THREAD: The #coronavirus crisis has shown this country for the cowed, servile, nauseatingly sycophantic nation that it is. When Italy passed the tragic milestone of 10,000 deaths, we rightly looked on in horror and lamented such large-scale loss of life. We have 'achieved' that

terrible marker this weekend and have done so with relative passivity. Instead of asking the challenging questions about how we got here, our puerile, emasculated media have repeatedly proven themselves incapable and/or unwilling to hold this government to account for their

response to this tragedy. Instead, they have aided and abetted the populist obsession with one man's experience of the virus. The trajectory of Boris Johnson's illness has been somewhat peculiar and the timing of his discharge from hospital 'interesting' to say the least. That

aside, it's an immensely troubling symbol of our nation's descent into Trumpian-style personality cult that so many people have taken to their keyboards to express their concern for a man who has led such a pitiful response to the crisis without even an angry addendum about the

effect of said man's buffoonery on the health and wellbeing of thousands of people. From the laissez-faire "herd immunity"/"take it on the chin" attitude in the early stages to the absolutely horrific lack of adequate PPE for frontline healthcare staff and the government's

ideological refusal to collaborate with the EU, this is a growing tragedy that could and should have been handled better. Those who unfathomably refer to Boris Johnson mononymously ("Boris") as though he's some kind of slightly eccentric family friend and not the man whose

decisions literally determine the wellbeing of them and their loved ones need to remember two key points. Firstly, no amount of painted rainbows for 'our NHS' will compensate for the wholesale neglect of the health service over 10 years of Tory government. To fanboy/girl over

BoJo is to deliberately ignore his role in this and his blatant lie that leaving the EU would see an extra £350m per week pumped into the health service. Secondly, there is no denying that a Corbyn-led Labour government would currently be getting torn to absolute shreds by the

media had they responded to this crisis in an identical manner. Imagine the shitstorm had Diane Abbott put in Priti Patel's performance on Saturday. Imagine the unfettered fury vented by the likes of Toby Young, Julia Hartley-Brewer and Allison Pearson had John McDonnell

introduced the economic aid packages for businesses (correctly) ushered in by Rishi Sunak. It's astounding how readily socialism is appropriated by those usually so avowedly opposed to it when it's abundantly clear the neoliberal consensus won't cut it. Many people say this isn't

the time for politics; I say that whether we like it or not, the current situation is inherently political. The lives of our loved ones depend on the decisions those in power are making. Those decisions must be scrutinised and those in power held to account. That's common sense.