The latest PPE fashion – don’t go out without it!

Confusion reigns about how and when to end the Lockdown, in government as well as in ‘Our MSM’. It’s getting ridiculous – and it’s becoming dangerous. There’s the economy, there’s ‘Our NHS’, there’s that tracking app – and there are the Trade Unions.

Firstly though there was yesterday’s “debate” in the HoC. Sorry, dear friends: I did try! I did go to the Parliament TV Channel to watch, but when I saw Ed Miliband – he’s Starmer’s shadow business minister – I lost the will to live and switched off. The whole proceedings were pathetic.   

I’ve lambasted the peacocking MPs performances before these “New Normal”, post-COVID-19 times, but what I watched – briefly – confirms my view: this is no way to run Parliament. Here’s a report which makes the same point: this ’self-distancing’ HoC  cannot hold government to account. Those who keep telling us that they are capable of running the fate of the nation have sadly emasculated themselves, to the huge detriment of our democracy.

While SAGE dithers, while Johnson dithers, ‘Our MSM’ are now trying to be all things to all interest groups. So far, not much has been made of the shocking economic news that 

“Official figures released on Monday showed 6.3 million people in the UK – almost a quarter of all PAYE employees – have now been put on furlough by their employers at a cost of £8 billion in the first month. The NHS budget is approximately £11 billion a month.” (link)

We’re paying nearly as much ‘to protect the NHS’ by keeping us under house arrest as we’re paying for “Our Sacred Cow” – let that sink in! Admittedly, these figures came out yesterday evening, so all those clever MSM pundits can’t have had time to digest them. This statement by Mr Rishi Sunak however takes the proverbial:

“To anyone who is anxious about this, I want to give them reassurance today that there will be no cliff-edge to the furlough scheme. I’m working, as we speak, to figure out the most effective way to wind down the [furlough] scheme and to ease people back into work in a measured way. As some scenarios have suggested, we are potentially spending as much on the furlough scheme as we do on the NHS, for example. Clearly that is not a sustainable situation.” (link)

I’m not fuming about the earth-shattering last sentence, stating what bears do in the woods, nor about yet another ‘cliff edge’ – I’m aghast that he and his Treasury Mandarins are only now ‘working’ on a furlough exit scheme. What have they been doing during the preceding 42 days? Sitting in the sun in their gardens at home, doing eff all, being paid for by us? At least those on welfare – universal credit and jobseeker’s allowance – are included in the Rishi-count:

“Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, said that her department had received more than 1.8 million claims for universal credit, its main welfare programme, as well 250,000 claims for jobseeker’s allowance and 20,000 claims for employment support allowance.” (link, paywalled)

Far be it from me to assume that those who want the Lockdown to continue are also those who are happy to receive money from Rishi while that Lockdown lasts! The first voices can already be heard that we must not ‘sacrifice lives for the economy’:

“Bravo Boris! Urged days ago to announce a speedy exit from lockdown, he has refused to be pushed. He’ll set out his plan next week amid signs that restrictions will be lifted only slowly.This has taken courage. Big beasts in industry have been telling him to end lockdown now to avoid further damage to the economy.” (link, paywalled)

That opinion piece in The Times isn’t by some Labour Grandee – it’s by Melanie Phillips. Oh dear! Never mind that I’ve not seen anything from the CBI about making the peasants go back to work – the trade unions have been quite vocal:

“Frances O’Grady, leader of the TUC, said that there were “huge gaps” over protective equipment and testing. She called for “robust direction and enforcement” so employers can “do the right thing”. Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, supported the unions, saying that there must be a “clear mechanism for enforcement”. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has called for a “national consensus” and said he would support an extension of the lockdown.” (link, paywalled)

Good grief! Does the TUC, does Labour believe that all workers must have PPE, probably issued by the government (paid for by us peasants) before they can go back to work? Oh yes, they do – see this:

“Britain’s three biggest rail unions have written to the prime minister to say that increasing services to nearly normal levels from May 18 would be “dangerous and lead to public flouting of the rules”. Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT, which represents many London Underground workers, called for higher pay and public services “free from the grip of private speculation”.” (link, paywalled)

Well, it’s obvious to me – not an economist – that according to Labour and the TUC it’s absolutely fine that the few working stiffs in the private sector should pay for ‘Our NHS’, for ‘Our PPE’, for ‘Our furlough and benefits’: we’re rich … all who pay taxes are ‘rich’ …!

