Coronavirus Diary 78 – Selling your belongings because the government has left you #ExcludedUK for 15 months

As the world continues to go back to normal for many of us, at varying degrees, I’ve just had my second Oxford vaccine on Friday 30th April and am pre-writing this post in anticipation of feeling as ill as I did after the first inoculation on the 3rd of March; still they say it is a sign of being young and your immune system reacting with the vaccine so there are some silver linings on that particular cloud.

Where there is no hope is on the ExcludedUK front where 3 million of us continue to be left entirely without any help or government support during the virus and lockdowns.  I myself am on week 67 tomorrow since I had a proper days work and with absolutely zero help from the government.  It’s so sad, I know 19 people personally in my position who have committed suicide and it’s not hard to imagine there have been many more.

It’s also sad that it is Excluded people who tend to work in areas worst impacted by the virus and lockdowns.  The campaign continues and a week or so ago I received another mention in Parliament, this time through a video debate but it’s recorded in Parliamentary Hansard so is still recorded for posterity.

https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/f95b6e90-9233-4efe-915b-f0d577a6d671?in=16:35:00&out=16:36:10

You can view the short clip by clinking on the link above.  The ExcludedUK campaign generally and myself as an individual continue to garner support from a wide range of prominent figures such as from possibly the biggest name in British political campaigning history, Gina Miller.

Just as no-one can know what it is like to be entirely left behind, it is also hard to describe the alarm when an hour from my iPad sees me with hundreds of social media alerts.  I instinctively blame myself and wonder if I misspoke but of course I very rarely do but some forthright opinions often spread like wildfire and some people are just stupid.

Going 67 weeks with no proper income in London obviously has its detrimental impacts and the last week has seen me sell off and give away a large selection of my books and DVDs, which were always my main way of enjoying time at home.

I used to have films and television programmes on all the shelves behind the television but now 3/5ths of them have gone and their space has been taken by some of my books which I managed to keep from the shelves below.

Still at least as Rishi Sunak said, no-one will be left behind or without hope.