The current government strategy against Covid is not working. Putting your fingers in your ears and shutting your eyes to pretend it isn’t happening is not a strategy; in fact, it is the perfect definition of the opposite, and furthermore, a total abdication of the responsibility of good government.
Our hospital has had to declare another ‘critical incident’ because of the sheer volume of staff off sick, and an increased number of patients in wards who have positive Covid status.
A colleague caught Covid on a night out at the weekend, because a doorman in Plymouth had to be at work despite having blatantly obvious severe Covid symptoms, thereby infecting everyone with whom he came into contact. And because following the ending of the legal requirement to isolate, his employer wouldn’t allow him to do the right thing and take paid sick leave.
At a time when the government is making the cost of living untenable for many by raising taxes – contrary to the approach in the rest of the world, and also against the Conservatives’ own 2019 manifesto pledge – what choice do people have but to work when sick?
This is exactly what you get when you leave it up to ‘personal choice’: greedy companies will flout the guidance, ignore common-sense and then expose everyone to what is still a very deadly disease, just to make a quick profit.
What we need is a return to appropriate and sensible law. We need sick pay that equates to a living wage. We need mask mandates: in reality, what imposition is asking people to wear a mask? It harms nobody but it saves lives, and other countries cope perfectly well with it.
I am not suggesting China is a bastion of sanity, but they are imposing full lockdown whilst we do nothing! Many countries still have mask mandates in place.
Anyone with weakened immunity has been hung out to dry by this government, and if our hospitals here in the south-west aren’t coping now, in the quiet season, then what are you expecting will happen in the summer, when hordes of tourists arrive and clog the place up?
And all of this unnecessary disruption for the NHS and irresponsible risk-taking is for what? To ‘save big dog’?
Why is his job (which he has been shown on countless occasions to be completely incapable of doing and totally useless at) more important than the lives and health of the nation?
On the subject of our highly-unsuitable prime minister, I understand he has launched his ‘two year election campaign’. Surely he should be doing his job and actually running the country for a change, instead of getting his dressing-up box out and pretending to work, whilst creating sickening, mindless photo opportunities to try and save his doomed job?
And to add insult to injury:
