Metal cages were used in the tarmacked playground to kettle the children in their bubbles during break and lunchtime. The field was off limits. Some of the students went berserk in their containment and invented a new playground trend: attacking children with crocodile clips. My then 13-old nephew was stabbed in the neck. Fun times from the ‘Stay Safe’ brigade.
When the Guardian revealed this week that NHS referrals for anxiety in children are more than double pre-Covid levels to 500 a day, I remembered the thundering injustice of lockdown policies on children and felt that white-hot rage all over again. Lockdown, now three to four years ago, can’t take all the flack for what’s happening to the mental health of our children but it bears the lion’s share of responsibility, for the simple reason that it presented other people and the outside as dangerous. For the anxious, this mindset is a catastrophe.
I know this to be true because I work with school refusers and those who have been expelled, with a view to encouraging them back into educational settings. We focus on simply getting outside, ordering food in cafes, learning how to cross the road, understanding that the world is not to be feared, before attempting academic work. The stories these wonderful children tell are familiar: primary school went well but lockdown happened and when they returned to secondary school, they couldn’t cope: “I hated the crowds”, “I threw chairs around”, “I thought I was going to get sick”.
When two of my children returned to their state secondary after lockdown it was like a zoo. The teachers had lost control of the children and the children were not keen on reverting to compulsory rather than optional education. And when stabbings with crocodile clips, unruly behaviour and dystopian queues for nasal swabbing and face mask wearing were thrown into the mix, it’s no wonder that some children marched straight back home to the safety of their bedrooms.
We keep forgetting about the fact that there is a ‘persistent absence’ rate of 20% from schools; before lockdown it was 13%. It’s easy to remain unmoved by statistics, but not when the individual cases are known.
I asked my sons for a quick rundown of their most badly affected friends:
- The girl who wore her black face mask right up to the bridge of her nose, grew her black fringe below her nose so her face was entirely covered. She changed her name to Keith and when eventually she took off the mask, a tic had developed.
- The girl who developed agoraphobia and has just ‘disappeared.’
- The girl who made herself tutor-hand-sanitiser-monitor and whenever someone, usually a boy, splashed it around, she’d run screaming and hide under her desk shouting “Germs!” Her tears of fear were genuine.
- The boy who spent lockdown gaming, attempted to return to school where everyone noticed he’d got enormously fat, retreated to his house and has rarely been seen since.
When I hear Dominic Cummings on the Chris Williamson podcast talking so insouciantly and confidently about lockdown policy and how his actions saved thousands of lives, I am stunned. Surely he must now know this is not true. Computer models are not real life. I wish he could meet some of the children I work with. I wish he could sit in on these NHS referrals for anxiety and understand the downstream effects of his rotten decisions. Now that Mark Zuckerburg has apologised for enforcing White House demanded Covid censorship, maybe people like Cummings will apologise for contributing to the deep and ongoing damage to children.
Incidentally, my crocodile-clip-stabbed nephew received nine grade 9s in his GCSEs this summer.
Joanna Gray is a writer and confidence mentor.
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Priority should be getting the police officer wrongly convicted of Floyd’s non murder freed.
I was made in England
But its now on death row
Where the flag’s a no no
And the anthems a no go
I had a Yorkshire pudding
But its now a Korma
The old bacon sarny’s
Now a veggie burger
Woh oh oh oh I was made In England
Woh oh oh oh I was made in England
I was made in England
Like a Morris Minor
Now my vans a Nissan
And my auntie’s now a bearded man
I Loved old rock ‘n roll
but I am just a has been
And the Markle creature
sneers and smirks at the Queen
Woh oh oh oh I was made in England
Woh oh oh oh I was made in England
Sorry Elton
Altogether now ———-Wow oh oh oh I was made in England.
No need to apologise to Elton John he was advocating the Death jab – unforgivable.
Aptly today is when Tommy Robinson finds out from the courts if he’s unbanned from London. That would be the ban that came about thanks to that Jewish dude, Gideon Falter, who karmically got a dose of his own medicine the other day. Surely it’s today of all days that patriots can wander the streets of their own country freely and gather together, waving their flags and celebrating, without fear of being called ”right-wing extremists” or ”fascist” or ”racists” etc. Or is that just in the context of a pro-terrorist hate-march when that happens? Is it still safe to present as openly English??
Moving on, you can’t go wrong with Gad Saad. He knows what’s what. ( <2mins )
”Dr. Gad Saad, who escaped Islamic persecution in Lebanon and whose parents were kidnapped in Beirut, refuses to stay silent:
Stop coming up with qualifiers before the word Islam:
“It’s not radical Islam, it’s not Islamism, It’s not militant, violent, extremism – It’s Islam.”
https://twitter.com/AmyMek/status/1614153179637362688
Look at the amount of police time devoted to harassing Tommy Robinson, someone who in the grand represents zero threat to anyone. An example of selective justice.
Watch how he destroyed this Sky News journalist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja9wM3dANSI
It is my birthday as well as England’s day, so leave it alone.
Actually, when I was younger, no one took much notice of being English, we just were, within the United Kingdom. Only since we have had other competing cultures here in large numbers and the antagonism of the Scots, Welsh and others towards England and our past and present qualitries.
Twenty-five-plus years on from the Blairite Year Zero of 1997, it is debatable as to whether the country formerly known as ‘England’ even actually exists at all any more.
It’s not funny ‘cos it’s true.
We the ‘unhinged’ are calling for this medal to be completely redesigned.
This latest gem by Steven Tucker really made me laugh, especially the “Petition to Remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2”, and the wonderful Monty Python “Never Be Rude to an Arab”, which I’d completely forgotten about. Here’s Terry Jones’ brilliant stage performance, where one commenter said,
“Those who find this offensive are missing the point entirely”:
Monty Python:Never Be Rude To an Arab (youtube.com)
Matthew Goodwin sums it up: even the Reform Party needs to listen to him:
https://youtu.be/xNdwuVnU62Q?si=VA952nxowBQygXVU
And the other speakers at the conference have much to say that is rarely said.