I know it is Christmas week. And I do know the significance of Christmas for many, although I will admit that my mother's distaste for the commercialisation of it has never quite gone away in my case, although most else of her thinking has long since been rejected by me.
But, there are things more important than Christmas, parties, family meals and all that goes with them. Amongst those more important things are public health, protection of people from harm and the safety of those delivering essential public services.
The job of the politician is to make the decision that is in the greater good. We can argue the ethical basis some other time. When it comes to public health the rule is pretty simple. It is ‘do no harm'. In that case prevention is key long before cure is considered.
No one pretends that the scientists on SAGE and independent SAGE are clairvoyant. They cannot be. Their forecasts will always be best judgements based on available evidence, which itself might be flawed. However, the opinion of both groups is quite remarkably consistent right now. It is that immediate action on a significant scale is required. What is more, what they are saying is that the steps to be taken must be deliberately designed to reduce social interaction. In the case of a massively transmissible airborne virus it is their suggestion that nothing less will do, Christmas or not.
No one would want to impose such measures pre-Christmas. But politicians should not be in office to make popular decisions. They are there to make the right ones, allowing for the passage of time to prove that they did just that. This is quite possible in the current circumstance when a forecast of the possible deaths that timely decisions might avoid is available. Any politician reflecting on this decision right now can reflect on the glory they might claim from their having saved Iives.
Only it seems that our government does not want to do that. A weak government, unable to decide on almost anything, living in fear of its far-right MPs, it is doing nothing. And whilst it does nothing the number of omicron cases doubles every two days. In that case doing nothing is very much a decision.
The trouble is that, as has ever been the case with this government, the decision they are taking by apparently deciding not to act is a decision to let Covid rip through the population with the aim of creating what it thinks to be herd immunity. They still appear to be unable to comprehend that this will not afford protection when the next variant comes along, as it surely will.
In that case by its inaction this government is doing three things.
It is harming public health.
It is deliberately putting people in harm's way. Many will die as a result. Others will suffer life-changing consequences.
It is putting the delivery of essential public services, including those relating to health, at risk.
And all for the sake of the short-term gratification of Christmas.
This is what a failed government looks like.
This, come to that, is what a failing state looks like, because it would seem that we are still willing to tolerate this.
This government is choosing to be democidal, and it thinks it can get away with it, so compliant does it think the people of this country to be so long as they get their turkey with grandma and the chance to go to football or the sales on Boxing Day.
Are we really that compliant? Will we really tolerate this? Is that where we are?
I hope not.
So what do I want? All I want for Christmas are three things.
First, a population willing to demand effective government that acts in their best interests.
Second, a democratic mechanism to choose that government.
Third, the politicians up to the task of delivering this, meaning that they embrace the required ethic to do so.
Is that too much to ask?
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The way the Government is handling Covid betrays two things for me.
First, as they are managing the intended decline of the NHS, Covid adds an extra layer of difficulty – how far to go with deliberate under funding when you are manufacturing the consent to privatise it in the midst of national health crisis is like walking a tight rope with razor blades stuck to it. (BTW – they made it, they should walk it).
Secondly of course is BREXIT – the ERG etc., KNEW that there would be an impact on business but thought that the Government could ride it out. Well, they did not factor in Covid did they which has made the economic effects worse.
These two factors to me are why the Tories are so luke warm towards dealing with the pandemic. Because they know – intentionally – that their BREXIT and NHS polices were going to do harm from the outset but did them anyway.
No wonder they don’t want to deal with reality.
They bet and this time they lost big.
But we it seems will bear the brunt of it. They must be held to account.
But be warned: this is why they will fight like cornered rats to stay in power at all costs. Because they cannot afford to lose; they cannot afford to be held accountable.
It is the fate of all extremists to end this way.
The end game of the salami slicing and disappearing NHS ‘Free at the point of use’ is now in its final stages.
I expect Lord Frost to rise as some great new Baron of big Medical Insurance – wouldn’t be surprised if he has flown to California to be fitted up with his new Kaiser Permanante Vice Presidency!
That’s where Sunak was, crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s. As was Javid when he went on a ‘sabbatical’ after doing his bit in lining up the ducks at the Treasury to come back as Health minister! Now waiting for queen Truss Brittannia Unhinged herself, to be crowned.
Same goes for many a MP of this and previous parliaments including the ‘Loyal Oppositions’. Tory, Labour and Liberal.
We have politicians who are groomed to produce the policies that the global robber barons want implementing.
They collude in ripping off our public service funding.
Any honest politician is monstered and hounded out. Every compliant politician is rewarded with a cushy made up job and a lifetime of troughing and acces for their children.
The deliberate destruction of the NHS is the great prize that the various governments have been working towards for the last 30+ years.
There is plenty more smoke as well as the real fire of Covid – which was easily handleable, if we wanted to – which our State and its Master did not.
