It all starts with the clapping thing – all of Britain out at their front-doors acclaiming the heroism of health workers. Without them we’d be lost – literally.
Then we think and add “And the ancillary staff” – porters, cleaners, phone-answerers. Then we realize that, as we’re in lock-down, we clearly would starve to death if there wasn’t food in the shops and supermarkets – clearly a lot of people had that in mind in the early days when they brought home trolley-loads of toilet papers. So we really need shelf-stackers, and check-out people, and lorry drivers, and all the people in the providing-us-with-food chain. Virtually everyone is saying we really should pay our health workers the kind of money they deserve –as life-savers they should be right up there. And shelf-stackers. And lorry drivers. And check-out people. And shop-owners. The pandemic, we’re told, has made us reassess what is valuable and who are deserving of respect and commensurate income. In a post-pandemic world, we’ll take a fresh look and see that those in low-paid jobs (did I mention the care-home workers?) who are vital to the essentials of society, are recognized, in status and pay-packet, for the invaluable role they play.
Will it happen? Will Donald Trump and Boris Johnson stop lying? Once we get this pandemic under some sort of control, and once we emerge blinking into the post-lockdown world, the essentials will not change. Yes, the nurses and doctors will be given royal letters of thanks. Yes, we’ll all tell lorry-drivers and check-out people what a fantastic job they’ve done. But eaten bread etc. All those good people will be expected to slot back into their role as usual, with maybe a couple of hundred extra quid to show how much we love them.
The First World War was horrific in its suffering and carnage. It was, people were promised, the war to end wars. Clearly it didn’t. And if that failed to change political and military thinking, what chance Covid-19 will force a radical rebalancing of society, with those who at present are near the bottom being moved, permanently, to positions of eminence?
I mean, do you really expect a hospital toilet cleaner to get the respect and pay-packet of a hedge-fund manager? Get real, guys. The post-pandemic world will not see those presently near the bottom shoot up to near the top. That would be to declare that a hospital toilet cleaner is as valuable as a hedge-fund manager. I mean, get a grip.
My cat is as likely to develop wings and do a fly-past over Stormont.
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