He's not the new Churchill, he's the new Nero

Nothing about the pandemic that is currently sweeping across the UK and the world was inevitable.

The virus was identified in December, sequenced in January, I think it was, and the speed and scope of the spread was well known and publicised by the WHO, China, Italy, so there was really little excuse for not knowing what was coming.

On top of that, in 2016 the NHS conducted an exercise and identified areas that needed attention: PPE and ventilators.Passed that onto the Government, who then did nothing.

On top of that, Conservative Party and so Government policy was austerity; draining funding, staffing training for the NHS as well as other services. This has an effect now.

Johnson was warned at the end of January that the pandemic was coming, if measures had been taken then; social distancing, sourcing more PPE and equipment, then we would, as a country, be better prepared now. But nothing was done, things continued as normal. The first COBRA meeting wasn't until the beginning of March, and then the Government decided to ramp up ventilator production, from scratch, in the UK with companies that had never made them rather than join in the EU scheme, because, you know, Brexit.

So that little Englander ideology meant that lives were bought before policy, hundred, thousands of people will die in addition to those caused by earlier lack of political and practical action. With the NHS screaming for 30,000 additional ventilators, it was announced yesterday that the first batch would be shipped this week. Have a guess how many?

Go on, guess.

It has 30 in it.

It is 30.

Three months warning has resulted in 30 additional ventilators being made this week.

People will die.

NHS staff will die.