A few things I’ve been thinking about this week. The fifteenth post of a series.

The blossom on this tree makes me smile on my walk to work each morning.

A Prime Minister led his government to impose the most severe restrictions on basic social freedoms in living memory. He, members of his staff and members of his Cabinet chose not to follow those rules themselves, even while in the workplace where those rules were created. The Prime Minister lied about that behaviour repeatedly.

The police have found that the Prime Minister broke the law on one occasion, and it seems likely that their investigations into other events will reach the same conclusion.

Yet, the Prime Minister has not resigned, there’s no serious attempt to remove him from office. His Party think he’s the best person to lead the country through the rest of the pandemic and the Party into elections next month.

What have we become?

The HSJ’s satirical email this week ended with a suggestion that national leaders think NHS workers shouldn’t be allowed to “just get one with their jobs” because “nobody goes to work just to save lives”—and oof, that felt close to the bone in terms of how things seem to be run right now.

Most people who risk their lives with nothing but the shirts on their backs to cross the Channel are granted asylum in the UK, having escaped horrors I can scarcely imagine. Some don’t make it that far: they drown. Rather than responding with open arms, boundless compassion and warm hugs, our country proposes to fly many of these people to Rwanda, with no prospect of return.

What have we become?