Covid - A Tory And Media Betrayal

While our free and fearless press tells us about what the Queen said yesterday, the possibility of shortages at Christmas and who else to blame for them, and the latest single from Adele, they, most broadcasters, and the Government of alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson have successfully taken one rather important health issue out of the headlines - that of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After all, we were all given our FREEM back in July, and that was that, wasn’t it? We can now congregate in restaurants, pubs, shops and other inside and not always well ventilated spaces, crowd onto trains and buses, and gather with whomsoever we like, with no precautions needed. None of those namby-pamby face coverings for the FREEM loving people of the UK, no Sirree! They’re just optional for snowflakes and spoilsports!

Moreover, the UK has taken its eye off the ball on vaccination, with jabs for those under 18 seeing a pitiful rate of uptake. Little or no action is taken to stem the tsunami of misinformation from the wacko anti-vaxx brigade, whose collective stupidity continues to harass health workers, teachers and law enforcement authorities.

So while libertarian Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said of the Tories’ annual gathering “Had I listened then - we certainly wouldn’t be meeting like this now and having a conference, people wouldn’t be getting together with their friends their family” and “I’m a minister and I’m entitled not to listen to them [Sage]”, Covid-19 has come roaring back.

While other countries across Europe have long ago overtaken the UK on vaccine rollouts - Portugal has jabbed 86% of its entire population and 98% of those eligible, for which read anyone over 12 years old - those countries have also continued to exercise care and mandate what are common sense measures to prevent transmission of the virus.

Both Portugal and neighbouring Spain mandate the use of face coverings on public transport. Compliance is near-total. Face coverings are also mandated in larger supermarkets; in practice, people wear them in smaller stores, too. Digital Covid passes are mandatory for entry to bars and clubs. While the UK passed 45,000 new infections yesterday, Spain managed just over 1,900 and Portugal 777.

Scaled up for population difference, both countries are recording an infection rate around, or below, 10% of that in the UK. The picture is not dissimilar in Italy, France and Germany. Or, as LBC host James O’Brien put it earlier today, “We seem to have snatched defeat from the jaws of vaccine victory”. Our media class imbued us with the idea that, as the UK had a head start on vaccination, we were better than the foreigners, case closed.

Worse, while Spain records a seven day average of 32 Covid deaths and Portugal just seven, the UK’s number is almost 120 and rising. Countries that rely heavily on tourism do not want to look like Plague Island. Why spend that disposable income on a trip to London when you can visit more cautious and healthier Barcelona or Lisbon?

Worst of all, our media class, partly because so many of them are heavily invested in The Adoration Of The Boris, and others are frightened of the Tories (hello BBC), has almost completely ignored the pandemic. Well, have I got news for them: winter is coming, Covid is here, it’s going to get a lot worse, and the Tory libertarians have failed the UK. Again.

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