Mean-spirited EU’S actions beggar belief
IT WAS on this page just last week that I made the point that if any of you still harboured doubts as to the wisdom of the nation’s decision to Brexit, you should merely compare the rate of vaccination between the UK and EU member states. However, even I didn’t think the whole issue would unravel and blow up in the face of the European Union dictators as badly as it did last week.
Just before we get into any analysis of the vaccine failure engulfing Brussels it’s important to get one thing straight: it’s in nobody’s interests for our European friends to get left behind in this life-ordeath race. The first-rate job the Government is doing (words you won’t have read often over the past few days) in getting vaccinations done in almost world-beating speed would be grievously undone if much of the Continent was still left riddled with the virus.
That being said, the vengeful way the EU has responded to this undoubted British success story tells you everything you need to know about why so many of the Europeans it seeks to control are rapidly falling out of love with that vast, unwieldy, federalist fiasco. And if any doubt remains about that, look at the riots in the Netherlands, the worst the country has experienced in 40 years, which are in part driven by the nation’s woeful attempt to vaccinate its population.
Similar disturbances have taken place in Spain and Denmark. And even in Germany – undoubtedly the greatest cheerleader for the failing EU project – the press are openly critical of Angela Merkel and claim she sacrificed lives by entrusting the country’s vaccine rollout to the Eu.they point out when Germany tried to act independently and buy its own stocks it was promptly halted by the EU, which also threatened to sue.
Brussels can bully as much as it wishes, the figures are undeniable. As the UK can point to vaccinating more than 400,000 people in one day and having reached around 12 per cent of the population, the EU struggles with just 1.9 per cent.
Faced with this glaring failure, Brussels went back to its wellthumbed playbook, lashed out and tried to blame others. European Commissioner for Health and Food Stella Kyriakides decided it was her job to tell giant pharmaceutical firms how they should be run and lectured Astrazeneca, the company
that has helped the UK power ahead, on its “moral, societal and contractual responsibilities”. Brussels even despatched inspectors to the firm’s Belgian plant.
The reason, though – as Astrazeneca boss Pascal Soriot said – is devastatingly simple: the UK ordered its supplies in May, the EU were three months behind. That meant there were three months to iron out any problems in supply with the UK while the EU was dithering.
Caught paying the price for their inability to take decisive action, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposes legislation that would require “notification” to be issued prior
to any vaccines leaving an EU state. This mean-spiritedness beggars belief.
Remember the old adage: in a crisis you quickly learn who your friends are. Regrettably, they currently do not include those within the EU, which has been exposed as being leaden footed and cumbersome. Their motives are admirable, striving to ensure the vaccines are rolled out at the same pace in Nice as they are in Nuremberg. But that is the insurmountable problem nestling at the very heart of the EU: in theory it is supremely understandable, in reality it is utterly undeliverable. Clearly, not for nothing is it known as a “bloc”.
TOUGH news for parents as it was announced the earliest all children will go back to schools in England will be March 8.That means they will have missed virtually this entire school year to date, as well as a sizeable chunk of last year too.
Meanwhile, it is reported that the number of young people experiencing mental health issues is growing at an alarming rate.
Most of the country has behaved responsibly over these ceaseless restrictions, but now is the time to start planning a route map out of this. Schools are a start, but for the adults it is vital that gyms, fitness studios and swimming pools are open again as soon as possible, if only to combat the lockdown pounds so many have understandably piled on.
Opening the bars and pubs would help a bit too!
AS THE nation lurches towards £300billion of extra debt, the amount of money wasted by local councils on hated road schemes brought in to “calm” traffic during the pandemic is inexcusable.
An investigation by Auto Express found town halls up and down the land squandered nearly £1million on these measures, which included pop-up cycle lanes and roads being closed courtesy of giant concrete flower pots.
But the crowning lump in this waste pipe has to go towiltshire Council, which forked out £412,000 on the pedestrianisation of Salisbury city centre – only to close it a few weeks later.
Do you suppose if they were forced to use their own cash, these excesses would continue?