The Government’s outrageous orders to shield over-50s is their dumbest Covid-19 brainwave yet
I’VE got a message for any government official thinking of sending me a letter – along with all other over-50s – telling me to stay at home to shield myself from a potential second wave of Covid-19.
Don’t bother. I won’t be at home to receive it. I’ll be out climbing mountains, playing cricket or something.
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I’m sure there will come a time when I feel like sitting at home with a tartan rug over my knees watching daytime TV.
But, sorry, at 53 I don’t quite feel there yet — even though Downing Street aides seem to think I’m in a vulnerable age group.
The idea mooted is apparently an age-selective, localised lockdown targeting the over-50s as an alternative to a full second lockdown.
According to the plan, everyone over 50 would be assessed by their weight and other health issues then sent a personalised letter telling them to shield if deemed to be at risk.
We now know far more about what makes folk vulnerable than we did at the start of the pandemic — such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
ACT OF REVENGE
But this is unnecessarily nannying behaviour anyway, because people over 50 are grown up enough to make that choice for themselves, once told of the warnings.
This age group are more likely to be responsible and mindful of their own health than the apparently invincible youth.
True, the risk of dying from Covid-19 rises with age, but in your 50s and early 60s the risk is still pretty tiny.
In June, according to the Office for National Statistics, the death rate from Covid-19 among under-65s was five per 100,000.
It rose to 45 among the 65 to 69 age group, 86 per 100,000 among 70 to 75-year-olds and 174 among 75 to 79-year-olds.
Yes, I know the Prime Minister was only 55 when he nearly died from Covid-19 in April, but he was unlucky to develop serious symptoms.
His experience shouldn’t be used to devise a policy for the rest of the country.
The elderly might be well-advised to shield from Covid-19 but it is silly — and economically highly damaging — to start including the middle-aged.
Most people in their 50s are still working. Many hold senior management positions and are vital for the functioning of many businesses.
As for the young retired, they are big spenders who create huge demand in the ravaged leisure and hospitality sectors.
Hotels, restaurants and the like need them to be out spending, not locked away indoors.
It would be absurd if we ended up with a lockdown for the over-50s while crowds of young people carried on doing as many have done in recent weeks — gathering for illegal raves, beach parties and so on.
I don’t know whose brainwave it was to target the over-50s, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it came from a breakout session among “teenage scribblers”, as former Chancellor Ken Clarke used to call them — political aides fresh out of college and bursting with their own self-importance.
Maybe it is an act of revenge. There seems to be a daft idea among some young people that the middle-aged and elderly have somehow “stolen” their futures by buying up all the housing, blocking them from rapid promotion in the workplace, causing climate change and so on.
UNNECESSARY NANNYING
I’m sure some young people, especially on the Left, would love it if they could carry on partying while the over-50s were by law imprisoned in their own homes.
But it is politically naive for the Conservative Government even to contemplate such a blatant piece of age discrimination. You want to pick on the over-50s? They’re your voters, they are.
The results of recent elections show starkly that the tendency to vote Conservative rises steadily with age. In 2017, the tipping point at which voters became more likely to vote Tory than Labour was 47 (it fell to 39 in 2019 as support for Jeremy Corbyn crumbled).
A few weeks ago the Prime Minister said the Government was shifting the emphasis of policy on Covid-19 away from rules and regulations and more towards personal responsibility.
What happened to that? Suddenly he’s back to bossing us around.
We all have a duty during the pandemic to do what we can to prevent the disease from spreading, by washing our hands frequently and shutting ourselves away if we develop symptoms.
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But people can make up their own minds as to their personal risk of developing serious symptoms or dying from Covid-19.
What we don’t need is to be sorted out into age groups, with young people allowed to go about their business as normal while the over-50s are ordered to stay indoors.
Try that approach and the Conservatives might well find that the over-50s feel inclined to stay at home come next election day too.
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