A ridiculous campaign has struck a chord with lockdown believers who have signed up to ring a bell on Christmas Eve which will apparently spread cheer and “combat loneliness”.

Mary Beggs-Reid from Harrogate started the campaign and claims it has reached “millions of people”. Even the Prime Minister, who must be twiddling his thumbs at the moment, found the time to chat to Mary on a virtual call. He was joined by his fiancee Carrie Symonds and they said they would like to “ring bells on Christmas Eve” themselves.

The event which will obviously cure loneliness for millions as they hear the bells ring (yeah alright), shares similarities with the ‘Clap for Carers’. Do you remember that? Symbolic of the public’s docile, we’ll do as we’re told because they said so attitude.

Apparently “thousands” are going to stand outside their front doors at 6pm on December 24th and “ring those bells” as part of the campaign.

Mary Beggs-Reid said “We’ve got nearly half a million on the Facebook group, but so many people say they’ve delivered the idea to hundreds of their neighbours that aren’t on social media, so I think we’re now probably in our millions doing it all across the UK,”

“Especially with the recent news, this is more needed now than ever… It was just a simple bell-ring to start with but it’s evolved into so much more, so that for two minutes on Christmas Eve nobody feels alone.”

“We were having my husband’s mother, but due to the change in everything we can’t now, it’s just going to be a really quiet Christmas.

“Unfortunately I can’t see my mum, but she lives in Harrogate, my mum and dad… we can’t be physically together but for those two minutes, we can all be ringing together, and I know she’s ringing from the other side of Harrogate.”

The thing is Mary, you actually could see your Mother in law, Mother and Father if you chose to, but you’ve chosen to listen to a dictatorial, authoritarian government instead and like many others you’ll choose what the man in a suit on the telescreen says over family any day of the week.

Give your heads a wobble.