Tag Archives: covid-19

The covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom – 2nd April

Posted on by
Reply

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

The covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom – 2nd April

Wasn’t planning on another post (after doing so yesterday) in relation to the covid-19 pandemic and how it develops in the UK so soon but things are changing all the time and it seemed to make sense to put some of the crazy situations out there in a e-newsletter form. How regular depends on developments but with the buffoons we have in charge of things in Britain there will always be, I’m sure, something to bemuse and/or amuse.

Testing

When this present ‘crisis’ (made worse by the government the people of the UK decided to put into power in 2019) is eventually over the question that will have to be answered is; Why did the authorities get the testing all wrong.

And also why did the government keep on lying about the numbers?

On the afternoon of the 1st April it emerged that only 2,000 NHS staff had been tested out of a total of 1.2 million. As a result of recommendations about symptoms thousands are self-isolating – but they might well not have the virus. As the number of deaths increases there is need of more not less staff to help in the emergency.

As of the morning of 2nd April there can be few people in Britain now who aren’t asking the question ‘what’s happening about testing’? Long before matters started to get out of hand in the UK information from other parts of the world, principally South Korea and Singapore, indicated that some sort of control of the outbreak could be achieved with comprehensive testing with a follow-up to trace the line of infection. That required organisation as well as a will to stamp on the virus before the numbers got too high.

But what did the government do in the UK? It made promises it couldn’t (and didn’t keep) and then started to blame outside agencies and causes for their own failures. There was a problem of lack of chemicals. There was a problem of lack of testing facilities. But both those matters are relatively easy to solve.

And it should have been a doddle if they had done in the past what they have been assuring us they have – and that is prepare for such an eventuality as a pandemic. Such preparation, if it had been carried out thoroughly, would have identified what would have been needed in the event of an outbreak, made sure that a certain amount of initial stocks were available immediately and a process for producing more established in a set time frame. All testing facilities would also have been identified and a decision made on how they would fit in to the over strategic plan.

More importantly there wouldn’t have been any problem in getting supplies or access to laboratories for testing. In such a situation as a pandemic speed is of the essence and companies producing key materials should be told what to produce and when – there would be no such discussions on price or other recompense. As for laboratory space and facilities they would be requisitioned if there was any reluctance or tardiness.

All commentators are using military terminology so the whole matter should be approached as if the country was on a war footing – without giving power to the military.

On the evening of 1st April the Buffoon said that testing ‘ … is how we will unlock the coronavirus puzzle. This is how we will defeat it in the end.‘ He speaks the truth but doesn’t do the necessary. He expects to solve the jigsaw puzzle when half the pieces are missing and somebody has thrown the box lid on the fire.

Testing not only enables some workers to carry on in their jobs it also offers reassurance when many people need it. But perhaps more importantly if testing is done with a follow-up trace it can provide valuable information of how the virus is spreading and where the hotspots might be. Only in this way can resources be concentrated where they will do the most good.

The Buffoon has always placed more emphasis on the anti-body tests which can identify those who might have picked up the virus without any adverse effects and have developed some immunity. These tests are also important but aren’t ready yet. It shouldn’t be a matter of one or the other. To manage the pandemic both are necessary. But the Tories are more concerned with getting back to some level of normality (which is important to everyone) but not at the expense of leaving many others in a potentially dangerous position.

Capital wants to have a ‘fair’ share of the billions on offer

The government stated that the pit of money was bottomless and companies, especially the ones with the most wealth, are attempting to get their hands on it. The first in line were a few Premier League Football Clubs;

‘Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United and Norwich City have all taken advantage of the country’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in which as much as 80pc of their non-playing staff’s wages could be paid by the Government.’

The Telegraph, Front Page PM, 1st April

There’s an argument that the players should foot the bill for non-playing staff as they are still getting their massive salaries. It’s obscene what they get paid when playing, to still receive that when they are not is beyond the absurd. I’m surprised the football clubs concerned (and it’s almost certain others in the Premier thought about it if tardy in making applications) didn’t lay-off their players and then claim 80% of their wages from the disaster fund.

On 2nd April Gary Lineker asked that the players should be given some slack – being football players they take a long time to tell which is left from right so the major decision of what they should do with the money they get would take weeks – and they would come to the ‘right decision’ eventually. But this doesn’t get near to addressing the greater issue of the unbelievable disparities that exist in the professional sport arena where some prime donne earn millions yet others are on minimum wage – and this isn’t just in football.

Other wealthy companies are also fighting to get their snouts in the trough. On 2nd April British Airways stated it was going to suspend 36,000 of their staff and claim 80% of their wages from the emergency fund. They have also, already, stated that they would need a bail-out as a company if they were to be able to survive the pandemic.

So the State pays the majority of the staff’s wages, the State will then be expected to ‘donate’ billions to keep the company going later in the year yet the State and the company argue for the private and free enterprise system.

British Airways was one of the thousands of companies, many small some huge, that was privatised (i.e., stolen from the people – although often with some of their collaboration) in the 1980s and 90s. If they can’t survive in the free market then they should collapse – that’s the rule of the market. But as is always the case with capitalism it wants its cake and eat it.

Such a bail out of the banks occurred after their self-made disaster of 2008. It will be interesting to see if the people of the UK – or other capitalist countries where they will be asked to shovel untold millions into the hands of these private companies – are prepared to do this again.

Key workers

The Prince of Wales has paid tribute to the ‘utter, selfless devotion to duty’ of NHS staff, volunteers and the new ’emergency service’ of supermarket workers,

The Telegraph, Front Page PM, 1st April

Does this mean that their selflessness will be rewarded when things get back to normal – or will they then have to carry on surviving on minimum wages, zero hours contracts and any other invention to undermine working conditions?

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – for everyone

A recent study suggests it might be beneficial for everyone to be wearing masks at all times when outside their home.

However, there are a number of problems with this ‘study’;

a) it hasn’t been totally proven – so what’s the point of speculation, at a time when many people are fearful and clutching at any straw that’s thrown to them,

b) even if it were to be the case where are millions of ‘the public’ to get hold of these masks when even the inept Tory Government can’t do so’

c) mask wearing is only really for those who are already infected with the virus (but perhaps without them knowing) as they drastically reduce the distance that potentially harmful spores can travel. Flimsy masks won’t protect healthy people.

d) ‘masks need to be worn properly, with a seal over the nose. If they become moist then particles can pass through. People must remove them carefully to avoid their hands becoming contaminated. … masks need to be worn consistently. It’s not on to wear a mask and then decide to take it off to smoke a cigarette or eat a meal – it must be worn full time.’

e) conflict between ‘experts’ – Public Health England don’t consider masks effective and also encourage people to be lax when following other recognised working strategies, such as distancing and hand washing,

f) and this is all under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO) – give me the Doctor any day.

Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) – for NHS staff and care workers

Along with the questions surrounding testing the provision of adequate safety equipment for NHS and care home staff has been going on since we first heard the name covid-19. The saga continues.

On 1st April, Claudia Paoloni, President of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, said (BBC, Radio 4), ‘We know of cases where they (hospital staff) are not using equipment or it is being rationed and you can’t use it in certain circumstances. Everybody should be getting PPE, at all times, with all cases with patient contact within the hospital setting.’

Some doctors have complained about the quality of the items they have received.

Snippets

Little pieces of news, related to the pandemic, which say a lot.

A rainbow to a nightingale

A nurse requested that pictures be sent to the ‘Nightingale’ Hospitals (the temporary hospitals being set up in exhibition spaces) and here request went viral. Tens, or hundreds of thousands of bored children and their parents then started to send these to the various locations. The NHS has now asked that this stop. It’s not difficult to see why an emergency hospital, set up to deal with a viral infection, would be cautious about receiving thousands of pieces of paper from unknown locations. It might also be be the benefit if the patients. What would you think if the first thing you see on waking up from your covid-19 fever was the wall covered in ‘imaginatively’ drawn rainbows?

Do it yourself repairs

In an advert (broadcast on the commercial radio station Classic FM) by British Gas apologised for delays in getting through to report repairs. To reduce the pressure the company has now placed information on its website so that people might be able to fix minor repairs themselves. Presumably these are the same repairs they would have charged their minimum call-out fee in the past. Will this information remain available after the pandemic has passed over?

Haulage drivers ‘being refused access to toilets’

Don’t think there’s much to say about that.

The Lord will provide

The minister at the Kingdom Church, Camberwell in south London, Bishop Climate Wiseman, has been selling ‘Plague protection kits’ for just over £90 a go. The ‘kit’ contains ‘a small bottle of oil and a piece of red yarn’. The £90 is to cover costs.

Exit Strategy

Still nothing here.

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

Inept politicians deepen the covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

Posted on by
Reply

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

Inept politicians deepen the covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

If I had a pound for every time someone has used the term’ unprecedented’ since the beginning of 2020 I would be as wealthy as the owners of transnational companies who are going to get untold quantities of cash (of various currencies) shovelled into their bank accounts. And it has to be admitted that times are somewhat different from what we have been used to, especially since the end of WWII in 1945. However, in such ‘unprecedented’ times; matters tend to move on very quickly; decisions are changed; ‘expert advice’ also changes; things are said which are (possibly) later regretted; accusations of inefficiency and ineptness are bandied around; and we’re still ‘ruled’ by a bunch of Tory buffoons.

