Celebrities
Louis Staples
May 14, 2020
![Some people think cleaners should return to work during the pandemic and it's causing huge arguments](https://www.indy100.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=28043230&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=90%2C0%2C90%2C0)
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Lockdown can only mean one thing: lots and lots of arguing online.
Boris Johnson’s new “relaxed lockdown” guidelines have cause a whole lot of confusion (and debate) about what is and isn’t acceptable right now.
One point of contention seems to be that it’s OK for cleaners and nannies to travel to work and enter peoples’ homes, but not okay for people to go and see relatives that they’ve not seen in weeks.
Hmm.
Lots of people have pointed out that it’s unfair for workers such as cleaners, who are disproportionately working-class women, to be put as risk of contracting and spreading Covid-19. Particularly seeing as, when push comes to shove, the vast majority of people do have the ability to clean their own homes, they just don't want to.
Some people have also suggested that, if you have a cleaner and haven’t felt any significant financial repercussions from the pandemic so far, the decent thing to do is pay them anyway and ask them to stay home and stay safe.
This all seems fairly uncontroversial, but on Twitter nothing is sacred, so of course it caused a huge argument.
LBC journalist Theo Usherwood said that by employing cleaners people are keeping households afloat right now.
By allowing somebody into your home to do a job, you're helping to keep another household financially viable. By i… https://t.co/J5e71Nqeya— Theo Usherwood (@Theo Usherwood) 1589351548
But Guardian journalist Owen Jones didn’t agree.
@theousherwood Declaring something simple doesn't make it so: if someone can afford a cleaner, they should be payin… https://t.co/bXev2KRF2W— Owen Jones 🌹 (@Owen Jones 🌹) 1589360251
@theousherwood Furthermore, the government should be sustaining people's income in ways that avoid them coming into… https://t.co/CBpJetMaKd— Owen Jones 🌹 (@Owen Jones 🌹) 1589360353
@theousherwood Your framing implies passive acceptance of driving working class people back to work environments wh… https://t.co/rwVSY5kbFc— Owen Jones 🌹 (@Owen Jones 🌹) 1589360862
Then journalist Sarah Ditum took issue with Jones’s retort, suggesting that doing her own cleaning was “KILLING” her...
(Which probably wasn't the best choice of words when Covid-19 is actually killing hundreds of people a day...)
Jones responded by saying that Ditum should enlist her teenagers’ help with the cleaning, which didn't go down well.
@sarahditum I have a twin sister and two elder brothers: we were all expected to do housework from the age of 11, u… https://t.co/kSQbPl2dlF— Owen Jones 🌹 (@Owen Jones 🌹) 1589367679
This is when Times journalist Janice Turner interjected to accuse Jones of being a “mansplainer”.
She mentioned that her mother had been a cleaner and also made the claim that cleaners like to clean to feel “useful”.
Naturally, this argument between several people with a lot of followers meant that the discussion sparked a lot of conversation (and memes too).
https://t.co/Ts6kQQwgFh— Sean Bernard (@Sean Bernard) 1589384042
It’s fair to say that the vast, vast, vast majority of people sided with Owen Jones on this one.
Generally, people backed the point that it’s not fair to expect lower paid cleaners to put themselves at risk because you don’t want to clean your house.
Ditum eventually clarified that she doesn't have a cleaner, but no one was suggesting it's not fine to have a cleaner in general, just not right now.
My mum is a cleaner (rich folks houses). She is also the primary carer for my Gran and Great Auntie. I imagine this… https://t.co/qLDngzJbQ4— Tam Wilson (@Tam Wilson) 1589388730
Dear British lady ‘I love my cleaner’ twitter: I cleaned your houses when I was the single mother of a toddler. I d… https://t.co/9j2FdO3ED4— Tabitha McIntosh 🦡 (@Tabitha McIntosh 🦡) 1589396799
lol. my mum variously works as a cleaner - and maybe she's not representative of all cleaners, but i'm pretty sure… https://t.co/3IPTRLijCC— Stan Account (@Stan Account) 1589386444
I’ve been a cleaner, my mum has been a cleaner, my granny was a cleaner. here’s the big secret: it’s a job u do in… https://t.co/Q3DvasadfE— Róisín Lanigan (@Róisín Lanigan) 1589389698
My take on the worst people on this site justifying employing a cleaner in a pandemic because they have kids. Do wh… https://t.co/fcGg1gypxB— The Poisonous Euros Atmosphere Fan (@The Poisonous Euros Atmosphere Fan) 1589425202
Though the pro-pandemic cleaner side did have a few notable backers...
I see employing a cleaner is today’s crime against the state.— (((Dan Hodges))) (@(((Dan Hodges)))) 1589380354
So there you have it, cleaner-gate, explained.
It's good that we're debating the issues affecting low-paid workers during the pandemic. After all, they're the ones who are disproportionately impacted by it.
This debate looks set to rumble on for a while. By the time it ends, lockdown will have been fully lifted and it'll almost be time to argue about Fairytale of New York all over again.
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