Good News, Lab Rats - Some Of You Will Die

And so, in an effort to keep those poll numbers ahead of all opposition, alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his new Health Secretary Sajid Javid told an expectant nation what had already been trailed extensively in blatant breach of rules recently reiterated by new Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle. All Covid-19 related restrictions would be lifted on July 19 - subject to confirmation next week.

The reasoning was exceptionally lame: the best Bozo could manage, given that new infections were running at over 25,000 a day and hospital admissions for June 29 had exceeded 350, was to mumble that if there could not be unlocking in Summer, then when could there be? The thought that some prudent level of caution might be the best way forward, that this may become the new normal, was not allowed to enter.

Even the morning after the announcement, Javid is conceding that some may choose to keep wearing face coverings in shops and other enclosed spaces, and on public transport. Thus it all becomes muddled: wearing a face covering protects others, and the instinct of the intolerant right, those who obsess over their FREEM, will be to ditch them. And who will stop them? Thus the vulnerable will have their protection against Covid eroded.

Infections, he and Bozo concede, are likely to hit 50,000 a day. Other predictions show estimates over 100,000. Even our free and fearless press has figured out that Bozo is taking a gamble. Government advisors are not enthusiastic, as Steve Richards noted: “P Vallance and C Whitty looking on warily as they announce rising hospitalisations..and both making clear they will continue to wear masks in several situations”.

The admission of increased risk did not impress Jessica Simor: “I agree that summer is the time to unlock at least for a bit. But to remove mandatory masks on transport, in shops and theatres is nuts. Why risk lives for this small sacrifice? How can they knowingly allow us to risk killing each other in this way?” A little over-dramatic? Maybe not.

Jason Hunter observed “[Boris Johnson] says that we can expect 50,000 new infections per day by the 19th July, increased hospitalisations and ‘unfortunately’ more deaths from Covid”. Richard Murphy added “Johnson has asked ‘if we can’t unlock now when can we go back to normal?’ Maybe we can’t. Maybe there has been irreversible change. And we need to get used to that. It may also be true of climate change”. Point.

As for the “if not now, when?” argument, Mikey Smith mused “Look, I know there is some risk attached to scrapping all road speed limits, but if we can’t do it at 4 in the morning, when the roads are quiet, when can we?” And for the FREEM lovers, Owen Jones had this observation: “Wearing a bit of cloth on a train or in a supermarket doesn't mean you're a prisoner in a Gulag, find yourself a real injustice to suffer from!”

Moreover, the idea that Bozo is a committed libertarian was given short shrift by Paul Bernal: “If he were libertarian we wouldn’t have the most authoritarian policing bill outside wartime, the biggest crackdown on internet free speech ever in the U.K. in the Online Safety Bill, let alone the Voter ID proposal. This is about money, not freedom”.

It is also that Bozo wants to be loved. This will get him positive headlines, maintain his poll ratings. So a few more of the lower orders will die? That’s where voting Tory gets you.

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