With all that comes the danger that history is forgotten, the words that seem pertinent in the past are superseded by others, and the same with actions. Therefore during the course of this ‘unprecedented’ situation I will attempt to regularly record what I consider to be some of the standout moments. People, or more exactly the capitalist system, will have to be held to account for how this ‘unprecedented’ affair has been handled and it will help to have evidence easily to hand when they face the court of public outrage. (And I’ve already, in two paragraphs, earned myself £4.)

This will be concerned primarily with the situation in the ‘United Kingdom’, although with occasional references to other countries if the experience there sheds greater light on what has happened on the ‘sceptred isle’.

In an age of so-called ‘fake’ news there’s always a potential that information absorbed in good faith might not be accurate. In an effort to back up the points I list below I will, where possible, give a reference to where the piece of news was either heard (normally on BBC radio) or read – from various websites. That may be slightly patchy in this post as when I started collecting the information I didn’t have a clear plan of what to do with it. Hopefully further posts will be more clearly and accurately referenced.

On Monday 30th March Damian Collins, a Tory MP, suggested that it should be a criminal offence for false statements to be made about the situation surrounding covid-19. He stated that without a hint of irony. If such a law about false statements was applied then there would be 650 individuals from Westminster waiting outside the court rooms to be processed.

These comments follow on from those I made in a previous post, published on 23rd March

Publishing this on 1st April might make some to think that this is all a joke – but no, this is the world in which us Brits live under the control of this cretinous Tory government.

The reaction of our ‘governors’

  • UK ranks low when it comes to how proactive the government is compared to other countries in Europe – only worse is US
  • continued lack of clarity
  • continued speculation all day before an announcement, or not, at night
  • always quoting experts when they make their decsions so that if it goes wrong then they have their scapegoats
  • breaking promise about protection for renters
  • government defends watered down policy
  • won’t make a definitive decision on how to deal with the requests from tourist about refunds on holidays already paid for but now cancelled – no decision until July (30th March)
  • why was Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) still being sold on on-line auction sites whern there should have been a clamp down on such speculation and such materials should have been requisitioned for national distribution?
  • an on-line appeal to raise money for PPE, (30th March) – no one but the government should be able to buy this equipment at the end of March
  • Daily Telegraph also running a Charity Appeal – why when there’s so much money magically available from the State?

Keeping the population informed

‘Seven years ago, the UK Cabinet Office conducted a successful trial of an emergency alert system, but in the following years, there have been no further signs of development. As crowds of people began gathering at parks and beaches over the weekend (21-22 March), the government was unable to send a formal warning. Similar systems are used by countries such as South Korea and the Netherlands, the latter of which sent out messages to warn people from congregating in the park on Sunday. Although the government announced a large support package for businesses and individuals to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19, it has struggled to get clear messages out to the public, often competing with misinformation on social media sites.

It has now given a clear order to stay home, via mobile operators, but it could have been a lot easier it had followed up on its own research.’

https://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/mobile-networks/355096/gov-failed-to-act-on-own-alert-messaging-advice

Shopping and the supply chain

  • the culture of food production in the past has made the society less able to react when a crisis appears
  • reliance on concentrated shopping like supermarkets
  • just in time distribution
  • problems of importing food from other countries when there are closed border
  • dependence on road transport to deliver huge quantities of food
  • problem of lorry driver being generally older

BBC Radio 4, The Food Programme’, Monday 23rd March.

  • no control of wholesale markets so private customers preventing companies from getting supplies
  • no consideration of monitoring of the price of basic foodstuffs to avoid price rises and speculation
  • the ‘just in time’ delivery model cannot ever cope in times of crisis, saves companies money but makes them vulnerable when there is an interruption in the supply chain – even bad weather can do that let alone a shut-down of weeks, perhaps months

Lidl to reduce restrictions on the quantities of food people can buy – apart from toilet paper (31st March)

The same day so did Aldi, Morrisons, Waitrose and Asda

  • more money spent in supermarkets in March 2020 than at any time in the past as people ‘rushed to stock-pile vital supplies’, 31st March – but on the same day reports were coming in about all the food that was being thrown away due to panic buying earlier in March.

