1st April 2020
I’ve been trying to post since 25th March but for some reason this blog wont publish – so I’m trying again in a stripped down version. If you want the article complete with links please e-mail me at jem@jembrookes.com and I’ll send you the Word doc it was originally written on. Please bear in mind that some events have overtaken the opinions in the blog.
An extremely appropriate tune from Jem’s Jukebox starts the proceedings – Prefab Sprout and ‘Sound of Crying
Hopefully this link works – but if not –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr4xlgZqQkg
I’m busy writing my latest instalment and you can expect that by the weekend.
Thanks
Jem
Here we go:
March 24th and 25th 2020
Three months ago today (24th) we were all getting ready for and looking forward to Christmas, and for many of us a break from the troubles Brexit and Johnson’s mob of dimwit cronies had in store for us. Now, well if that’s all we had to worry about how fortunate were we?! Here in France we are entering our second week of lockdown, a situation that is being actively policed by the Gendarmes. Yesterday I read that over 90,000 people had been fined for inappropriate travel behaviour and that any rush to the quieter countryside had only lasted for a night. Supermarkets and food shops remain open, people are all behaving properly with regard to ‘social distancing’ and there are no shortages of anything. The French Government acted swiftly and forcefully to try to arrest the insidious march of Covid-19 and the people generally reacted positively to their Governments lead – not always something the French do, their general immediate response being a resounding ‘non!’
Compare and contrast that with the ever changing and often contradictory messages and behaviours of Johnson and his mob and the knuckle-dragging behaviour of morons shopping as witnessed in England. The idea of opening up special slots for NHS staff to shop to ensure they get what they need was a great idea, spoilt by morons who don’t work for the NHS barging in! And then panic buying everything in sight – Christ alive what do some people use for brains?
I’m no fan whatsoever of Johnson and his mob but the scale of the dilemma Covid-19 is presenting to the UK is mindboggling and it is incumbent on us all to do everything we can, as told by the Government, as guided by the science – but watching his daily press conferences it is as clear as the nose on his face that he isn’t up to the job, a job he so badly wanted I hasten to add. At every performance he has been out shone by the people by his side, be they his experts or (worryingly for him when this is all over) his Chancellor of the Exchequer.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-stress-test-cabinet-rishi-sunak
Last night he was even outperformed by Matt ‘Tigger’ Hancock, a man subject to much lampooning by John Crace, The Guardians political sketch writer.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/24/matt-hancock-looks-bewildered-that-the-nhs-isnt-in-better-shape
It wasn’t so long ago experts were being denigrated by the Tories, now they are seen as the saviours, but in truth the UK’s response, and I can only assume it was the experts calling the shots, was too little and way too late. The much heralded policy of herd immunity would have deliberately (in my view) exposed many elderly and at risk people to the virus, with the obvious consequences. Even I, with my massive misgivings about the looney right, the nutters in the ERG and Johnson’s right hand man Cummings, would find it hard to believe that that could ever have been a deliberate policy – but then hang on:
1. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of deaths would mean lots of empty houses, so reducing the housing crisis by reducing house prices (supply and demand – too many houses, too few people)
2. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of deaths (especially of the old and vulnerable) would reduce the demands on the NHS beyond the pandemic, so ending the NHS crisis
3. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of deaths (again especially of the old and vulnerable) would reduce the demands on Social Care, so ending another crisis.
4. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of deaths would also, it makes sense to assume, include lots and lots of ne’er do wells, so reducing criminals and therefore the demands on the Police, so ending another crisis.
5. Viruses tend to mutate to survive so what’s to say it won’t change and start getting at kids? Schools crisis? What crisis??
You can see where I’m going with this can’t you? There was a time when Tories were (supposedly) a benign hand of fiscal discipline but who ultimately had the welfare of the country and the Union at its heart (supposedly – I’ve never been convinced) but the fallout over Brexit sank that theory. Whilst I don’t suppose for one moment Tories like Ken Clarke or Michael Heseltine would ever dream of allowing thoughts like those above to enter their heads – both yesterday’s men now so basically irrelevant – but really – Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mark Francois and Ian Duncan-Smith, three of the nastiest characters in politics, holed up safely in their country mansions will only be looking at the political upsides of this disaster – be that Boris’s downfall or a reduced cost to the UK benefits bill.
