Millions of old folk across UK share councillor’s frustration and isolation

The Lisburn councillor on page four talks about the loneliness of seeing nobody between 7pm and 10 the following morning.

“It’s getting me down,” says Mr Dillon, who is aged 85 and gets two health visits a day. He can “get out into [his] fields” but he thinks of “these poor people living in apartment blocks, they must be going daft”.

Mr Dillon yearns to be able to drive to the north coast or to get out to restaurants.

Millions of elderly people across the UK are feeling similarly anxious and isolated.

Striking the right balance over lockdown is not an easy thing for any government to do.

It has to be relatively rigid, or the spread of the virus couldpick up again. At the same time, it is causing huge damage to people’s mental health, relationships, careers and finances. Even Sir Jeremy Farrar, the infectious diseases expert, says “it’s clear that the lockdown can’t go on for much longer”.

Mr Dillon’s own council can make an immediate contribution to easing the suffering of its ratepayers by opening its city parks, as Belfast has sensibly done.

The overwhelming bulk of people are behaving responsibly on social distancing so they must be able to exercise in parks for their physical and psychological health.

We also need a strategy for the reopening of schools, which is now happening across Europe, in part because the odds against a child suffering badly from Covid-19 are infinitesimally small. In fact the chance of infected under 30s dying is thought to be one in several thousand.

That is not to say there are any easy exit solutions — there aren’t. Infected young people can infect vulnerable adults. But with hope the entirety of the UK will soon agree a safe, gradual return to controlled economic and social activity.

—— ——

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor