Don’t forget who caused this mess
Sir Anthony Hopkins (pictured left), actor, 83; Sir Alex Ferguson, ex-Manchester United manager, 79; Sir Ben Kingsley, actor, 77; Diane von Fűrstenberg, fashion designer, 74; Alex Salmond, ex-SNP leader, 66; Val Kilmer, actor, 61; Psy (pictured right), ‘Gangnam Style’ musician, 43.
AS WE REACH the end of this dreadful year I think it’s important that we remember just how we arrived here.
Don’t forget that Cameron’s Conservative government imposed 10 years of austerity on the people of the UK in order to make good the excesses of their rich friends.
You remember they decided that a pay freeze on public sector workers such as NHS staff, teachers, police officers and firefighters was the only way forward. Their millionaire friends would get away scotfree while we suffered.
Then they decided to only increase NHS funding by the bare minimum while making it more difficult for mature students to join the nursing profession. Add to that of course Brexit – reduced recruitment from the EU. Not surprisingly there was a shortage of over 70,000 doctors and nurses when coronavirus appeared.
Don’t forget they also decided to reduce local government funding for northern councils who then had to cut library services, Sure Start centres, adult learning centres and provision for senior citizens.
Now I know that no government could anticipate a pandemic but exercises in national reactions to such an emergency did take place. The Tories decided to run down stockpiles of PPE and so created another crisis when health care and NHS staff suffered in the first wave that struck the UK in spring. The Tory reaction when it eventually happened was to give their friends lucrative contracts worth millions to supply PPE.
Don’t forget that another reaction was to direct hospitals to send patients to care homes without receiving negative Covid-19 tests. The carnage created in our care homes was criminally destructive but no one accepts responsibility.
Who can forget Johnson’s mate Cummings and his trip to Barnard Castle to test his eyes? Johnson believed his excuses and he got away with it.
Then who can forget the “world-beating” track and trace? This ridiculous claim led to another Johnson crony, Dido Harding, being surprised that there was an increase in demand for tests in September when schools and universities returned after the holidays.
The only thing “world-beating” about the UK at the moment is that “our” virus variant is likely to kill even more than the original strain!
So here we are again. Death tolls frighteningly high and yet Johnson refuses to make a decision. Rather he hides away while the country suffers.
There are those who still say that Bojo, the clown, is doing a good job! I wonder how many people will have to die before they accept that Johnson and his gang are not up to it.
PM’s blame game
RJ Bray of Shelley states that “not once has a minister or our PM tried to lay the increase in transmissions on the public.”
He or she must have a short or selective memory, as on October 2, 2020, PM Johnson, whilst trying to defend the shortcomings of his “worldbeating” test and trace system, blamed the rise in coronavirus infections on public complacency.
He stated that responsibility for the sharp uplift in cases lay firmly with the general public who had lost “muscle memory” of the kind of social distancing and hygiene measures.
He failed to mention his government’s eat out to help out scheme which just weeks before had encouraged people to get out and visit restaurants and pubs. And yes hindsight is a quality sadly missing from the government but even worse is their lack of foresight.
U-turns galore
EXTRACT from The Sunday Times (27/12/2020). “The prime minister has perfected the political pirouette. Take your pick: not attending Cobra emergency meetings and then urgently calling Cobra meetings; not going into lockdown then going into lockdown; telling people to stay at home and then bunging them a tenner to eat out; not giving free school meals outside term and then caving in to Marcus Rashford (twice); promising to keep schools open and then closing them and then reopening them again; telling people to go back to work, and then to stay at home again; promising Christmas and then cancelling Christmas.”
This government isn’t following “the science”, it’s following public opinion.