With the draconian enforceable self isolation measures that have been adopted worldwide .....
..... comes some possibly unexpected and unwanted side effects.
Its been shown in studies in the past, that when men who usually spend their times in social activities (including married men who drink nightly in the pub), are forced to stay indoors with their 'loved ones', there can be unexpected consequences ... so for instance when there were power cuts in the 1970's, and the imposition of a "three-day week" from the 1st January 1974, Britons had to get used to living under candlelight, as power cuts became a feature of everyday life, and many activities were curtailed as businesses were closed on a rota basis.
For many of that generation, it was like wartime Britain again (which was only 30 years before and in living memory of the middle and older aged population), but without the German bombs ... but on that occasion, the Brits had responded with a stoic calm, but in scenes reminiscent to today's panic buying this time round, petrol hoarding was rife in the 1970's event.
Nine months after the blackout winter of 1973/74 there was a baby boom. A plus for an ageing population. But the downside: The divorce rates spiked and carried on doing so for the rest of the decade:
.... as family tensions rose, and combined with alcohol being drunk at home instead of the pub. It was noticeable that there was a murder rate spike over the that year in England and Wales:
These issues arising out of people being forced to stay with their families for a significantly greater period of time may or may not be the same as those seen in the early 1970's, but there is an added factor. Loneliness, provoked by both psychological and physical isolation, is an issue that has a far greater impact now, than fifty years ago, Britain then still had a largely cohesive society, and family ties and bonds were stronger. Now with the single population of the UK currently at 34.4 per cent, plus the divorced at 7.8 per cent, and widowed at 6.6 per cent, there a lot of people (including me) who got a high proportion of their social contact and interaction from social activities such as meeting people in the pub (or social clubs, gyms etc).
Effectively this social interaction has been snatched from them .... I can only really speak for the single men who socialised in the pub. But many were visibly shaken when the government announced that pubs were being forced to close. Some of the older men were even worried that they might not even be around when these places open again, or that their friends wouldn't be around. Social networks are not on-line for many of the older single males ... they are in the people that they see daily or weekly, in a community of like minded souls.
The pub quiz team that also contains ladies who are widows, or whose husbands are nightly pub attenders ... will all be impacted to some degree or other, and some undoubtedly will be made lonely or even put at risk.
So spare a thought for this band of people who are the unheralded victims of the coronavirus.
Update 06/04/2020:
Sadly reports in the UK and indeed worldwide indicate that domestic abuse levels on women and children have spiked significantly: The UK charity Refuge has reported that the National Domestic Abuse helpline has seen a 25% increase in calls and online requests for help. This has been steadily rising with visits to the UK-wide National Domestic Abuse helpline website for information being 150% higher last week than during the last week in February 2020.
Outside the UK, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on governments to act against “a horrifying global surge in domestic violence” in recent weeks, sparked by lockdowns.
He has reported that calls to domestic abuse helplines had doubled in countries like Lebanon and Malaysia compared with the same period last year. In China that number has tripled, while in Australia, the Google Internet search engine has also seen its highest rise in searches for domestic violence help in the last five years.
Unintended by products of the lockdowns which are paralleling those of similar events in the past .... unintended certainly. Unpredictable, sadly not.
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| A Sad Sight - A Pub Closed |
..... comes some possibly unexpected and unwanted side effects.
Its been shown in studies in the past, that when men who usually spend their times in social activities (including married men who drink nightly in the pub), are forced to stay indoors with their 'loved ones', there can be unexpected consequences ... so for instance when there were power cuts in the 1970's, and the imposition of a "three-day week" from the 1st January 1974, Britons had to get used to living under candlelight, as power cuts became a feature of everyday life, and many activities were curtailed as businesses were closed on a rota basis.
For many of that generation, it was like wartime Britain again (which was only 30 years before and in living memory of the middle and older aged population), but without the German bombs ... but on that occasion, the Brits had responded with a stoic calm, but in scenes reminiscent to today's panic buying this time round, petrol hoarding was rife in the 1970's event.
Nine months after the blackout winter of 1973/74 there was a baby boom. A plus for an ageing population. But the downside: The divorce rates spiked and carried on doing so for the rest of the decade:
- 1973 - 106,003
- 1974 - 113,500
- 1975 - 120,522
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| Domestic Violence Was Once A Subject Of Humour .... |
.... as family tensions rose, and combined with alcohol being drunk at home instead of the pub. It was noticeable that there was a murder rate spike over the that year in England and Wales:
- 1973 - 465
- 1974 - 600
- 1975 - 515
These issues arising out of people being forced to stay with their families for a significantly greater period of time may or may not be the same as those seen in the early 1970's, but there is an added factor. Loneliness, provoked by both psychological and physical isolation, is an issue that has a far greater impact now, than fifty years ago, Britain then still had a largely cohesive society, and family ties and bonds were stronger. Now with the single population of the UK currently at 34.4 per cent, plus the divorced at 7.8 per cent, and widowed at 6.6 per cent, there a lot of people (including me) who got a high proportion of their social contact and interaction from social activities such as meeting people in the pub (or social clubs, gyms etc).
