The journalist Robert Peston asked the Prime Minister, "Is this the worst moment of the pandemic?"
It sure feels like it. In a huge U-turn, the government today announced that the South East, where I live, is now going into Tier 4, which means that yes, Puritan Christmas is back: the Bauble Bubble is cancelled.
There was almost an audible dull thud in the atmosphere - as though millions of people collapsed in disappointment under the weight of this new heavy blanket. We're not to mix households at all now, and absolutely everything except essentials is shut.
I was playing carols on Zoom when the news came through. It's strange to process such sadness through the songs of such joy. I barrelled down the camera lens with a smile as best as I could, but inside I was breaking.
Here's where I've got to. It is not the worst moment of the pandemic. The worst moment was when the first family lost a relative to this dreadful disease. It was the second too, and the third, and the fourth, and the 67,075th. Those families would cancel Christmas in a heartbeat if it meant saving their loved ones.
It still hurts though, having to fight this war by not seeing any of my family this year. It hurts even more knowing it might have been avoidable, had it been better managed. I wish the government had made up their mind some weeks ago, instead of just one week before - it would have saved an awful lot of heartache.
The Prime Minister didn't answer Peston's question. Chris Whitty (the Chief Medical Officer) said it was 'one of many terrible moments' and went on to talk about medical countermeasures, including the ongoing vaccinations. If this really is a terrible war we're all fighting, then this skirmish is one of the toughest, but it is worth fighting. There is hope though. And where there's hope there's joy.
I fully admit I don't know how to make Christmas work like this, but I'll try. Sometimes soldiers just have to get on their feet.
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