Brett Ellis blames Covid for today's excuse culture

Covid is arguably the main protagonist for the ‘excuse culture’ which spread like a cancer during those dark days of lunacy that we all had to ensure not so long ago.

Yet still, we shuffled along like sheep, despite never really liking the shepherds, as we put our faith in the ‘science’, as well as intellectual luminaries such as, er, Matt Hancock.

But it’s not over yet, not by a long stretch. Covid is now, albeit less than before, still being used as an excuse.

Recently, national rail companies announced that ‘most’ ticket offices were being shut in the near future.

The reasoning was that ‘only’ 13% of tickets are bought from these offices, which is as misleading as can be: You arrive to a train station and many offices are shut or, in the case of, for example Totteridge and Whetstone, there is a sign stating they are open for ‘information only: not to sell tickets.

Brett Ellis blames Covid for our dependency on automated systems (Image: Brett Ellis)

Given the choice of a machine or no ticket, 100% of those wishing to board a train will choose a machine and hence the 13% figure is disingenuous, at best leading me to believe they are using Siddiq Khan as a statistician.

You visit a bank, and the counters are shut. For older folk whose highlight of the day was to chat to a worker for a few minutes, we are doing little but letting them fester and rot as we again move toward automation as we gleefully use such systems and devices whilst watching our fellow man join the back of a very long dole queue.

Physio appointments are on the phone (what is all that about?) and no doubt, in time, Group On massages gifted for a birthday will take place virtually as you reminisce of Sandra’s fingers massaging your backfat rolls…

I’m never quite sure what happened to doctors either as I have not seen one in the flesh for a few years. They have, amazingly, managed to negate the senses of sight and touch and can now misdiagnose you on the end of a telephone line instead…

Got a complaint about an energy supplier? Airline? NHS? Business? You may as well forget it as they are but invisible entities, sending you on myriad of loops through systems that as user friendly as a three fingered glove.

So, as we kill the jobs of the proletariat whilst succumbing to the bourgeoisie we suffer extreme lack of service, care or help when it is truly needed, and that, my friends, is a ball started off by the advent of Covid…

• Brett Ellis is a teacher.