Outdoor Daily

Just like the sun is obscured by these clouds, I couldn’t resist feeling the truth had been obfuscated once more by politicians and their spokes persons on this morning’s Today Programme (BBC Radio 4).

Perhaps they are all doing their best, but in the face of COVID-19 patients suffering and dying for a tardy response to the pandemic and NHS staff and care workers being exposed for lack of personal protective equipment, it is hard to think like that. Anxiety and frustration affects our mental and, ultimately, physical health. Perhaps their best is not good enough for the common good?

Where work is done, mistakes are made – that’s a given – and I acknowledge that this crisis is unprecedented and hence, difficult to handle. And I admit that it is easy to be an ‘armchair manager’ of this crisis with no responsibilities for health/life/death decisions.

However, brushing mistakes under the carpet indicates a degree of denial, and if that’s true, then the only benefit that comes from failure, namely learning to do it differently next time, is lost.

Apart from all this, I don’t like being thought to be stupid enough not to see a lie for what it is. Is respect for the electorate, honesty and transparency really too much to expect from those who govern a nation?

Recognising that anger and frustration threatened to creep into my mind and settle there, and how bad that is for me, I turned off the radio, had another coffee and wondered out into the morning sunshine….and a near cloudless sky….allowed my thoughts to settle….and enjoyed the moment.