There seem to me to be four critical assumptions that must be made before anyone can believe the UK will have an adequate response to Coronavirus.
The first is that Matt Hancock can plan.
The second is that Johnson can lead.
The third is that Rishi Sunak knows anything about macroeconomics.
And the fourth is that they care.
I leave the first three aside. The fourth is the one that matters.
This is the government of Britannia Unchained, the 2012 volume by the likes of Raab, Patel and Truss, that set out their political visions. It's not a pretty volume. As the press noted at the time that it was published, it suggested that the British are "among the worst idlers in the world" who "prefer a lie-in to hard work". There was little attempt to disguise the contempt that these elitists felt for those they wished to govern.
And the whole book assumed that the state was malign; a force destined on all occasion to do harm, which they nonetheless wished to control.
These thoughts are, I suggest, the prevailing mindset of our cabinet.
Is a cabinet made up of such people likely to intervene on behalf of the people it despises? Or even think that anything the state might do in such circumstances be of benefit? Might it just be that Hancock's suggestion that we should wash our hands and use sanitiser (which I am told has already disappeared from most stores) be the limit of his free-market response, beyond which he would really rather not go?
My point is a serious one. It requires a certain mindset to manage a crisis. The outcome has to matter to you. I am nit convinced that this group, who think they and their ilk are ring-fenced from society at large, have anything like the understanding required to face the issues that may shortly become very apparent.
And yes, that does worry me.
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To link this post with an earlier one, R4’s Today programme included an exposition of the situation for hospital cleaners. Many (most?) are contracted by private companies on minimum wage. For the first three days of sickness they receive no sick pay. After this statutory sick pay of £94 a week is paid.
Given that these people are in the vanguard of prevention the risk to them is substantially higher. If as a result they begin to display symptoms they will be sent home and told to self isolate. Their choice will be feed the kids or take the risk and not declare suspected symptoms. Unless the Government put in place measures such as those you advocated Richard the potential risks to a wider cohort are massive. No doubt a big stick will be waved to force compliance. But no thought will be given to encouraging cooperation by demonstrating the thanks this nation owes to these souls occupying a lowly but vital position on the totem pole. Currently the affected cleaners should be sent home on full pay with follow up testing and encouraged to return as soon as possible to help keep hospitals safe. In the future cleaning services should be brought back in-house and the private companies sent packing
Agreed
Just too much class war negativity coming from you regardless of the issue. The Uk has been planning foe a pandemic since 2010. If it comes we should be as prepared as most countries. To peddle endless negative rhetoric is akin to what momentum do. Maybe thats your home as opposed to a forum for rational balanced debate.
I don’t do class war
An elite do – as Warren Buffet has confirmed
But this is about nothing of that sort – this is about preparedness and your claim is pure nonsense
I also note you have ten identities on here….
Replying to Simon Fowler (and his 10 identities!)
Public sector services’ resilience to deal with pandemics (or other major incidents) has been seriously undermined since 2010 by relentless underfunding. That is a fact, no matter how Tories try to ‘spin’ the figures. A shortage of 10,000 doctors, a shortage of 43,000 nurses, a shortage of hospital beds. Social care in disarray. Whilst all eyes are on how the NHS will cope it is on social care that their gaze should rest. If that fails then the already creaking NHS will snap.
The free market will fix Coronavirus straight after it cures the common cold. Never.
All we have to do is look at what is going on around us already.
We have floods because the Tories (or should we call them Twatties?) cut budgets uniformly from 2010 for all service areas including The Environment Agency even though the outgoing Labour Government had been warned in the early 2000s by this agency of an uprated risk of flooding in areas that are underwater NOW.
We have a slowed down NHS because the Twatties have kept budgets to 2010 levels for the last 10 years – which might explain why cancer appointments are being put back and people are being treated in corridors and on floors and why (because of Twattie BREXIT and immigration hate crime) many people have left the health service to return home to their country.
We have a population and country that is addled by Twattie (Tory) austerity – weakened – and our institutions are remain under threat from a lack of money and the desire to make them toe the line from No.10.
It’s not very good, and anyone who thinks otherwise is either totally misled or in cloud cuckoo land.
But denial always seems to be what societies that are on the way out cling to to the very end. It’s very sad.
One of my favourite quotes from Mencken: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard”.
It would make for a good start if the Conservative zealots could put the health of the nation before political ideology.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/coronavirus-health-experts-hit-out-21613826
Downing Street has reportedly rejected pleas to keep the EU’s Early Warning and Response System (EWRS)
The online platform has existed for 22 years to let health chiefs exchange rapid information about “serious cross-border threats to health”.
But according to the Daily Telegraph, No10 has rejected pleas to keep it as part of a trade deal – despite even a Department of Health official lobbying for access.
A source told the newspaper: “The Department of Health pitched for continued access to the EWRS to be an objective of the negotiations.
“But it was blocked because they didn’t want to be accused of seeking more than the basic Canada deal.”
This is staggering…
This is a government that is bent on putting the entire country in self isolation. Economically, diplomatically, security and the rest – forget Singapore on Thames- this is the Barclay brothers private island in the Channel Islands. Their only interests are the retention of power and self enrichment.
For those who’ve not read her, a look at Ayn Rand’s writings is insightful – though they are pretty tedious. She believed government to be fundamentally evil and that even charity is wrong. Off the scale social Darwinism. It does explain the behaviours of the gang the Johnson has gathered around him, that they are believers in Rands ideas.
You’re right Robin
Concerned about people, this incompetent, cruel, clueless Cabinet is most certainly not.
They were nurtured not to care, only to pretend they do in public, it’s good form.
Form is all that matters. It gets you votes and power, whereas substance gets you into endless hassle…and they don’t do hassle.
But surely even they should be concerned about what their inability to prepare, and act, is doing to the stock market and the economy?
Even their beloved financial sector can catch a cold, and this one might be severe.
CH4 News is covering the lack of provision for low paid workers in the NHS. It looks like we have every reason to worry.
Most low-paid NHS staff coming to work sick
With coronavirus now considered likely to affect a fifth of the UK workforce, more employees will be taking time off work sick. But what happens to the lowest paid workers in the NHS who can’t afford to stay at home?
An exclusive survey for Channel 4 News has found that 77% of these workers are coming into work while sick to avoid losing pay. The research, by the GMB union, also reveals that almost 80% of them do not have any sick pay at all for the first three days off. And after that they only get the statutory payment of £94.25 a week.
For many months, some cleaners and other NHS contract workers on minimum wages have been fighting for proper paid time off when they’re sick. And they point out the lack of sick pay could leave patients in danger too.
Speaking anonymously, one NHS worker tells us: “I was working in the maternity ward, the ladies there were giving birth and they’re more vulnerable than any of us. They were asking me: why are you coming into work if you’re sick? So I had to prepare myself not to sneeze or cough. I was hiding my sickness, I was really struggling, most of my colleagues were coming in sick as well.”
You can watch our full report on tonight’s Channel 4 News, at 7pm.
The concern is very, very real