HP Source: ‘This Government’s Priorities are all Wrong’

 

We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thing, 16th September 2020; This Government Priorities are all Wrong

 

‘There’s nothing in my dreams

 

Just some ugly memories..’

One of the many things I have learnt in my career is how to manage time, that finite commodity. It was impressed upon me that there are two measures of the tasks we face, Urgent, and Important.

Urgent is important to someone else, and Important is relevant to me. The latter usually features the most difficult tasks, which are often the most rewarding.

What passes for government today faces something similar; urgent is Brexit which is profoundly important to a minority of the population, other Leave voters realise we face more immediate life-threatening issues. The issue to which I refer is Covid-19, this should be of paramount importance to us all.

‘It is the first responsibility of government in a democratic society to protect and safeguard the lives of its citizens. That is where the public interest lies. It is essential to the preservation of democracy, and it is the duty of the court to do all it can to respect and uphold that principle.’ ⁽¹⁾

From the beginning of the pandemic it was accepted that to manage it required a test, trace and isolate system that would actively detect the disease and contain transmission wherever possible.
 

‘It is the first responsibility of government in a democratic society to protect and safeguard the lives of its citizens’

 

The governments answer to this is Operation Bullshit Moonshot, their newly proposed mass testing scheme which aims to increase testing from the current hundreds of thousands of tests each day to 10 million a day by early 2021.

Really? This sounds just like more populist rhetoric, throwing grand names and ideas around, an enormous budget, and fool the public into thinking that something has changed

The reality is this:
 

• Steve Rumbelow, the chief executive of Rochdale council said, ‘The system is clearly in meltdown. It’s chaotic. Demand is being managed in the most ham-fisted way you could possibly imagine, essentially by turning it off and on again.’
• Bolton, now has one of the highest infection rates in Europe. The chair of the local NHS foundation trust, Prof Donna Hall, reported a ‘very busy’ emergency department ‘as poorly people unable to get a test come to us for help. This is why it’s so important to have a functioning testing and tracing system. One day of delays can cause hundreds more infections. This is a very worrying situation for us in Bolton.’
• With 196 cases for every 100,000 people, the Greater Manchester town has a slightly higher rate of cases than the French city of Marseille, where authorities announced strict measures on Monday following a ‘exponential curve’ in cases.
• Across the UK, 3,105 cases and 27 deaths were reported on Tuesday, with 972 people in hospital, up from 575 a week earlier.
• The surge in coronavirus cases and the return of schools has led to increased testing demand, with requests from NHS workers up 50% in two weeks.
• NHS authorities in Hampshire are responding to the problems with a new initiative using vans to send tests to community care workers unable to access them online, meaning they could be off work unnecessarily.

 

The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, told parliament that a mobile testing centre failed to turn up in Bolton at the weekend.

Hundreds queued for five hours for a test in Bury, and a father with a sick child in Walsall travelled 76 miles to an appointment in Wales to find on arrival that tests had run out, he added: ‘The prime minister promised us whack-a-mole but instead his mallet is broken. The secretary of state is losing control of this virus. He needs to fix testing now.’
 

‘One day of delays can cause hundreds more infections’

 

In response, Hancock said capacity for testing was at a record high and that the government had processed 9,278 pillar 2 tests in the top 10 worst-hit areas on Monday. He also denied that tests were impossible to obtain in virus hotspots saying, ‘It’s wrong to say that testing is not available in these areas.’
 

‘When you think the night has seen your mind

That inside you’re twisted and unkind

Let me stand to show that you are blind..’