School closures

  • definition of ‘key workers’ muddled and therefore ‘broke’ those schools that opened on the first day – i.e. Monday 23rd March
  • muddled thinking about exams
  • no consultation about exams with education professionals
  • no consideration of the effect this would have on students
  • still uncertainties about the situation in Universities

The not so ‘united’ kingdom

  • conflicting information in relation to the construction industry – whether sites should open or not – in UK and Scotland, which went on for days, (23rd March)
  • how long will the lock-down be, Sunday 29th March first it was 13 weeks (Catherine Calderwood, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland) and then ‘it won’t be save until after six months’ (Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jenny Harris) – causing uncertainty, fear and panic. The six months had an ominous rider ‘or longer’. They all seem to be acting as if it were a game and they are into ‘one-upmanship’
  • the four parts of the United Kingdom are making decisions by themselves when the system calls for an all island approach – just the Nationalists playing a political game
  • UK government introduces (under pressure) a ban on renter evictions for three months, in Scotland the ban is for six months
  • ‘NHS Wales has been testing NHS staff there for a couple of weeks’, Frank Atherton, Chief Health Officer for Wales, (30th March)

Testing – and why it’s not really taking place in the UK

  • testing still not moving forward and the TUC asking that ‘front line’ workers should be tested more thoroughly 23rd March
  • confusion over tests, not 25,000 but 5,000 a day (24th March)

Mass virus testing shop kits a ‘gamechanger’

The Prime Minister has described testing kits that reveal whether people have already had coronavirus as a possible “gamechanger”. More than three million of the tests – which tell people if they have developed immunity – could be available via Amazon and Boots within weeks. [T]he prospect of widespread testing could mean that key public services and parts of the economy reopen within weeks. Meanwhile, the first app monitoring symptoms of people in Britain with suspected coronavirus suggests that 6.5m people in the UK – one in 10 – has had the infection.

The Telegraph web site 25th March

  • British Medical Association, 29th March, after statement by government that testing (of medical staff) will take place from Monday 30th March, ‘long overdue’. Somewhat of an understatement.
  • then the Tory Buffoon boasts that such tests had meant that 20,000 health personnel would be returning to work as they do not have the virus, only symptoms that could be nothing. So why wasn’t testing of these people, as well as a more general testing throughout the population, instituted long ago.
  • Health Minister Heather Whately says they are ‘ramping up its capacity of testing for NHS staff’ and ‘boasts’ that there were 9,100 tests in a 24 hour period over the weekend, 31st March
  • Gove, as the Buffoon’s stand-in, states that the reason for the small number of testing taking place was due to ‘a chemical shortage’. How can this happen? More than two weeks ago they were talking about aiming to achieve a minuscule number of 25,000 tests per day (a pathetic number by any account) but this is the first we have been told of a problem in the testing procedure. Why do other countries seem to do so – even the USA? And why has this issue only come to light now? 31st March
  • the government’s ‘target’ of 25,000 tests per day ‘not likely for a month’, 31st March
  • Spokesperson for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine ‘mass testing is needed now. The whole point of testing is to detect it before you’ve infected somebody. Those affected self quarantine and everyone else carries on a normal life.’ 31st March
  • increasing calls for a more general testing regime, not just in hospitals and care homes. It should be rolling out in the community – the only way to get back to some sort of normality

NHS ‘snubbed offers from top labs to help with testing’

Officials in charge of coronavirus testing have largely ignored offers of help from leading scientific institutions, we have been told. Public Health England is accused of leaving specialists from Oxford University and the Francis Crick Institute “sitting on their hands” while questions mount over Britain’s testing capacity compared with other nations. An argument is growing between the health ministry and the NHS over a failure to use spare capacity to test hospital staff so they can get back to work. Britain is able to conduct 12,700 tests a day but only did 8,240 yesterday – fewer than Monday.

The Telegraph, Front Page AM, 1st April

Financial ‘solutions’

  • 500,000 claiming Universal Credit – not enough staff and the computer system can’t deal with an already flawed and derided system, applicants have to wait weeks before any payment is made, 25th March
  • if such huge amounts of money are going to private companies that means they can’t exist in the ‘private, free enterprise’ system and so they should be allowed to die or be nationalised (without compensation) – especially the transnational, global companies such as airlines and other transport providers
  • major companies think they have a right to feed at the trough of the public purse
  • any future ‘nationalisations’ – which are introduced to maintain the present existence of a company must be permanent and not allowing them to return to private hands when the State (and its people) have bailed them out of their own mess.
  • payments to companies
  • where’s all this money coming from? For more than ten years we were told ther was no ‘magic money tree’ but when it’s necessary for the existence of capitalism (as it was in 2008 and again now with the covid-19 debacle) the amount of money is only limited by the imagination of the Treasury.
  • plant nurseries which provide garden plants asking for £250m to counteract the destruction of their stocks that would normally be going off the shelves now, 31st March – why isn’t there flexibility to mitigate such waste, people go to supermarkets why not to plant nurseries?

