Fogeys on the Fringe

Even I know that healthy seventy year olds in detached houses in Much Wenlock aren’t the heart of the story. Even so, I’m intrigued by how we’re regarded. Back in the early days (three weeks ago, say), there was a double pronged strategy: fogeys stay at home for three months, schools stay open. It wasn’t hard to work out the logic: money. Schools staying open lets people keep working; fogeys don’t hurt the economy, so take them out of the picture. Fair enough, but i’m not sure anyone in government seriously thought about what it means to prepare for three months in isolation. If there was stockpiling going on, some of that was me - meat, fish and booze for the next three months does involve a bit of extra spending.

Now, of course, the rules have changed. Everyone’s at home, and the suspense is - how long for? Three weeks? Four weeks? When can we all get back to normal? And I want to timidly ask - what about us, the over seventies? Are we still booked in for the full fourteen weeks?

Last week Grant Shapps said people should limit themselves to one shopping trip a week. Almost immediately, he was chewed up by No. 10, who said that was nonsense. So what is the proper pattern? And if it matters that much, why wasn’t it discussed by cabinet before Shapps had the chance to get it wrong? Part of the problem, I suspect, is that this is all being done by blokes. If there was somebody there who was actually responsible for a weekly shop, we might get more consistent policy.