Corona Virus – Part 1
People across the internet seem shocked that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is doing virtually nothing to prevent the spread of the Corona virus and to minimise the deaths of those infected. Many have read the detailed studies from across the globe showing early ‘social distancing’ measures as vital and are wondering why the delay here. Many have also read of the urgent need for increased healthcare/social care capacity and are wondering why the inaction here…. the complete lack of policy announcements, emergency measures, community health approaches, increasing of already-overstretched NHS capacity.
Nothing. Nada. Just de Pfeffel washing his hands, as he has done with everything from Windrush to his racism, from colluding to have a journalist beaten up to giving public money to his mistress, from his constant lies to even washing his hands of his own children!
People’s surprise shocks me, much as the Election result disappointed me. Maybe…. just maybe….. people are waking up!! Maybe people are finally realising who this government are working for.
It is abundantly clear that Prime Minister de Pfeffel is putting the economy (for the rich) ahead of people’s lives……. as he and the extremely right wing Tories who are now in charge always do.
People should not be surprised by our government’s inaction and nor should they be surprised (or taken in) by the media’s echoing of the government’s propaganda. Not one journalist at today’s Press Conference questioned the PM on the global evidence regarding the need for early social distancing measures. “So we do as we’re told, in other words” said ITV Newsreader Mary Nightingale on tonight’s 6.30pm news!
Cummings came!
This government’s number one priority will be PROTECTING THE WEALTH OF THE RICH! This wealth, of course, will be adversely affected by the economic impact of the kind of scientifically and medically prudent social distancing measures that many other countries have adopted early and by the likely huge drops in share prices.
The rich are the only people the Tories care about: as well as themselves, the rich are their families and their friends as well as, most importantly, their donors and propagandists. The rich are the enablers of this cruel, despicable Tory government – the people who put them in power and keep them in power and in whose interests they work.
Any notion that the Tories care for ordinary people – or even the poor, the elderly and the vulnerable – is laughable. They’ve been culling the poor and disabled for the last 10 years! One only has to read the British Medical Journal Open’s 2017 study of 120,000 ‘early preventable deaths’ linked to austerity or the UN Rapporteur on Poverty, Phillip Alston’s report describing the Universal Credit system and sanctions as ‘cruel and inhuman’ to know this!
The Tory ideology is ‘nicely’ summed up by this right wing bastard in the Torygraph…..
Corona Virus – Part 2
CAPITALIST INTERESTS COME FIRST – EVEN IF PEOPLE DIE!!
In the film Class Action, the manufacturer of a defective car which explodes under certain conditions use a “bean-counting” approach to risk management. They weigh up the cost of paying out compensation to the families of those who will die against the cost of recalling and fixing all the cars affected. Their decision was that it is cheaper to not recall, to contest lawsuits and, where necessary, pay out compensation to the families of those who died. It was just a number-crunching exercise! Their sole consideration was what would benefit short term profitability and their bottom line.
A similar storyline can be found in the film A Civil Action – based upon the true story of chemical dumping by three companies into a river/water supply which caused numerous cases of Leukaemia, especially in children.
This story has recently been repeated in Flint, Michigan where lead and bacteria in the water supply led to a huge number of terrible illnesses – the people had been poisoned by their own water supply. When they complained that their tap water smelled horrible, was brown and murky, made children sick and made people’s hair fall out, it took officials 18 months to accept there was a problem! Following a disastrous choice to break a crucial environmental law, there was an 18-month delay and cover-up by the city, state and federal governments.
The local government had switched the water supply to the river Flint (known to be filled with effluent and chemical waste), insisting it would be fine! Old pipes leaked corrosion and lead, bacteria and e-coli formed from effluent and, to combat this, authorities simply added more chlorine to the water which caused additional illnesses. Eventually, the nearby General Motors plant had to stop using the water supply as it was causing corrosion to machinery/engines! 12 people died of Legionnaires’ Disease, foetal deaths increased by 58% and a vast number of people were made very ill – who knows how many will die early as a result.
Throughout the years-long battle to get the authorities to admit there was a problem, officials (including both government officials and ‘scientists’) stated: “the water is perfectly safe for everybody to drink”, “It’s a quality, safe product” and “Nothing to worry about. The water is fine.” They were lying!
Around the world, there are countless examples of capitalism putting profits before people. It is the actual nature of capitalism! It is about the creation of ‘capital’ (profit) and people and the planet’s resources are expendable and exploited in the quest for bigger profits.
Don’t for a moment think that our government is not sitting there making calculations about the cost to the economy (and stock market) of taking ‘social distancing’ action and action to protect workers and everyone whilst simultaneously considering the human cost of the virus’ spread and the resultant deaths. And like the bean counters in Class Action and the authorities in Flint…. they are weighing up the lives lost against the economic costs….. and making decisions that ensure the wealth of the richest people remains as intact as possible.
Tom Lane