Ventilators

  • only 8,000 in the country on a regular basis
  • government to order 10,000 ventilators from Dyson, 26th March, why (yet again) a delay, the need was identified long ago
  • UK won’t work with the EU on acquiring ventilators, 26th March
  • engineering companies warn that they won’t be able to fulfil the demand of 30,000 when the virus is expected to reach its peak in the UK in 2 to 3 weeks time

The figures – of cases and deaths – and what they really mean

Prof Ferguson – infectious diseases expert – told the [Parliamentary] committee that the latest research suggested as many as half to two-thirds of deaths from coronavirus might have happened this year anyway, because most fatalities were among people at the end of their lives or with other health conditions.

BBC Radio 4 26th March

Capitalist arseholes

Tim Martin of Weatherspoons – refusing to pay staff – not a particularly good employer – after years of arguing that working for them was a good career move, 24th March

The underlying hypocrisy of the British ‘ruling class’

  • Thursday night, 26th March, clap for the NHS – promoted by those who have spent years trying to destroy the NHS and causing nursing staff to go on strike in 2019
  • (let’s hope that when this matter comes to some sort of conclusion the people of this country will get off their fat arses and fight for the NHS and not continue to vote in a government that has been trying to destroy its very foundations for decades)
  • so-called ‘austerity’ was forced upon the people, not only of the UK but throughout the world, so that they would have to pay for the crimes of capitalism. During that period, in the UK, we saw; the increase in homelessness; the introduction of short term contracts; zero hour contracts; attacks on social services; reduced funding for the elderly in care homes; and reduced funding for schools and a ‘privatisation’ of education with the introduction of Academies.
  • this produced a society less resilient, in organisational, skills and general health to be able to confront such a pandemic.

Who are the ‘key workers’?

All of a sudden ‘key workers’ are; NHS staff – at all levels; care workers; supermarket staff; refuse collectors; council workers, i.e., some of the lowest paid in the country.

A prepared world?

The Global Heath Security Index released a report in October 2019 where it stated:

‘National health security is fundamentally weak around the world. No country is fully prepared for epidemics or pandemics, and every country has important gaps to address.’

This report is 324 pages long and I don’t expect most lay people to read it – but it should have been read by a responsible expert in all countries and recommendations made to governments. Did they in the UK/ If so, what happened? If not, why not. We are being asked to respect experts but if they are there just to give the politicians credibility then they are worse than nothing.

The report also found that the USA, out of all countries, was best prepared to deal with a pandemic. I wonder how many New Yorkers will agree with that?

A reference to this report appeared in an article in the Metro newspaper – way back on 5th March before the restrictions were introduced – one of the most read newspaper in the country.

But we have been told for years that past governments had been prerparing for such an eventuality – and one of the government ‘experts’ stated, when the first cases started to appear in the UK, that we shouldn’t panic as they were fully prepared. Economical with the truth or a lie?

What’s happening in other countries

  • Germany reporting that it carried out 500,000 tests in a week
  • what’s happening in Sweden
  • Trump claims there have been more than a million tests for the virus in the USA, 29th March
  • China sending supplies of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), by air, to New York (29th March)
  • Trump claims some hospitals are ‘hoarding’ ventilators – in an attempt to shift blame for lack of preparedness, 31st March
  • Austria making it compulsory for people to wear face masks in supermarkets, 30th March – how will this be possible when there is no availability of masks?
  • American Airlines has said it plans to request a $12bn US government bailout to cover its payroll costs over the next six months. 1st April

How is the NHS dealing with the pandemic?

  • shortage of Personal Protection Equipment – constantly being talked about, not only in the hospitals but in care homes as well
  • a big thing made of the ‘Nightingale’ Hospital opening in an exhibition centre in London, again, why was this not considered when the pandemic was likely weeks ago and only gets opened during the second week of a lock-down, 30th March
  • why wasn’t it considered a good tactic to have all potential covid-19 positive patients in the same facility, and one could be created for this is major population centres before the outbreak started to take hold?
  • ‘an echo-cardiographer doing a cleaning job in a hospital’, 31st March – what are the 700,000 plus ‘volunteers’ supposed to be doing if a skilled medical practitioner is doing such work?