 

Oh, come on, Matt, this system has collapsed. In fact, it isn’t even a system, it’s just a mishmash held together with sticking tape. It is now mid-September, the crisis began in February,all we have to show for the past 7-months are a series of stupid claims, much like Operation Moonshot, style over substance, e.g.:
 

• In May Johnson boasted that the UK would establish a ‘world-beating’ system
• 2 September, Boris Johnson was still describing the test and trace system as ‘superlative’ and misleadingly claiming that the UK was carrying out more tests than anywhere else in Europe

 

In defence of the government establishing an effective test, trace and isolate system is not straightforward, however, the current inadequacies in the system cannot be excused. ‘The government made a fundamental and strategic error early on in designing a fragmented, over-centralised and semi-privatised system that was never going to work well. It created barriers between testing and tracing systems; it undermined the ability of local public health teams to understand and react strategically to their local epidemiology; and it excluded the primary healthcare providers from the system.’

People talk about a future public inquiry, there won’t be one. Hancock has given us a scapegoat, Public Health England, that has now been disbanded and we move on. This is just another example of a government totally lacking in competence, and that is happy to fire senior civil servants that get in their way. The shambles that is the cabinet don’t have the competence and willingness to undertake the necessary complex logistical planning, and a political culture of centralised, top-down decision-making, and a pro-market ideology turned a public health crisis into a commercial opportunity for big business.
 

‘People talk about a future public inquiry, there won’t be one’

 

Deeper issues such as the underfunding of the NHS caused by austerity were at the route of the problem. Within this was the constant meddling by government; between 1990 and 2009 the health service suffered more than 50 major organisational changes.

Many of these changes were based on the ‘financialisation and marketisation’ of the health system, which prioritised efficiency over safety and stability.

Johnson’s indifference to the truth as evidenced in his statements quoted earlier aren’t the comments of someone open to an honest assessment of what is and isn’t working, and what changes are required.

Continuing my analogy of urgent and important, we now move from important to urgent, namely urgent Brexit which is only important to a minority. Given the already tight timetable set for agreeing our divorce terms, anyone with a semblance of common sense would have extended the deadline in light of the global upheaval caused by Covid-19. Surely even the most diehard Brexiter could wait a little longer, it’s been 47-yrs whats another 6-12 months?

There are, I believe, two drivers for the adherence to a now impossible timetable.

Firstly, Nigel Farage is waiting in the wings, ready to pounce on anything that looks like BRINO ⁽²⁾, or deviations from the timetable. Whilst he has consistently been a thorn-in-the-side of past Tory governments, Johnson now has an 80-seat majority, Farage doesn’t really have a party, he can march around like Colonel Blimp make rousing speech to the crustys but he cannot have any electoral impact. Despite this he is still their bete noire.

Secondly, bringing Brexit back into the headlines is a cynical attempt to distract attention away from the more important issue of Covid, and gives the electorate something to rally around.
 

‘a cynical attempt to distract attention away from the more important issue of Covid’

 

However, this does highlight unpleasant characteristics of Johnson and his ministers; Brexit is their raison d’etre, they are prepared to go to any length to get what they want, and their inability to do the job. The current fiasco with the government prepared to break international law highlights that nothing is beyond them, and their incompetence.

Johnson claims that, in signing the Exit Agreement, an international agreement, he was bamboozled into a substandard Brexit deal. The obvious question is, when did Johnson notice his mistake? The answer is he either didn’t understand what he was signing up to, or he mis-sold the defeat as victory in a general election.

Since the election, he has continued to make untrue claims about the agreement, especially the requirement for border controls at Irish Sea ports. Hard-line Tory MPs have also periodically asserted that the whole thing can could be dispensed with, therefore they were happy at the time.

Whilst previous Conservative leaders have indulged their Eurosceptic backbenches, they have left that at home in dealings with the EU. Brexit made this more difficult, there is no practical way to deliver in policy terms what had been promised in campaign rhetoric. Theresa May’s deal fell into the gap between two incompatible ideas of ‘Europe’: ‘the cartoon enemy depicted by Brussels-bashing newspapers, and the real institutions, valued by every UK prime minister until the current one.’

Johnson claims that the measures in the bill – which would hand unilateral powers to ministers in key areas yet to be agreed with the EU, breaching the terms of the treaty agreed in January – were ‘a protection, it’s a safety net, it’s in an insurance policy, and it is a very sensible measure’.

