Nearly 60,000 dead in UK because of Covid-19 – and Johnson wants to penalise healthcare staff
Read it and weep. First the bad news:
The image above is (according to Chris Giles – economics editor of the Financial Times – on Twitter) a cautious estimate of the number of excess deaths in the UK.
He says the total – as of yesterday – was 59,700. Of these, 51,000 have happened and 8,700 are estimates bringing the official data up to date using evidence from hospitals.
That’s nearly twice as many as the 32,000 or so claimed by your Tory government. And even that figure is appalling because the Tories should have ensured our health service was prepared for it, and didn’t bother.
His report in the FT states:
The official figures from the UK’s statistical agencies are much higher than the daily announcement from the Department of Health and Social Care, which stands at 32,065.
The FT model now estimates that slightly more than 60,000 more people will have died than normal from the start of the outbreak to May 11, based on the excess deaths to date and the latest daily figures from hospital deaths.
At present this is the highest absolute level of excess deaths in Europe, although figures for Italy are not yet comparable because they are only available to the end of March.
Now the ugly news:
Your Tory government is considering freezing the pay of public sector workers – that means doctors and nurses among all the others – in order to pay the £300 billion cost of the coronavirus crisis that its MPs could have prevented if they had made the proper preparations for it over the last few years.
Other proposed measures include tax hikes – so doctors and nurses will be doubly-hit – and a raid on the national pension fund.
Here’s The Independent:
A confidential treasury assessment cited by The Daily Telegraph is reported to say the UK’s deficit could reach heights of £337bn this year due to the government’s attempts to keep the economy afloat during the crisis.
The paper added that the government document said measures including income tax hikes, a public sector pay freeze and the end of the triple lock on pensions may be required to fund the debt.
Proposing to end the triple lock, a guarantee to increase to the state pension every year based on whatever is highest out of inflation, average earnings or a minimum of 2.5 per cent, has proved controversial in the past – with many citing it as a catastrophic moment in the run up to Theresa May’s underwhelming 2017 election performance.
And a freeze to the public sector pay – potentially impacting the healthcare workers who have been on the front lines of the response to the virus – is also likely to cause consternation from the public and across the political spectrum.
How do you feel about this plan by the Tories to make healthcare staff and pensioners pay for the Tories’ mistakes?
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
HS2, Heathrow expansion, half MP’S pay, get rid of all non essential perks. flat sharing on mp business, no second homes, e bikes in London for them, oh look savings, oh and get rid of cummings, throw out capita, atos maximus, they cost so much and saved little, see how easy that was,
60,000 women and men dead as a result of fascist tories state sanctioned murders!!! Still never mind – ‘not our fault say the fascist tories we were merely obeying the science!’
Now the fascist tories are determined to penalise the women and men who exist on state pensions because this group must pay for the deliberate fascist and eugenics policies of the tory government! Also the NHS workers; healthcare and support female and male workers can ‘die in a fire’ because their salaries will be penalised too!
Meanwhile the ‘fat cat male tory billionaires will not see their profits decrease – no they’ll increase of course!’
Fascist tories forget many retired women and men who exist on state pensions have always voted tory – so penalising them will result in outrage but never mind they will forget when the next General Election happens so say the fascist tories!
This is why bereaved families are already banding together to launch a group civil action against the fascist tories. I predict the fascist tories will use our money to spend on expensive lawyers because no way must the fascist tories be held to account for their mass murder of 60,000 women and men!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/11/bereaved-families-seek-justice-for-uk-victims-of-coronavirus
Add that to the people that the DWP as killed and it will make you feel sick as for the media is all OK
Lots of talk about tax at the moment. Tory supporters seem to genuinely fear that THEIR taxes will rise. Not sure if this would be a new experience for them!
But this is yet another opportunity for Labour to step forward with an alternative policy to the government.
Talking about taxation increases for those on over $80K as the last manifesto did. Making clear that tax avoidance will not be tolerated. Making clear that the low-paid should not be hit .
Standard stuff, no doubt. But we need to seize any opportunity to get the point across. The Labour ,members are ACHING to take the fight to the government. But is the leadership?
The £337 billion has been spent by the government from its drawing account at the Bank of England. It does not need funding. The government could sell £337 bonds for the pension funds to buy but there is no necessity to do so, or it could buy the bonds it’s self using QE. But as the government owns the Bank of England it could just cancel the debt as you can not ow money to your self.
See for further info and discussions.
Triple lock guaranteed annual rise of state pension will not pay off national debt, because the state pension does not come from the taxpayer, but comes only from National Insurance Fund.
The Fund will be well in surplus due to the high rate of early death of 1950s and 1960s born women aged in their 50s and 60s since 2011, but especially since 2015, so dead before retirement never to claim state pension.
Men and women have died quicker in retirement and pensioner deaths had doubled under this Tory government since 2010.
And now the Fund will be still further in surplus from the high death rate in care homes.
Right wing Labour aka New Labour were worse against the state pension than the Tories over the decades since late 1970s. So the Grey Vote is lost to Labour forever now into the future.
The Labour party needs to cease to give Chris Williamson the chance to start his socialist party and run in 2024 as a party.