British citizens abroad

  • UK government criticised for being last to attempt to bring British citizens back to the UK when the countries they had been travelling in started to lock down
  • complaints about poor information and lack of preparedness in various countries – probably an extension of the hands off approach the British government has had with citizens ion other countries which has developed over the year
  • ‘solve’ the problem by throwing money at the issue
  • ‘we are being kept in the dark’, ‘if they are doing something why don’t they tell us?’ – common complaints of British citizens stranded in other countries which are going through their own lock-down
  • £75m to be spent on rescue flights to bring British citizens back to the UK, 31st March, are these commercial rates being paid to private companies

Coronavirus Act 2020 – and the potential dangers of a locked-down society

‘Guidance’ to the act – official government website

Or the whole act in HTML format

  • ‘there’s a danger of the UK sliding into an authoritarian state’, Lord Sumption, Former Justice of the Supreme Court, 30th March
  • Derbyshire Police and the Peak District – ‘We are finding our way’. Read seeing what they can get away with. (31st March)
  • giving up liberties which are hard to recover – refer to Patriot Act in USA and 11th September 2001
  • what happens on streets when there’s no one there – reports of more break ins and burglaries in quiet town centres as there are few people around (31st March)
  • danger of legislation being snuck in and important reports getting lost in the coronavirus noise
  • 2020 UK Housing Review by Chartered Institute of Housing, reports, among other things, a huge increase in the numbers in temporary accommodation. This puts more than £1.1 billion into the hands of private landlords
  • Child poverty numbers rise by 100,000 in 12 months

‘It is a strategy that could pave the way to end the lock-down. The NHS is preparing to release an app that alerts users if they come into contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.’

The Telegraph, Front Page AM, 1st April

Quote of the week

‘But, overall, I tell you, the private, free enterprise system has been worked like nobody has seen in a long time’

Donald Trump, President of the USA, in a clip on the BBC Radio 2, 00.00 news on 29th March.

This had competition from the country will be ‘back open by Easter’ by the same person on 24th March.

Exit Strategy

A short one this, there still isn’t one!

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

Turning a problem into a crisis – Tory inactivity (and hypocrisy) in the face of the covid-19 pandemic

Posted on by
Reply

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?

Turning a problem into a crisis – Tory inactivity (and hypocrisy) in the face of the covid-19 pandemic

The article below was originally written in response to a very interesting and detailed article that addressed ‘How Should Marxists View the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2019-2020?’ This appeared on the Marxism-Leninism Today website (but now seems to have been taken down).

This is obviously still and ongoing situation and things can change by the hour let alone the day or week. That being the case we are likely to face many issues in the next few months which could well have consequences that will stay with the people of Britain long after the virus is brought under any sort of control. This article is, therefore, just some initial thoughts on the matter to date (23rd March 2020).

As I type this it is being stated that the planned Emergency Powers Act going to get passed by Parliament later today (likely with little opposition) will include a clause that it will have to be presented to Parliament every six months for ratification rather than lie on the statute books forever.

However, we have the example where the ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’, which was introduced in 1974, had the same stipulation that it had to be ratified every six months but it soon went through with no discussion at all until 1989!

Dear Comrades

An interesting and informative article on the present virus. However, I’m not sure I totally agree on the way to deal with it. And what follows is based upon how I see, and have seen, matters in a UK perspective.

I am loath to say this (as it means agreeing with the Tory buffoon) but I thought the idea of keeping things relatively ‘normal’ for as long as possible was the best way forward. I now have to accept that I was naïve (to say the least) in believing anything the Tory incompetents and liars say. Having spent too many years of my life where the people of Britain have decided to choose the Conservatives to be the government my only excuse is that I’m forgetting history and put that down to the dotage that comes with age.

To justify my initial agreement I assumed (again foolishly) that there was a plan behind the ‘sit tight’ argument. I thought there might have been a real strategy they were following. After all, we were being told that the response to such an event had been planned for in different exercises over the years.

Even if that ‘planning’ was flawed there was the expectation that all governments (or at least some of their ‘experts’) would have learnt from the experience in Asia, the methods they had used and the tactics they had followed. But that wasn’t the case. The British government took what they wanted from that experience (the so-called ‘social distancing’ and ‘self-isolation’) but nothing that was proactive. Their approach can be summed up by ‘do nothing and hope it will go away by itself’.

I’m not sure that any country has really learnt from recent outbreaks (SARS, Ebola, ‘bird flu’, ‘swine flu’ – and many others I can’t even remembering hearing about in the last 40 years) and certainly not from the last worldwide killer pandemic – the so-called ‘Spanish Flu’ of 1918 (as some of Trump’s cronies are trying to do this time by referring the virus as the ‘Chinese virus’ we haven’t developed much as a society in wanting to blame someone else, preferably someone ‘foreign’). In fact, response has seen little development since the ‘Black Death’ of 1348. Technology, which some believe have the answer to all issues (e.g., climate emergency, pollution – in all its forms – etc.), certainly hasn’t come to the rescue when it comes to this infinitesimally small coronavirus.

In the second half of March (four months since the issue arose in China) health workers in Britain are complaining that they don’t have adequate protective gear and testing is only taking place on those people when they are in hospital and have probably already contracted the disease. The testing in this situation confirms the diagnosis but doesn’t help in any preventative strategy.

