Last Thursday was the 100th birthday in the United Kingdom of a man called Tom Moore, who happened to hold the rank of captain at the end of the last world war in 1945.
It was generally accepted that, after demobilization, you didn’t go into ‘civvie street’ carrying your rank unless you had been promoted to major or above. So the crusty old colonel we lived near in Suffolk when I was growing up could get away with it, particularly as he looked like a Giles cartoon of a crusty old colonel.
My father left the army with the rank of major and could easily have used the title for social advancement except for the fact that he wanted to leave his war years behind him and, as he was one of the youngest people ever to be promoted to the rank of major in the British army (just over 22), it would have looked a bit pretentious if he had insisted on being referred to as ‘the Major’ at the age of 25. We did have a Major Webber who lived near us and drove a Jaguar MkII (pronounced JagWor) and insisted on being referred to as ‘the Major’. He was generally regarded as a complete tosser and my father had a theory that the most active service he had seen during the war was in the quartermaster’s stores. As you can see, I come from a bitchy family.
Like wildfire
I very much doubt whether ‘Captain’ Tom Moore ever used his rank in civvie street and I doubt any of us would have known about it had he not attracted the attention of the world media by attempting to walk 100 laps of his garden with his walking frame to raise £1 000 for the National Health Service. This news reached the media who were desperately looking around for a cheerful Covid-19 story to tell and spread around the colonies like wildfire.
At the time of writing Tom Moore had raised £33 million for the NHS and the donations are still pouring in from all over the world. Last Thursday, on his 100th birthday, he was awarded the honorary rank of colonel (which I really hope he’ll flaunt) and an RAF flypast of a Spitfire and a Hurricane over his home in Bedfordshire in the morning. In all the TV interviews, he comes across as modest, clear thinking and absolutely certain that this too shall pass and things will be better in the future. He has brought tears to many people’s eyes as we measure our own Covid failings and weaknesses against this man’s positivity and determination.
I rather doubt whether Mr Moore would have refused to carry a gas mask for fear it would be a sign that the government was becoming totalitarian and wanted to silence dissenting voices. He would have just done it. I suspect that, had social media been around in 1939, he would not have posted a picture of someone in a gas mask with the words ‘This is how they can silence free speech’.
Blackout
When the blackout was declared on 1 September 1939 every household was required to either board up their windows, paint them over, use heavy curtaining or block them with cardboard. This massive infringement on personal liberties was designed to stop enemy aircraft from being able to identify bombing locations by their lights. Wardens would patrol the streets and severely reprimand anyone with a well-lit window: ‘Put that bloody light out, don’t you know there’s a war on!’ Today this would be regarded as heavy-handed and a definite sign of creeping fascism and the sacrifice of personal freedoms.
It’s very possible that we have been so pampered during our lives that the slightest perceived infringement on our liberties is seen as heralding a dark new era of totalitarianism. Unlike Tom Moore, few of us have been used to making personal sacrifices for the good of our country. So, not surprisingly, all sorts of weird conspiracy theories crop up in an attempt to explain what is happening.
But the rules for ‘flattening the curve’ do need to make sense for the public to buy into them and believe their government is acting in their best interests. In the Second World War the issue of gas masks and the need for a blackout were easily explained and accepted by the majority. Unfortunately, the ANC isn’t in the business of explaining, just commanding.
Illicit tobacco trade
Admittedly the U-turn on tobacco sales came as a nasty shock to many, but with all the claims about NDZ being in the pockets of the illicit tobacco trade, why do we feign surprise? Did that nice Mr Mazzoti send a reminder to NDZ on Wednesday that there were still some past debts to be settled? And who will doubt that there are those in the illicit liquor trade who have also sent timely reminders? Clearly those allegiances are far more important to the ANC than the R1.5 billion that Mr Edward Kieswetter estimates will be lost in tax revenue every month. One might have thought that a sum like that would have come in useful in the fight against Covid-19, if only to supply food to the growing army of unemployed and starving, but one would have been wrong.
Then there’s the level 4 lockdown special privilege clause of being finally allowed out of your home to exercise between 6am and 9am in the morning. I suppose when you’re making an important decision like this then the more cretins involved in that decision the better. Which is why the most inconvenient time of day was chosen, particularly if you are one of those who still has a job to return to next week. Even crazier is the fact that the sun only rises well after seven in the Western Cape so you might be lucky to get a 90 minute window of opportunity unless you like the idea of running in the dark. Don’t forget the curfew ends an hour before your jog giving the hijackers time to have breakfast and ready themselves for some early morning criminal activity. But best of all is the sheer stupidity of releasing an entire nation that has been in lockdown for 35 days to exercise within such a narrow timeframe. If you’re trying to avoid crowding then that would clearly not be the way to go about it.
Numbskulls
Did none of this occur to the numbskulls ordering our lives at the moment? Or is this a deliberate attempt to spite the electorate as much as possible and show them who’s boss.
I like to think it’s just crass stupidity but there is a growing groundswell of opinion suggesting that the grandly named National Command Council are testing the people of South Africa to see how far they can be pushed into compliance as part of our glorious journey to the Utopian state of Venezueladom.
If that really is the case then I fear our slide into anarchy is only a few weeks away.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR
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