Covid tales

Back in June 2020, I pondered the consequences of Covid in an opinion article. When writing that, little did I know we would still be pondering that topic three years later (and, most likely, for another decade or more). Now in autumn of 2023, I’m following the UK Covid-19 Inquiry with interest, particularly when its focus is education.

You can’t have missed the submissions of former children’s commissioner, Anne Longfield. They were splashed across the front pages of many national newspapers and the home pages of their websites, from The Guardian and Independent to Belfast Telegraph and Scotland’s Herald. In short she was damning of the government’s disregard for the children, saying the government appeared ‘indifferent to children’s experiences’, and its disregard for expert opinion, saying the rejection of Kevan Collins’ billion-pound recovery programme for education was ‘another huge mistake’. She also made it clear that the Children’s Commissioner’s Office ‘pushed for the interests of children and young people to be a top priority for the government’. It was compelling.

Also riveting was Channel 4’s drama, Partygate. Yes, I know it’s a dramatisation of what took place at 10 Downing Street. In fact, Channel 4 describes it as a ‘factual drama’. But even if just one small part of the show’s content was true, it’s enough to make me furious at the blatant disregard for the reality of most people’s lives during the lockdowns. We certainly weren’t partying at the RSC, and I’m sure you weren’t at school either.

If you haven’t seen Partygate, it’s not all drama. Interspersed through the 65-minute programme is testimony from those who were cut off from their families or whose loved ones died alone. It’s powerful stuff.

Get involved

While we can’t all get our stories into a national TV programme, we can share them. And I’d urge you to do so.