It’s possible to criticise the process in China but they did a great deal more testing than has taken place in Europe in general and the situation seems (I accept that this is not definitive) to be getting better in Asia in general. And the testing seems to be the key in any success that China, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore have registered.

I don’t know what people were told in their respective countries by their respective ‘leaders’ but it couldn’t have been (or can be – as this will go on for ever) worse than what we have had to tolerate in Britain.

To list all the errors, mistakes and muddled thinking of the present government in Britain in the face of the pandemic of covid-19 would take forever, and we are still just at the beginning of the crisis. But to pick some of the ones that stand out;

  • turning every announcement into a Party-political broadcast (attempting to put themselves in a good light

  • continuing to play by the same political game and pandering to those precious individuals who see themselves above the rest of us (telling MPs first so they don’t feel left out)

  • allowing rumours to spread through the course of the day and then grandstanding with the announcement which all expect

that’s the political game.

Perhaps more seriously in determining how the virus might spread;

  • having no real overall strategy

  • bringing ‘experts’ to the forefront in order that if/when things go wrong they have ready made scapegoats

  • not having a concept of testing to help slow contagion and then throwing around meaningless figures in order to divert criticism (25,000 tests a day – at some indeterminate time in the future – is nothing in a population of more than 60 million)

  • not providing protective equipment for those ‘on the front’ line – even when there have been calls for this to be distributed for weeks – therefore demonstrating their lack of preparedness

  • no central guidance to the likes of dentists (and other groups) although they are calling for it

  • making ‘recommendations’ (as in pubs and restaurants) leaving everyone concerned in a quandary – just so they can maintain their Tory credentials

  • moving the responsibility upon the population to cover for their inaction

  • having no ‘exit strategy’ to their policy of ‘social distancing’ and ‘self-isolation’

  • providing baffling and incomplete messages and therefore causing confusion which leads to panic and fear

  • not anticipating that such a lack of clarity leads to panic buying and hoarding

  • ‘negotiating’ with private health providers in place of requisitioning facilities which only exist thanks to publicly funded and trained professional – and then paying them ‘at cost’

And then we must add on hypocrisy (which British politicians have in spades)

  • praising health workers (and the general concept of the National Health Service – NHS), when for decades they have been making massive cuts which led, at the end of 2019, to unprecedented strikes by nurses

  • giving the impression they care about the elderly and infirm after an equal number of years making cuts in social care expenditure

  • stating that ‘we are all in this together’ and not remembering that the same meaningless phrase had been used by another Tory leader in relation to the purely greed manufactured and avoidable financial melt-down of 2008 which led to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer

  • finding mind blowing quantities of money after years of stating ‘money can’t be created from nowhere’ – unless it’s to buy votes in a General Election or in the belief that everyone/thing has a price and that the virus can be bought off

  • using the health crisis to transfer unknown quantities of public wealth into the hands of private corporations

  • keeping quiet about the fact that this money must be paid for by someone, sometime in the future, i.e., the young, who are the least at risk from the present virus

  • prepared to bail out private firms with payments per employee up to £2,500 per month whilst at the same time considering millions of people on Universal Credit can live on £94 per week and any increase would risk bankrupting the country

  • perhaps the supreme irony – the Tory buffoon, at the press conference of 22nd March 2020, standing behind a card which declares ‘Protect the NHS’. Those who have spent decades trying to destroy the institution now claim to be its saviour

That is the way it’s now being ‘managed’ in Britain.

This is the result of putting the biggest social crisis since 1939 in the hands of chancers and opportunists who are only in the game for self-aggrandisement and financial advancement. This is all that ‘Parliamentary Democracy’ – or more accurately Parliamentary Cretinism’ – boils down to.

The idea of ‘social distancing’ (the sum of the government’s suggestions) only makes sense if it is accompanied with a comprehensive and strict regime of testing and follow-up which targets and identifies infection hot spots. What is done is important but having the infrastructure to deal with the consequences is even more so. The situation developed in China a matter of months before it really broke here and there was plenty of opportunity for the government to have put things in place for when the inevitable arrived. They didn’t because they hoped the virus would decide to give

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England

(William Shakespeare, King Richard II, Act 2, scene 1)

a miss. The problem was the covid-19 hadn’t read Shakespeare – and probably have ignored line 5 if it did.

At the time of the spring equinox the government accuses the people for not taking the threat seriously enough – yet they have been guilty of that since the first news of the outbreak in China was made public last year.

