THOUGHTS FROM A JEREMIAH - HOW TO SURVIVE AND FLOURISH IN A PANDEMIC

     'We've had both our jabs now - we're alright. Panic over. Let's get back to normal. Book that holiday.'

Music to the serial liar's ears. That nasty man who wears the calculated mask cares only for himself. He is in the business of protecting and developing his power and status. If called on to justify his actions - and inactions - he would explain that his concern is to get the British economy back to being world-beating - or some such rhetorical emptiness. 

Johnson - a nasty and dangerous leader - thanks to the Guardian for this cartoon

The fact is our tiny economic 'recovery' this year is significantly lower than any other European country apart from Spain. Since 2010 and the election of the Tory-led coalition government that introduced the vile policies associated with austerity, the British economy has been under-performing and broadly stagnant. Austerity became the governing principle for our society in order to put the economy back on its feet.  That's what they told us. We're all in this together - a little pain now, but it will all be worth it. 

Well, the super-rich have done very well out of the last decade of stagnation. Much of the money created at the press of a button by those in charge of quantitative-easing to save the banks and the economy from

collapse in the aftermath of the financial crash in 2008 has found its way into the pockets of the already rich. The rich have got wealthier; the ranks of the poor have increased in number. 

A similar pattern is evident during this pandemic. The inequality gap has widened as the Tory crew misgoverning us made sure that profitable contracts worth millions ended up in the hands of their sort of people. Cronyism has ruled the roost. The stench of corruption lies heavy in the air.

Johnson - a man waiting for nemesis

At least one truth is now self-evident if only the opposition parties and the media allow it to be circulated. As Jeremy Corbyn said time and time again, austerity was always a political choice - never an economic necessity. The truth of modern monetary theory (MMT) is there to be grasped by everyone - any sovereign country that issues its own currency can print millions, billions, even trillions worth of that currency and all will be well, provided inflation is controlled.

  Check out my blogpost about MMT here: 

Now check out Jo Biden in the USA and his federal scheme for trillions of dollars of infrastructure investment - a New Deal for the 21st century. Think about Rishi Sunak's sudden creation of billions of pounds here in the UK to save the economy from the consequences of lockdowns with the economy grinding to a halt. But note that already the talk is of a renewed need for austerity. 

No! 

Ordinary people don't have to pay the price for the rich getting richer yet again!  

A decent opposition to this government would be explaining some simple facts of economic life to the people. The mainstream media may not like having to report on this astonishing new twist to politics where the opposition starts speaking truth to power - but the MSM cannot censor everything. 

Johnson - listen for news today of local lockdowns in Bolton, Blackburn, Bedford and Tyneside - see below - thanks to the Telegraph for this cartoon

Talk of censorship leads me to consider the manipulation of news. Those who misgovern us have become adept at masking their intentions. As a government, our so-called leaders - principally, Johnson - have acted in defiance of the best scientific advice at every stage of this pandemic - and in so doing we have lost over 150,000 of our people. Now they have the gall, the cheek, the chutzpah, to claim that their easing of restrictions will be driven by the data not the dates. OK - let's see these nasty politicians abandon the date of Monday 17 May for the next stage of getting back to normal. The data is quite clear - the Indian variant is spreading exponentially in at least four areas of our land - Bolton, Blackburn, Bedford, and Tyneside. Jon Snow on Channel 4 News last night referred cryptically to the evidence 'some of which the public knows'. Of course we are being kept in the dark as much as possible - until Monday at least when the road map can be opened and another step taken into pandemic mayhem.  

Yesterday's 'i' newspaper reported that 'cases of the highly transmissible Indian variant have more than tripled in a week ... as scientists advising the government fear the final stage out of lockdown [June 21] could be delayed due to the surge'. Please note that the blame for the emergency is being focused on the transmissibility of the virus - but that is poor science. Check out earlier blogposts from me that reference the World Health Organization's research on transmissibility - which concludes that we are not yet in a position to pronounce on this complex scientific issue. What we can say is that where people are living in overcrowded and poorly equipped rented accommodation, forced to go to work - even when ill or fearing they may have asymptomatic COVID-19 infection - for fear of losing vital family income in the absence of a benefit entitlement fit for living (available at the press of the Sunak button - see above) - there will be exponential surges in infection. Put that fact in the context of the utter failure of a Test and Trace system under the incompetent direction of Dido Harding which has soaked up £35 billion, printed to augment the fortunes of Tory-supporting businesses - and you get some measure of the rotten substance behind the masks and the rhetoric of those who are misleading us.    

For further insights, see this blogpost link here.

 

Yep - that's our leader!

   

Here is Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist and a senior lecturer in machine learning at Queen Mary University London writing in yesterday's 'i':

'How can our Government be following the data when it doesn't seem to be aware of it? One of the government's key tests for easing lockdown has been that "the assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new variants of concern". PHE recently upgraded B1617.2 to a variant of concern. But the Government says its assessment of the risk has not changed. We do not yet know to what extent vaccines will protect against this variant. This is a critical area of uncertainty. After repeatedly ignoring risks and acting too late, our Government continues to ignore evidence, equating uncertainty to no risk, hoping that the gamble will pay off this time.'

          

            A DEVASTATING JUDGEMENT, WOULDN'T YOU AGREE?