Inequality. Failed bids for freedom. Occupying your time.

On the one hand, hedge-fund managers are apparently making money out of the crisis!! On the other, a lot of people are losing their jobs!!

On the one hand, some folk are moaning about having to cook three meals a day for their stay-at-home family!! On the other, huge numbers of people are going a whole day without eating because they have no money to buy food and no access to food banks!!

Such is the inequality of it all!

But who really needs three cooked meals a day? Or even three full meals a day? No wonder some people are understandably complaining about putting on weight. Maybe the rule about only one lot of outdoor exercise per day should be changed to obligatory once a day outdoor exercise for everyone!

I am, however, growing weary of reports of police making solitary sunbathers get up and move along, tales of families being told, again by over-zealous police, not to play in their front garden (?!), and photos of park benches police-taped so that nobody can stop and sit there!

Meanwhile, even the rich have to obey some of the rules.

Here’s a story I came across yesterday:-

“Fri 10 Apr 2020

“A group of would-be holidaymakers who flew in a private jet from London to the Côte d’Azur in France have been turned back by police. Seven men and three women arrived on the chartered aircraft to Marseille-Provence airport, where helicopters were waiting to fly them on to Cannes, where they had rented a luxury villa.
The men, aged 40-50, and women, aged 23-25, were refused permission to enter France and ordered by police to fly back to the UK. “They were coming for a holiday in Cannes and three helicopters were waiting on the tarmac,” a border police spokesperson told Agence France-Presse. “We notified them they were not allowed to enter the national territory and they left four hours later.”
A police source told BFMTV the pilot had been advised not to land the Embraer Legacy jet at Marseille-Provence, but did so anyway.
On landing, the group, made up of several nationalities including Croatian, German, French, Romanian and Ukrainian, reportedly tried to get help from contacts to continue their journey. “They tried to make use of their connections and made a few phone calls,” the source said. The helicopter pilots were told to return to their base and were fined for breaking the French lockdown rules.
The jet, chartered by a Croatian businessman reportedly in “finance and property”, arrived last Saturday, but details were only released on Thursday.
French police said they would be carrying out strict checks on private aircraft arriving in France over the Easter period. All non-essential travel inside France has been banned since 17 March and a recent tightening of the restrictions means anyone entering the country should hold an international travel certificate showing the journey is essential.
The authorities in France and Britain have made it clear that travelling to a second home in either country does not qualify as essential. “Crossing borders needs a legitimate or urgent reason,” a police spokesperson said. BFMTV reported that nine of the jet passengers returned to the UK and the 10th chartered a private jet to Berlin.”

And here’s a story of the not quite so rich trying a similar thing, from closer to home, from the Oldham Times:

“POLICE officers in Cumbria have sent out a strong message to anyone thinking about visiting the Lake District during the Easter bank holiday while we are on lockdown. Despite the country repeatedly being told to stay at home to save lives, officers stopped a family of six heading for the area. The car was told to turn around and was even followed by police officers back to the M6 this afternoon, Wednesday.
And motorists thinking about attempting similar journeys this Easter are being warned the roads into the holiday hotspot are being policed. Cumbria Roads Police said the family car was filled with two adults and four children and had come from Leigh for a 'trip out to the Lake District'.
A spokesman added: "It was stopped at Windermere and advised to return. "We are policing all routes into the lakes and escorted the car back to the motorway."
The journey from Leigh to the edge of the Lake District is nearly 80 miles and would have taken the family around an hour and 20 minutes to drive countering government advice to stay local.”

I once read something about the mafia having begun as a way of helping the less well off to find employment and generally be supported. Hard to believe when you read the stories of what the organisation became but that’s what I read. And now here is a news report of the mafia helping out people who have difficulty surviving the crisis.  

As well as making occasional deliveries to us of essential items such as milk, my daughter also sends me crochet patterns for making cute animals. Clearly she thinks I need occupying. Or maybe it’s a hint that her small children need yet more soft toys!

We continue to survive the crisis, doing what we usually do - just seeing fewer people!

On the menu today is hummus and olives for starters, another pasta in a tomato and onion sauce dish, plus some salad and fruit and cake for afters.

 Life goes on! Stay safe everyone!