Quite why some blog posts become highly successful and others into which more effort has been put simply get average readership is largely a mystery that I cannot explain after nearly fourteen years of doing this, and more than 16,800 posts published.
So, when I wrote a blogpost on the economic impacts of the two essential choices that the government has to make on the epidemiology of tackling coronavirus, which I did after a brief and interesting conversation with a friend who is a doctor earlier this week, I thought it would be just another run of the mill post.
Except it has now been read well over 130,000 times, has been shared on Facebook over 32,000 times and as a result it gave this blog its highest ever readership in a day yesterday, with over 87,000 reads.
I would rather coronavirus was not happening. I'll take any silver linings that comes though.
Thanks to all who have read it. I just hope people remember who to blame.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
It attracted so much attention because you are providing a genuine public service highlighting the choice the government is making and its implications. And it may actually be a default choice to try and save the economy. If the government had taken effective measures to contain the spread it would have highlighted the extent to which successive Tory governments have hollowed out the public sphere and destroyed any sense of social cohesiveness and solidarity or collective active. With so many people “self-employed”, on zero-hour contracts or only one uncertain pay-check away from homelessness that could have generated serious social unrest.
‘I just hope people remember who to blame.’
“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
Milan Kundera
Given the rampant fascism we have seen in our country, I thought it a good idea to quote this. The Tories are covered in Teflon – an extremely poisonous material – like their ideology.
Agreed
“rampant facism”?
Where on earth do you get this nonsense from?
Multiple identity posting are not permitted here
I have good reason to think a multiple identity is being used here
You are banned
I contend ‘Sarah’ that much of the BREXIT Leave campaign has been fascistic, blaming our ills on Europe, making it into an enemy.
Other enemies that have been created are immigrants (causing the NHS to slow down, when in fact it has been under funded since 2010 by the Tories) as well the disabled, those on night shifts (who apparently should stay up with the rest of us after a hard night’s work) and the poor. You could also add those who are concerned about climate change and trade unionists – even Jeremy Corbyn.
All these are victims of lies, deceit and misrepresentation and have thrown people off the scent as to whom are the real culprits – Tory politicians, MP and ministers and their supporters in the main stream media (Daily Mail, Telegraph, Sun etc.,) who have trailed out these lies almost continuously since 2010.
This is how you erase people’s memories and help them to forget – by finding them someone else to remember. The Nazis and Russian Communists knew this – and so does Nigel Farage, Lynton Crosby and the British Tory Party.
Is that simple enough for you?
Great,
Having my comments on that article seen by so many ( My daughter told me about the viral posting), I may have to spend a little more time composing my comments, to avoid ambiguity.
‘I just hope people remember who to blame.’
Indeed. I hope they’ll remember to blame those who voted Tory.
Richard, I am not surprised your blog attracts wide interest. One of your blogs great strengths is that it offers a platform to different and opposing points of view. It allows debate and dissent. People crave this rare quality. It stands in stark contrast to the MSM and the BBC etc were neither any meaningful debate or dissent is tolerated. Congratulations and long may your success continue.
There are those who do not agree with you 🙂
Thanks
Good that people are beginning to catch on.
May I suggest that this is the moment to start taking back OUR banks? My suggestion for a crises policy:
ALL banks should STOP charging interest on ALL their loans for the foreseeable future.
Please consider it.
It looks like the PM has stumbled upon an efficient and inexpensive means of meeting his pledge to solve the social care crisis:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/01/promising-to-fix-social-care-could-cost-boris-johnson-dearly
There surely could be no more effective and efficient solution than deciding to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic by seeking to achieve herd immunity in the absence of a vaccine. And it avoids imposing the economic and social costs of an effective lock-down on those who are already relatively economically secure. As for those whose economic and social circumstances are precarious, too bad: they would never vote Tory anyway. And if some of these people kick off, the government can apply the full force of the state to maintain law and order.
Just a brief up-date for anyone interested.
The Secretary of State for Health is now distancing himself from the focus on achieving herd immunity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fee8Z8TjvuE
even though the Chief Scientific Officer was doing the rounds promoting it on Friday:
https://www.ft.com/content/38a81588-6508-11ea-b3f3-fe4680ea68b5
There seems to have been a major re-think within government. And I think we can thank the FA and the other sporting associations for starting to scupper this risky policy of mass infection of the presumed healthy. We can also thank the scientists who stuck their heads above the parapet. Though their reward will be no more government funding for them or their associates.
We are lucky that it didn’t take very much to thwart this mendacious government on this occasion. Let’s hope we stay lucky.
So the words have changed
What about the policy?
…and so we’re back to your most recent post…