The FT has noted this morning:
The UK has suffered the highest rate of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic among countries that produce comparable data, according to excess mortality figures.
The UK has registered 59,537 more deaths than usual since the week ending March 20, indicating that the virus has directly or indirectly killed 891 people per million.
It added:
At this stage of the pandemic, that is a higher rate of death than in any country for which high-quality data exist. The absolute number of excess deaths in the UK is also the highest in Europe, and second only to the US in global terms, according to data collected by the Financial Times.
That is not something anyone would want to note. And yet it is the reality of what is happening in this country at present. After a decade of government that has refused, in effect, to govern, because it has believed that its job has been to hand over as much as possible of government activity to the private sector and to leave the rest to wither, we have seen the consequence. People have died. And of course it can be said that people have died everywhere, but the reality is that many more than necessary have died here.
This matters. It matters to every family and friend involved.
It matters because we are a long way from containing this disease here, despite what the government says, and a second wave is more likely as a result in this country than most as a consequence.
It matters as well because current moves - from reopening schools to shops and businesses - will exacerbate this excess death rate, with all scientific advisers appearing to be agreed that infection rates are set to rise, and potentially significantly, as a consequence.
It matters too because those responsible should be held to account.
It matters most especially as it is still apparent that they are failing. The supposed track and trace system that is to start today is very obviously utterly chaotic, and without any adequate systems or training in place for it to commence operations. Numerous tweets from those with responsibility for public health are confirming this.
And it matters because of the duality that persists between words and actions. This is why the Cummings fiasco matters. The words said by those with power and their actions are simply inconsistent, continually, and without any apparent concern on their part that there is anything wrong with this. Johnson did it again yesterday, telling the Liaison Committee that there was no effort to get people out of hospitals and into care homes as the crisis began, for example, when I can report with certainty that this is exactly what happened in the area where I live.
I believe in the power of government.
I believe that the power in question can be a force for good.
Indeed, I was very obviously brought up in a period when that power was appropriately used to advance the well-being of many, me included.
That said, my faith is not blind: I am aware of all the possibilities that power can corrupt. So I have every wish for proper checks and balances, and a powerful fourth estate to hold those in authority to account, because that is essential (and is why the BBC were so wrong to cave in on Emily Maitlis).
And I know I am not alone in thinking that what the state can do is of enormous social benefit. People have clapped for the NHS for a reason, and NHS staff are very far from alone in being utterly dedicated professionals within the state sector.
But, and this is a most massive but, a corrupt political and economic paradigm, deliberately constructed in the immediate post-war era by those who hated the power of the state and were petrified that they thought that it would lead to Soviet-style communism, which was brought to power by Thatcher and Reagan, has left a legacy in the form of politicians of the calibre of our current Cabinet, who are between them without either an original thought or the capacity to have one in their heads, leaving them open to the corrupting influence of advisers who see it as their goal to undermine parliament, the civil service and the checks and balances within society so that private capital may profit.
And people have died as a result.
I fear too many more will as yet.
And when people ask me why I want a different political and economic paradigm I can add the avoidance of these deaths to my list of reasons.
We did not need to have the worst Covid-19 deaths rate. It was choice that led to this happening.
It was the wrong choice.
It was a false choice.
It will happen again unless challenged.
That is what we have to do: the challenge remains ours to make.
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I share your pain. It could all be so different but I keep reminding myself that the British people voted repeatedly for this and I worry that if they had the chance tomorrow they would vote for it all over again.
The government’s doing very well right now.
You must be on another planet
“The government’s doing very well right now.”
That’s a direct quote from you.
You wrote it in your opinion piece on AccountingWeb two days ago.
Oh for heaven’s sake
It was on a wholly unrelated issue
Please don’t call again
….but we would rather have the spurious illusion of freedom to do as we please apparently. Irrespective of the consequences for ourselves and the society around us.
When our leaders promote this philosophy it trickles down. Sometimes it takes generations, but it gets there …..Money never trickles down, but bad behaviour trickles down the socio-economic strata.
The up-coming generation is going to have to make a major shift of attitude to get the world anything like back onto the tracks their forebears spent the 20th century forging. I fear they may have some very painful learning to do in the meantime.
My partner tells me the youngsters are clued-up and up for it, but I’m not seeing it.
Most eloquent Richard. It would boost Keir Starmer’s standing if he could put this message across in a question that would skewer Boris at Question Time. As far as I can see the reason we are in this position is that Boris dithered about a lockdown for 2 weeks trapped between his ideological aversion to state intervention and his fear of the political adverse consequences of 500,000 deaths. Like any psychopath he probably feels he is getting away with it quite nicely at the moment.
The maths of it is very simple.
At the beginning, cases of the coronavirus infection and deaths were doubling about every three day. If we had started the lockdown a week earlier, when the writing was already on the wall, we would probably have avoided most of two doublings and cut infections and deaths by 75%.
My last day in the office was 17 March because I took to heart the Medium piece of 10 March and decided to stop commuting and work from home. ( https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca ) By that stage many who could were starting to do the same, but many didn’t have the option.
So that inaction and delay has cost approaching 50,000 excess deaths so far and it is still getting worse. There are still hundreds of excess deaths every day.
