The harsh reality

IT SADDENS me to say it, but Boris Johnson has just been voted the most unpopular leader in the world in a recent UK poll. People think his government’s handling of the pandemic has been shambolic. Admittedly, with the benefit of hindsight, that appears to be the case. Introducing enforced 14-day quarantine on people arriving in Britain, from the 8th June, looked a bit daft, especially when you consider that at the height of the outbreak, no such restrictions were applied. Bit late in the day Boris? I think so.

Mind you, dealing with the consequences of this virus will have been any government’s worst nightmare. The crippling cost to the taxpayer, the spending of money the government hasn’t got, the unforeseen borrowing, the long-term job losses, the bankruptcies, it doesn’t bear thinking about. You see, the real knock on effects of this pandemic lock down have yet to come. The days of putting health security above economic wellbeing are running out. People will not thank a government for keeping them safe AND penniless in a bankrupt Britain.

With half the workforce “furloughed”, that means the government forking out billions to pay them. It can’t go on. What happens when it stops? Former employers will not have the money to pay people to stay at home. Hello mass unemployment, overnight.

If pubs, restaurants and hotels are not up and running by summer, that sector alone could see an estimated 3.5 million jobs at risk.

I hate to say this folks, but with the threat of a second wave of pandemic highly likely, it might well be that people will have to learn to live with the threat it poses, if economic ruin is to be avoided. I wouldn’t want Boris’s job for all the tea in China (or indeed, anything else originating from there).