8 LISTENER MARCH 14 2020
BULLETIN FROM ABROAD
Government wouldn’t “take anything
off the table at this stage”.I
’m not sure how a city could be
isolated, other than by blockading
all routes out of it – with what?
Armed police? It doesn’t sound like
a very British response to a disease
that, at this moment in time, has
only 39 confirmed cases in the UK
(a day later, it’s up to 51), none of
which, I’m happy to report, have so
far proved fatal.
It’s said what will most likely halt
the progression of the virus is – just
as with flu – the onset of hot weather.
Personally, I’d be happy if it just
stopped raining. But yes, hot weather;
the British yearn for it. They’ll go
anywhere in the winter months to
find some sun – on a Pacific cruise,
for example, or to Tenerife, which
have both seen coronavirus outbreaks
leading to extended quarantines.
So with foreign travel looking
suspect, and in any case the cause
of carbon emissions that are fuelling
climate change, we
have little choice but
to stick it out, sitting
at home, watching the
rain fall and looking
at sunny Facebook
photos of bronzed
friends in New Zealand.
At least it’s settled
our long-standing
marital dispute. As
very few husbands will
be surprised to learn,
my wife was right all
along. lF
or many years, my wife and I
have had a recurring difference
of opinion about one of life’s
eternal questions: where does it
rain more, New Zealand or the UK?
I’ve always maintained that the repu-
tation the British Isles have for being
a soggy outcrop hunched beneath
mop-grey skies is unfair, at least when
it comes to London.
But during these past few months,
my defence has been an increasingly
difficult one to maintain. As Kiwi
friends continue to send us photos of
themselves basking in an apparently
endless summer, the rain up here
seems to have been falling ever since
time began.
As far back as Novem-
ber, I went to Yorkshire
to report on extensive
flooding, but now it feels
like the whole country
is one giant lake. Rare
is the week that passes
without a month’s worth
of rain falling in some
place or other within
the space of a day. The
storms that keep arriving
from across the Atlantic
are big enough to war-
rant their own names:
Ciara, Dennis, Jorge. But
their characters are all
the same: wet.
Naturally, the unusualFloods and Covid-
leave a hapless Brit
gazing wistfully
in the direction of
sunny New Zealand.
Biblical times
How can a city
be isolated,other than by
blockading allroutes out of
it – with what?
Armed police?IS
AB
EL
LE
R
US
SE
LL
“Mouthwear is totally in! This trend could go viral.”
amount of rain has had many observers citing the
effects of man-made climate change, and on cue
Greta Thunberg turned up in Bristol recently for
a “Climate Strike”, at which thousands of school-
children and other protesters gathered to hear the
teenager speak. Many of them carried umbrel-
las, because it was, of course, raining heavily.
Yet climate change sounds like a modern
concept, whereas the relentless downpour has
felt rather ancient, dare I say biblical. And as if to
emphasise the Book of Revelations vibe of this
sodden misbegotten winter, we’ve also had to
contend with the threat of plague or, to give it its
correct name, Sars-CoV-2, otherwise known as the
coronavirus.
However, this contemporary plague is presented
in a very cutting-edge 21st-century fashion. It’s
hard to know where sensible precautions end and
hysteria begins, but the daily or even hourly news
updates of the number of confirmed cases have a
definite sci-fi edge to them, as if you’re watching
a futuristic drama – an effect that’s underlined by
the follow-up bulletins on the collapse of the stock
market.
Today, as I write, the Health Secretary was asked
if he’d consider isolating whole cities, the way
that China has. Rather ominously he said that theANDREW
ANTHONY
IN LONDON
Andrew Anthony is an
Observer feature writer
and is married to a New
Zealander.