class London and you might have expected a knock from the police though.
Leave a Reply