Only a bit over a week ago I noted that unless the government decided there and then that they must take action to tackle the spread of omicron then we would face a healthcare catastrophe. Not only might tens of thousands die unnecessarily, as the government's own scientific advisers were saying, but many more would suffer debilitating illnesses with long-term chronic consequences.
We know that the government did not act. The Cabinet met and the far-right, and those who now pander to them, including Sunak and Truss, vetoed measures that might save people on the grounds of cost and the supposed preservation of ‘freedoms', most of which seem to revolve around the right to do harm.
This week matters got worse. As record numbers of cases are recorded, record numbers of children are admitted to hospital with Covid and hospitals face a double threat of people off sick and rapidly growing demand the Prime Minister could not even be bothered to call a Cabinet meeting. Presumably knowing that no measures would be agreed he caved in to the inevitable all on his own and decided no new measures were required in England.
As I tweeted yesterday evening:
So, no new Covid restrictions in England. At long last they have what they always wanted. The virus is running riot. The bodies will pile high. The NHS will fail. And then they will seek to privatise the heath service. The far-right dream of crashing society is in progress.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) December 27, 2021
I stand by that. What we have got is what Sunak always wanted. The far-right inspired Great Barrington Declaration, which always wanted the virus to let rip so that the invisible hand of natural selection could seek out the fittest for survival, is having its day. The logic is simple. Older people, the vulnerable and even our economically inactive children do not matter since only those in work do, according to the logic of those who promote this idea, add to the net worth of society. And since the logic of those who promote this idea is that the fit are also the most likely to survive Covid, why worry about the rest?
Why worry about the NHS too? Ayn Rand abhorred such things. So too do the promoters of this idea. How dare we presume to provide healthcare for all, they say? The sooner it fails the better, they think. And remember Ayn Rand is our Health Secretary's favourite author.
The time was always going to come when the right would run riot, thinking that after the deaths they had already caused the population was ready for anything.
But they did not allow for illicit partying. Something was always, eventually, going to expose the contempt of these people. Illicit partying has turned out to be that thing. I would have preferred it was unnecessary deaths, or the corruption of Covid contracts. It worries me that neither cut through. But partying during lockdown has. Even the genuine Conservatives are shocked by that. The polls now show the impact.
Of course, opinions will change. But that will only be the case if Omicron really is a damp squib, which is what the Cabinet are gambling on. The likelihood of that would seem to be very low indeed. In that case, we might be witnessing the moment that last happened in 2007 when Gordon Brown wondered if he might go to the country, did not, and thereafter suffered from the conclusion of too many at that time who decided that the time for a change of government had arrived. I suspect nothing can save the Tories now in a fair democratic process.
We do, of course, know that they are determined to undermine that fair democratic process.
We know too that they might have almost three years left to govern.
But gas their time come? I think so. I will leave it to another blog to muse on what a Tory scorched earth policy might look like in the meantime.
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If anyone has not realised the Tories are a bunch of psychopathic murdering thugs, they should realise now. I certainly hope the end for them is nigh.
It’s worth remembering that Ayn Rand lived on welfare in her later life!
The moral of this story is that welfare benefits are only immoral for the little people.
Hopefully, Sunak and Truss will have to live off benefits one day. Although, unfortunately, it seems very unlikely at the moment.
They got Al Capone, a multiple murderer, for tax evasion
If illicit partying is what it takes, I’ll take it.
Covid only spreads because there are people around to spread it, which is how it began here in March 2020.
We know so much more now about treatments, who are the most vulnerable, testing before we go out and meet someone new, keeping our immune systems well, and we have vaccines of some effectiveness and a milder variant becoming dominant.
We’ve also got a major amount of voluntary restraint going on. It does seem that the British people can be trusted much more than the covid spreaders of March 2020.
I’m backing them.
So what happens when the NHS is overwhelmed?
Please tell
@ Richard,
The view, rightly or wrongly, of most of the electorate, is that vaccination will prevent the worst of the consequences of Covid. Nearly everyone has either tested positive themselves or knows someone who has and has recovered without too many serious consequences. The disease doesn’t have the same scare factor that it did this time last year and before the vaccines program had started to have an effect. Consequently, for those who are mainly are up to date with their jabs, they don’t see why they should be asked to make sacrifices to protect those who are silly enough to refuse them.
This does raise a difficult ethical issue. Although, most people don’t see it that way. Just how far should Government go in forcing or encouraging everyone to get protected? I wouldn’t go as far as to force everyone to have a vaccine as we’ve seen in some EU countries but I would say it should be a requirement to use public transport and other public spaces. We should have vaccine passports with strict enforcement.
I would think I am in a minority in taking this view. From what I can make out, by just talking to people, the view is that those who choose to remain unvaccinated are on their own. This means that they would have to forfeit free NHS treatment if they were unvaccinated without reasonable excuse or reason. The argument would be that this would protect the NHS for those who have done the right thing.
