Barry Speker's Comment

Memories of visits to the Lake District would often be of persistent downpours with obscured views of peaks and becks, dales and lakes.

Not so this year having enjoyed an albeit brief staycation imposed by Covid-19 travel restrictions. A rare experience it was to see Lakeland basking in record hot weather, with the clearest of blue skies, save for harrier jets producing ear-splitting roars as they practised low dives for the next peace keeping tour. Derwentwater still presented some tranquility with views of Latrigg and Skiddaw and the delights of the Horse and Farrier Inn at Threlkeld. The Grange Hotel is greatly recommended. As for the centre of Keswick during staycation, the holidaying hordes clearly require transformation into something more like Blackpool by the sea. Being tattoo free put me in the minority. Wordsworth would have had difficulty in finding any lonely wandering and Hardy would have yearned to be far from these madding crowds. Sporting events can be engrossing and inspiring as will as raising national spirits. Following the Euros, Wimbledon and the Open, we now have the Tokyo Olympics, postponed from last year for safety, but taking place with no spectators. The Delta variant is surging and 80% of the Japanese public wanted the Games to be put off or scrapped. The decision to proceed is not out of consideration for athletes who have trained for years and risk losing their one chance of a medal. It is about television rights, sponsors’ investments and the political horse-trading and worse which surround the awarding of the Games. The first modern Olympics in 1896 in Athens took place at a time of optimism (and colonialism). Undeniably the Olympics have been used by dictators and tyrants to launder reputations – remember Berlin 1936 and Sochi 2014. We should try to remember that the three Olympic values are Friendship, Respect and Excellence whilst the four principles of the paralympics are Determination, Inspiration, Courage and Equality. We must recognise this despite the commercialism surrounding the event as well as the concentration on isolation and that the testing is not for drugs but for the virus. A time to get behind Team GB and a respectable medal total – time for panic buying of lager and wine? The word ‘zero’ attracts extreme campaigners like no other but continues to encourage lack of realism as well as unattainable objectives. ‘Zero Tolerance’ is simplistically applied to every social ill. That it does not happen should be no surprise. The UK declaration of ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2050 has a similarity with the opponents to the Freedom day opening up, who argued for a policy of zero-Covid (complete elimination) whatever the cost. The original environmental pledge was to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050 but Theresa May in her final PM days decided to make it zero. Such an introspective approach ignores that most of our emissions are generated abroad. China is developing a further 247 gigawatts of coal-fired energy, larger than the entire US coal-fired capacity but of course China still sees itself as a ‘developing country’. Ultra left wing activists Professors Anthony Costello and Susan Michie argue for zero Covid (whatever the economic and other consequences) despite evidenced views of scientists like Chris Whitty, that “The chances of eradicating Covid in the UK or across the world are as close to zero as makes no difference”. As we in the UK are less than 1% of the world population, we have little influence to prevent new variants. Similarly we represent only 1% of CO2 emissions. Thus our ‘zero’ is not feasible in either case and even if achievable would make barely any difference to the rest of the world – but like the Olympics, it’s the taking part that counts.