177. Our Changing World #5

Apologies if you’ve been waiting for more pearls to fall from my fingertips. I think it’s proof we’re living in strange times when I not only forget I’ve a blog to maintain (or close) but I also find myself with little to say. Anyway, I’ve been given a prod so...

I guess for many people the strains of lockdown are emerging. I can’t for the life of me remember how long it’s been but I know it’s not even the halfway mark for The Shielded Ones. Twelve weeks minimum sentence. Of course, it’s a lot harder for most folk who are separated from their loved ones, have their routines completely upended and find themselves limited to one or a few people for constant company. At least you can go for a walk tho!!

But what about those who’ve lost their work? I worry about how they are managing. I know how slow the DWP is at the best of times but they have been inundated with requests for support and I don’t imagine they’ll be any quicker or any more humane in their distribution of the actual money that’s needed. When you see schools delivering food parcels alongside the free school meals, you get a sense that things are really harsh.

Bramhope World has changed.

Supporting our local florist - Lily’s.
My source of unusual roses.
These are Suez, more grey than this

I have seen a wonderful side of people, particularly through the crisis FaceBook page set up which matches volunteers to need and sends out requests for sewers and fabric for medical gowns, keeps our tiny local businesses with their heads above water and keeps us all updated via our friendly local councillor. But I also see another side. It started with the comment that people who lived in Bramhope “wouldn't think that way” when I suggested a careless word could lead to unpleasant consequences if we were told how many cases of the illness there were in Bramhope.
 But now it gets better:

1. The Britannia Hotel, which flourished on overnight stays for holidaymakers using the airport, has opened its doors to a group of people who were housed in hotels in Harrogate that are now needed for NHS staff for the Nightingale Hospital that’s sprung up.

From that little bit of information, I’m surmising they may be in residential care for alcohol treatment.  These people are not under lock and key so first we had an alert sent round (forwarded to me - I don’t belong to these networks) that a person in dark clothing, clutching a bottle at 11am, obviously drunk, was walking along Leeds Road. No suggestion he was doing anything wrong apart from making it hard for residents to maintain social distancing but implicit in this was something I didn’t like.

All hell hits Bramhope

Now there are photographs of litter on our Bramhope In Bloom grass verges and pointed comments about social gatherings near the shops where social distancing isn’t being observed, as well as observations about how the rules must apply to everyone and there’s a need for enforcement blah blah... and implicit in all of this is, I think, a belief that there is no place for ’such people’ in Bramhope. As if the place isn’t riddled with heavy drinkers and hidden domestic violence like any other community. Bramhope is exempt. But it gets better...

2. The Mercure Hotel up the road has been taken over by an organisation that runs centres for new immigrants, those waiting for their cases to be heard.

Normally they would be based in Wakefield city centre where all their needs could be met (but again, rooms are required for NHS staff who can’t go home for fear of risking spreading infection). I can’t think of anywhere less practical than the Mercure, standing as it does halfway between Bramhope and Adel, with only a huge, wooded park and farmland around it. It’s a couple of miles either way before you even see another house! Those poor people. But now, Bramhope not only has drunks, we have asylum seekers. So far, the worst that has happened is some litter and some noise. Bramhope beware. The citizens are arming themselves with fierce glares, pointed comments about social distancing and calls to the police (we have one PCSO and one crime prevention officer shared with Adel and Cookridge).

Do I sound jaded? The weather has been glorious. I’ve done a lot of reading. We have a spanking new lawnmower Dennis can’t put together...life goes on.

And if you haven’t signed up, please do. This is providing essential data on the progression of the coronavirus that can inform policy decisions: https://covid.joinzoe.com/ I’ve only recently realised Zoe isn’t the researcher, it’s a large data-gathering organisation that’s paired up with King’s College, Guys Hospital, Wellcome etc. I should find out what ZOE stands for. Maybe something to do with epidemiology?