He said threats from the EU, which the bloc has denied, had made the legislation necessary, claiming the bloc could prevent food exports from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

That claim drew incredulity from the shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, who responded for Labour. He said the bill did ‘precisely nothing’ to address that issue, offering mockingly to give way to Johnson in the Commons if he had found anything in the bill that dealt with the ‘supposed threat’.

‘He didn’t read the protocol, he hasn’t read the bill,’ Miliband said. ‘What incompetence, what failure of governance, and how dare he try and blame everyone else? This is his deal, it’s his mess, it’s his failure.’
 

‘Perhaps you’re smiling now

Smiling through this darkness

But all I had to give was guilt for dreaming…’

 

The righteous indignation about goods not reaching Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain is a smoke screen designed to confuse the issues and ensure that blame is laid at the door of the EU.

The withdrawal agreement contains a mechanism to resolve disputes over barriers to trade, Johnson just doesn’t want to recognise that authority.

The move is the typical cynical threat used by populists over time, the EU cannot grant concessions to a bully. Whilst EU leaders still want a deal, and would likely help Johnson manage his position, it stretches the imagination to envisage him being able, or willing to accept help.
 

‘EU leaders still want a deal, and would likely help Johnson manage his position’

 

In spite of some high-profile resignations and backbench unease at breaking international law Johnson has carried the day in parliament. The concession secured by Tory MPs, i.e. there will be a vote in the House before the legislation breaking the law happens is a worthless placebo. Johnson has an 80-seat majority, are there are 40+ Tory MPs with the pelotas to vote against him? No!

It is even mooted that Johnson could refuse to uphold his side of the Northern Ireland protocol, a scenario that has floated around fanatical Brexiteer circles for a while. Whilst it could be a step-too-far even for such a renegade government it should not be scoffed at.

Johnson doesn’t appear to care about the Good Friday agreement, in past negotiations has been as reckless, unfaithful and self-serving in his relationship with Northern Ireland as in all his other relationships.

There is a very harsh reality here; Brexit as it was marketed to the electorate always contradicted the Good Friday Agreement, an agreement seen as sacred by many politicians in the US.

Even if Trump were to be re-elected he will not be able to get a trade deal for a rogue UK through Congress. No EU trade deal, No US trade deal, that’s careless government.
 

‘No EU trade deal, No US trade deal, that’s careless government’

 

Perhaps the most telling comment on this sorry saga came the Attorney General, Suella Braverman, who when was asked what had changed since former justice minister Lord Faulks stated in 2015 that ministers would not breach international law said his statement reflected ‘government policy at the time’.

The obvious takeaway from this is that Johnson and his mob will do WHATEVER IT TAKES to get their own way.

Doing whatever it takes continues to be the modus operandi for Trumps’ mob. Roger Stone is typical; he was sentenced to 40-months in prison for lying to Congress about contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 election regarding emails hacked from Democratic party accounts and witness tampering in the Russia investigation.

Whilst special counsel, Robert Mueller, and the Senate intelligence committee suspected Trump lied when he said he could not recall discussing the leaks with Stone without Stones’ evidence nothing could be proved. For his loyalty Stones’ sentence was overturned by Trump.

Both men were in Nevada on Saturday, Trump holding campaign events while Stone sought to raise money for himself. Stone citied widely debunked claims of fraud around early voting, absentee balloting and voting by mail, and said Trump should consider invoking the Insurrection Act ⁽³⁾ and arresting the Clintons, former Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Zuckerberg, Tim Cook of Apple and ‘anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity’.

He also said: ‘The ballots in Nevada on election night should be seized by federal marshals and taken from the state. They are completely corrupted. No votes should be counted from the state of Nevada if that turns out to be the provable case. Send federal marshals to the Clark county board of elections, Mr President!’

