T H E G A R D E N – A Y e a r T h r o u g h C o v i d
The photographs making up this video started off as a document of life under lockdown, an early morning snapshot of the silver birch tree at the end of our garden taken from the kitchen door, intended as a ‘good morning, how are you?’ (and a ‘look at the nice weather we’re having!’) message to my mother, over 500km away in Barrow-in-Furness, but the exercise had become a habit by the time the first lockdown had been relaxed. The first photo dates from April 5th 2020 and to maintain the series during two short breaks in Genoa, Italy, I chose a tree outside the hotel where we stay every time we visit the city.
From mid-March 2020 it was becoming clear to the UK government that they needed to curtail the spread of Covid-19, having originally published a plan to manage the outbreak on March 3rd.
In the days up to March 14th, supermarkets were reporting panic buying of food and toilet rolls.
On March 15th the Health Secretary announced that every UK resident over the age of 70 would be instructed “within the coming weeks” to self-isolate for “a very long time” to shield them from coronavirus, and the government set out its plans to hold daily televised press conferences to update the public on the fight against the pandemic, starting on Monday 16th March.
On March 17th the Chancellor announced a £330bn loan guarantee would be made available for businesses affected by the virus, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised against all non-essential international travel.
The Prime Minister ordered all cafes, pubs and restaurants to close from the evening of March 20th, except for take-away food. Nightclubs, theatres, cinemas, gyms and leisure centres were told to close “as soon as they reasonably can”. Under pressure to protect people’s jobs, the Chancellor announced that the government would pay 80% of wages for employees not working, up to £2500 a month.
On March 23rd the Prime Minister addressed the nation, spelling out strict rules aiming to slow the spread of the disease by reducing transmission between different households. The message to stay at home, except for certain “very limited purposes” was introduced as a statutory instrument. The regulations also included significant restrictions on freedom of movement: “no person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable
excuse”. All non-essential shops, libraries, places of worship, playgrounds and outdoor gyms were closed, and the police were given powers to enforce the measures.
The UK’s lockdown response to Covid-19 became law on 26th March 2020.
A year later the nation has yet to emerge from the third lockdown, having entered the first lockdown too late and exited too early. Calls for a ‘circuit-breaker’ in early September were ignored leading to a delayed second lockdown and a second wave of Covid infections. Schools opened for a single day in January before the third lockdown. It’s not surprising that a promised report on the government’s handling of the pandemic has been delayed. They don’t want their incompetence, their lack of compassion and their chumocracy examined. and no one should credit the government with the success of the vaccine. Are our key workers only worth a 1% pay rise?
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This is a year through Covid, where the seasons are measured by flowers, foliage, foxes, damage to a fence and footballs.
