Locked-down Brits are connecting with each other in new and different ways.
The Mirror is building on this by connecting people for unique online conversations – it’s a chance to meet someone different, find out what others are going through and even help people feel less lonely.
Mirror football writer Darren Lewis strikes a bond with Andy Thomas as part of our Britain Connects project.
Darren says...
Andy Thomas from Salford is clear about what concerns him right now.
“It’s the isolation and the social cost of the virus to millions of people,” he told me. “If you’re asking me what I’d like you to write about, it’s that.
“It’s about the things we only appreciate when they are gone.”
Andy, 48, makes his living as a self-employed programmer.
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“I’ve got my own independent software products,” he added.
“But I’ve not done any work on them and essentially at the moment, I’ve got no income.
“I’m very independent. But in later life I’ve realised that I need people as well. Without that, life becomes pointless. So this experience with lockdown is very poignant.”
Andy’s issues sum up Britain’s issue – the widening gap between us all despite the belief that adversity has brought the country together.
“I remember when you used to go out and you didn’t take a phone with you. Now people are on social media all the time,” he said.
Over the course of the subsequent hour, Andy takes me on a tour of the wall in his flat, including his Russian calendar dating back to the Soviet United collapse in 1990 and his Siouxsie Sioux poster.
A recovering alcoholic, Andy recalls his Romanian neighbours’ well-meaning but misjudged attempt at bonding.
“They were banging on the door at 5am with a bottle of vodka wanting to invite me around. I’d have loved to have gotten drunk at 5am with them, but I couldn’t.”
Five years ago Andy was out on the streets reaching out to the homeless and those suffering with addiction.
Now he’d rather help with the underlying causes behind those suffering with trauma.
“I would love to volunteer again but I’d have to feel I was making a change in terms of the circumstances that lead to them being homeless or disadvantaged.”
