BRING ME HOPE - PART FOUR

In this latest post, I provide more detail from Skwarkbox concerning the shortcomings in this government's response. We must expect more from those who have power in this country. Our life is in their hands. People have died on their watch - and many others will follow suit - because of their failure to act quickly and effectively.   

Johnson's dithering will have lethal effects

Boris Johnson announcing public gatherings banned - 11 days after dismissing their danger

Boris Johnson dithered for 11 days over the issue of mass gatherings.

On 12 March, he was still dismissing their effect on the spread of the coronavirus - and allowing sporting events to proceed as normal, including the arrival in Liverpool of thousands of football fans from Spanish virus hotspot Madrid.

On 15 March, he was still insisting such gatherings were of little relevance - and only saying that the government would 'no longer be supporting' large events that needed emergency services in attendance.

But on Monday night, his 'scientific' approach had now changed and all public gatherings of anything more than two people are now recognised as highly dangerous - and must be banned, even dispersed, to slow down the spread of the deadly virus:

Eleven days ignoring a means of spreading a virus that took only four days to spread to its third hundred thousand people globally - compared to 67 days for its first hundred thousand.

Eleven days ignoring large gatherings when even small open-air gatherings are so dangerous that they have had to be banned.

How many thousands of lives will Johnson's dithering ultimately be shown to have cost?

24 hours after 'lock-down', Heathrow has no measures in
place - and arriving travellers are free, unchecked, to travel around capital and country

No checks, no controls, no social distancing - and then off into London?

A day after Boris Johnson's announcement of new restrictions on the movement of the public on Monday, shocking footage captured at Heathrow airport made a mockery of the Tories' handling of the coronavirus crisis yet again.

Johnson, Hancock and other ministers have criticised ordinary people for crowding into the underground and onto trains - a bottleneck situation that the government has created by cutting train services and closing stations, leaving those who have to travel for work no choice but to pack together.

Yet last night in Heathrow, in a video tweeted by a London campaign to get people out of cars and off public transport, thousands of travellers are shown milling about with no checks, no controls, no social distancing:

And incoming travellers continue to arrive even from coronavirus hotspots in Italy, Spain and Iran - with the same lack of checks, allowing them to get straight onto the tube or into taxis for their onward travel around London and the rest of the country.

As so often, the Tories are attempting to create the illusion of action while shifting blame and in reality doing nothing about huge problems - and they are putting the people of this country under enormous stress while undermining their solidarity and forbearance.

A technical problem means I can't use the video footage shot in a Heathrow airport baggage collection area yesterday evening - but it is deeply shocking. 

I used to talk about the viral soup of the classroom when I practised my arts as a teacher; what I saw on that video took me back to those days of close proximity to coughs and colds - only now the virus is potentially a killer.