The Tories axed their defence against coronavirus years before it arrived. Deaths were inevitable
Not only has Boris Johnson’s response to coronavirus sparked ridicule around the world, but he is also being pilloried for failing to do anything to prepare for it.
It seems to validate criticisms that he was hoping the pandemic would simply kill off all the so-called “useless eaters” – people on benefits with illnesses or disabilities that make them vulnerable to Covid-19 – meaning that his government wouldn’t have to support them any more.
According to the Huffington Post, the Cabinet Office has been producing a National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies – a list of possible disasters that may face the UK – along with plans to deal with them.
Every such document – every single one – has listed pandemic flu as the most probable and devastating threat to the UK.
The government knew it was coming – but the strategy to deal with it was written in 2011 and is therefore many years out-of-date.
Also out of date is the government’s UK Pandemic Influenza Communications Strategy, the crucial document for getting the right messages across to the public. It was written in 2012 and is wildly inaccurate in its assumptions about how and where people now get their information.
It gets worse. The guide to dealing with the fatalities of the pandemic, complete with supposed key named contacts, was last published in 2008.
And the dedicated government Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Team based in the Department of Health, and tasked with tackling this type of crisis, vanished around 2011.
That’s right – the Tories got rid of the organisation that would have had the expertise to deal with coronavirus, way back in the first round of austerity-driven cuts.
How short-sighted can these daft toffs be?
The Tories deliberately divested themselves of the latest evidence, policy or science.
HuffPost says this means “the government has had to either make policy up as it has gone along or is having to beg, borrow and steal from other countries who have been better prepared”.
It means that lives have almost certainly been lost unnecessarily.
And the rest of the world is well aware that Boris Johnson has been a bigger danger to the British public than the disease itself, as The Guardian has reported.
Greek newspaper Ethnos described him as “more dangerous than coronavirus”. It said: “Boris Johnson had gone out publicly and essentially asked Britons … to accept death.”
“Boris Johnson is gambling with the health of his citizens,” said the Irish Times.
The HuffPost‘s claim that Johnson had been trying to catch up because his party had rid itself of all its own useful guidance is borne out by The Guardian‘s sources:
Politicians, scientists and commentators greeted the prime minister’s U-turn on Monday night, when he ordered a UK-wide lockdown, as a belated but welcome decision to join the rest of Europe, and much of the world, in a necessary strategy.
The mystery is why it took so long.
After the prime minister’s sudden reversal, one official in Dublin expressed relief. “The Brits were doing their own thing and it looked like we were going to have to live with it. They got there in the end.”
It was a variation of an observation attributed to Winston Churchill about America doing the right thing after exhausting all other options.
Last week the prime minister made an initial concession to physical distancing – a key tactic to slow contagion – by asking people to avoid pubs. But he did not close them and many people, including his own father, Stanley, cheerily said they still planned to go out for a drink. Nevertheless, Johnson expressed confidence such limited measures were working and could “turn the tide” within 12 weeks.
Many outsiders were aghast. The pandemic was out of control in Italy and Spain, killing thousands, and surging across the globe, prompting a scramble to emulate Chinese-style lockdowns.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, reportedly threatened to close France’s border with Britain last Friday if it did not intensify measures.
Others worried about the fate of friends and relatives in Britain. Giorgio Gori, the mayor of Bergamo, the city hardest hit by Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, flew his two daughters out of the UK, deeming them safer at home.
Let that sink in.
Italy is the country hardest-hit by coronavirus, and the mayor of the Italian city that was hardest-hit flew his own children back there, because he thought they would be safer there than in the UK.
Looking at all the evidence, doesn’t he have a point?
Source: The Government Knew A Pandemic Was Coming But They Didn’t Do Anything To Prepare | HuffPost UK
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Mike you may also find this interesting another plan they’ve dropped re-text alerts https://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/mobile-networks/355096/gov-failed-to-act-on-own-alert-messaging-advice?_mout=1&utm_campaign=itpro_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
I already had low expectations from the Tories but turning the UK into a dictorial, fascist police state where the Government treat us like mushrooms is certainly not what I expected from them.
A call for the healthy UK Youth to be Cadets to free up the police supervising supermakets and other curfew duties is all we need now to complete the picture.
(This is how the Hiltler Youth began – scary isn’t it?)
(This is how the Hiltler Youth began – scary isn’t it?)
The similarites between the rise of the third reich and this toerag Govt don’t end there.
The persecution and murdering of the disabled (Aktion T4) was the start of the holocaust. Today’s nazis AKA tories are just going about the elimination of the disabled & sick in a financial way.
And let’s not forget the mask slipped with Scheissenfuhrer Dummkopf-Schmitt’s pearl of wisdom that: ‘Work sets you free’.
‘Giorgio Gori, the mayor of Bergamo, the city hardest hit by Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, flew his two daughters out of the UK, deeming them safer at home.
“When I saw what the English government was thinking about this problem, I decided to bring them back, because I think that even if we are at the centre of the epidemic, probably they are more secure here than in England, because I don’t understand why the government didn’t decide in time to protect their citizens,” he told Sky News.’
Fascist Tories have never believed government means focusing on its citizens’ welfare rather the Tories ideology has always been putting male owned corporate business interests first, second and last! This is why the fascist tories eradicated all the departments responsible for administering a pandemic! No need to have those members of staff being paid to do nothing!
Also explains why the fascist tories are constantly promoting the lie ‘Protect the NHS’ because it takes josephine’s and joes’ focus off the real issue which are fascist tories decimation of the NHS! This is why coronvirus testing kits aren’t being made available and why ventilators are still not being sent to various hospitals – because there aren’t any ordnance staff available who would be responsible for organising these procedures!
No instead fascist tories one aim was to ensure big business interests accrue even more profits because government is not about the people – but about putting big business first!
All those volunteers wouldn’t be needed if fascist tories governed but they aren’t and these volunteers are disposable serfs. Will they receive any expenses to cover cost of petrol and labour? Of course not – only the big boys such as Dictator Boris and his male cronies will ensure their huge salaries are not diminished.
Already far too many lives have been lost because of fascist tory policies and yet still ordinary people are being conned by dictator boris into believing ‘we can get coronvirus done in 12 weeks!’
Why are you always referring to “male owned” corporate business interests? Are you trying to make it a gender war thing?
You make interesting points but I think the apparent misandrist undertones detract from them.
This Govt demand you pay National Insurance. (They ALL do)
…But since 1979 they’ve continually insufficiently insured against disasters/ emergencies of this (or even a lesser) scale; all the time keeping their fingers, toes and everything else crossed that the nation’ll somehow be spared.
From the NHS, to welfare, to the (national part of the) rail network, to the national grid, they’ve been running on the bare minimum this current Govt will fund it to
And all the while skimming off any surplus by way of tax concessions for themselves, leaving insufficient funds to deal with any problems – leading to increased cost to make the bare minimum of restorations, which leads to the circle being completed
Nor do they want to pay out to the individual when the time comes to make a claim.
WE pay for it, yet THEY make FULL use, regardless of need, and while avoiding paying their dues.
WE pay for it, yet THEY behave like it’s their own money when the time comes..
It’s time to ”take back control” , alright. I just hope this current situation instigates the political sea change (1945 style) that this country desperately needs
It’s certainly a puzzle trying to work out where all that tax money went down the years. Roads full of pot-holes, and the NHS full of even bigger pot-holes.
Am interesting look at eugenics in the UK and in the Tories.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/02/22/sabi-f22.html