Football. Contrasting Spain and the UK in the post lockdown. Criticising the Cummings story.

We all need football, it seems. La Liga has got going again in Spain and moves are ahead to see if they get things going again in the UK. Football teams are beginning to move from non-contact training to training that includes tackling and other bits of contact stuff. Off the pitch they still need to observe the social distancing rules. In France, however, some football fanatics have taken the law into their own hands:-

“Officials in Strasbourg have appealed for hundreds of spectators who attended an illegal football match at the weekend to be tested for Covid-19. The authorities fear a second wave of the pandemic in one of France’s worst-affected regions. They have called on the estimated 400 people who took part in or watched the game to go to a testing centre set up at the European parliament building where they will be screened anonymously and without an appointment. The match was played on Sunday between teams from two of the city’s districts – Neuhof and Hautepierre – in a local stadium in defiance of rules that limit public gatherings to a maximum of 10 people.”

And it wasn’t just Strasbourg:-

“A second football match was held on Tuesday evening in Grigny in the Île-de-France region, which is also red on the coronavirus map. Police said there were about 300 spectators but officers did not have the means to break up the game.”

I’ve just been talking to my Spanish sister. As it’s her birthday we did a video chat. My English sister, by the way, video chats my Spanish sister every day. This is a reduction from the first week of lockdown, when she video-called her about four times a day. So my Spanish sister and I both apologised to each other for being “bad sisters” and not calling so regularly. And then we both acted a little superior, complimenting each other on our ability to occupy our time so fully that we don’t feel the need to chat to each other daily.

Anyway, I spoke to my Spanish sister. She still hasn’t had her hair cut but she has had her small grandson stay overnight. The Spanish are a little ahead of us in stopping the lockdown and allow visits to friends and family. I don’t how they ensure social distancing in private homes but that is their problem, I suppose.

My sister has a ticket for an Eagles concert in London in August. She is wondering what is going on with that. On the Eagles website it seems that the UK concert is still flagged up as going ahead. Maybe they are waiting to see if the situation changes by August but I don’t really see a mass gathering at the London O2 Arena being permitted. My sister was surprised to hear that she would need to quarantine for two weeks if she flew to the UK at the moment. After all, Spain has cancelled that requirement. It’s another thing to which she needs to apply the wait-and-see policy.

We are similarly applying wait-and-see to the possibility of going to Vigo to sort out our rented flat there. Spain may well be accepting international flights from the start of July but will they accept flights from the UK? Will there be flights from the Northwest if England to the Northwest of Spain? And, just as important, will we be allowed to make non-essential flights to foreign countries?

Life is rather full of questions at the moment.

The Dominic Cummings question rumbles on. His wife’s account of the period of their coronavirus isolating is substantially different from his, according to this article.

And in one of those oddities of our social-media-obsessed society some of the bishops who criticised the government and said that Mr Cummings should resign or be sacked have been receiving death threats.

Emily Maitlis on BBC’s Newsnight had a rather fierce go at the government’s handling of the Dominic Cummings story. There has already been a twitter-tweet backlash apparently.  The BBC is supposed to be impartial. Really? Here is a sample.

“Julia Hartley-Brewer said: "I’m sorry but this is TOTALLY unacceptable from @maitlis, Newsnight and the BBC. The BBC is REQUIRED to be impartial. "This is a clear breach of their own rules. Commentators (including me) can give their own opinions, BBC presenters cannot."
Another tweeted: "This is pure propaganda. I was waiting for Maitlis to reveal which Opposition MP she was quoting but, no, all her own work, it seems."
A fourth Twitter user wrote: "Newsnight is now starting with a monologue telling you what you are supposed to think. We’re being forced to pay for a left-wing version of Fox News." “

Goodness me! Next thing we know there will be major ructions and the BBC will be denied access to daily briefings!

There we are.

It’s another Wednesday. I’ve been to the market again. The sun is still shining.

 Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!