.
The timing of VE day was just perfect, renewing Britain’s hubristic longing for empire and war just as Covid-19 is killing more UK civilians than WWII.
Amidst (mildly) socially distanced street fetes, Union Jack bunting and 1940’s costumery, a new musical called ‘We’ll Tweet Again!’ is a nationwide smash: a modern day re-imagining of wartime triumphs. Sub-microscopic viral organisms are the new Huns in the Sun and many greatly prefer Vera Lynn and Dad’s Army over medical ‘science’ and WHO guidelines.
The English establishment spins their cavalier facilitation of a public health disaster as vindication of their faux Churchillian swagger… while the rest of the world looks on in bemused contempt.
BoJo’s ‘fight them on the beaches’ rhetoric was inevitable – not least because such vibes are exactly what the public elected. Britain has a severe reality deficit and while this was kind of funny during Brexit it’s now a deadly indulgence.
Electing people with Battle Of Britain fantasies and a pugnacious contempt for common folk was always going to end in tragedy. Such people can certainly ‘Get (a no-deal) Brexit Done’ but are worse than useless during an emergency like Covid-19.
This virus required the detailed application of pre-existing pandemic guidelines, but instead we got herd immunity and wartime rhetoric. Though funny and authentically British on some levels, coach loads of dead nurses, doctors and care workers do dampen the mood somewhat – as does a football stadium full of dead bodies.
This hasn’t stopped Tory wartime stylings from displacing any coherent health strategy. BoJo invited us to ‘take it on the chin’ and nakedly conflates health policy with war.
The weekly bashing of saucepans for ‘heroes on the front line’ purposely foments this patriotic siege mentality to distract from government failure. The Queen was conscripted to invoke Vera Lynn (We’ll Meet Again!). There are to be medals for nurses and Matt Hancock can barely finish a sentence without paying tribute to the forces battling with the beast from the east.
The momentum of Tory idiocy is speeding up. The UK has the most deaths from Covid-19 in Europe and leads all in ongoing deaths: now the government is preparing to ease the lock-down with instructions more relevant to 1942 than 2020.
.
.
The plan is to replace the clear (if scandalously belated) advice and to reopen offices, garden centres and public spaces in defiance of all medical sanity.
.
.
What does ‘Stay Alert’ mean in this context? Can one detect sub-microscopic organisms invading Shoreditch or Barnsley? Shall we run into Andersen shelters and black out the windows? Should we start shooting people with a dry cough (this might play well in Texas but not in Witney)?
How are individuals supposed to ‘Control The Virus’? A pandemic requires a national health policy. What are terrified pensioners to do? Juggle the virus? Give it a stern talking to about the bulldog British spirit? Chase it into a rabbit hutch with a broom?
What was a clear series of deeply necessary prohibitions are once again to become vague suggestions:
.
.
This madness is an abdication of responsibility and pressures people to return to work – regardless of danger: those with the least options will suffer most.
The government are in effect, cynically ending of the lock-down by stealth. The police will be unable to enforce anything on this basis and as things go wrong – the public will be blamed.
Please accept the following simple truths:
(a) Britain is run by a mixture of eugenicist ideologues like Dominic Cummins, hard right billionaire economic assassins and schoolboy wartime fantasists like Johnson and Gove.
(b) Now is not the time to trust the Tories and emerge from the lock-down: stick with the original advice: Stay At Home – Protect The NHS – Save Lives.
Billy Bonkers the Tory voter will embrace the wartime bravado and the harrumphs of the Tory Press. He will gain a short-term feeling of invincibility and smug superiority – and it may well cost him his life.
Don’t be like Billy Bonkers.
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.
Article claims to ask rhetorical questions. eg “How are individuals supposed to ‘Control The Virus’?” clearly means “Individuals are expected to voluntarily comply with contact tracing, and any suggested 2 week stay-indoor quarantines, that contact tracing suggests”.
Article cant be bothered to attempt to answer own questions, then slides into derision mode, manipulating you, dear reader, to become managed opposition.
The point being that individuals cannot control a pandemic. If you disagree – give it your best shot, let us know how you get on. You raise a familiar false dichotomy between freedom and licence, seemingly unaware of having done so – I would like the freedom to live without fear of this virus: for that to happen I am willing to download an app and self isolate as needed – most grown ups understand that genuine freedom may sometimes requires a temporary suspension of some aspects of licence. Some people in the UK need to grow up.
Graph looks dodgy. States death per million of population. UK population is approximately 67 million. Multiply this by your 6.6 claim gives a UK death toll of 442. Government stats show deaths in excess of 30,000.
Well its published by the WHO and is a *rolling average* meant to indicate a current trend – which was my point entirely.