What needs to happen now is mass lockdown. No prevarication. I never thought I would hear myself say this but Johnson has got to stop trying to persuade people to behave, he has got to instruct people to stay at home and enforce that instruction using the Police and the Army. I know this would cause massive civil liberty issues but this moment in time is too serious for him to avoid. I really believe he has avoided it to date because it would highlight the appalling lack of resources within the Police across the UK – and even in the Army – a situation that will only increase as members of those organisations will get infected and even succumb to the disease. The Government also needs to start preparing for a massive increase in demand for hospital beds and ICU beds.
Both my daughters work for the Spire Hospital in Didsbury, Manchester
https://www.spirehealthcare.com/patient-information/covid19-information/
and are busily preparing to turn over all the hospitals facilities to the NHS. Regardless of your views about private healthcare it is a fact of life now and private healthcare providers are stepping up to fill the gaps Governments of both sides have caused. When this is all over we must do all we can to ensure that the NHS is rebuilt and never allowed to be put in this position again. My girls are now classed as ‘Key Workers’ and will be risking their lives to help save the lives of others, bear that in mind when you start thinking about going out or ignoring other advice.
I have a nephew (well second cousin really) who is a Warrant Officer in the Royal Army Medical Corp, a Combat Medic and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who will, I have no doubt, be involved in preparing for the impact of Covid-19 and it has to be said that our Armed Forces are probably the best qualified to plan and are helping enact an emergency response to the virus with the construction of a Field Hospital at the London ExCeL
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/23/nhs-plans-to-turn-excel-centre-into-coronavirus-hospital
The Royal Navy also have two white elephant ships, namely HMS Queen Elizabeth
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/our-organisation/the-fighting-arms/surface-fleet/aircraft-carriers/hms-queen-elizabeth
and HMS Prince of Wales
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/princeofwales
that could readily convert into hospital ships and be able to deploy where necessary around the UK. The Italians have turned a Conference Centre into an emergency hospital in a matter of days, two floating boxes should prove too much of a problem.
No disrespect intended to any Royal Navy readers with regard to the aircraft carriers. I have another second-cousin (little brother to the aforementioned second-cousin) who is a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF and who is part of the team bringing the F35B Lightning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II#Differences_between_variants
into service with the RAF and Royal Navy and, no disrespect intended here either to the RAF, another white elephant, why are we buying the most expensive, least able or capable version of the F35? Another topic for another day maybe.
What this pandemic has really highlighted is the parlous state of the NHS, a result of what I can only describe as the deliberate criminal neglect of our greatest national asset. This is reflected by the state of Social Care and the care of those with mental illness as both will be subjected to even greater pressure as people termed (offensively?) as bed-blockers are sent home. When this is all over, as one day it will be, there will be a price to pay by us all. As citizens we will be burying our dead and picking up the pieces of our lives. Government will have to recognise how close we will have come to total melt-down and refinance and rebuild the provision of our social welfare provision. No longer should we tolerate the disregard of our health security. It will cost money and taxes will have to increase to pay for it – and so be it I say. Big tech corporations should start paying what they owe, and with no excuses. All those who operate and generate massive profits in the UK do so by taking advantage of a workforce that has been educated, trained and kept healthy by the state. Why do they think they can tap our human resources for free? Yes the people they employ pay taxes but that does not obviate the corporations responsibility to put something back. The Facebooks, Amazons, Google and Microsofts of this world have had it too easy for too long. Similarly the Banking and Financial Services sectors of the UK economy need to step up to the oche and recognise their responsibilities. The Banking crisis of 2008 and the subsequent collapse was of their doing yet it was the UK taxpaying public who bailed them all out. HSBC were offering businesses on the verge of bankruptcy because of Covid-19 loans at 18.5% apr when the Bank of England had just cut the bank rate to 0.1%!1 WTF!!!! It’s time Banks cut their interest rates all the way down to 0% or something similar and give people the space and opportunity to rebuild their businesses and lives when this is done. The Chancellors response to the virus astounded me – who said there wasn’t a money tree – but he’s slipped up by offering ‘loans at attractive rates’. He should be offering loans at no rates or ideally grants to fully ensure when this is all over there will still be businesses out there ready to go. I’ve got old friends in the building game back home in Cheadle and Stockport who will all be struggling, through no fault of their own and who won’t be looking to increase their debt or financial obligations – we bailed out the Banks – it’s now time to fully support all small and medium businesses.
