In a revealing Article the Canary warns that: “The government is trying hard to rewrite coronavirus history. We mustn’t let it.” In the article they go on to expose some telling numbers: “The figures from 31 January paint a damning picture of our government’s response to the crisis. For example, Japan had 14 cases on 31 January and Australia had nine. At the time of writing on 16 April, Japan had seen 178 deaths and Australia 63. The death toll in the UK, meanwhile, stands at a horrific and tragic 13,729 fatalities.”
The article states that: “These figures don’t improve when looked at in terms of deaths per million of the population. In the UK, this figure is 190. But in Japan, it’s 1, and in Australia, 2. Meanwhile, in Ireland, where King noted measures including cancelling St Patrick’s Day celebrations took place earlier, it’s 90.”
In other news the Canary highlight the disgraceful issue of: “The campaign to undermine Corbyn.. On 12 April, Sky News revealed that Labour lawyers had essentially stopped the party from sending a highly revealing internal investigation to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. This has since generated widespread anger among people who have supported the party in recent years, because they feel the report shows they were right to defend Corbyn against widespread hostility from British elites. The investigation claims that “hyper-factional” opposition to the ex-leader among former senior officials was a key factor in hindering effective handling of complaints regarding alleged antisemitism. At the same time, it argues there was “no evidence” that such complaints received different treatment from other complaints.”
As Al-Jazeera reported, Starmer announced on 13 April that Labour would launch an investigation. This would look into “why the report was commissioned, its findings and also how the document was released into the public domain”. But this response hardly inspired confidence. It seems that the new leadership is far more heavily focused on targeting Whistleblowers and the reason the report was convened in the first place than eradicating the disloyal scourge that they uncovered in the Labour Party. Many current members who were inspired to join Labour by Corbyn’s radical socialist agenda are getting ready to quit the party in disgust. Sir Kier Starmer is not setting a fine example of actions that will unite the opposition just when we need them to fight for us.
Former Tory Health Secretary and 2019 leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt now leads the Health Select Committee and he entered the Covid 19 foray with avengeance… “Hell hath no wrath like a Tory scorned!” Hunt, publically cynical of the Government’s woeful strategy, was there to let detractors give vent to their litany of complaints and frustrations. In a very uncomfortable full on grilling that made him squirm, it proved a rare shot at genuine scrutiny with Mat Hancock scrambling to paper-over the Government’s most egregious errors and failings. The PR spin fell flat as one after another ministers and expert scientific advisors tore into him like a pack of hungry Rottweilers.
Hancock was at last asked why the Government had on 13th March got rid of guidance on self-isolation and checks at airports that were previously employed prior to that point, when proper testing and tracing was in place. The Health Secretary tried to explain by saying that at that point it was not an “epidemiologically significant means of transmission given the level of infection in the UK.” That would be following a point where the Government’s warped eugenics policy of “Herd Immunity” had allowed the virus to run rampant throughout the UK!
From a desperate Hancock there was more “following the science” excuses as Mat bobbed his head like one of those ornamental dogs at the back of the car; it was truly pathetic. The infection rate here had spiralled out of control there was no logical reason to abandon testing at that early stage. The persistent questioner was eager to remind him that: “even a small percentage of a very large number, is a very significant number… Given the evidence of asymptomatic transmission why were we not being a lot more cautious at our points of entry?”
Professor Anthony Costello of UCL grabbed the damning punch line of the day; “the harsh reality was that we were too slow to act, with a hope we would be better prepared for the second wave…” What second wave? No one had been given permission to talk of the prospect of an inevitable second wave yet! Costello talked in a matter of fact way about the possibility of over 40,000 deaths in the UK with the highest recorded death toll in Europe. Why was there such an unforgivable delay in the announcement of ramping up our testing capacity to 100,000, now a paltry 18,000, but it looked more like only 13,000 on the daily graph.
On plans to end the lockdown this decision was again deferred to one of the “experts” like Professor Fallon at SAGE. Jeremy Hunt certainly did not attempt to stifle critics in this lengthy Heath Select Committee meeting, but when confronted with the appalling death toll caused by the gross Tory mishandling of this crisis it was described as “disappointing!” Obviously the epidemic has not hit close to home, but in a week where a young pregnant Nurse died of Covid 19 saying “there is a desire to do testing…” is beyond tragic it’s verging on criminal negligence!
Later in the day the BBC interviewed Yvette Ashby representing the professional clothing industry worldwide, who said they were contacted too late… The interview seemed to indicate that the Government had avoided approaching the most well established professional clothing manufacturers, preferring to chase after the possibility to award contracts to their cronies as per usual. The Tories will never let a good crisis go to waste! Ashby sounded frustrated by being sidelined by the Government who now admit they are desperately short of PPE kit. She said: “tell us what you need and we will put it together and deliver it in a coordinated way.”
What we all desperately need is for this incompetent Tory Government to get out of the way so that a real leadership team can run the country in the genuine best interests of ordinary people. The team that grabbed power through the Covert 2019 Rigged Election will not just bow out quietly; it will be hard enough if we manage to fully expose the truth of their stolen Election victory through a thorough Investigation, but we cannot afford to be deterred from trying. The chaos that is claiming so many innocent lives will continue unabated unless we can remove this Tory Government from office; that remains an urgent priority.