Perhaps it’s the gramps and grannies who should pick up the economic slack: more and more healthy over 70s are railing against the Lockdown (link), so perhaps they can be told to do some work, without PPE? Should they become ill, ‘Our NHS’ will help, right?

There are two more news items which made my blood boil. One is about that ‘tracking app’ developed by ‘Our NHS’, to be rolled out on the Isle of Wight, announced yesterday with great fanfare by Mr Hancock. So now see this:

“However, the rollout was overshadowed as it emerged on Monday that the product has reportedly failed all the standards which would allow it to be included in the NHS’s own app library. […] Senior NHS sources told Health Service Journal it had so far  failed all of the tests required for inclusion in the app library, including cyber security, performance and clinical safety. […] Senior figures told HSJ that it had been hard to assess the app because the government was ”going about it in a kind of a hamfisted way.” (link)

Ah – those ‘senior sources’ again! I do wonder if said ‘sources’ have actually talked to the NHS department that developed this app. We’ve read about this some weeks ago, so we might ask if those ‘senior sources’ were even aware of this development – or if they were happily sitting at home, enjoying their gardens … never mind: ‘government’ needed to be blamed rather than their own colleagues.

There’s more, and for that we can indeed blame government, sorry: ‘Our NHS’, for trying to reinvent the wheel:

“The smartphone app, which begins testing on the Isle of Wight on Tuesday, will work on a different method of contact tracing to that being used in a system developed by Apple and Google and already in use in countries including Germany and Switzerland. The two operating systems are not compatible, leading to fears that, if contact tracing becomes mandatory for travel, Britons will have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in a country.” (link)

Preventing Brits from travelling abroad: that’s truly serious! But never mind that – if this NHS app doesn’t work, “we” will change horses mid-stream and forget about having wasted time and resources:

“Matthew Gould, the chief executive of NHSX, the digital arm of the NHS which is developing the app, said that, if it did not work as intended, health chiefs “won’t hesitate to change” tack.” (link)

Yes, words keep failing me when I see those reports! They demonstrate how well ‘Our NHS’ is run by the 2/3rds who administer it. Thus the other item making my blood pressure rise didn’t come as surprise either. It’s about the fabulous Nightingale Hospitals, constructed so well and so quickly by our Armed Forces. They are going to be mothballed because they’re not really needed (link, paywalled). So ‘Our Sacred Cow’ wasn’t that overwhelmed, was it? 

I’ll give the last word to that anonymous (for obvious reasons!) doctor, quoting from his latest emailed newsletter:

“I am not a professional economist, but enough economists talk about medicine that I feel somewhat emboldened to return the favour and give my economic assessment – I don’t think we can afford the current economic cost for much longer. If we take the view that the NHS was never really overwhelmed by the first peak, and that the NHS is able to offer the best possible care, then it logically follows that none (few) of the current deaths are truly avoidable – they would likely happen even if the peak could have been further delayed.” 

Indeed so – but as we saw above: the ‘mood of the nation’ is to keep the Lockdown going until ‘all workers are protected by PPE’ while Sunak is paying for everybody to stay inside. There’s more:

“[…] we need to rethink the lockdown not just because of the important notions of what it means to live in a free society, but also because […] there is no purpose in keeping the infection rate so far below the capacity of the NHS that it simply delays the time to herd immunity.”

Oh look – there’s that dirty word ‘herd immunity’! According to ‘Our MSM’ we didn’t want and don’t need no stinking ‘herd immunity’. I’ll endeavour to look at that issue in one of the next columns, and not just because this concept seems to make our Westminster Bubble dwellers faint with outrage.

Meanwhile we peasants better keep vigilant: stay safe from the depreciations of ‘that virus’ and the acts of government and opposition.

KBO!

Photo by 70023venus2009