I published this on Twitter this morning, because it is true that I am in partial denial at the ghastliness that is, inevitably, going to overwhelm this country very soon, and we all need to be aware of who to blame for precisely what is going to happen:
I know that I am in denial about what is going to happen over the next few weeks as the NHS is overwhelmed by Covid 19 and tens of thousands of people die, unnecessarily. But I should not be. I should be nurturing my anger that our government has chosen to let this happen.
They were too late last March, too early in June, wildly optimistic in the summer, irresponsible in September, feeble in November, reckless about Christmas and too late again in January. Whenever they could make this crisis worse that's exactly what the government's done.
Why has that happened? Three reasons. First, this government has never cared about the NHS and the people working in it. They treat them with the contempt they have for all public sector employees. Several in the Cabinet have been open about wanting to privatise the NHS.
Second, they've always wanted to balance their books more than they've wanted to save people. Sunak says that is his priority. So he introduced Johnson to the proponents of ‘herd immunity' - otherwise called the ‘just let the vulnerable die brigade', which is what they're doing.
Third, they really don't care. All they care about is being in office. And whilst opinion polls suggest it's likely they'll be re-elected they'll carry on not caring that people might die. Call it ‘the Generals at the Somme' attitude, if you like, because that is what it is.
So, it's balanced budgets first, contempt for a state run NHS second, and indifference to people dying third, all so long as they can undermine the state and help their friends with a few extra contracts. If you aren't seething now you bloody well should be, and soon.
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para 3 typo – delete “private”, insert “public”……
Done
Actually, both are correct. Tories have contempt for workers of either stripe – witness the desire of many of them to slash and burn workers’ rights – and treat both accordingly
I suspect you are right
Don’t they think U.K. workers are the laziest in the world?
“They treat them with the contempt they have for all private sector employees. ”
Typo Richard. You meant public sector employees I believe.
I did, darn it…,.
Couldn’t you write the same for the majority of countries in Europe? No one adopts the logic of MMT in the way you want and are preoccupied with balancing the budgets in some way? Add to the the EU shambles of procurement and rollout of the vaccine.. so my point is this plain old Tory bashing on your part? Just asking h to e question..
The ECB has acknowledged it can never run out of money and can always support states
Anything else you would like to get wrong?
“The ECB has acknowledged it can never run out of money and can always support state”
But so has the UK and the US and Japan and every fiat currency.. my point (as you know but failed to address) is that all these entities operate on the same basis and not what you advocate..so instead of criticism directed at the U.K. it should be directed at the EU and beyond
All use MMT but deny it
All are neolibera
All make bad decisions
Now what?
Funny isn’t it.
Every major economy has got everything wrong and some fat old ex-accountant who has never held a position of political or economic power in government and who only a few months ago was reduced to begging has all the answers to everything.
Not funny at all. It’s possible to be good at things in this country. Unfortunately politics has, by and large and quite emphatically on the right wing, not attracted those who are. That’s the issue you miss.
But you are right on one thing. I could lose a few pounds. I am working on that.
And now, very politely, take your neo-fascist dislike of expertise elsewhere.
Actually they have contempt for both – public AND private sector employees.
remember F**k business?
There is no sector outside a small speculative sector of the City that will benefit from their strategy. And in the case of Sunak and co, it is quite deliberate policy, however incompetently executed.
I think it’s more deliberate than simple indifference to the vulnerable dying. When old people die, the gov doesn’t have to pay their pension. When disabled people die, they don’t have to be paid disability benefits. When NHS patients die and private patients don’t, you increase the proportion of Tory voters. They’re committing genocide accidentally on purpose. And filling their pockets with public money in the process.
Ive thought just the same though my wife told me off for being too cynical! I still think it is in the mix somewhere.
Though at the same time, killing off all those older folk who voted for the Tories and Brexit might not be too bright in the medium term. Short term thinking as usual
Underlying the Con Party approach to both COVID & Earth’s existential crisis is, essentially, a continuing belief in Garrett Hardin’s ghastly ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ opinion – demonstrated to be completely bogus by Elinor Ostrom in her ‘Management of the Commons’ & ‘Principles of Institutions’ for which she won Nobel in 2009.
