Hump Day: A year after the first lockdown, what will change and what will stay the same?

AS I consider that a whole year has passed since the first COVID-19 lockdown, I can’t help but reflect on how much has changed and how much has stayed the same.

I sat at my desk to write this piece, and received an email from a woman who wants answers. She says her boyfriend became unconscious in prison and then died later on in hospital, despite no underlying health issues.

The family of Mohamud Mohammed Hassan want answers too. Aged only 24, Mohamud died following time spent in police custody just months ago. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation into his death is ongoing.

At the start of this week, I received news that his daughter Lamaya Ader Mohamud Hassan had been born and died on the same day. The message notification on my phone was short and succinct. At the same time, the grief it carried felt both heavy and familiar.

I do not know if this lockdown will be the last one, though I desperately hope that it is. However, when I consider the way this unprecedented crisis has caused us all to adapt and change – I am writing in my room in front of a desk riser, on a wireless keyboard from Facebook Marketplace – I am depressed by how familiar some things seem.

There are battles taking place, over whether we will break old patterns or revert to type.

Last year, we saw Black Lives Matter protests across this country. At one such protest, the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was brought down by activists. It was an action that rattled the establishment, and I’m not entirely sure that they’ve ever gotten over it. In response, local police said they would find those responsible and indeed they did. The Colston four will appear in court on December 13. Still, local authorities across the country quietly considered that it was time some of their own monuments to unchallenged, deadly and dangerous white power came down.

This week, we have seen another demonstration in Bristol. Once again, the less privileged have signalled to the more privileged that their power cannot be absolute. Following this, The Policing Bill they protested against, which some might say is in direct response to the former Bristol protest, has been delayed at committee stage. We have heard the usual, that those who damaged anything will be found, and I do not doubt for one second that they will be.

What remains to be seen is whether the bill they opposed – one that a political scientist called illiberal and authoritarian here in The Voice, and that campaign groups have said will discriminate against ethnic minorities – will pass into law.

With bated breath, we wait to see. What will change and what will stay the same?

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