Why I blame rule breakers - not politicians - for Yorkshire’s local lockdowns: Christa Ackroyd

The new rules are also not just for the good of my health but for the health of my neighbourhood too, a neighbourhood which now feels once again under threat. And make no mistake, it could happen where you are too, in the blink of an eye.

Here in Calderdale I am not surprised we are where we are. The signs were obvious. And we will be in total lockdown again before long unless each and every one of us gets a grip and takes seriously the very real threat still out there. Then the moaning will really start.

As my consultant said to me this week on the safest of safest hospital visits in Bradford, “What is it people don’t understand about this, the most contagious and virulent virus we have ever seen? And yet there are large numbers of people who still believe it’s nothing more than a bad cold.” You tell me. I do not blame the Government as figures rise in my neck of the woods. Nor do I blame the police who cannot be everywhere at all times. Though they tell me they will be out in affected areas of West Yorkshire from now on, first asking and encouraging, then if necessary fining.

Well fine away, officer, because there are still too many people who think they can get away with flouting the new laws. And until they realise they can’t, things will only get worse.

I blame my newly curtailed life on those who think the new regulations don’t apply to them. Those who won’t wear masks. Those who think social distancing isn’t necessary any more because no one they know has died, even though thousands and thousands of people have.

And those who don’t even care who knows it as they selfishly celebrate with pictures on social media of large gatherings of family or friends inside and outside their homes.

May I say here and now this is not a problem, as one local MP suggested, confined to the black and Asian community. That was totally unfair and unjust. Nor is it just the young.

Disregard for the rules is happening everywhere. You have seen it, I have seen it. And when too many people decide they are immune from doing what they are told to do we get the sort of spikes that have led to Calderdale, Bradford and Kirklees being almost, but not quite, back to square one. And that is why I am angry this week.

It was all going so well. Life was getting easier to cope with. But complacency was creeping in. The crowded outside spaces of some pubs were rammed and some where no attempt was made at social distancing, especially when the sun shone. The whingeing and the moaning about wearing face masks was a warning of what was to come when eventually, and in my view not before time, they became compulsory. Most people who had not worn one before changed overnight.

But the rules themselves are not flexible unless you have an underlying health condition. And that does not include not wanting to wear one. As the week went on I was getting more and more stressed at the numbers who simply decided face masks were not for them and at the failure of some shopkeepers to even ask for them to be worn because as one said to me, “Well, what can you do?”

He at least had one on, unlike the petrol station owner who had neither mask nor screen nor a one-way system and seemed quite happy to let people without masks squeeze past those who did on their way out. “I can’t make them,” was his response. Maybe not, but he could start by putting up lots of signs and asking them to put one on. And wearing one himself. Others are doing just that and that is where I now choose to frequent.

A first meal out at a Huddersfield pizzeria felt like a tasting menu at a Michelin star restaurant. And totally safe. Tables spread out, staff with masks and visors on and sanitiser aplenty. Indeed the vast majority of people, businesses, pubs and shopkeepers are being diligent.

In my local Co-op, a looped message reminds customers to wear a mask and stick to social distancing. So they do. Just a couple of hundred yards away another supermarket is a very different experience. “So throw us out then,” was the response from one couple refusing to wear masks. What was worse was their comment, “It’s not against the law”. It is. It’s just that they don’t want the law to apply to them. As for the poor lad serving behind his screen, he simply didn’t know what to do.

I was really cross that day because the week before, for the first time, our grandchildren came to stay. Because they could, under the two household rules. And we loved it. And now they can’t again.

Try explaining that to a four-year-old in tears “because the bug has come back”. We also had two couples we hadn’t seen in months over for tea in the sunshine. Good friends reunited and thankful we had all come through so far. Within two hours of them leaving, Calderdale was back in the grip of new regulations. And that was that.

So here is my message. Living in society brings with it social responsibility. Covid-19 is a killer. And it’s still out there. And the only way we will beat it is to beat it together.

And to my sad little granddaughter, here is hoping and praying “the big bad bug” starts to decline again one day very soon. Until then, stay safe and I will see you out the other side. Whenever that may be.

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