‘Blitz 2 – The Virus Returns’

by Simon Lemieux

Okay, I admit one of the worst possible film sequel titles for a motion picture never likely to be made, and in dubious taste anyhow. But hey, it got you to start reading this blog entry so ‘job done’ as they say. On a more serious note though, writing this as I am exactly 75 years after VE Day I am struck by three things in particular:

The irony that we are celebrating final victory in Europe, and liberation from the oppressive ideology of Nazism but being distinctly unfree, confined to base as it were. Like convicts, let out only for daily exercise, all ‘prison visits’ to take place at a safe distance. No street parties, just some bunting and Union flags battling for window space with rainbows and tributes to key workers. Free to celebrate, yet everywhere in chains self-isolation, to misquote Rousseau.

Secondly, the parallels with the Blitz fascinate and resonate, and I will explore these further for most of the rest of this piece. The title has a point beyond mere attention-grabbing.

The final, and most tragic aspect, is that so many of those dying from COVID-19, are exactly those who survived the Blitz and the Second World War, those in our country aged over 80.

So, how far can and should we make meaningful historical comparisons with the Blitz. In terms of sheer statistics, the numbers are not that far apart. The Blitz in its main 1940-41 phase claimed around 43,000 lives in total the majority in London, with cities the worst affected. Those in slum areas and the less well off on balance fared the worst, relying more on communal shelters or the budget Morrison shelter (for which read steel cage that fits under the kitchen table), while the middle classes could afford the more robust Anderson shelters. IKEA like constructions of corrugated iron that were put up in gardens and covered with earth. And for the really wealthy, there was always a country retreat. So fast-forward to 2020, 30,000 deaths and rising, London is worst hit, minority groups (eg BAME) are disproportionately affected and it is the poor who have the humiliation of school meal vouchers not scanning at their local Tesco’s.  The chattering classes meanwhile enjoy Ocado/Waitrose home deliveries, thus avoiding queues and lowering the chances of contamination by the great unwashed, or at least, the great unsanitised. Crises such as the Blitz and COVID-19, both bring us together, yet reveal inequalities in society. Not so much an equaliser as a magnifier.

There is an irony too that Boris Johnson of all recent PMs, is the one whose created persona is most self-consciously Churchillian. We shall indeed ‘fight the virus together, double up and double down’, if not on the beaches then in the hospital wards and in foregoing our usual vacations. The public school background (Harrow v Eton) with the populist touch, a wordsmith and writer, a preference for cigar-butt strategy over mastery of the details, and delegation of details to experts (now unexpectedly re-available, back in fashion and standing at press briefing near you). Morale boosters and energisers, not policy wonks. Will history be kind to Bojo? He will doubtless write his version of it in due course. The similarity does not end there, what of the leader of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition. Churchill worked well enough with Clem Atlee, most of the time during the wartime years, yet could be scathing of him too, ‘An empty taxi pulled up in front of Number Ten Downing Street and Mr. Attlee got out.’ Actually no, Churchill in all likelihood never reworked this old witticism originally coined about the actress Sarah Bernhardt (think today’s Size Zero model) apparently back in 1879. Rather more reliable are those other two oft quoted pieces, ‘Mr Atlee is a modest man who has much to be modest about” [and is] “a sheep in sheep’s clothing. The same charge could be made of Sir Keir Starmer, no Nye Bevan or JC, a decent, clever chap but unlikely to inflame passions. Yet the ghost of 1945 must haunt the 2020 Tory Party…..

That segueways nicely into the next area, the legacy on public services. If there is one winner in all this, it will be NHS funding. Never again must we be let down by a lack of stockpiles of PPE. The NHS are the frontline troops, the combat corps of doctors and nurses in the frontline combatting the deadly foe, but also vital are those behind ‘enemy lines’, driving ambulances, cleaning the wards, preparing hospital food etc. Again, as with all modern armies, the bulk of personnel are in key support roles not in combat roles. Casualty lists of the fallen appear regularly, each with poignant stories to tell. Not numbers or statistics but real faces with actual families. Many have served our NHS having come from afar, just as with Indians, Canadians, Poles, the Free French in the war. British frontline forces from the time of Waterloo have always been rather less British than we might imagine. Lest we forget, there was a Spanish surgeon serving on the Mary Rose warship back in 1513. The NHS emerged out of the debris of WW2 as part of the newly crafted Welfare State, I anticipate that a renewed political attraction for high quality public services with the attendant tax burden, may well be one political outcome of all this. Expect some rollback on private sector involvement in the delivery of public services, and a broader appreciation of state intervention. Furlough pay is for the many not the few, expect some gratitude from business sectors grateful for some state support to try and stay afloat in these challenging times. Self-help and rugged individualism are, if not consigned to Trotsky’s ‘dustbin of history’, at least being bagged up with the refuse, but will doubtless get recycled in due course.

