Yahoo Finance Clacton-on-Sea: 'British common sense is saving us from Covid, not the government'
It is officially bikini weather in and by midday on Friday, west beach begins filling with families and day trippers, awkwardly attempting to make space away from one another as they sun on the sand.
“Lockdown is over,” says John Comber, tapping on a cigarette. At 74, Comber says he is sticking to the rules but isn’t worried too much about catching the virus. “Death will be one thing or another and I think coronavirus has been overrated.” He has taken a break from his daily walk to rest on a bench with his partner Tracey. A former Monster Raving Loony party member, he has lived in the Essex coastal town for around 25 years and like 70% of residents, he voted for Brexit.
“I think we’ve handled the situation pretty well,” he says. “But Cummings needs to go. He was out of line and he should be sacked – you’re not going to take advice from him now, are you?” Comber voted for Johnson but predicts “he will be in trouble the longer this goes on. It could finish him. A lot of people will think: ‘if it’s OK for them to break the rules, what about me?’”
The subject of Cummings’ breach of lockdown has been a topic of feverish debate in the local press and for listeners calling in to The Beach radio station; earlier in the week, local Tory MP Giles Watling called for the prime minister’s adviser to resign, citing an unprecedented volume of correspondence from locals furious that “his continued presence in the government makes a mockery of the sacrifices we have all made during this outbreak”.
Tanya George, 41, who has spent the last two weeks manning a bucket-and-spade shop on the pier, has lived in Clacton all her life: “It’s appalling that we’re supposed to trust them with our lives, do what we’re told and yet they get to flounce around doing what they want. It’s not setting a good example, is it?”
George, like everyone who speaks to the Observer, says that she has been strict about following guidance because “it’s common sense and we’ve got to use our own savvy – it’s the British public that is saving us at this point, it’s not the government.”
Local adherence to the rules has surprised even Neil Stock, leader of Tendring Council. He describes Clacton-on-Sea as a firmly anti-establishment pocket of Essex.
“We’ve got a pretty rebellious nature of people who choose to live here and if there was anywhere lockdown was going to break, it would be Clacton,” he says. “But the vast majority of people have been well behaved.”
Stock maintains he holds “no position” on Cummings but rolls his eyes at Tory HQ messaging that insists the adviser is being bullied.
It kills us not be able to see the children and grandkids but you’ve got to stick to it.
Jack, Clacton-on-Sea
His wards include Jaywick, the most deprived community in Britain, and Holland-on-Sea which has the oldest population in western Europe. “Where we’re sat now, this ward has a life expectancy 18 years lower than Ardleigh, a village five miles up the road,” he says. The town’s problems are familiar to coastal communities – a seasonal economy, elderly populations, spikes of homelessness – and at lunchtime, the unexpected arrival of a dead 40-foot beached whale that closes the beaches altogether.
Jack, a painter and decorator who moved away from the town to Canvey Island four years ago, takes it as a sign. “It’s too early to be doing all this, to be honest,” he says looking at the pier. “They could have done at least four more weeks of a harder lockdown. They’re saying you can see six people for a barbecue now but for some people, six turns into 10 turns into 14.” He shakes his head. Jack is in town for a couple of hours while his wife checks on her mother. “It kills us not be able to see the children and grandkids but you’ve got to stick to it. What will be happening when all the shops open? Think of the queues, the rate of infection.”
A rumour spreads that the 40-foot whale carcass, now drawing crowds, will be taken back out to sea and blown up, while speculation mounts as to why it drifted so many miles away from its home.
“And what was Cummings doing 250 miles away from London?” asks Jack, rubbishing the official line. “How was that the nearest place he could have found help?” He is scathing of what he considers rank hypocrisy. “Of course it compromises the message: you can’t have the experts telling you one thing and doing another. He should have done the decent thing, like the others caught out, and resigned. Now he should be sacked. No doubt.”
