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Even veteran watchers of Tory politicians were shocked by tonight’s Orwellian broadcast from Boris Johnson. Many speculated whether his illness would change him – it has: he is more dangerous than ever.
Throughout the Brexit shenanigans his crude, cynical mix of political opportunism and laddish libertarianism swept all before him. He slyly told Britain whatever it wanted to hear, eager to promise the exact opposite if the winds changed. Johnson possesses neither integrity nor moral framework: only calculations of short term self interest guide him. Looking gaunt and wild eyed, his tubthumping delivery looked desperate and insane – but that pales beside the madness of the policies.
The government and its advisors have long treated Covid-19 as a political problem, not a medical crisis. Policy has prioritised Johnson’s political brand and supporter base.
What Johnson unveiled was political sophistry and a huge gamble: typical of his reckless and self-centred public life. There is no sane argument for easing the lock down in the UK right now – infections remain high and scientists warn darkly of the dangers of a second wave of deaths: but he is pressing ahead anyway.
Mindful of deep public scepticism about an early easing of the lock down, Johnson packaged his desperate desire to end the lockdown as extreme caution. The Tories have simply returned to the strategy that they began this crisis with – herd immunity: now packaged with even more emphasis on personal responsibility.
The new guidelines are so vague as to even make critiquing them difficult – but that vagueness is the whole point. Johnson, under political pressure from the hard right and the feral Tory press, needed to ease the lock down fast. Johnson faced three problems:
(i) How could he lift the lockdown while avoiding being seen to lift it?
(ii) How could he characterise a reckless policy as a cautious one?
(iii) How could he take a huge gamble with the nation’s public health but deflect the consequences if the bet went bad?
His solution is to reframe rules about social gatherings and travel as individual ethics. Since vague guidelines are unenforceable by the police, the lock down has thus been ended by stealth: albeit politically camouflaged behind a blizzard of cautious sounding language.
The previously clear instruction to Stay At Home has been softened to Stay Alert. How does one stay alert to something so small that you cannot see, taste, touch or smell it?
- The previously draconian instruction to Stay At Home has further been softened to ‘Stay at home as much as possible‘.
- The 2m rule for social distancing now carries the caveat ‘where possible‘.
- People are to work from home ‘if they can’ and ‘limit‘ contact with others.
Johnson has made the lockdown a personal decision for those that care and can afford to observe it. For everyone else, the lock down has ended.
“Impossible,” said one senior source, referring to the prospect of enforcing the lockdown other than policing larger groups of people out of their homes.
This government is directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Far from learning from this (or caring), the Tories are about to take another high risk gamble with the lives of thousands more.
Even a utilitarian moral justification would serve only to disguise the true shallowness of Johnson’s motivations: his decisions are rooted in political expediency and self interest; the delivery methods wholly dishonest and manipulative.
Do not be fooled by Johnson’s Trumpian ‘man-of-the-people’ schlock nor his strong man persona: he is a very sly and dangerous man. Boris has desperately wanted to distance himself fr0m the measures needed to truly deal with Covid-19: for now at least he has succeeded in doing so. I shudder to think what now lies ahead for the UK, led by a man with a banal yet evil mindset.
I sincerely hope to be wrong, but I fear that the UK will continue to plunge ever deeper into the abyss. A second wave of Covid-19 now looks inevitable to my eyes: soon to coincide with the ordinary flu season. The spectre of a no deal Brexit also looms large…
…nobody can say they weren’t warned.
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.
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Thank you in solidarity with all our readers. John Lynch, Editor.
The very real problem we have is a hopelessly complicit MSM. The government are NOT being held to account, they couldn’t give less of a damn about the people and nobody is fighting back.
Your article is great but how many read alternative sources, a tiny minority whilst the people who most need information and clarity continue to blindly support the government. 54% think Johnson the sociopath is doing a good job.
He is a monster. What the hell is wrong with people? What is wrong? How are they so blind?