We are given mixed messages about how the population is reacting. Selfish panic buying in the supermarkets is condemned by all and sundry – but a billion pounds worth of groceries (the amount spent in the last two to three weeks over the same period last year) isn’t being spent just by the super-rich, not all workers are rational and selfless.

And we can’t be surprised that many people react in this way as any community feeling has been under attack since the early 80s. It takes a long time to change people’s thinking but I would argue that up to the 80s there was a greater ‘community spirit’ in this country than there is now. For example, the majority of the population didn’t blame the unemployed for their situation in the 70s – I don’t think that’s the same now. We are living with the results of the poison of individualism spread by Thatcher and her acolytes since (both Tory and Labour).

There are, nonetheless, reports of people coming together to help those less able to face the new challenges. This is obviously to be welcomed. If the government doesn’t care for us then we will have to look after ourselves. This was something that developed during the Miner’s Strike of 1984-1985 with Miners Support Groups established throughout the country. If such a structure is developed in the near future we should ensure it doesn’t get forgotten when the present crisis passes. If those who seek to ‘rule over us’ don’t do what they are there for what need do we have for them?

Yes, we are allowing ourselves to be ruled by a bunch of incompetents but will people remember this further down the line. We saw that in December last the people of the UK have little ability to analyse the economic and political situation and have even less ability to remember even recent history. The Tories’ new Georgie mates must have been disappointed they weren’t given special treatment when the pubs were told to close – they probably thought their new favoured status would mean an exemption from this ban on the Federation clubs.

I agree with some of the pundits that the present ‘strategy’ is fraught with difficulties. Like their ‘solution’ to the 2008 crisis (when all the problems were just kicked to some indeterminate point on the future) the way of ‘dealing’ with the virus outbreak is to spread it so thinly that it will be manageable. But it will never be so – due in no small part to the way things have been going on in this country since the 1980s – it’s not just a matter of post-2008 ‘austerity’.

Figures that are constantly coming out from every direction only serve to cause more uncertainty, more fear and therefore will create more panic. France’s solution to bad management seems to be to send the troops out on the street and basically institute a situation of martial law. Italy seems to be doing the same now. How long before it happens in Britain? In such a situation how long will it be before some stupid squaddie pulls the trigger and kills someone? And then watch the balloon go up.

For Communists yet another capitalist crisis and the chaos that is developing presents opportunities – but only if we have a Marxist-Leninist organisation capable of directing the way the working class, as a class, should go forward. There are few of them anywhere in the world now – the most recent ones that looked like they were getting there making fundamental mistakes just before the potential for success was realised (here I’m talking about Peru and Nepal).

Billions of pounds that wasn’t there in the past is now being promised to private industry. Large companies, e.g., airlines and train companies will be re-nationalised – but only to pull them out of the shit. When they are healthy again they will return to private hands. Where’s the idea of laissez faire capitalism? When capitalism is in structural crisis it’s now become the norm that the people have to pull them out of their crisis – whether of their own making (as in 2008) or with factors (slightly) out of their control, as now. Only slightly as the much vaunted ‘globalisation’ together with international liberalisation has destroyed (or at least weakened) much of the infrastructure which could have dealt with this situation in a much more positive manner in the past.

There are political dangers associated with this present crisis – and we have a precedent which it would be dangerous to ignore. In a situation where the State is able to manipulate information, and especially when they are denying people the right to congregate (even if there are valid reasons for this) then this provides it with an ideal opportunity to introduce ’emergency’ legislation to ‘better deal with the potential dangers’. Such legislation tends to stick around for a long time.

In the United States the Patriot Act was snuck in after the twin towers came down in September 2001. In the UK the Prevention of Terrorism Act came into force first in 1974 (in response to the situation in Ireland) and then went through the British Parliament every six months, on the nod, until 1989. Various British governments since 2000 have brought in other ‘terrorism’ acts which would need only a slight tweak to be extended to make anyone challenging a government diktat to be declared a ‘terrorist’.

Capitalism will never be able to deal with such crises as any meaningful action will go counter to self-interest and profit. Any idea of closing down London – the epicentre of the pandemic in Britain – would almost certainly see the demise (or at least a severe weakening) of the financial centres and the Stock Exchange in the City. And capital has been wanting when it comes to dealing with the climate emergency.

The search for a vaccine – upon which all capitalist governments place their hopes – itself is fraught with contradictions. Supposedly to prevent death of the vulnerable whoever gets the patent in first is set to make a fortune that would make the California and Yukon gold rushes of the 19th century seem as wealth producing as a church hall raffle.

With a world population of more than seven billion it doesn’t take a genius to work out who will get the first batch. It would be a gambler (or a fool) indeed who would bet on it being the world’s most vulnerable who received it first.

More on covid pandemic 2020-2?