Broken promises

Yesterday, there were 28,507 new infections recorded, that was a drop from Thursday's 35k. And sadly, 489 died bringing the rolling total to 66,541.

489 is an incredible, and not in a good way, total of daily deaths. It is hard for us to process mortality on that scale.

In 1989, 96 people died at Hillsborough, television carried live pictures of the dead and dying on makeshift stretches made from advertising boards. Those scenes are seared onto the nation's memory. Yesterday's CVID deats were more than five times that amount, there just wasn't the scenes of mass deaths that could be screened, but people died anyway, families will mourn.

We are becoming immune to the number of deaths.

66,541 deaths is almost equal to the population of Lowestoft, or more than the capacity of Arsenal's ground, when open, death on that scale should be beyond a national scandal. Our leaders should be in prison.

In July, Johnson said things would almost be back to normal by Christmas, and when Whitty said there would probably be a second wave in the autumn, Johnson disagreed. Instead of being back to normal, over half the country is in the highest tier of lockdownm pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops are closed. Only two areas left tier three for tier 2, many others, including London, went the other way. Apparently no one could have foreseen the second wave, except the Government's own medical exports, most of the country. And to quote Marina Hyde: 'The quality of being constantly surprised by events is winsome in puppies but increasingly mindboggling in prime ministers.'

And yet with the virus, and in it's festive mutated form in the south east, rampaging across the country, the Government is allowing for households to mix inside for five days over Christmas. That is the law. And yet the Government, at the same time, is saying don't mix, indoors, don't meet grandparents and only for a single day. The Government said it did not want to change the law to to muddle the message, instead they garbled it this way.

Meanwhile, 7,000 containers of PPE has stacked at the Port of Ipswich, none of them opened to see if the contents are all there, or are to specification. The suppliers, most of whom are friends of backers of the Government, have all been paid. It was up to the New York Times to pull the stories of corruption and cronyism to come up with a figure of £13 billion pounds spent without oversight on PPE from dubious sources and of unknown quality. Most went to their friends and backers, through companies a few days old with no experience in PPE.

It comes as little surprise to learn that the Government is planning on reforming Government procurement to make it less (!) accountable.

That this is not the main, or one of the main, items on every news bulletin and front page is astonishing. We are seeing the Government help their friends prosper while the nation is ravaged by a pandemic. It is beyond shameful.

And then you realise they are about to crash the economy for no real reason that I can see, unless it is the same reason as with the PPE scandal. Would we be surprised?

This is what 18 months of Johnson being PM has done. Asset stripping the country and it is us that will pay the price and bury the dead.