As NHS staff get pilloried this morning as a means of pacifying the population by the MSM with their half truth / half monstering – we better start saving up for our insurance policies for health care – all will end up in the coffers of these US Health Industrial Complex while we will have bankruptcies because of peoples health costs.
Jeremy Corbyn has been saying this for 20 years when he stood up against pfi by Blair – the slippery slope .
He also said so at the last election when revealing the agreement being drawn up to implement the full access to the NHS that is now underway, Starmer ran away from that if I recall without saying a single word! What did everyone say then ? Our NHS is not for sale ! And that was believed by the masses as parroted by the bought politicians and the choir media.
Here is a link to what the Health and Care Bill 2022 is about and why we are in this chamber of horrors.
https://twitter.com/marcuschown/status/1472599177926529024?s=20
The death by a thousand reorganisations proceeds at pace while we are threatened with hundreds or thousands of deaths daily.
That is what is really happening.
Truss is now in charge of the NI Protocol negotiations, so that’s a good start! The constant leaks aimed at undermining Johnson (which must come from Tory sources, as the information has been available for over a year) make her positioning for a leadership bid top of her agenda. That means doing even more than Frost to destabilise relations with the EU. She is emphasising her opposition to Covid restrictions. She’s a bit of a darling among the Tory membership, so absolutely nothing is more important than courting this constituency, together with the lunatics of the Covid Recovery Group of Tory backbenchers who do not forget, are the rebadged European Research Group.
Looking at figures today regarding the mass exodus of financial services from the UK, this underlines that facts and common sense have no role here. It is pointless to comment on the role of intelligence.
” All I want for Christmas…….”?
Richard, I hate to do this but I think it is time you were told. Father Christmas isn’t real. Sorry.
I am afraid to say we have 3 more years of this. Johnson may go but the Tory Party will select someone just as bad – the only difference might be that some degree of organisational competence will expose the malevolence that underlies everything this government does.
So,
(1) We need to keep going and explaining there IS an alternative
(2) Build pressure for an ABC slate of candidates at the next General Election
(3) Pray that the wreckage is not too bad when this group is kicked out.
Now you tell me!
But to be serious, Christmas is a metaphor for hopes….in which case wishing for things is completely relevant so long as you are willing to take the necessary steps to help achieve them
I am willing to do that
To be serious…
Yes, Christmas IS a time of hope. In the Christian tradition it is hope of a Saviour…. who does come but is not the sort of saviour that many expected. Indeed, those who ought to have embraced him most keenly were terrified by what he said/did and murdered him.
Translating that to more secular times I think it means three things for those that are waiting/hoping for something better.
First, are we sufficiently flexible about where this comes from? – Please, no more re-runs of the Life of Brain “Peoples Front of Judea” scene.
Second, those of us (ie. me, but also most of the left-leaning UK middle class) need to ask, are we really willing to give up our privileged position and accept reduced wealth and power?
Third, it can be a long wait and we need to not get discouraged or give up.
So, my hope reads more like a New Year’s resolution. I need to be less dogmatic, more generous and more patient.
Thanks
Christmas is also a time for wise men.
And Clive Parry fits the bill and I agree with him.
The word for 2022 for me at least is ‘Persistence’.
Yes – comfortable middle class folk seem to be very good as discussing things at dinner parties but without the slightest self awareness that they are part of the problem. It’s as though they are not part of anything. Just observers.
The middle class really needs to step up in the coming years – so again, I agree with Mr Parry’s wise counsel. They need to step up because I don’t think they understand yet that they are next.
As for his first point – I get where he is coming from and yes it is most wise.
But if change is going to happen, it will not be through the Liberal Democrats. We need to set the bar high – we really do.
And I’m afraid we really do need something GENUINELY new in outlook, not half hearted, or lily-livered or even slightly Neo-liberal or libertarian. Those attributes need to be exorcized I’m afraid from our political system. We have been too accommodating to extremism – and it never thanks you, it just takes advantage.
We need something …let me see now………courageous – yes that’s what we need. Courageousness. That’s it!!
And on a final point, you are one of the most positive people on line I think because you tackle the problem. Even you are allowed to howl at the night every now and then. It’s bloody frustrating that’s for sure knowing that there is better. But you get through a lot of work. Howl if you must but keep doing what you are doing.
I will
I lived in England from 2005 to 2015, and the only UK party interested in operating in the public interest was the Green Party. It had/has a very clear social democratic programme. The leader in those days was Caroline Lucas. I have a lot of respect for her. Why not vote for the Greens folks?
The time has come for a National Government to see us through the epidemic. Replacing BJ when 70 to 100 far right MPs have the whip hand over the Conservative Party will change nothing. North Shropshire shows that popular discontent goes well beyond the metropolitan remain leaning classes. It is too late now to contain Omicron but during the crisis which will follow from the government’s failure to act we need an administration that has the support of the majority of the population and the authority to implement and maintain firm and fair policies in the face of virulent ultraright opposition.