Corona latest – Tories tell Britons they are on their own and head for the exits

What is the theme music of the Tory response to the Corona virus?

Perhaps the opening few lines of that track by The Bloodhound Gang – The Roof Is On Fire?

“The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire, we don’t need no water let the motherfucker burn – burn motherfucker – burn”

but perhaps the closing few lines of the same song sum it up best:

“..come on party people, wave your hands in the air, come on party people – wave em like you don’t care” 

39 nations now have widespread or total closures of schools in response to the Corona virus. Surrounded by prompt European action, the UK remains a solitary island of studied inaction – UK teaching unions have written to the invisible man at 10 Downing Street demanding to know why.

You can browse through just a fraction of the measures taken in EU states to restrict travel, ban public gatherings and close schools – and this was five days ago, new measures are still being announced by every other government in Europe every hour – meanwhile the UK government does nothing but hold bullshit press conferences. 

In keeping  with the longest traditions of the Tory Party their current view about the Corona virus is that the government should restrict itself to explaining why things shouldn’t be, won’t be and can’t be done. 

If you want somebody to defend the indefensible, somebody so shameless and stupid that you can rely on them to say virtually anything – then you need Matt Hancock, which is why he has put in charge of the final dismantling of the NHS prior to full privatisation.

While our prime minister once again was nowhere to be seen, Hancock has just finished a press conference where he was dissembling like a man auditioning for the part of Donald Trump The Movie. 

Hancock doesn’t know if he can guarantee food supplies so he just waffled about it. When quizzed about the government’s ‘herd immunity’ lunacy he (true to form) denied it was ever part of government policy saying:

“Herd immunity is not our goal or policy – it’s a scientific concept”

– even though the government’s own chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance explained the goal yesterday in crystal clear language:

“Our aim is to try and reduce the peak, broaden the peak, not suppress it completely; also, because the vast majority of people get a mild illness, to build up some kind of herd immunity“

Matt then defended the non-policy (?) specifically endorsed yesterday – but denied today – by saying they would listen to ‘credible scientists’. This clearly doesn’t include the Secretary of State for Health talking to his own Chief Scientific Adviser or indeed the 245 scientists who wrote to the government yesterday  demanding that they reverse the ‘herd immunity’ policy. Their open letter said:

“Going for ‘herd immunity’ at this point does not seem a viable option, as this will put the NHS at an even stronger level of stress, risking many more lives than necessary.”

The Tories want the elderly to just go away for FOUR MONTHS with no further details as to how they are to get medication, groceries or medical treatment. Vulnerable people are something of a PR embarrassment for the government at the moment. 

In another bizarre twist, the Tories are demanding  that factories churn out more ventilators; the lack of same being explained by the Chairman of the British Medical Association Dr Chaand Nagpaul as “a result of a decade of under-funding”

Most importantly  though the Tories are going to shovel truck loads of cash towards private health care firms – £2.4 million per day is to be spent ‘hiring’ beds in private hospitals while others have wondered why in a national emergency they couldn’t be requisitioned.

But we already know why, don’t we? Many multi-millionaire Tories have substantial investments in private health care companies so it wouldn’t do to deprive of them profits which might depress share dividends.  Rehana Azam national officer of the GMB trade union is one of many rightly demanding that:

Private resources requisitioned for public good?!? The Tories will have nothing to do with that! As we explained yesterday – the Tories don’t give a fuck about you, your family or the people who are about to die from this virus – what they care about is money, making it and protecting it. They are the party of the super-rich and they have the resources to make their own plans.

The usual suspects are hiring private jets  and scuttling off to holiday homes or specially prepared disaster bunkers . Why should they worry about the overloaded NHS and the spread of the virus in the UK? Rich families have personal doctors and nurses in the event they become infected. The wealthy are also besieging private clinics across the world, demanding private virus tests.

By contrast our chronically underfunded NHS can test only people with a “high chance” of having the illness and good luck finding an emergency bed if you need one, as the UK has one of the lowest number per head in Europe.

The Tory response to the Corona virus is indicative of a government that resents moral imperatives, has no interest in the common good and has already left the building.

Tories instinctively resent the idea of strong government institutions. Such bodies tend to levy and collect fair taxes and introduce meddlesome standards on the environment, inequality and health and safety; things the Tories have spent decades weakening and abolishing.

To those who cling to the idea that the Tories have a plan for dealing with the Corona virus or indeed that they are terribly bothered about anything beyond the potential PR fall out, ask yourself this:

Why would a government that shrugs its shoulders about homelessness, food banks, child poverty, in work poverty, sky high rents, precarious jobs, needless deaths from austerity, Grenfell, Windrush and Climate Change suddenly care about this virus?

I have no advice for you – the Tories are in charge. They are going to do next to nothing about the Corona virus and that is that.

All I can say is this:  if this crisis should happen to burn through the baffling political support that the Tories have in this country…

…we won’t need no water. Let the mother fuckers burn. 

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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