Another looking glass

I have written about Brexit for nearly four years, on and off, and in that time I have remarked how the rhetoric from Brexiteers and the reality of what they espouse bare little resemblance. Stating something will happen in the way they describe, and repeating it over an over again does not make it more likely to pass, reality will have it otherwise.

Brexit was always goig to make the country poorer, make hundreds of thousands of people unemployed and lay waste to industries, but Brexiteers and their cheerleaders in the press banged on about freedom. Freedom to do this, that, the other. Their deal would be better than being a member of the EU; the biggest lie of all, but it was repeated.

Anyone who challenged this was pushing "project fear" and that was enough, so it seems to get legitimate concerns and points pushed to the side.

The only thing to be reported on was the current one true vision of Brexit.

And now COVID-19: even by official figures, a thousand people a day are dying. Many more if those who dies at home, in care homes or have not been tested. And this number will rise daily over the next week, probably the next month.

The press and digital media are mostly concentrating on the illness and recovery of the PM, painting this as a triumph, which it was. But the ray he was released from ICU a thousand others left in body bags. That was a bigger story. But, let's celebrate Boris!

Ireland and Germany had first cases and deaths at almost the same time as the UK, yet their death rates are a fraction of ours. Ireland locked down two weeks before the UK, doing so the weekend before St Patrick's Day, so that on the day of national celebration, all bars were closed. Germany tests 200,00o a day, the UK has barely done double that in total from the start of the crisis.

Germany has five times the number of ICU beds for population, and such strength in depth allowed those will mild symptoms to be treated. Germany is now in the process of releasing its lockdown. The UK has not yet reached its peak.

In the week before events overtook Government policy, 250,000 attended the Cheltenham Festival, and on the day after pubs and bars closed, ten thousand fans attended a concert in Wales by local band the Stereophonics. I remarked at the time that maybe the horsey set were immune, it seems that many who attended that day are now ill.

The Government has done its best, has taken advice, but clearly it has not got it right. Currently there is no oversight by anyone, and a thousand people are dying a day. Somehow, Parliament must sit. Electronically is not impossible. MPs might not be experts on COVID-19, but the evidence on which the Government based its decisions should be presented and questions, tough questions need to be asked. And now is the time, because as we have seen with the vote law-breaking during the referendum, after the event is too late. We need to ask questions, and get the answers now, even as the virus sweeps through the country.

Wether intentional or not, this Governments actions will result in perhaps tens of thousands of extra deaths, and as each and every one of us, who by the end will be touched by this in some way, deserve to know the answers, so that the innocent, the NHS, Civil Service, immigrants (again) don't get the blame. This was Government policy pure and simple.

One more point: UK Government advice is for people to isolate 7 days after last symptoms, WHO advice is for 14 days. Johnson was released from ICU on Thrsday, yet is back with his pregnant(!) girlfriend by Monday!