Test And Trace IS A DISGRACE

England and Wales have, at long last, got an NHS Covid-19 App, which, we are told, works, but has been throwing out apparently spurious messages about exposure to an infected person, when the threshold for self-isolation has not been reached. It seems there have been very few actual self-isolation alerts. Worse, the App has taken several months to get to release, and appeared at first not to record tests done via the NHS.

Worse still, this was not the first attempt to provide a working App for Covid-19: the first effort, a centralised design, had to be scrapped. The Government was told that it wouldn’t work, but no, they knew better. The current App used the Apple/Google toolkit that other countries’ Apps, like those used by Germany and Ireland, used from the word go.

And then there is the cost. Ireland’s Covid Tracker cost €850,000 (£775k). It launched in July. It works. The code has been made available to other countries: Northern Ireland and Scotland have re-used it. So has the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The whole sorry saga of the England and Wales App has resulted in a £12,000,000,000 bill. Yes, that’s a 12 with nine zeroes after it. Twelve billion notes. And it still doesn’t work.

In other words, Matt Hancock and Dido Harding - which of them carries the can I know not, and care less - have, along with others working in the service of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his chief polecat Dominic Cummings, overseen the spraying up the wall of 15,500 times the dosh that the Irish Republic needed to get an App built, tested, launched and working. 15,500 times the amount.

One hates to use too much intensive language, but where the merry fuck has it all gone? What were Hancock and his pals doing about it? And why didn’t they swallow their pride back in July and use the same code the Irish App has used? Instead, Hancock proclaimed “Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on-the-spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly” early in August.

He was swiftly told “we need a working test and trace system integrated with NHS services”. For the Lib Dems, Caroline Pidgeon AM concluded last month “We need a working test and trace system and this must be an absolute priority for Government”. Early this month, Labour leader Keir Starmer asserted “The British public have made extraordinary sacrifices during this pandemic”, pointing up Bozo’s ineptitude.

He, too, was reminded “We did, and continue to do our bit. We need a bloody working test and trace system!” Last Thursday, there was Hancock once more (citing the Express - not a good look) with “We all have a part to play to stop the spread of coronavirus - so we can keep the NHS open & save lives. We need to suppress the virus, protect the economy, education & the NHS until a vaccine can keep us safe”. Yes, but …

Cue yet another exasperated member of the Great British public to tell him “No, we need a effective, working test, track and trace system, not your moonshooting, worldbeating crap. Just working and effective, just like a lot of other countries”. What we also need is for our free and fearless press to get on Bozo’s case and demand answers - as well as action.

This is a scandalous waste of public funds. Stop pissing around, Tories, and sort it out.

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