Shopping frenzy and need for nature

Sarah Vine could barely believe the scenes as Ikea opened its doors to the public again on Monday.

As shoppers arrived from 5am, the queues at some stores reached 1,000 people as hordes came out to swelter in the sunshine for several hours.

“I could never envisage a furnishings shortage so urgent as to necessitate such madness. Especially since you can get most of it online,” she said. “But it got worse. Yesterday, there were similar scenes as McDonald’s opened more restaurants.

“Thousands of junk food fans were finally released from purdah to gorge on greasy, mass-produced food that the science warns is so bad for a nation confronting coronavirus.”

She said these scenes would pale into insignificance when the likes of Primark and Marks and Spencer open their doors again on June 15.

“Such is the feeding frenzy predicted, the former is so confident that it will succeed in offloading £1.9billion worth of unsold stock it’s not even slashing prices,” she said. “Ordinarily, I’d be gearing up for a spot of bargain-hunting.

“But something about this crisis has forced me to shift my priorities, think more carefully about my choices in life. It has, in many ways, been a period of much-needed reflection.”

The flat pack obsession looks rather shallow, she said. Now, it is the small things - like a telephone call to her mother or walking the dogs a little further - that seem more important.

“For if the past few months have taught me anything, it’s that I don’t need — or want — half of what I thought I needed and wanted so badly before coronavirus came along,” she added. “Now we are easing out of lockdown, I, for one, am not getting back in that endless, mind-numbing queue any time soon.”

The Guardian

Chris Ham, chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Health and Care Partnership, said testing and tracing remain the best way we have of managing the coronavirus risk.

But he remains unconvinced that the country is prepared to undertake the scale necessary to prevent a second wave.

He pointed out the confusion over when it would be up and running - with the Prime Minister saying it would go live on May 28 but Dido Harding, the women in charge, said it would not be in place until the end of June.

“Councils require time to develop robust local outbreak plans and put staff in place, giving the lie to ministers’ claim that testing and tracing is already up and running,” he said. “Test results also need to be shared with the staff responsible for contact tracing, and GPs need to be informed when patients test positive.”

These issues, he said, should have been resolved before the lockdown was eased.

“Instead, the government wasted valuable time in understanding what needed to be done after the lockdown was imposed, and has been playing catch-up ever since,” he said. “The government’s mishandling of testing and tracing could have been avoided by much earlier engagement with local authorities and the NHS. The deputy chief medical officer has described this as a “very dangerous moment” – but the dangers we face have been made greater by ministers’ decisions.”

The Scotsman

Juliet Caldwell, species champion coordinator for Scottish Environment LINK, said the benefits of being out in nature for humans are well documented.

The lockdown, she said, was proving particularly challenging for those without access to green space.

“Humans are inherently social, and the prospect of forced isolation has led many of us to reconnect with nature,” she said. “Nature will nurture us. However, the relationship will only survive and remain balanced if it is reciprocated.

“Without support and investment, nature cannot continue to provide the wellbeing and livelihoods we depend on.”

She said the world had come to a standstill and people are turning to gardening and outdoor activities.

“We need nature more than ever, as a solution, as a resource, for respite and for our mental health and wellbeing. Appreciating nature and having access to it has never been so important.”