Nevada has not gone to a Republican since 2004, whilst Biden still leads there, polls have tightened. Trump attacked the Democratic Nevada governor, saying ‘This is the guy we are entrusting with millions of ballots, unsolicited ballots, and we’re supposed to win these states. Who the hell is going to trust him? The only way the Democrats can win the election is if they rig it.’

Stone said: ‘Governor Sisolak is a punk. He should not face down the president of the United States.’

Trump and his campaign have also consistently claimed without evidence that ‘antifa’, or anti-fascist, activists represent a deadly threat to suburban voters that will be unleashed should Biden win. Commenting on a Daily Beast report about left-wing activist groups planning what to do ‘if the election ends without a clear outcome or with a Biden win that Trump refuses to recognise’, Stone told Jones, ‘If the Daily Beast is involved in provably seditious and illegal activities,’ he said, ‘their entire staff can be taken into custody and their office can be shut down. They wanna play war, this is war.’

Stone also advocated ‘forming an election day operation using the FBI, federal marshals and Republican state officials across the country to be prepared to file legal objections [to results] and if necessary to physically stand in the way of criminal activity’.

In an interview broadcast on Saturday night, Trump told Fox News he would happily ‘put down’ any left-wing protests. ‘We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that if we want. Look, it’s called insurrection. We just send in and we, we do it very easy. I mean, it’s very easy. I’d rather not do that, because there’s no reason for it, but if we had to, we’d do that and put it down within minutes, within minutes.’ ⁽³⁾

One of the recurring themes in my articles is the rise of extreme right politicians, wherever possible I using history to support my arguments. The title was even changed to reflect my concerns that major countries, the UK included, were heading towards fascism.

Events such as Hitlers Enabling Act of 1933 shows how a modern, civilised country can be taken over by stealth and within parliamentary procedure. Hitler came to power through the ballot box, the Nazis were the single largest party in Germany.

There seems to be the belief that it couldn’t happen here, it’s this complacency that will allow it to. People didn’t vote for what Hitler became, they voted for the prosperity he promised, and accepted the scapegoats he offered up.

Plus ca change.
 

‘Look up here, man, I’m in danger

I’ve got nothing left to lose

I’m so high it makes my brain whirl..’

 

Notes:

1. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200405/ldjudgmt/jd041216/a&oth-6.htm#:~:text=It%20is%20the%20first%20responsibility,respect%20and%20uphold%20that%20principle.
2. Brexit in name only
3. The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the president to use federal troops to enforce federal law and was last used in 1992.

 

A different tone from Philip this week; no less angry and aghast at events, but perhaps slightly more pensive as Brexit comes crashing towards us, and the Covid crisis seems on a knife-edge.

With still no prospect of a serviceable test and trace scheme, claiming that up to 10 m tests a day will be conducted by 2021, feels like flying a kite; meanwhile Bolton has the highest rate of infection in Europe.

With an NHS struggling to cope following decades of underfunding and drives for ‘efficiencies’ and a testing system in disarray, how much sense does it make to doggedly stick to the Brexit deadline? And how sensible would it be to walk away empty handed having behaved in such a fashion that makes it impossible for the US to strike a trade agreement with us?

Maybe ‘Baby its Cold Outside’ should have been one of the lyrics; or maybe not.

Instead we have four cracking, and very personal tracks, but a totally different feel to the blood and guts of the last couple of weeks; as restrictions tighten, online entries only please.

First ‘from an album often cited as the first punk album’ 3 pts for The Stooges and 5 pts for ‘Gimmie Danger’; quite a billing next ‘a wonderful, haunting song from the greatest album ever’ – 1 pt for Velvet Underground and 5 for the excellent ‘I’ll be Your Mirror’.

Then ‘the great man delivers a haunting song’ 1 pt for David Bowie and 5 pts for ‘Time’; last but not least ‘as farewell albums go this is, to date, unsurpassed. How can someone be so good 50-yrs on?’ he’s back – 3 pts for David Bowie, and five for the haunting and poignant ‘Lazarus’. Reflect, and enjoy!
 

https://youtu.be/gGzBLkdA31A

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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