Jon Gaunt
Boris Johnson was late off the blocks in dealing with the Coronavirus outbreak but now he has had a Cobra meeting and unveiled his big idea…. wash your hands!
He is morphing into Corporal Jones out of Dad’s Army, ‘don’t panic Britain!’ He is being aided and abetted by his own, ‘don’t tell them your name Pike’, Matt Hancock. The rabbits in Watership Down looked less frightened in the headlights than Matt, poor love! Boris is grandly calling his ideas the Coronavirus ‘battleplan’ but his ideas are the political equivalent of tearing a tissue. Which by the way, he says, we should use to catch our coughs and sneezes!
Today, with his Downing Street Press conference, he had a great opportunity to act decisively.
Fight this Virus on the Beaches: He should have closed down the UK completely by banning all fights in and out of the UK and closing down schools and telling people to work from home immediately. He should be setting up a compo scheme for those self- employed people who cannot work at home. Essentially the UK should be in lockdown. Any parent will tell you that schools are a hot bed of infection and although it appears children are not too affected by the virus, it is clear that they can be major spreaders of it. The same with Universities of course.
Hancock says that there is no need to cancel big sporting events yet. So, the Cheltenham festival will go ahead and be a breeding ground for the virus. I love the Festival but I am sorry, public health should come first. The odds of racegoers washing their hands, even after going to the loo, are less than Red Rum making a comeback and winning the Gold Cup. I am pleased to see that the football authorities have already met to discuss what they should do, including playing behind closed doors in empty stadiums. They are right to plan ahead.
Supermarkets are gearing up for food shortages and of course people are already panic buying as I predicted last week. Boris Johnson’s hero is Winston Churchill and he needs to channel his ‘inner Winnie’ and fight this virus on the beaches, in the airport terminals and on public transport.
Instead he has adopted a wait and see policy which is both fool hardy and downright dangerous.
Gambling With Our Health: Surely it is better to be accused of overreacting than be having to play catch up again in a few weeks’ time when the bodies are piling up in the morgues and in refrigerated containers in hospital car parks. I am afraid people will not self-isolate, just look at what happened in Tenerife: some of those fools were almost wearing facemasks in matching colours to their bikinis.
Boris and the MSM are more concerned with not causing panic than actually defeating the virus. But their own report states that 1 in 5 workers could be off work if this escalates. That is bloody scary to me. They keep on saying they are at a containment stage at the moment and that IF the virus escalates they are ready. Even suggesting putting the troops on the street! Well I am afraid that does not convince me. The only result of this dilly-dallying delay will be that the epidemic will grow; we need action, not feel good words. It is not a matter of IF, it is a matter of WHEN. Why is Boris gambling with our health? The UK is an Island state so closing down should be relatively easy.
Of course, Boris is weighing up the balance of the economic effect of such a close down with the risk to public health but I am sorry there will be a massive economic disaster if the virus gets out of control. I can’t help but feel that the establishment is once again putting money ahead of our health and I believe they are wrong to do so.
We Need Action: This nonsense of singing ‘happy birthday’ whilst we wash our hands is pathetic and simply will not contain the virus, we do not need reassurance from the muppets of Westminster, we need action. Cheltenham, the London marathon and other large public events need to be cancelled NOW. Boris needs to close down the UK. People who can work at home need to do so and I’m sorry but public transport should be closed down now and that means the trains, the buses and the tube. What are they waiting for? The first duty of any government is the protection of its citizens, so just get on with it. Close the UK down.
