Once this is over, the callous and inept Tories should be kicked out forever

.

Oh what a lovely lock down! Except it isn’t a lock down at all – Boris and chums are making a complete toff-tastic bish of it and it’s all quite deliberate.

An extraordinary piece in yesterday’s Guardian described ‘lock down’ London:

“This is not, by any stretch of the word, a lockdown. Not much has been locked. Nobody seems that down. East Street market is rammed with shoppers drawn to the fish and fruit stalls. People have to eat but there is not much distancing here. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has suggested under the current definition 1.1 million Londoners count as key workers (now including people such as bicycle mechanics)”

Pictures of crammed commuter trains and chaotic supermarkets abound: London is about as locked down as a double garage with no doors. In mendacious ‘briefings’ the Tories mutter that ‘essential workers’ should only go to work if ‘absolutely necessary’.

But so many workers are deemed to be ‘essential’ as to make the term meaningless for millions. Are factories making toys, TV remotes and hub caps essential? Are building sites throwing up tokens for the casino property market essential? Well yes, to the Tory mind set they are, since their priority is corporate balance sheets – not public health. 

Few know how hopelessly dependent the UK is on its hyper-inflated housing market and credit cards. Over 97% of the ‘money’ in UK accounts has a corresponding debt elsewhere, which is why over ten million UK families have no savings and the average UK family owes £66K with £2.5K on credit cards.

Any monetary system which creates money via debt will inevitably transfer ever larger amounts of money to the owning class. The Tories will defend this system AT ALL COSTS and that is why they are keeping as much of the economy running as they can – regardless of the risks to the working class.         

The responsibility for ‘absolutely necessary’ has been slyly pushed on to the shoulders of employees, but workers cannot afford to defy employers. The deeply cynical UK government knows perfectly well that these vague and voluntary set of guidelines will cost them nothing: they are there to provide an appearance of serious action only. 

This virtual lock down is bullshit: a reality for pensioners invited to cut themselves adrift for months on end with no support, but a fantasy for the millions commuting to work as normal. In truth the Tory policy remains ‘herd immunity’ (lite?) wrapped in media hyperbole as a ‘lock down’. This policy will soon unleash unthinkable horrors in UK hospitals – already the UK rate of infections is above that of both China and Italy at the same stage.  

In the Tory mindset, workers have always been an expendable resource that they are entitled to punish and discard in support of privilege. No surprise that £330bn was available at the drop of a hat for the owning class but that welfare for gig economy workers and the self-employed has thus far proven ‘too complicated’.

Most Tory action about Covid-19 is primarily concerned with defending the financial and political capital that they regard as their birth right.

Senior Tories, delighted to be imminently shot of Jeremy Corbyn, are muttering about dragging the ‘sensible’ Keir Starmer into some sort of ‘Covid coalition’.

Their intent is clear: having long since given up any hope of sparing the UK from a medieval public health disaster, they now want Labour to share the blame for 13 years of undermining the NHS and 10 weeks of deliberate creative inertia about Covid-19.  Surely even the election wrecking Keir Starmer isn’t stupid enough to fall for that.

Very soon we shall have:

• Crocodile tears for the dead from whatever doleful looking Tories can be pushed out in front of the cameras of Sky News and the BBC
• Photo ops for Bojo standing next to bullied NHS staff,
• ‘Thoughts and prayers’ tweeted by the establishment
• Another huge bail out for City of London share values
• The announcement of an enquiry that won’t report for a decade but will deflect all parliamentary questions inter alia
• Army lorries collecting the dead in convoys
• Much hoopla in the corporate media as the embrace of socialism for the wealthy and the ruthless abandonment of the rest is explained away
• The post crisis chopping down of the ‘magic money tree’ and the return of perpetual austerity – probably even more savage than before.

Please don’t let the Tories get away with it.

Always remember that while they shut Parliament early, kept themselves nice and safe and raced to protect their financial assets, they sent millions out to work: out to catch the disease and bring it home to their families.

Remember that they did less than any other nation to protect their own citizens in the ten weeks that followed swift and effectual Chinese action in January.

Remember that the Tories are using this emergency as an excuse to shovel money towards private health care firms owned by them and their cronies.

Remember that the Tories have spent 13 years breaking up and undermining the NHS and that even now they are forcing brave doctors and nurses into battle with Covid-19 without the protective clothing and equipment they need to stay safe.

When we are finally through this, we should not wait for a single day to get rid of the despicable and deranged disease that is Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party. They are the true virus that is destroying the UK.

We should not wait for bullshit enquiries, media inquests or social media wars. They should all be thrown out of power the same day this is over – forever. 

Since 2013 I have worked between 4-6 hours a day on this Ad-Free site: trying to give a voice to those without the power or agency to speak out for themselves and uncovering truths that well paid journalists in the corporate media dare not utter.

I am a home schooling parent on a low income – paying for the domain, web hosting and security entirely out of my own pocket.  

If you found this article useful and could spare us a few shillings to help keep our lights on, it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in solidarity with all our readers. John Lynch, Editor.     

Click here to follow Sodium Haze on Facebook