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History | Citizenship | PSHE | Relationships and health

Twelve months that became our longest year

Will this be the strangest year of our lives? Tomorrow marks twelve months of social distancing in Britain. It seems almost impossible – but could the future be even more bizarre? One year ago today, life looked very different. In Britain, office workers were still running for the bus each morning, football fans were still crowding into stadiums and school children were still sitting at their desks. Then, on 16 March 2020, as coronavirus spread through Europe, Boris Johnson announced the start of social distancing, and everything changed. The final days of March passed like a whirlwind: schools and restaurants closed, Britons were confined to their homes, the heir to the throne tested positive and the first weekly Clap for Carers rang out across the nation. By the end of the month, one third of the world’s population was under lockdown. One British newspaper declared the “end of freedom”. April was similarly apocalyptic. As Boris Johnson was rushed to intensive care, officials worried he was about to become the first British Prime Minister to die in office since Henry Temple in 1865. Yet as cases fell, the strangeness of the “new normal” shone through. Very rarely would a political adviser’s family outing attract more than a few interested glances. But in May, after days of outrage, Dominic Cummings held a press conference to defend doing just that: his trip to Barnard Castle, he said, was not a breach of lockdown but a necessary journey to “test his eyesight”. The summer brought a brief respite. Shops reopened. Captain Tom was knighted by the Queen. But if the summer brought the hope of freedom, the autumn swiftly removed it. A month before the US elections, Donald Trump too was rushed to hospital. In November, much of Europe returned to lockdown. Across the continent, one person was dying of the virus every 17 seconds. Then, in December, a joyous moment. A grandmother from Coventry was the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine. The jab did not stop the second wave – Britain’s grim death toll reached double that of the Blitz – but in the new year, it slowed the spread of the virus. Now, even as vaccine nationalism strains tempers across Europe, “normal” looks possible once again. What a year! Of course, many historians point out it is far from the worst in history. In 536, a disastrous volcanic eruption in Iceland dimmed the sun for a year and a half. World War Two killed millions across the world. Even pandemics are hardly unprecedented: the Black Death wiped out half of all Londoners in 1349. Nor, with any certainty, can we ever predict what the future will bring. In January, one journalist suggested that 2030 might actually be more calamitous than 2020. Moreover, some say the strangeness of this year depends on the privilege of having a comfortable “normal”. For 2.4 million children in Syria, not attending school in 2020 was completely expected. But for most people alive today, no event has had such an impact as Covid-19. Even huge catastrophes, such as 9/11, and political upheavals, like Brexit, rarely define a whole year. Will this be the strangest year of our lives? Back to reality? We should certainly hope so, say some. This pandemic has changed how we live in a way many would have thought impossible just a year ago. It has been undoubtedly bizarre. But if there is a silver lining, it is that as a population we are more prepared to deal with any future crises that may arise. Most of the world’s problems, including climate change, are known about, and thus fixable. The future could be even weirder, say others. It is foolish to try to make predictions. In the 1950s, teenagers born before World War Two might have said quite confidently they had already lived through the strangest years of their lives. Today, in their old age, they might reconsider. The world is constantly changing – it is impossible to say what tomorrow holds. KeywordsHeir to the throne - In 1819 it was the Prince Regent, later King George IV. He took the role because his father, George III, was mentally ill.

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