24.03.2020

Lockdown. Well, sort of. Unless you’re an essential worker, or a freelancer, in which case your work is essential to you, because there’s still no support, you need to stay at home, apart from if you... don't need to stay at home?

Already there are reports all over the place from bosses claiming they are essential businesses. Mike Ashley, the fat piece of asset stripping shit who owns, among others, Evans Cycles and Sports Direct, purveyors of slave-made sports wear, said his stores need to stay open otherwise where will people get reasonably priced home workout gear? And Tim Martin, the shaved orangutan who owns Weatherspoon’s, lobbied against closing pubs, and when we was forced to, refused to pay his staff.

Right on cue, moments after Boris’ bored speech (it was fairly clear he’d struggled to do a take with a straight face, and was getting ruddy well fed up with the whole business) the boss of the pizza place messages the group. They’re staying open. Boris said food delivery and essential work is allowed (which begs the question, why's it so badly paid?), in my opinion, delivering food from supermarkets is sensible, but pizza deliveries? I don’t think so. Dropping a whole load of shopping off in one go makes sense, but going door to door with one pizza at a time? I don’t think so.

Worst of all, he had the gall to describe the virus as great opportunity. It reminded me, I used to write TV ads for brands like Subway. One of the reasons I had to stop, was that I realised if I write the best ad ever, and the sales go right up, will the sandwich artists’ (yes, that’s what they call them) lives improve? Will they get a pay rise to reflect their increased work load? Will they get some kind of bonus? Fuck no. Obviously not. No one’s had a pay rise in ten years. So what am I doing?

I was obsequious to capital, enabling exploitation on its behalf, complicit in sacrificing these workers to the market like some angry deity. Really I had more in common with them then I did with the shareholders of the business, or my bosses, so working to those ends for a nice salary felt like a betrayal. Anyway, the same fucking thing’s happening to me right now! They’re going to be swamped at the pizza place, the work will be gruelling and I’ll still be on minimum wage. They want to pay me minimum wage to risk my and other’s lives because they can make a few extra quid. It’s not so easy to take a stand now.

Luckily I had a bit of freelance work yesterday, in one day I earned more than I do in a week and a half delivering pizzas. But at the moment, I’m only entitled to £94 a week statutory sick pay (which I might not even get because I think I’m on a zero hours contract) or universal credit because I’m a freelancer, which is even less. So I don’t know if I have much option other than to keep delivering pizzas to spoilt brats, or find other work, which there isn’t much of. I’m wondering about just stopping paying bills. I want to see if I can volunteer to help the NHS out, drive supplies or carry stuff, just to free the doctors up a bit. If we get universal basic income, which I believe was inevitable and necessary even without the virus, I will work where I’m needed. In the meantime, unless this absurd value system is abolished, I'll have to keep delivering pizzas. 

I didn’t leave the flat yesterday, apart from to walk the dog, but even from my window I could tell the police have been busy. I saw them arrest someone, put them in the van and let them out 45 mins later. I wondered if the cells were all full, or maybe he was an informant and they made it look like an arrest to protect him. Also when was the last time you saw a white police car? They're all silver now, but I've seen a few, I think they've got the old ones out because they need more on the street.

Paramedics too. This one stopped under our window for a ten-minute breather. We wanted to chuck some Jaffa Cakes out for her, but she left before we had a chance.

This morning, I saw an Uber driver disinfect his car, still working because he’s a ‘freelancer’ and Uber won’t support him. I can’t believe what we’ve done to this country.

A friend told me about the four turnings generational theory of history. Apparently it’s Steve Bannon’s favourite idea, which is slightly worrying. I think real academics say it’s nonsense, historical astrology, but it’s certainly interesting, and the history of the last century seems to fit it. The collectivism following the crisis of the great depression into the second world war gave birth to the welfare state and NHS, then the individualism of the 60s and 70s lead to the birth of neoliberalism and dismantling the post war Keynsian economic consensus, which in turn lead to the financial crises of the last decades, the pandemic and the coming climate crisis, which gives me some hope we might emerge into a more enlightened, collective future. We have everything we need to build a post scarcity world but old ideas are holding us back.  I think we’re living in an interregnum, the old world is clearly dead, but the new on isn’t born yet. I’m delivering pizzas in utero.

I recommend John Higgs’ (who tweeted this blog yesterday!) book Stranger Than We Can Imagine if you’re interested in understanding generational shifts of the last century. He convincingly argues the Rolling Stones and Margret Thatcher have the same world view. It’s a great read full of new (to me anyway) ideas and it’s on Audible.

Stay safe!