Day 41 of UK lock down: Just Stop Lying

The lock-down is giving a good opportunity to reflect and prepare for what comes next, but the uncertainties are so bewildering, that it’s difficult to focus.

 However, what seems as certain as night following day is that the UK’s Conservative government will continue to spin and lie in response to every challenge. Johnson’s track record of lying is thoroughly recorded, as is that of Gove , Raab, Patel,  and Hancock. Yet they keep going. The tactic, from the same dezinformatsiya black propaganda  & disinformation playbook that has worked for Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro,  seems to be to spout whatever bollox suits the narrative of the moment, in the hope that more people will believe it than not, before quietly withdrawing it later when attention is elsewhere.

The Tories did it about Brexit. They’re doing it about Coronavirus. And they’ll be doing it about the climate and ecological emergency when it’s back on the mainstream agenda.

Extinction Rebellion’s first demand is Tell the Truth. Not complicated but massively important. This is reality we need to confront, not some computer game.  If we allow lies and spin to become the norm of discourse, then we are simply, and comprehensively, screwed.

Day 21 of UK lock down: Happy Oestre

Whilst the pandemic is not a competition, it’s interesting to look at the responses from different governments. There are two clear instances of decisive action by leaders of integrity and principle (Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, and Mette Frederiksen in Denmark) resulting in astonishingly few deaths from the virus. There are also two clear instances of indecisive action by leaders wholly devoid of integrity and principle resulting in the devastating opposite (#JohnsonTrump).

The ineptitude, fudging and lack of honesty from the UK government about PPE continues to beggar belief. Cruella Patel was pushed out into Downing Street on Good Friday to be asked if she would apologise for the inadequate provision of PPE, for the fact that some NHS staff had been forced to purchase their own protective equipment, and for the fact that staff were dying because a bin liner & pair of Marigolds was proving to be insufficient protection. The best that Ms Patel could say, grudgingly, was “I’m sorry if people feel that there have been failings, I will be very, very clear about that.”

Meanwhile Westminster MP’s each have access to an additional £10k of expenses for the added cost of working from home because, obviously, they & their assistants won’t have computers or telephones there, and, somehow, not commuting to Parliament is an additional expense, which can’t be met by their recent 3.1% pay rise.

Which brings us back to differing responses. In Bulgaria, MPs, ministers and heads of public agencies have agreed to donate their entire salaries to public health services for the duration of their confinement. Game, set & match to Bulgaria.

https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2020-04-07---bulgarian-mps-and-ministers-donate-salaries-to-public-health-.HJzD4VAYP8.html

Oh, and Johnson has risen from his hospital bed, it being Easter Sunday and all.