So can we see other wartime parallels? Well, rationing for sure (three items of home baking ingredients per customer) and let’s not forget the rush for toilet paper at the start. Queues and uncertainty about stock availability; one day I genuinely found all my local shops were out of sunflower oil, what to do? There is the heroes and villains theme played out by the media. We have stories promoted of heroic efforts such as Captain Tom Moore and other fundraisers, those individuals who sacrifice creature comforts to enter the fray by serving in the emergency services and as key workerd. Yet, we are chided about the selfish individuals who hoard, scam, travel hundreds of miles to ‘smell the sea air’. The Blitz and WW2 too saw shirkers, black marketeers and those who exploited the misery and loss of others. In October 1940 Winston Churchill ordered that the story of the arrest and conviction of six London firemen caught looting from a burned-out shop be hushed up. The Prime Minister feared that if the story was made public it would further dishearten Londoners struggling to cope with the daily bombardments. The looting was often carried out by gangs of children organised by a Fagin figure; he would send them into bombed-out houses the morning after a raid with orders to target coins from gas meters and display cases containing Great War medals. In April 1941 alone, Lambeth juvenile court dealt with 42 children in one day, from teenage girls caught stripping clothes from dead bodies to a seven-year-old boy who had stolen five shillings from the gas meter of a damaged house. Juvenile crime accounted for 48% of all arrests in the nine months between September 1940 and May 1941. So who are receiving the greatest proportion of fines for breaking the lockdown, which group is finding conforming with social distancing hardest, hands up youth of today! The spirit of the Blitz/COVID-19 is true, except when it isn’t. Most do ‘Keep calm and carry on’ while a few, probably on the wrong sides of the tracks beforehand in any case, do not. Plus ca change indeed…

Which brings me on to propaganda. I’ve much enjoyed Ms Smith’s great takes on the propaganda posters and slogans, accessible elsewhere on Portsmouth Point (here, here and here). For ‘Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives’ replace with

Short, snappy three point messages. We also get basic messages repeated in other areas too, handwashing practices/blackout drill and careless talk costing lives. The advertising both reassures us, we can do something positive, every little helps. Yet, the words reveal via the subtext, the dark side of neglecting advice: death and defeat. We have our morale boosters too, Dame Vera Lynn, the forces’ sweetheart (now aged 103) and the White Cliffs of Dover, and ‘One World: Together At Home’ a chance to hear our musical heroes from the comfort of our living room or duvet. Hollywood too provides escapism for the beleaguered Brit; 1942 saw the release of ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Road to Morocco’, we have Netflix and ‘Tiger King’.

What about education? Evacuation, in the war to Bournemouth for the bulk of PGS pupils, to their bedrooms for the coronial generation. Make do and mend, improvisation, innovation, making the best of what we can. Disruption for sure, but clear attempts to carry on with established routines: dally (digital) registration, regular if slightly shortened lessons accompanied by daily devotionals/workouts/mindfulness. ‘We are PGS’ prevails, ‘We shall return’ though probably in staggered order and with appropriate social distancing. But at least the buildings will be cleaner and more pristine than they were when the school returned to the High St in 1945. Our characters as educators and pupils will have been shaped; we’ll have enjoyed some challenges and new luxuries – suspension of uniform, laxer dress code for staff (no onesies though), less homework/marking. But we’ve often struggled with getting to grips with new technology, exams don’t go away, syllabuses must be waded through. A return to the new normality is anticipated by most, but we’ll miss some things about remote learning. My colleagues and pupils (and doubtless parents too), will all have their own tales to tell. Of frustration, feeling overwhelmed, lacking clear focus and being sick of being sat in front of a screen for so long, writing material we’re not sure how much feedback it will receive. If I wanted the latter, I’d have got a job in a call centre. But we have also, I think, been kinder to each other, more understanding on the whole of the situation of others, and acquired new ICT skills. Meet Google Meet my new best friend…

There will not be one common COVID-19 experience; the same was true of the Blitz. Different circumstances, different strains and stresses. But also, different pleasures, and newly acquired pastimes or indeed pets - at least one PGS colleague has acquired a puppy during lockdown, though for all the right reasons I should add. Disclaimer – it wasn’t me. No one’s story will be the same and rightly so. We may well, ‘All be in this together’ but in different ways.

I have focused very much on the similarities with the Blitz, significant contrast exist, not least in the origins and purpose of the scourge. Those can be ruminated on at another time, but I will end with one final observation. My reflections and minor musings are of course entirely Anglo-centric, yet this is a global pandemic.  In no other country I suspect would this comparison bear up or resonate. Yet, other countries too on drawing on their own historical resources. For Spain, it is parallels with the 1936-39 civil war and for France, the Occupation endured during WW2. For the US, such wartime comparisons make less sense. For our friends ‘across the pond’, this is war very much on their home front. Far from coming to the aid of a beleaguered Europe, their supreme leader struggles to deliver a message of consistency and unity beyond that of having an eye to November’s elections. A case for Trump of, ‘Ask not what we can for you with COVID, but how COVID can work for me (or at least not wreck my chances of re-election)’. The real supreme leader, Kim Jong-un of course, intriguingly disappeared for a few days only to ‘re-appear’ opening a fertilizer factory, so not much a cr*p story as a story about cr*p, with no virus or face masks in evidence.

So, a marathon piece about an epic crisis. ‘See you on the other side’, as Great War soldiers would often say before going over the top into an uncertain fate.