First they came for the key workers and teachers, now they've come for the children aged 4 to 6 // sparky
sparky writes it like it is. It’s time to hide the children, the pied piper will soon be here, taking them to school never to be seen again…
Photograph by Luke Jones
So, we’ve had two months to establish our operative rhythms within which to navigate our way through these unchartered waters. That appears to be quite long enough for far too many people that should really know better – the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Gavin Williamson continue attempting to assure us that it’s perfectly safe for reception and key-stage-1 aged children to return to school, because if any demographic of humans know how to identify and maintain a safe distance from other humans, as well as adopting a stringent approach to keeping their hands to themselves, it’s children aged four to six. Quite how we haven’t had a five year-old fast-tracking their life hacks in social distancing for publication is surely an oversight by BoJo, MiGo and Ga-Wi (and there were other variations of his name I could have used…).
Additionally, we have Rishi Sunak, desperate for his economic vision, whatever that may be, to recommence after its brief holiday in the sun (picnicking, driving to remote beauty spots and leaving festival-level piles of trash behind). And what a way to help roll the economy back into a healthy state of motion by snipping away at the safety net that has barely had the chance to look all shiny and new before workplaces all over the country have had to rely on its furlough scheme.
Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee (committed, specifically, to maintaining the values and order of the last century) has claimed that furloughed workers appear “too willing” to stay at home, and obey “arbitrary rules and limitations on freedom of movement.” One can only surmise that Brady and Sunak both imagine the economy to be a disembodied entity that spins like a slot machine, but it’s biggest enemy is those workshy gits that can’t even be bothered to risk their lives for barely a suckle on the fruits of their labour. One can only imagine Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, of which physiological and safety needs are rather integral elements, is ceremonially burned by Graham Brady and his 1922 Committee, as they seek to disestablish the relationship with “employee” and “human needs.”
If demonising the ones forced to cut costs as a knock-on effect of their party’s own economic culture wasn’t enough, the government appear to mastered the art of single-handed clapping – the sound, of which, I can reveal, is their Etonian hoots and hollers as they point at their beloved key-workers, while insisting they are valued, accusing them of cowardice for refusing to put not only their own lives at risk, but those of their key stakeholders.
Which brings us nicely back to our young friends in nurseries and primary schools, whom, it would be appear are as dispensable as their teachers, although, should any be lucky enough to withstand the double-threat of COVID-19 and the cutting of free school meals, they will be expected to return to a learning pace that pits British children in a firm position of power over, let’s say, their Chinese, Russian or Indian counterparts (free-market capitalism has taught us there is no such thing as a community, and we’re all ruthless bastards!)
Of course we should acknowledge the government’s work in bringing us together, willingly or otherwise, in marvelling at how they can sink further in approval ratings, become an ever bigger laughing stock for our neighbours, whom we were already petulantly severing ties with in the name of “sovereignty” (a word conveniently rediscovered in 2016). And while we can observe the hypocrisy of their insistence on continuing to applaud key workers such as NHS staff, carers, cleaners, teachers and retail employees while woefully missing their self-ascribed targets for provision of PPE and testing kits, expecting returns to unsafe work-places, and deciding that many people in the most integral roles are apparently not skilled enough to justify their presence in this country; it is still essential we remain united in our support for the people putting their own wellbeing on the line to continue for care for others. Which, despite rags like the Express and the Mail demonising teachers and their unions for not being “heroes”, shouldn’t have to be the bare essential of any role.