Effectively this social interaction has been snatched from them .... I can only really speak for the single men who socialised in the pub. But many were visibly shaken when the government announced that pubs were being forced to close. Some of the older men were even worried that they might not even be around when these places open again, or that their friends wouldn't be around. Social networks are not on-line for many of the older single males ... they are in the people that they see daily or weekly, in a community of like minded souls.
The pub quiz team that also contains ladies who are widows, or whose husbands are nightly pub attenders ... will all be impacted to some degree or other, and some undoubtedly will be made lonely or even put at risk.
So spare a thought for this band of people who are the unheralded victims of the coronavirus.
Update 06/04/2020:
Sadly reports in the UK and indeed worldwide indicate that domestic abuse levels on women and children have spiked significantly: The UK charity Refuge has reported that the National Domestic Abuse helpline has seen a 25% increase in calls and online requests for help. This has been steadily rising with visits to the UK-wide National Domestic Abuse helpline website for information being 150% higher last week than during the last week in February 2020.
Outside the UK, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on governments to act against “a horrifying global surge in domestic violence” in recent weeks, sparked by lockdowns.
He has reported that calls to domestic abuse helplines had doubled in countries like Lebanon and Malaysia compared with the same period last year. In China that number has tripled, while in Australia, the Google Internet search engine has also seen its highest rise in searches for domestic violence help in the last five years.
Unintended by products of the lockdowns which are paralleling those of similar events in the past .... unintended certainly. Unpredictable, sadly not.
There are lots of people who are under strain with the social isolation. Many think that the cure is worse than the illness.
ReplyDeleteBut that view is a minority opinion now but will grow if the conditions don't ease up soon.
The old people you mention are not the only ones who are fearful of their futures.
You might be right and perhaps the great British public are just not used to long term hardship and deprivations. The reality of what a social lock down really means has been a shock. Schools closed, jobs under threat, lack of contact, shops being pillaged by hoarders, gyms, cinemas, pubs, restaurants etc closed.
DeleteFunerals nearly empty of friends and mourners, people dying alone in hospitals, people leaving work with no goodbyes ... the list of hardships just goes on and on, with no end date and the health professionals telling us it could be 3, 6 or even 18 months ... no light at the end of the tunnel.
This new reality means that the country could be bankrupt and broken within a very short space of time. So yes, there could be a change of mood if the situation remains like this after more weeks or months. We shall have to see how this plays out BUT with death rates being highlighted, to some extent without context i.e. what is the seasonal flu daily death rate at peak infection? its unlikely that public opinion will alter too much inside the 3 weeks of the initial lockdown.
It appears that in the West this coronavirus death rate is higher than seasonal flu, but in China its lower, why? Is it under reporting in Asian countries, or do the Chinese have some in built herd resistance because this isn't actually the first iteration of this strain of the coronavirus to hit the population?
Thanks for the comment and I trust that you are personally OK.
There was an April Fools Day faceBook post spoof going round yesterday, that 'The government are going to ban alcohol sales from tonight because they’re concerned about the growing mental health issues whilst confined at home and the rise in domestic abuse.' ... I don't think any UK government would risk the breakdown in social behaviour and law and order that such a move would create. However the fact that it travelled at all, was because it has some element of truth. Growing mental health issues and the rise in domestic abuse are both the sort of unexpected consequences mentioned in this post.
ReplyDeleteIts being reported that already the number of suspected domestic abuse killings have trebled during the coronavirus lock-down. Sadly as I predicted. Its been suggested that some supermarkets could soon enable abuse victims trapped at home with their abusers could call for help by pressing a red button when doing their online shopping. How sad that we live in such a society that needs this .....
ReplyDeletePolice Figures in Lancashire, England have been released for the first lock-down showing that domestic violence cases made up 1 in 5 of all police calls out in that period. A massive surge, and there are fears that this is just the tip of the iceberg, especially as the North West is effectively in another lock-down again.
DeletePoliticians never think through the consequences e.g. Closing pubs, has put men back in to the house to do their drinking ... outcome; increase in partner and children attacks, and probably a murder spike (as I predicted in this post).