The embrace of Tory lies over Corona reveals a dysfunctional relationship with Truth

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“What is the cost of lies? It’s not that we’ll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognise the truth at all. What can we do then? What else is left but to abandon even the hope of truth and content ourselves instead with stories?”

When groups lose their ability to recognise truth there are consequences – “Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth – sooner or later that debt is paid.”

For the Soviet Union that debt was Chernobyl. In Ireland it was the Magdelene Laundries and mass graves. Throughout history the short term advantage of lies has been gained by the liars and the long term debt paid by innocents.

Covid-19 is serious but it illuminates a moral pandemic that in the end will be much more deadly – a collective willingness to manufacture and embrace lies.

The Conservative Party has endlessly lied about Covid-19 out of venal self interest. The debt of those lies is now being paid by needlessly bereaved families, dead doctors, a shut down economy and a population cowering from a preventable pandemic.

We were told at least eight times from January to March that coronavirus posed a “very low” or “low” risk. Cabinet ministers have also assured the public on at least 16 occasions that the NHS was “well prepared” to cope with coronavirus. These assertions were lies.

With breathtaking cynicism the UK government has dragged its feet over Covid-19 testing  in order to manipulate statistics and has similarly hidden the true number of deaths. Avoiding mass testing gives the government a PR advantage in comparisons with other nations, but means flouting WHO guidelines for Covid-19 which recommend urgent mass testing, contact tracing and robust PPE equipment. 

The government is trying to silence doctors about the ongoing lack of PPE equipment. It is also trying to hide its venal parochialism in not joining EU efforts to procure ventilators  (they prioritised the jingoism of Brexit instead).

The lack of preparedness for Covid-19 was predicted by Operation Cygnus – a government investigation in 2016 which revealed huge gaps in the NHS readiness. Confronted as to why nothing was done after Operation Cygnus, the Care Minister Helen Whately flat out lied that the NHS was in ‘good shape’ to deal with Covid-19. You can watch the horror show interview here. 

The Tories initially embraced a cavalier and reckless policy of ‘herd immunity’. Some think this is still quietly driving UK policy and all that has changed is the spin. 

Government scientific adviser Graham Medley, confirmed on Newsnight that the UK wanted ‘a controlled epidemic’ to generate ‘herd immunity’. Under a barrage global incredulity and criticism, the UK has belatedly dropped elements of its ‘herd immunity’ strategy but this has come far too late to save tens of thousands from needless death. 

The Tories  have rushed to camouflage  this u-turn with lies. Unable to blame the victims as the Prime Minister and his senior advisers had caught the disease themselves, they found a new scapegoat and blamed China instead.

An enormous cover up is underway to hide the sins and incompetence of the British Establishment over Covid-19.

They want you to believe that:

• The pandemic running wild across the UK was unavoidable.
• The Tories never embraced a herd immunity strategy.
• The NHS was well prepared for a pandemic of this kind
• The NHS hasn’t been underfunded since 2010
• The government is doing a good job of dealing with the crisis
• China is somehow to blame for the number of deaths in the UK

These assertions are all lies.

A most illuminating comparison can be drawn between the response of the UK (and other nations like Italy, Spain and the USA) with South Korea. 

South Korea is a nation of 52 million people with a higher population density (503 per sq km) than the UK (430 per sq km). Both nations reported Covid-19 infections in January (South Korea on the 20th, the UK on the 31st).  

South Korea followed the World Health Organisation guidelines of mass early testing, quarantine and contact tracing from the outset and has contained the virus. South Korea has fewer deaths IN TOTAL than the UK is now reporting DAILY and is returning to normal – albeit with its borders sensibly closed to nations like ours.

By contrast the UK still hasn’t embraced World Health Organisation guidelines – and thinks it will be ‘doing well’ to avoid 20,000 deaths.  It is building emergency hospitals, morgues  and there is no end to the emergency lock down in sight. As Richard Horton said, the weeks following the initial outbreak in China were wasted and that was a national scandal. 

Thanks to the ideologies, arrogance and bumbling incompetence of this Conservative government, tens of thousands of families are going to lose loved ones needlessly. This is not the fault of the Chinese or of some unavoidable act of God: their deaths will flow directly from their policy decisions before and during this crisis.

and yet…

An Opinium poll published today sees a surge in Tory support. 

This disconnect between amoral governance and popular approval suggests an inability and an unwillingness  to seek, recognise and deal with truth. 

“We’re on dangerous ground right now, because of our secrets and our lies. They are practically what define us. When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid.”

As a species we spend so much time being lied to, lying to ourselves and embracing lies that our relationship with truth is tenuous at best. Covid-19 illuminates this moral crisis as global and far more serious than any biological disease.

Bigger consequences like climate vandalism and biodiversity loss loom large on the horizon – unlike Covid-19 we most likely won’t recover from those and this current pandemic may merely be a prelude of the end times. 

Too many are overdrawn at the bank of truth: some small down payments will be paid against that debt in the weeks and months ahead…

…but that will be as nothing to the horrors that lie ahead if we keep pivoting our daily moral praxis around lies.

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.     

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