April 6, 2020 - 11:42am
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said on Sky News this morning that, in his view, it was a mistake for parks in London such as Brockwell Park and Victoria Park to close. Of course it is — it must be possible to maintain order and disperse the minority of people who are failing to observe social distancing — so why doesn’t the Government simply force them to stay open? It’s not like they’ve been shy about taking sweeping centralised powers during this crisis.
I suggested in an earlier post that parks could innovate to make social distancing easier (perhaps creating one-way circuits and booking slots to avoid overcrowding) but to shut their gates and force people onto streets and canals to get fresh air seems actively dangerous.
I also love this idea from Rosamund Urwin — there are sixty eight golf courses in greater London and they are all shut. Let’s ask them to open their doors to people during this period for walking and taking exercise. Put their assets towards a public service: need more public space, not less.
Rather than closing big parks so more people end up packed into the smaller parks, how about reclaiming green space in London, like this enormous, empty golf course? Turn the golf courses into exercise spots. More green space for everyone, social distancing made easier. pic.twitter.com/KMNesPzAIj
— Rosamund Urwin (@RosamundUrwin) April 4, 2020
is the Editor-in-Chief & CEO of UnHerd. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of YouGov, and founder of PoliticsHome.
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SubscribeWhere I live the local golf course has already become a haven for walkers, dog walkers and joggers. There are no golfers and no staff to stop them, that is even if they wanted to.
Good.
Why not? Because governments in genuinely free countries do not command, they advise. Thank goodness ours is still like that.
Please can we say ‘physical distancing’ as ‘social distancing’ is not to be encouraged.
If the golf courses are to be open, during the lockdown period, why can’t the members of the courses play golf in them.??
Are not golf courses private land, don’t they have water hazards?
My father told me he was asked during the war to dig up his lawn to grow potatoes he said he would when they dug up the golf course and gardens at Buckingham palace 🙂 My grand mother said when she was young rumours the Russians had landed in Yorkshire with snow on their boots…nothing is new they have to have a well equipped ‘enemy’ to justify the absurdity of Trident