This comment, from Dr Rachel Clarke, who is a frontline Covid doctor in Oxford, made on BBC Question Time last night was simply brilliant:
“We’ve lost more than the Australian death toll in 24 hoursâ€
Doctor and author @doctor_oxford criticises the government’s decision to “ignore†advice to lockdown before Christmas. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/dUPEx19NLW
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) January 6, 2021
Never doubt that we have a government that is not acting in the best interests of the people of this country.
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A question I keep asking myself, is what drives the Tory right to be so uncaring?
Do they genuinely believe what they are doing is in the best interest of the country?
Do they know it isn’t and only care about themselves and making a few bob?
Do they kid themselves that it is in the best interest of the country, to hide their greed (a form of cognitive dissonance)?
I used to think it was the first one, but now hope it is the last one. I have difficulty thinking it could be the middle one. Maybe I’m too willing to see the good in people!
Do a quick calculation of the reduction in state pension and benefits cost due to the demise of many pensioners. Then add the reduction in health spending due to same.
I’ve never had any delusions about the Conservative party, It’s an party of cruelty and malice !
But she still let Johnson/Govt off the hook – ‘because he can’t take a difficult decision’. Doing nothing is taking a decsion. On 21 Sept and in Dec. when clearly advised that doing nothing would lead to thousands more deaths – he and Sunak decided to do nothing. Is that or is it not deliberate killing?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1srJz6L0m5ay6vhR9YkKU3jGYw2iwT7tu/view
What’s equally damming is the reaction of the Govt. minister. Totally blank (not even a nodding dog). A lack of recognition and empathy for what is going on. Part of the Tory DNA.
Craig
That Tory minister wishing he was anywhere else but there.
I would actually go back a further 12 months. The governments own risk register had a pandemic as the highest risk scenario to the country. Reports were coming out of China in November 2019 (see the NYT article from 13th Nov 2019) . Unlike most countries we are an island. Would have closed our ports/airports and could have had a miniscule amount of imported virus that could have been relatively easily to deal with. But no we couldn’t do that, it would be bad for the economy.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/644968/UK_National_Risk_Register_2017.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/world/asia/plague-china-pneumonic.html
https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/PPPPPP
One of the criticisms of the Government planning was that it concentrated on “Flu” and that is indeed what the Report you link, does. In fact it states: “The likelihood of an emerging infectious disease spreading within the UK is assessed to be lower than that of a flu pandemic.” We now know they were mistaken.
The WHO and others advised that restricting international travel would be ineffective in preventing the spread of Covid19. We now know that also was mistaken.
A few second’s thought would have indicated that since human contact was the only vector then people travelling from places where they had become infected with the virus to places where there was no prevalence were going to spread it, if there were no preventative measures in place.
The problem of travel was explained in yesterday’s The National by a paediatrician/researcher at Edinburgh University: https://www.thenational.scot/news/18990413.covid-testing-airports-isnt-enough—must-tougher-travel/
And he points out that when we look at countries that have been relatively successful, such as NZ & Taiwan, there are some very obvious lessons which, it seems, we have yet to learn.
As you point out “we had to keep the economy going”. It would be interesting to compare how much of a hit to the economy we took compared to those countries who took the tough decisions immediately.
Can’t be far off a trillion pound mistake, not closing our borders right at the very start. We should have known to do this well before the Chinese were throwing up hospitals in a matter of days.
Hopefully there’s a kindly accounting wizard who will do an estimate!
Rachel Clarke is very good – one of the voices worth listening to along with the likes of Devi Sridhar.
The minister is Nahim ‘stables heating on expenses’ Zahawi, the minister now responsible for vaccine rollout and one of the nodding dog ministers. Does not give one much confidence.
There is a type of Tory, not all of them but dominant these days, that believes that people’s problems are all down to their own inadequacies – poverty, joblessness, homelessness, ill health and maybe even Covid. That justifies walking by on the other side. Not surprising to find racism and eugenics in that mix.
Nadhim Zahawi is not a very nice man at all – what do you expect?
I don’t know how capable he is but I remember seeing him in the early 2000s and the impression I got was of someone extremely aggressive as well as being what I would call a Neo-liberal extremist.
Old friends in Stratford upon Avon, his constituency, whose daughter worked in his office for a bit, tend to confirm your impression PSR. They are scathing
I repeat. This government has a disturbingly high proportion of sociopaths – all the way up to the top. It’s a fully-(dis)functioning embodiment of the libertarian Tory devil-take-the-hindmost ethic.
A rare glimpse of reality in what has undoubtedly been one of the most politically directed public information episodes in British history since WW2, to be honest I’m amazed it was aired at all, so unusually I must say bravo BBC.
That Tory was Nadhim Zahawi, the Minister responsible for Covid vaccine deployment, he will not only have been acutely aware of the current situation but all that preceded it, hence his reaction not being “human”.
Johnson alone is not responsible for the disaster which has been visited on England, even if he was from the beginning the sacrificial goat for all that followed, classic politics.
Each and every Cabinet member is directly responsible for what has transpired, those for and against the Government in Parliament are party to it, and the least said about UK investigative journalism (with rare exceptions) the better.
When government becomes simply a game, combining “human behaviour” expertise with the Etonian “born to rule” mantra and a subservient media would either produce heaven or hell, guess which way the coin fell.
Other people are dying in a ditch.
NHS vaccination has begun today
I think Rachel delivered that last night
Delighted to hear it, but it begs the question how many Rachels it takes on prime time TV to create change or momentum for change within Government and UK Media ?
None of what England is now suffering was unpredictable once you’d waded through the figures (UK, England & Wales, England and NI, ?) and less obscure sources to abstract England only figures. England has been systematically and deliberately blinded to it’s own condition for months, just at the point where it is all about to unravel, behold the UK-mutant. Resemblance to a squirrel is entirely accidental I’m completely sure.
Scotland and Wales followed the exact same science and did well yet remain collateral damage to a reluctant PHE without a nod from the #10 nudge unit, science following the politics ad nauseum.
Wales and Scotland will recover soon in current circumstance (Scotland probably first due to lower levels), but fear England will take the longer path.
England’s love affair with the Tories has quite literally become a fatal obsession…
Im struck by how we now get a different minister every day answering, or rather not answering questions. It feels to me like they are all having to ‘wash their hands in the blood’.
I’d agree, the whole Cabinet are responsible – to a degree, Johnson is just the frontman and will be the fall guy when the powers behind him decide he has to go. My betting is that Sunak will then be their preferred replacement, as he has all the right beliefs and prejudices. Arguably worse as he might be marginally more competent
It is becoming very clear that this fascist, stubborn and incompetent Tory government with ERG are about to cause health, social and economic Armageddon and since they have gained a large majority they have been doing nothing but abusing their power and running the country in a random fashion. NHS, businesses and the union are getting fed up of not being listened to. I wonder how our life is going to be for the next 4 years ? It is unforgivable!
It may be of interest that in France similar charges are now aimed at the Micron gov, over their confusion & delay in getting vaccination going. The difference is that the delays are more identifiably due to our glorious leader himself.
The journal l’Opinion noted that on the 31st of December there were 242 decrees, regulations, circulars, decisions &c published in the Journal Officiel. Many more than the number of Covid-19 vaccinations that same day. And Le Canard Enchaîné has a cartoon of a huge tower of documents
with Castex and Macron looking out from behind: A quoi sert le millefeuille aministratif face à la vaccination ? – & Micron responds “A se cacher derrière”.