All is silent on the future of an app – to the letter
WHEN the front page headline of the Daily Mail (June 19) is ‘How many more Corona fiascos?,’ it is obvious that the Government’s handling of the virus cannot possibly be the ‘success’ which Boris would have us all believe.
The latest ‘fiasco’ being referenced is the ongoing saga of the app which is meant to be part of the ‘world beating’ test and trace system we were promised by June 1. The latest twist is that there is now no date by which we can expect the introduction of the app. Spelling has never been my strong suit,but I can’t help feeling there may be a letter c and a letter r missing from this story somewhere.
He’s The Amazing Spinning Johnson
IT seems that in some parts of the UK our Prime Minister is now known as “The Amazing Spinning Johnson”. I suppose that is actually an improvement on some of the names he has been called recently. U-turns on school meal vouchers, school start up, non-UK NHS workers now not paying for health care and now Hancock’s App. All of these show a government without leadership and ability.
Some might describe the Uturns as a sign of a ‘listening government’ while most would describe them as indications of government that doesn’t know what its doing! This incompetence is characterised by other U -turns on face masks and the lockdown itself.
The Government is reactive and not proactive and this leads to dither and waffle where the Government seems to blunder from one catastrophe to another and all the while people die!
Just when the country needed strong, imaginative, sensitive and effective government such as we see in New Zealand and Germany, we have chaos and nonsense from a PM in a clown’s fright wig and a cabinet of straight men.
What we must learn from the present...
THERE have been a lot of interesting views in the letters page recently, opinions about hindsight, blame etc (coronavirus outbreak).
Well as with any problems they are the responsibility of the Government of the day. The prime minister is the man who claims the plaudits, but also the brickbats of any given situation (as the Americans used to say, the buck stops here). It now transpires that the Government was warned in early January about the outbreak, they did virtually nothing, no responsibility for protective equipment, no alert for care homes. The hospital situation was set up in the 80s with the forming of trusts when accountants were considered more important than medics for assessing people’s need, so here we are.
Two things stand out to me over the last few months. No.1: We must redouble our efforts to save the hospital and medical facilities for Huddersfield. No.2: Start (albeit in a small way at first) to restart manufacturing in the North with a long-term view to get our bright children who are not academically minded into apprenticeships.
One other thing, I felt the Government missed a trick where they could have reintroduced the old 50s early 60s mantra of ‘Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases, Trap Your Germs in a Handkerchief ’ (now tissue/ mask). It might get through to the people who don’t quite get the reason for wearing masks.