The underlying Con Party philosophy is pernicious, malignant, misanthropic & utterly damaging to Earth’s ecosystems.
Agreed
They will briefly bend with the wind until the “useful idiots” forget, and then resume their self-centred course. So clap when the world
claps, admire Marcus Rashford (briefly) and then resume sanctions on the poor and needy. I am often reminded of the Marx ( Groucho not Karl) quote: “These are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others”.
The Westminster government has been assissted by the media and some business leaders in the Covid crisis.
Many times in Scotland when Covid related restrictions have been proposed business leaders have been interviewed. With the result the proposal will end their business and they should be open as their actions will not spread Covid.
The interviewer appears to have limited knowledge and does not ask any difficult questions. Such as if people mixing pass on the disease why will it not happen in your premises. Or how many people do you want to make ill due to your business activities.
I do share your despair. On brighter note we may at sometime have a quarantine system for the UK. But it’s a year later and 70K people are dead.
Strange how a government that is replete with the best scientific advice available can make so many wrong decisions.
Even stranger that so few, if any, rich and powerful people have been victims of the current virus pandemic.
Are we witnessing the herds being culled?
I note in my [pandemically-closeted] world, the shift in considered source of the virus from the wet market, to the virus research site a few miles away. Funded, ironically, in part, by the USA NiH.
#EnfofParanoia
Back to some good news (from my viewpoint). It has been noticed that people with Asthma and COPD are very noticeably under-represented in the lists of victims.
I’ve been seething since 2010 Richard – sorry!
A great post though. All I would add is that Bozzer and his party have been too busy indulging and pleasing the Panglossian Libertarians in his party who have propped up his administration through BREXIT etc., in the name of ‘civil rights’ and ‘liberty’.
You know – people like MP Desmond Twat – sorry ‘Twayne’ – who have inhibited I think swifter action on Covid because Boris has worried about losing his tenuous grip on the leadership with his and other Libertarian support.
The only question remains is that given the FTPA ( oh Osbourne you evil, clever bastard!) we have until the next election to recall these times.
Now what was that wonderful quote by Milan Kundera?
“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”.
All I can say to everyone is ‘Remember this moment folks – remember!’
I think you mean the aptly named Desmond Swine (Swayne)!
Ive no doubt that if it wasn’t for COVID, most people here would be out on the streets. It is supremely ironic than the ones who are carelessly out on the streets, un-masked, are invariably those who are quite happy with the government policies
Robin – his real name is irrelevant – his stupidity is not.
Swine is one of that large group of Tory MPs who are no different to those Republicans who support Trump despite everything he does. I suspect that like the Republicans in the USA, the Tories are destined for a period in the wilderness but not before they have done terrible damage to the country. At least the Republicans have the Lincoln project which is some kind of centre Right rebellion. We have nothing like that here as all the remotely decent Tories were thrown out of the party.
When you get too irate, calm-down and watch the passing of time at Wells-Next-the-Sea. One of the best real-time webcams out there. It’s free.
https://www.portofwells.co.uk/webcam/
A family favourite place
I used to spend many long-weekends near there.
The family had a cottage in Binham. I used to have breakfast in the 1st floor harbour cafe.
I managed one day there this year, in the mid-pandemic summer
Pancakes on the barge is a favourite for us
The Albatross was sold and is being renovated. It isn’t there anymore! https://albatroswells.co.uk/
‘the Generals at the Somme’
A poor analogy based on a re-writing of history to suit modern tastes. Over 200 British army generals were killed, wounded or taken prisoner in WWI, which could only have happened if generals were on the front line. Whilst around 12% of non-officers serving in the British army died, the death rate for officers was 17%. They led from the front and were intensely interested in the welfare of their men.
Far from being hated as a ‘butcher’, did you know that when Haig died in 1928, over a million people lined the streets for his funeral parade?
