Clark – You are absolutely right that the Tory Government are trying to fudge the numbers and I am glad to see you are keeping on top of the documentation of this. It does not seem to bother Boris Johnson that the excess death figure is up over 65,000 now and is far more like the realistic total number either killed by the virus or through the collateral damage resulting from our NHS targeting Covid as described in the brilliant article “the Hammer and the dance.” This is the intended pattern of control and release spreading the impact of a colossal death toll out over many months in successive waves as described in the video presentation in this Skwawkbox Article. Another Skwawkbox Article exposes the complete sham of their traffic light system of so-called alert levels that they completely ignore and totally disregard “the Science!” They reported the climbing numbers right before the easing of lockdown restrictions was announced and the Skwawkbox Article on the ramping up of morgue capacity offers a stark warning to us all.
Boris Johnson was absolutely desperate to detract from the consequences of his shambolic Coronavirus policies and the chaotic lockdown messaging that the ‘Herd Nerd’ in his own advisory team so blatantly failed to adhere to causing such universal public outrage. He was eager to trumpet his ambitious “shovel ready” Boris-Shit in the hope that such impressive new fantasy promises will obscure the horrendous reality when ‘Get Brexit Dung’ (not a typo) morphs from the much touted ‘sunny uplands’ of generous free trade deals and cheap goods to a festering pile of hapless crash-out horseshit as we become selectively ostracized for our spectacular global irrelevance. Both domestically and internationally Johnson is determined to prove that an Englishman’s word is no longer his bond, but we should be content with castles in the air and constant deception on the ground. Johnson said, “When you’re in a hole as big as this, the only option is to keep digging! Johnson has not hit rock bottom yet, but he is certainly working on it.
The real news was all about Leicester having to re-impose lockdown in response to a huge surge in new Covid 19 cases, a real whopper of a ‘Boris Spike’ with an infection rate three times higher than surrounding cities and towns, accounting for a full 10% of all new cases in the UK and an alarming 6 – 10 Hospital admissions a day. The high number of teenagers and young people testing positive has necessitated renewed closure of schools; that will put a dent in Johnson’s broken-record PMQ rants about getting kids back to school! They knew what was developing at least 12 days ago so it was impossible to postpone announcing it any longer, but alas it was such an inconvenient time to have a ‘Boris Spike’ in Covid 19 cases just before his glorious 4th of July celebrations on US Independence day to honour his American hero Donald Man-Baby Trump. But then the Donald was dealing with his own batch of serious resurgences as were other similarly reckless leaders worldwide like Jair Man-Baby Bolsonaro in Brazil; sadly this would seem to be a consequence of ignorant denial and arrogance shared by the Man-Baby global idiots.
Leadership is about setting a strong example that the public are prepared to emulate. When high level officials flaunt regulations they devised to curtail the personal freedom of the entire population they need to step aside. Only when they want to cling on to their privileged position do we hear an apology or a really feeble excuse like the one offered by Dominic Cummings. But apologies and bogus excuses are just not good enough, because when the public trust is violated no one feels obliged to follow the rules. On the 15th of June the BBC Reported that, “The mayor of Leicester has apologised for ‘an error of judgement’ after it was revealed he broke lockdown rules twice by visiting his partner. Sir Peter Soulsby admitted visiting Lesley Summerland and staying at her house overnight before government guidelines allowed it.” Did he resign? Hell no, and I am sure he takes zero responsibility for the increased infection rate in Leicester, but poor examples have consequences and this just reinforces why Cummings must go.
If you feel as strongly about ousting Dominic Herd Nerd Cummings as I do there is a new Petition gaining traction on the Internet with over 35,700 signatures already: “SPECIAL ADVISERS DON’T DESERVE SPECIAL TREATMENT!”
Speaking to BBC Radio Leicester, the widower said the couple had been separated for five weeks but then “Lesley became ill” with a recurring condition that was not related to coronavirus. He said he spent three nights at her home at the end of April – the peak of the pandemic so far in the UK. “He apologised for the error of judgement and admitted” and he realized “it was setting a very bad example,” However, he then added: “I don’t think anybody would claim that there was anything in my behaviour that ran any risk whatsoever of spreading the virus.” He also said, “It can be certainly interpreted as against the spirit of the lockdown, if not against the regulations.” He said he had been “ready to apologise” unlike “some of the high-profile people who are far more influential in setting policy about this than I am.” Disgraceful considering that the BBC said, “In March, Sir Peter reiterated government advice by telling residents to stay at home and only go to work if their job was considered essential.” …So, do as I say, not as I do!
