The way things are going we are going to need a superhero to get our country out of this pandemic.
One thing's for sure there is no one in the political establishment who seems to have a clue of what to do. They are too busy scoring party political points off each other as our own Gotham City burns and the virus spreads.
Now the people are fighting amongst themselves on the virtual battlefield of Twitter and Facebook. We are, and I include myself, are almost doing the Establishments job for them as we are divided and ruled.
We should all take a breath (whilst we can) and remember that the major reason we are in the mess we’re in is the absolute failure of Matt Hancock to deliver a workable Test, trace and track system.
We all did our part back in March to flatten the curve and give Hancock and Dido the time to sort it out and they failed.
This failure has cost us millions and allowed the virus to spread. The latest revelation that he is now paying consultants over 7 grand a day should be the final nail in his political coffin. But it won’t be because that requires Joker Boris to actually grow a pair and make a decision.
Boris Johnson has been useless during this pandemic he has had the vision of Mr Magoo, the leadership skills of Captain Mainwaring and the arrogance and delusion of Blackadder.
When we needed real leadership, he dithered and delayed and lost the confidence of the people.
With an 80-seat majority, largely won by himself with his charisma and personality, he had the country behind him before the pandemic hit. That’s why even after the shocking lack of PPE, his refusal to wear a mask, his allowing of the Cheltenham Festival to go ahead and him shaking everyone’s hand we joined in with the first lockdown.
But of course, that wasn’t a real lockdown was it as he still allowed the airports to stay open and let people come in form Covid hotspots like New York, Italy and even bloody Wuhun! Madness complete madness.
He was too late to lockdown and the lockdown was too soft and then he was too quick to ease the lockdown. Eat out to help out was an ill thought out idea and sending the kids back to University was downright ludicrous and an act of lunacy.
There has been no clarity just clichés and sound bites. There has been no sense of direction.
This vacuum of leadership has meant that the conspiracy theorists and extremists on all sides have gathered support. People are looking for hope, a way out of this Covid cul-de-sac and so they have picked their truth whether they are mask deniers or simply people who want to have a pint.
We have more and more division in stark contrast to how this great country came together to beat the last great danger of Nazism.
Of course, Keir Starmer is playing the opportunist game but I do not believe Andy Burnham in Manchester is doing the same. I think he has a valid point that if his city is going to be closed down there needs to be a financial package in place for both business and those on the minimum wage.
One of the problems with Boris’ handling of the pandemic has been that it has too often been top-down instead of bottom-up. Track and trace is a prime example, instead of reinventing the wheel Hancock should have used the regional and local health teams and perhaps the military to organise it back in March
We need clear policies from Boris and his team and the sense of direction of travel but he should have and must trust local people to support and manage the detail.
Boris was told by SAGE three weeks ago that we would need a full UK lockdown but he ignored them. I thought his pledge was to always follow the science?
Now he is trying to impose local lockdowns against the will of local politicians and without offering decent support, people should be up in arms about this. Instead we are arguing amongst ourselves.
By tomorrow morning half of the UK population will be under lockdown and another 11 million will be under draconian restrictions in London and Essex.
Wake up, smell the coffee the lockdown is happening regardless of what Boris wants. But it’s a patchwork of a lockdown with confusing and different rules all over the UK.
Confusion reigns whilst Coronavirus rages!
Boris doesn’t need to be a caped crusader he just needs to grab control of the situation and make it a uniform lockdown right across the UK.
We need clear guidelines and real financial support for businesses and individuals.
He needs to show courage and determination and ask the country to come with him to make some sacrifices and give the NHS a chance.
For our part we need to follow new clear guidelines and move to a future where we can all live with this virus. What other choice do we have?
