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It is, of course, utterly ridiculous for Boris Johnson to describe the UK's approach to Coronavirus as a 'success'. It's a bloody insult. We probably have the highest number of deaths per capita of any advanced nation anywhere.
The government's lack of honesty or contrition for any of this has been a monumental scandal - for which heads should roll. And I don't mean those of their designated scapegoats either.
The science has NOT been followed. Our leaders (sic) have made it up as they've gone along.
The science has NOT been followed. Our leaders (sic) have made it up as they've gone along.
Our NHS - treated with monstrous levels of neglect, doctors, nurses, cleaners risking their lives every single day as a direct result of this outrageous shower - have kept the country going. Essential workers have kept it going. IN SPITE OF this rotten government.
Which, of course, is still not providing remotely accurate numbers of deaths even now. If you want those, follow @ChrisGiles_ and read the @FT: it's double what the showers that be are claiming.
The 'success' which Johnson claims simply means we're *just* starting to flatten the curve. The government's incompetence is why this didn't happen much earlier - and why we've had so many deaths in the first place. As an independent inquiry will expose in no uncertain terms.
And yet... Johnson is right to say this is now the moment of greatest risk. We're now entering a point across Europe and in part of this continent too in which we move slowly into Phase Two - and Phase Two is likely to be completely underestimated by the public everywhere.
There's a huge danger that people will assume we're through the worst of this now, and that things will simply move inevitably in the right direction.
Not if lockdown is removed too quickly, they won't. Not if we try and "go back to normal" either. Quite the opposite.
Not if lockdown is removed too quickly, they won't. Not if we try and "go back to normal" either. Quite the opposite.
My hope is that Johnson's brush with his own mortality will reinforce this in him. Better to be safe than sorry.
Governments now have to take the most careful, controlled decisions. Which don't bow to pressure from the rich and super-rich, who continue to disgrace themselves.
Governments now have to take the most careful, controlled decisions. Which don't bow to pressure from the rich and super-rich, who continue to disgrace themselves.
Memo to the business community: things will not and cannot return to 'normal', you morons. People everywhere will behave with far more caution in their spending and investment habits; many things which prop up the UK's fake economy will take years to recover, if at all.
This isn't some short, sharp shock. It's a long, slow, ongoing process until there's a vaccine. Social distancing measures must remain in place until that vaccine has been comprehensively administered across the world. That means 2 years of this in all likelihood.
But what governments must also do is balance the psychological realities of people tiring of lockdown and its many associated difficulties. Right now, there's still huge support for it. That's great. As numbers fall though, that may (will?) change.
Bottom line: we will not have defeated this virus until there's either a 100% foolproof vaccine administered to everyone; or it weakens to the point of being just like the common flu. We cannot talk it into submission; we cannot delude ourselves into thinking it's over.
Starmer will avoid the obvious trap of joining some cynical government of national unity designed expressly to spread the blame - and will continue to work with the government constructively, while calmly and surgically challenging it.
His understanding of the public mood remains correct. That mood will shift - it's inevitable. But right now, it's such that amazing numbers of people will have been cheered by Johnson's words and delighted to see him back.
He does still understand where much of the electorate is. In my view, the government will ultimately be overwhelmed as public opinion turns against it: most likely, in the aftermath of the crisis. Not during it.
The public adored Churchill. Then smashed his party to smithereens
The public adored Churchill. Then smashed his party to smithereens
And while this is the only time you'll see me draw any kind of comparison between a titan of world history and this pgymy of a PM now, that is what I anticipate will ultimately happen. That is the long game here in political terms.
In the meantime, it's about saving lives. Whatever it takes to do so. And ignoring the demands of those who, yet again, have proven how wilfully indifferent they are to human life and human suffering.
We see you. We know who you are. And we won't forget. Ever.
We see you. We know who you are. And we won't forget. Ever.