As someone who has studied in depth WWI it always saddens me when people show such ignorance.
Nothing but indifference explains Passchendale or the Somme
Please do not excuse mass murder
The senior British Army officers during 1st War made atrocious decisions which cost the lives of millions of men. How dare you try to defend such callous indifference to such carnage.
Interesting thread. I stated the following facts on a denialist site last week ago to show exactly how we are in a war time economy – with war time deaths. With the usual bloody handed elites doing their ususal smash and grab of public funds.
‘In the First WW un the UK there were some 2,000 civilian deaths. ‘
‘In WWII there was a high civilian death toll, 70,000 in the U.K. over a 5 year period. (40k of these in the 7 months of the blitz) In 5 years total.’
We are at Over100,000 Covid deaths in less than a year so far!
That is the level of industrial death and bloody hands that Bozo Johnson will be remembered for and the utter balls up of BrexShit that turned a disaster into a ‘holocaust’ of our elderly and vulnerable – whilst pocketing hundreds of £billions.
As for the absurd point and deliberate obfuscation by mixing absolute numbers with percentages of the military deaths of WW1 – lets show that BS for what it is.
‘Three times as many British forces died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme (19,240) than have been killed in every combat operation since the end of WWII. Over the course of the war, 880,000 British forces died, 6% of the adult male population and 12.5% of those serving. The toll on the adult male population meant that the 1921 Census recorded 109 women for every hundred men.’
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/olympic-britain/crime-and-defence/the-fallen/
———–
2 points to finish on.
First – I refer you to ‘fragging’ when it comes to deaths of ‘suicidal’ officers ordering their troops into certain death. Had Haig been anywhere near the front lines in a battle he may have ‘suffered from a lucky long range sniper’ who had got behind our lines…i’d expect the various Bozo types wouldn’t last long in the ‘front lines’ especially if they are facing forwards.
Second we are about to have a census – it should be more accurate than usual as most will be at home! – There are a couple of questions i would add to that.
Is BrexShit that we have got what we really want?
And for Scotland – should it be an independent nation? (If the majority of Scottish inhabitants over the age of 16 say yes, than the Scottish government should immediately make a UDI and withdraw its MPs from Westminster and seat them at Hollyrood. The Elites can than send in the troops – and see plenty of fragging!
Out of THIS wartime chaos, death and robber baron boot filling, something good could be retrieved – if we understand what and have the gonads and superiority of numbers to grab it. THEY have NEVER given a yard let alone an inch when it came to raising the poorest and allowing self determination.
DunGronian
After both world wars, big, progressive social changes occured.
Let’s hope that this “covid war” will see a better country when/if we get out the other side.
Succinct, as ever Richard and may I offer, that your comment:
“I should be nurturing my anger that our government has chosen to let this happen.”
Reminded me of one of my favourite lines of Burns, from “Tam o’Shanter”:
“Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm”
Nurture that wrath, you will best know when to use it…
We have been producing science discussion notes all the way through – more or less in agreement with your analysis Richard although phrased differently. Independent Sage have been having public webinars every Friday – have produced definitive reports and recommendations throughout. They are hardly ever mentioned by BBC, or the Government. Their chair – Sir David King – has publicly pleaded with Govt to adopt the zero covid strategy which has worked in East Asia, NZ etc etc. He is ex Chief Scientist – yet rarely mentioned. Sept 21st was the key decision – rejecting the immediate lockdown recomended by SAGE when infection was rising but still low. They were told thousands would die – but went ahead anyway. Deliberate killing. They still have no meaningful strategy (Stephen Reicher Univ St Andrews) .
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1srJz6L0m5ay6vhR9YkKU3jGYw2iwT7tu/view?usp=sharing
I agree with every word you said, Richard.
The interesting thing is, you’ve also indicated what can be done about it. You say: “And whilst opinion polls suggest it’s likely they’ll be re-elected they’ll carry on not caring that people might die.”
