Clark
It is not so simple. The government’s messaging has been ambiguous probably intentionally. Why should leaders in a crisis leave it to individuals to decide what is good for society as a whole? Because many of Boris’ backbenchers are more interested in money than in people and the only ‘opposition’ he has is from his even more extreme right wingers. This is why I get angry with supposed Marxists who belittle the pandemic and don’t seem to distinguish between the realities created by the virus and the exploitations for gain and control by the right wing authorities. Some of these ‘Marxists’ even think that giving more pay to health care workers who are risking their lives, is not really a priority, thereby exposing a complete lack of understanding as to why there is such a manpower shortage in the NHS, because of market forces and exploitation of those who have a vocation. Some of these Marxists spend equal time in slagging medical and nursing professions as they do governments, thereby making the job of our incompetent government easier to deflect.
But now professionals are coming out openly on MSM media criticizing the government’s approach as too slack. Lockdown does not mean still arguing about open garden centers and DIY shops and places of worship and football matches. It means empty streets except for people with specific purposes. Children in supermarkets should be banned, in fact people should shop on their own. Reduce people flow. Curfews from sunset to dawn or something like that. And testing and proper tracing.
The government has failed to use the nightingale hospitals because they were under the illusion that this was a business opportunity for their cronies but when they realised that this was not going to happen because there is no manpower to run these places, they did not have the vision instead to use them as an opportunity to isolate those with milder symptoms. This would also create an opportunity not only to reduce the pool of infected individuals, but to learn more about the natural history of the disease at the less severe end and to possibly research how prophylaxis might work. These would require less trained staffing and maybe recruitment of those who would otherwise be in furlough or unemployed.
Sorry about the rant, but it seems so obvious to me where the block is and how it could be bypassed and why it is not, because of ideology, and sadly this ideology cuts across the divide.