Boris Johnson suffered humiliation back when as London Mayor his Garden Bridge turned into a massive waste of public funds that had to be scrapped after costing London taxpayers dearly. The PM really doesn’t have much luck with bridges; his concept for building one between Scotland and Ireland drew derision from the public, especially after it was revealed that the build spanned a munitions spoils ground! Today he was forced to accept yet another ‘bridge building’ failure when Greece wisely became the first country to decline participation in the Tory Government’s fantasy ‘Air-bridge’ scheme. In reality the chronically belated quarantine restrictions at UK airports were obviously only implemented very recently to prod tourist destination countries into making a rash decision to protect an industry crucial to their economies. Do countries who managed to get Covid under control really need to risk a new spike courtesy of tourists from Boris’s chaotically out of control Covid EU hotspot? Watch this space other countries will bail!
With a better informed public now obsessing over the genocidal decisions of his wartime hero, Johnson might just have decided to ditch Churchill for FDR; a more palatable champion of the post 1930s US Stock Market crash. As America emerged reeling from the severe deprivation of the Great Depression, Roosevelt committed to investing in huge infrastructure projects to get people back to work. He initiated over 35,000 programs of public works including the Hover Dam, but Johnson is bragging about a modest six billion to maintain and improve Hospitals and schools, upgrade long neglected roads and bridges. The PM has also pledging to plant 75,000 trees a year; just do not mention the environmental assault on our ancient woodlands, destroyed to complete his white elephant HS2! He has targeted 29 roads and 101 town centres and he pledged to rebuild 50 schools, that’s all aside from those 40 new Hospitals. BBC Political Editor Norman Smith described the level of funding as “breadcrumbs in the way of cash.”
If FDR had followed the Tory Austerity model the USA could never have advanced as rapidly as they did or managed to realize the well distributed general prosperity it achieved by the seventies. In Britain too, following the devastation of WWII the progressive path towards recovery required massive investment to rebuild the homes destroyed in the Blitz, not savage cuts to public spending. FDR didn’t just invest in infrastructure he introduced Banking reforms, created social security, brought in higher pay and better working hours laws that boosted the trade union movement. In England after the war it was time to reward those who had fought the Nazi scourge to secure a better future with one of the finest British achievements ever accomplished: the formation of the NHS. The so-called ‘American Dream’ of doing a little bit better than your parents was proving possible here too, but neoliberal capitalist greed has shattered that dream and put decades of progress into a punishing reverse of increasing inequality and destitution.
None of the bold programs instituted by FDR sound in the least bit Tory or Johnsonian; despite his hype about ‘levelling up’ we are all bracing for the Tories to act true to form targeting the poor, the weak and the most vulnerable as they ‘Decimate Down!’ The PM has pledged to offer young people either guaranteed apprenticeship training or a work placement. In reality the current Tory concept of ‘apprenticeship’ is an ultra low paid or unpaid exploitership; their idea of a ‘work placement’ is a minimum wage, zero hours contract job, in fact just a cruel euphemism for indentured servitude. He has promised a shakeup in the planning regulations to speed up approval to turn disused shops into homes. However, Tory Government evisceration of ‘red tape’ has already created thousands of totally unliveable matchbox sized dwelling for the working poor who must readily accept unsafe conditions like those that led to the Grenfell fire. We can expect this stripping away of safety provisions to rapidly accelerate after crash-out Brexit.
Johnson says he wants to, “Put his arms around parts of the country that have felt disconnected and unloved!” I would dread the grisly prospect of a Boris bear hug stifling the life out of me; with the Tory track record, that sounds really painful! Keir Starmer sounded distinctly unimpressed by all of Johnson’s expansive pledges, saying of the New Deal there was, “not much new and not much of a deal” as he claimed the PM was just re-announcing his campaign pledges. Well we have certainly been there before with the Tories, Cameron was going to get thousands of houses built and Theresa May was going to rescue those who were “Just About Managing;” did they deliver? No, we are expected to just move on. In response to Boris Johnson’s quip about Covid, “It’s like a shark out there circling around us,” Norman Smith remarked, “the difficulty is when you have a shark on your tail it’s hard to think about anything else.” We must be the shark on the Tory tail, demanding that Cummings is fired, demanding an investigation into the Covert 2019 Rigged Election to expose the truth, demanding accountability and justice. DO NOT MOVE ON!