Origin of polls aside, I reckon this Tory longevity not so much because people are happy with the status quo, but because THERE IS NO EFFECTIVE UK-wide OPPOSITION for the growing number who are not.
There is no point in appealing to the Tories; they do what they do. Instead, people in England should be putting huge pressure on the Labour party, to actually not only oppose the bad stuff in a feeble manner, but to stop voting with the Tories, to come up with a strong vision of what life could be like under a party that DOES care about people and how to achieve it.
England needs a party that DOES care about strengthening the NHS, that DOES have a clue about how to handle the difficulties we face, including climate change. And maybe also has a fervent wish to rejoin the EU ASAP? A Labour party that rediscovers its passion, its ideals, and its committment to ordinary people and their situation would certainly make a difference.
The Tories aren’t going to change. Labour CAN change, and should change. Sitting on the fence and hoping the other side screws up isn’t producing results. Right now, they need to feel heavy pressure from their party members and the voting public to effect change. They need to formulate an energetic and realistic programme for change. They need to select new candidates who will push for change. They need to galvanise the MPs they already have to make sound committments for change while they are in Parliament now. MPs who vow to never vote with the Tories again, unless the Tory policies change for the better.
That’s a good place to start.
I wish Labour would oppose more vigorously and effectively.
It is a long time since it had leadership that did
From 2015 to 2020, Labour had a leadership that was prepared to oppose. Unfortunately, the media and most of the PLP did not want to, so that brief flame was snuffed out.
Opposing has to begin outside of parliament.
Google figures:-
UK has had 80868 Covid deaths from 3020000 cases in a population of 66.65 million. 0.12% of pop, 2.68% of cases.
USA has had 373000 Covid deaths from 22200000 cases in a population of 328.2 million people. 0.097% of pop, 1.68% of cases.
Not doing well are we? Let us hope that USA has not been counting so well. Britain, of course, is “World Leading”!
Yes, yes, yes I agree and I have been seething for years, BUT the recurring conversation I keep having is what to do with that outrage, and sadness .
Reading through people’s comments I yet again think a process of consolation is going on here ie thank heavens there are people who agree with me. And yes I do it all the time, but nothing will change unless we have conversations with other people. The only response to Richard that talks of action is Jan Foley’s exhortation to somehow galvanise the Labour Party. She is absolutely spot on in her analysis, but having
witnessed procrastination and infighting in the LP, I am left desperate for a focus for activism.
Should we be working with Make Votes Matter, electoral reform seems to offer the only possible way for change to occur?
That is worth doing
Others do other political parties
And even talking about it does help
Clair Darling.
I think electoral reform is key.
No political party would be able to rule with absolute power with just 35% of the
electorate voting for them under STV or PR.
At present, the Tories only have to keep that 35% sweet to get the keys to No.10.
Proportional Representation would also nullify the antics of the likes of Cambridge Analytica.
Micro targeted political advertising only really influences results in marginal seats, where a realatively small group of people’s votes can effect the results.
To have any effect under PR, everyone will need to be targeted equally. Much more expensive and time consuming.
Mr. F. W. Wilkinson, headmaster of Latymer Upper School in London at the time of the Second World War had fought at the Battle of the Somme. I was a new pupil, eleven years old, at the school in 1955 just before he retired. At one assembly, he spoke about his experience of the Battle. He said that in the middle of it he made a vow. It was, “If I survive, I will do all I can to prevent such a thing happening again.” So great was the slaughter, on both sides. When he became a teacher, he set up exchanges between his school and schools in Germany and France so that in the summer holiday, boys from the schools would stay with each others’ families and get to know the others’ countries a little. “Wilkie”, as he was known, hoped that this would make war less likely. After the Second World War he set up exchanges between Latymer, the Lycee Chaptal in Paris and the Johanneum in Hamburg.
He got it right
The impact of peculiarities of English exceptionalism and nationalism aka Farage’s ‘success’ regrading EU single market will become more evident after the Corona conundrum is ‘humbled’ via technocratic interventions and vaccines. Though nobody knows for sure.