And the government now has the gall to give us further “instructions” to “do our duty”. To try to reduce the damage largely of their creation. Hypocrites.
Indeed
This is the most succinct overview of our current predicament that I have yet to read. The best hope is join a trade union and/or mutual aid group, make alliances with your neighbours and self organise. We DO need leadership but from where will it come? Incredible vacuum filled only be self interest and hot air.
Great post.
This government did send elderly and potential COVID patients into care homes with full knowledge with the expressed intention to make room for the expected “rush” of Covid patients,in some cases within 2 hours,they wanted 15000 beds freeing up …fast. This was sent to hospitals on 19 th March.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/880288/COVID-19_hospital_discharge_service_requirements.pdf
Then the gov wrote this on April 2nd to the care homes,including these incriminating lines;
“Negative tests are not required prior to transfers / admissions into the care home”. (page 4)
“Care home staff who come into contact with a COVID-19 patient while not wearing PPE can remain at work. This is because in most instances this will be a short-lived exposure, unlike exposure in a household setting that is ongoing. ” (page 7)
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/886140/admission__and_care_of_residents_during_covid19_incident_in_a_care_home.pdf
Basically, HMG panicked and criminally failed in its duty.There needs to be a reckoning on this.
Thanks
This was implemented
It became obvious in the 1st week of March that the UK was heading for disaster. I was sufficiently appalled back then to write about it in a piece that appeared on March 12.
http://www.progressivepulse.org/uncategorized/covid-19-a-test-of-leadership
I have not felt the need to go back and post edit anything I wrote back then!
Unchecked the virus doubles every 3 days, so every day is crucial. Even if we had locked down on the 16th so many lives could have been saved.
I agree with you, our leaders had choices and they failed badly. I no longer feel anger, just overwhelming sadness.
I’m still angry
Many more may die yet Charles
A nation really can’t afford to elect politicians to office who lack the ability to understand that the most important thing about being a politician is having a moral compass not window dressing. What else but mainly window dressing has Boris Johnson been engaged in since becoming leader of his party and then prime-minister and his response to Cummings’s ill-considered foolishness is the perfect illustration of this. Indeed the party constantly harping on about the need for austerity and then suddenly without drawing so much as a breath discovering the Magic Money Tree to deal with the economic effects of the coronavirus crisis strongly suggests the propaganda for austerity was window dressing!
Talking of “window-dressing” Durham police fined at least two people who made same journey from London to County Durham as Dominic Cummings and his family:-
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/dominic-cummings-lockdown-news-police-fines-london-county-durham-journey-a9536221.html
The very sad thing is there are enough gullible voters in the UK who get taken in by the establishment’s window dressing and as Richard Murphy and Charles Adams have rightly pointed out people have died unnecessarily some of whom no doubt voted Tory and therefore were their own worst enemy because of their gullibility!
What single action has the government done which is even close to competent? I have every sympathy with organisations that get things wrong and correct them (to err is human ). But we continually see a doubling down rather than a change of direction. The latest news from inside the test and trace system is of further shambles.
The further sad news is that The Tory party remains on 44 per cent even after the so-called outrage over Dominic Cummings. They have learnt that there is no price to pay for the most egregious behaviour. To misquote Corporal Jones from Dad’s Army: “They like it up them”.
I think we need to distinguish the government and its agencies
They failed to listen to the WHO.
They failed to learn from other countries.
They failed to take it seriously.
They failed to prepare.
They failed to learn from their own Exercise Cygnus.
They failed to create a coherent workable plan.
They should be prosecuted for criminal negligence.
It would be really nice if Covid-19 counted as this Government’s ‘Iraq war’ war moment with a good number of voters vowing to not vote for them again.
However (yes – predictable I know) we cannot be sure. People endure for a start.
But then you have emasculation of the Left by the MSM (and from within itself) which really robs the voter of real choice. The Left is constantly portrayed as the extreme political movement. I believe a lot of people are not stupid – they feel this – and turn away from politics as result.
So, you either vote for the Tory party – the party of bad ideas or a right wing Labour party – a party of no ideas (because they are too busy mimicking and coming up with slightly nicer versions of the Tory ones). And you get diversions of the Lib Dems and the populist UKIP etc., to muddy the waters even more.
The other issue is that we have become a really over centralised country. From even New Labour’s time when figure reporting to Whitehall went crazy to Tory Ministers seeing themselves as nothing but service commissioners with the private sector (when service commissioning works best at a local/micro level).
As for Cummings – well, I am not convinced that it is even important. Bringing him down is not enough. The Tories deserve to go for 10 years of cruelty BEFORE Barnard Castle in my view and the 59K+ deaths you mention.
There should have been a vote of no confidence by now. That is what there should have been. And that is what we have been denied by the Tories and the undemocratic and demonic FTPA. I hope Cummings stays – sticking his finger up to us because I hope that keeps enough people riled enough to remember at the next GE.
Not only that, keeping Cummings where we can see him is useful. God knows what he’d get up to if he went underground working for the same people.
Richard
It’s not so much truly sad as criminally and wilfully negligent.
Why can the “opposition” and the media not hold these scum (and I think that such a pejorative description is entirely accurate) to account?
Found your article brilliant and the comments, with one exception, also brilliant Very grateful to have read them