The typical voter isn’t at all ‘liberal’ in the way that many of us might understand the term! There’s much less support for lockdown than there was last year. I agree the Govt is taking a big risk but at the moment they aren’t out of step with public opinion.
You really do need to learn a lot more about Covid
“So what happens when the NHS is overwhelmed?”
A rhetorical question, I’m sure, Richard, but judging by the stated numbers of delayed routine medical and surgical appointments that point has already been reached.
Too many people seem to believe even this government wouldn’t dare to break up the NHS and privatise it. I’m not one of them. And as you observe, above, they have best part of three years to do it.
I’m sure there is quite a lot that we all need to learn. We all agree that everyone who qualifies for the Vaccine should get the jabs so, and regardless of the extent of our detailed knowledge, we do need to answer the question of the extent of government involvement in encouraging the process of vaccination.
Should it extend into coercion? I’d say it should, albeit ‘gentle’ coercion. We need to make it difficult for anyone to get by without a vaccine passport.
Interesting thread and the term “incidental Covid”..hopefully grounds for some optimism
https://twitter.com/ChrisCEOHopson/status/1475540046677790723
I read that as being misinformation
“I read that as being misinformation”
Perhaps but he CEO of NHSProviders so should have insight and hopefully is objective
Why would he be objective?
I would be interested to know why you suggest Chris Hopson is peddling disinformation. I started with what I thought was a mild cold on Xmas Eve, tested positive on Boxing Day on lateral flow and had a PCR that day at the suggestion of ZOE Covid Study App I report my daily health status to. Got a Covid positive result this morning. I find it quite plausible there are many people with symptoms even milder than mine going into hospital and testing positive. I assume part of the mildness is down to the triple shots I’ve had, in common with 57% of the population over 12.
Do you know how hard it is to get into hospital right now? Politely, if you want to talk crap please do it elsewhere because that comment shows a staggering lack of awareness of what is going on in the NHS – and I do talk to people in it.
“ I would be interested to know why you suggest Chris Hopson is peddling disinformation”
Phil espin asks a valid wmquestion don’t you think?
How about because he is defending Tory policy?
With family members who work in hospitals and another who has been into hospital for an operation last week I am talking facts as I find them, not crap. The situation may be variable round the country and it’s evident that in many areas staff off through isolation is a growing crisis. Even so people are going into hospitals for non Covid reasons though that may change soon. My sense is your beef is with Hopson but you won’t say why, not like you to be reticent. I can see he has over egged his point. A ball park calculation suggests to me the effect he is cautioning about is probably no more than 5% in London which has the highest infection rate at the moment.
More complete drivel
You are banned
I have no time for Covidiots
You clearly are one
As you point out Richard, with potentially three more years ahead of them in government – and particularly one headed by an outright zealot (Sunak, Javid, Truss, Hunt etc.) the NHS is looking like snared animal during the hunting season. The health service also has plenty of powerful enemies in the various right-wing red tops, often echoed by the thoroughly tame broadcast news (BBC, ITV and possibly soon C4) who appear all too happy to use their influence over their readers to persuade them into taking a hostile position to the NHS. The other concern is of course the current Labour Party who have to date (to the best of my knowledge) refused to commit to re-nationalising the health service should the Tories turn it over to private hands – something which I believe that the Greens have pledged themselves.
I truly hope that you’re proven correct about the Tories and that they have finally over-played their hand with the public.
I wonder who the new lead anchor of C4 will be?
I only really have confidence in Krishnan Guru-Murthy to be as tough as required
Carthy Newman has been off the boil since joining Times Radio
KGM would be the most likely choice – but if the Tories get their way with C4, I’m not sure how much that will matter.
This new variant is itself the problem: is it deadly or just infectious or both? And who to?
As the scientists grapple with it the public I sense are either locking themselves away or treating it with disdain and partying.
But who is to say that this variant will stay as it is? What’s next?
And the NHS is still not in a proper state to deal with it because its been hobbled by austerity and BREXIT. This fact must not be overlooked and is for me remains the only reasons the Tories should be voted out.
The grudging and inadequate support also for business should be telling the people all they need to know about the Tories.
We know it is deadly
People have died from it
The point is that the fatalities caused by this latest variant are not percolating out to all the public. That’s very worrying and just what Covid likes – people letting our guard down.
It appears that the Tories now have the knives out for Mark Drakeford and Nicola Sturgeon – because of the reintroduction of restrictions in Wales and Scotland. How dare they not toe the line?
The only positive I can draw from this is that the number of people understanding the utter ruthlessness of the elite has soared. It is not a question of political differences of opinion, but of a realisation that the elite do not sign up to the basic ethical and humanitarian code underpinning the western democracies. These are observations normally reserved for serial killers and war criminals. Exactly!
“People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right.”
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
John Kenneth Galbraith