So then, nationally, looking to a future post-Covid-19, we need a new NHS, properly funded, and a new dare I call it National Social Care Service (NSCS) properly funded, both positioned in such a way as to operate normally at 80-85% capacity. I’ve always been a believer in hypothecated tax ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothecated_tax ) for essential services such as the NHS. Our National Insurance contributions are a hypothecated tax (which is why it’s called a ‘contribution’ because technically they don’t contribute to the general taxation income – the Consolidated Fund
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_Fund
– for Government) and these feed into a National Insurance Fund
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Insurance_Fund
I know Wikipedia should be treated with a degree of care but reading these contributions it would seem there’s plenty enough money to properly fund the NHS and my NSCS, especially if tax-dodging and tax-avoidance was sorted out.
Internationally the UK should take a lead in trying to rebalance the global economy and the impact of globalisation in such a way as delivers a fairness across the world, balancing the economies of Western and Third World countries and building health care infrastructures and processes that can jointly monitor and then react to any future pandemics. When this disease really gets hold in Africa and the Middle East for example the effect will be catastrophic and it won’t be helped by political posturing by Western governments. I’ll give you an example – the UK owes Iran £450 million plus interest from the time of the Shah, when he paid for hundreds of tanks to the UK government.
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/britain-owes-iran-450m-might-finally-pay-back-517667
Then the Ayotollah took over so we didn’t send the tanks and kept the money. An international court has determined we owe them the money but because the USA have deemed Iran a terrorist state and put sanctions on them we, the UK, daren’t upset Trump and pay them what we owe them. Meanwhile Iran, an oil rich state but paralysed by the sanctions imposed by Trump, is losing thousands of people every day because of Covid-19. How much good would our debt repayment do? If we dig deeper into the politics around the USA and Iran we find that it’s Saudi money and influence is calling the shots – literally. We then have to add the status of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who remains under house arrest in Tehran and is very much a pawn in the Middle East power games that are going on between the USA, Iran, UK, EU and the different factions within Islam – the minority Sunni and majority Shia groups – all of which can be seen in the US/Saudi (Shia) war against the Iranian (Sunni) backed Houthi ‘rebels’ in the Yemen
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-25434060
The UK’s role in this war isn’t anything to be proud of – UK built fighter planes, piloted by Saudis, are dropping bombs made in the UK and shooting missiles made in the UK at civilian targets and are literally blowing the Yemen back into the Middle Ages.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/20/yemen-civil-war-the-conflict-explained
The Houthi Sunnis are declared ‘terrorists’ by the Saudis and the USA clamour to keep the Saudis happy. Why? Because Saudi Arabia determine the price of petrol at the pumps in the USA, easy as!
Just remember that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter and didn’t Margaret Thatcher once call Nelson Mandela a terrorist?
Covid-19 could/should be the catalyst for a rebalancing of the world order. It recognises no borders or nationalistic prejudices – it just kills people, regardless of colour or creed. When this is all over we must demand a fresh start, both here in the UK and abroad. The world’s resources are finite, we face global climate change at an ever increasing rate (although perversely Covid-19 forced lockdowns have seen improvements in air quality in large cities)
One thing is for sure – we must never, ever get caught out like this again – and it is down to us to ensure that!
In closing I just want to thank all of you reading this who are in the front line battling against Covid-19 and all of you doing your bit to ensure our key workers, out friends and family all stay safe.
Stay safe everybody and hopefully Jem’s Juke Box picks will put a smile on your face – some old favourites from Scottish acts you might have forgotten:
Del Amitri – The Last to Know –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nox57hdgeAU
Deacon Blue – Dignity –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ueYxrA-Zs
Orange Juice – Rip it Up –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzPh89tD5pA