ISOLATION DIARIES PART 43: DON’T THROW IN THE TOWEL

Another hot one, and once again the talk of the town is the hundreds, if not thousands of people flocking to Dorset for a beach day.

Bournemouth beach was ram-packed today with sunseekers, doing about as much social distancing as mushy peas in a tin. 

The photo doing the rounds looked like a crowd at a festival, sprawled across the sand and in the shallows of the sea. Amity Island was back, and so was the chance of running into the monster in the deep, the virus.

“And what will you do if people come too close?” asked a news reporter, hovering over a sunbaked man. His tattoos rolled across his bare arms as he shrugged.

“Just tell ‘em to move back!” he exclaimed, crossly. Humans can be breathtakingly selfish sometimes. But you don’t need me to tell you that.

Some had driven from Birmingham - over two hundred miles. Others had presumably hoped that if they got a decent spot early enough, put up a windbreak or two and spread out blankets, they could enjoy the beach and still be safe. But really? Who’s enjoying a beach that’s so full of people you can’t move? Who wants to be stuck right in the middle of a noisy, impolite, sun-scorched sea of buckets and bathing towels? And who wants to be there... during a pandemic that is literally killing people by close proximity? What’s the point?

Someone tried to link it to the race thing. It isn’t to do with that. Someone tried to blame the police - not their fault either. More poured scorn on the government. But this is about all of us being a bit more sensible, and a lot less self-centred. At its heart, this feels like a problem of responsibility, and making sacrifices for each other for the good of our friends and our families.

But I’m an idealist. And we get disillusioned easily, I know. When the rule-breakers get away with it, and are allowed to, it gets much harder not to throw in the towel. Sticking to the rules feels a bit like taking ages to sort out your recycling and then realising that China have built another power station since you last took the bins out. Pointless.

Well. Don’t risk it. Use your head, don’t follow the crowd, stick with the sense. You don’t need to grab everything at the expense of everybody else. It’s toilet rolls all over again otherwise. So don’t throw in the towel. Save it for better beach days. We’re depending on you.