Here’s the reason it is impossible to treat the plague in a post-truth country
The United Kingdom is never going to get to grips with Covid-19 if its government ministers continue to lie about it.
Grant Shapps – a man well-known for playing fast-and-loose with the facts – was up to his old tricks at a press briefing last week when, as Transport Secretary, he claimed trains were not overcrowded since the Tories ordered people back to work, despite numerous photos of overcrowded trains.
Let’s have a look, shall we?
That looks pretty crowded – and this was the Victoria Line. The Central Line at the height of rush hour must be a nightmare.
Bear in mind that social distancing rules still apply and we are supposed to stay at least two metres away from other people.
Shapps claimed that tube trains have been at just five per cent occupancy – which leads This Writer to wonder whether he has been averaging out usage over each 24-hour period, rather than examining the situation at times when people are most likely to be infected by close proximity to others.
He has announced that it will be mandatory to wear face masks on public transport from June 15, when the government intends to ease lockdown restrictions further and send more people back to work.
There is no justification for such easing; the nation remains at Covid alert level 4, meaning the virus remains at large and its reproduction rate is increasing.
But this is a government that won’t accept our truth; it is too busy pushing its own on us.
So snake-oil salesman Shapps told us, in very poor English: “In fact, there hasn’t been very much crowding situation going on.
“It’s not the case … that transport’s been overcrowded. We’ve been watching it very carefully.”
He continued to deny the facts, despite being shown photographic evidence of overcrowding on trains, taken on different days since the lockdown was eased:
“We tracked it on a day by day basis.
“I can literally tell you the trains where there was an issue, because the train was broken down, or Canning Town [in east London], where those pictures were shared very widely.
“But actually the broad picture is there have been one or two people sitting in carriages a lot of the time.”
What can you do, in the face of such blatant denial of the facts from a government minister who is hell-bent on exposing you to a killer disease?
What will you do?
Source: Grant Shapps claims trains aren’t overcrowded despite photos of overcrowded trains – Mirror Online
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I believe the dishonest Shapps, alias Michael Green, alias Sebastian Fox, is including all night services, which of course gives a meaningless average.
For those of us who remember ‘Stars in their Eyes’ on t.v. “Tonight Matthew I am going to be” –
Grant Shapps or perhaps Michael Green or perhaps Sebastian something or other.
Just about sums up the calibre of this utterly shameless and useless so called ‘Government’. You are totally right Mike, it is indeed a post truth society.
I thought only today it would have been a useful exercise writing down all the lies which the Tories have spouted from back in 2016 alone, never mind 2010, but realise by now the the house would be packed with paper from floor to ceiling with no room for me.