Tories’ delay and dither has let UK in worst of both worlds – with England driving UK shame
The UK has today been confirmed to have the worst coronavirus death rate in the world – and the worst economic recession from the virus of any ‘G7’ country.
By locking down late the Tories caused at least 40,000 needless deaths so far among the UK’s people – and by their delay they allowed the virus to spread further and become more entrenched, which prolonged the eventual lockdown and vastly increased the economic damage it caused.
In other words, the Tories’ arrogance, incompetence, dithering and dishonesty inflicted the worst of all worlds on the people of this country, with a real total of over 70,000 deaths, a global-worst death-rate of more than 70 people per hundred thousand so far even on the government’s understated official figures – and an economy that has shrunk by more than 20% in three months:
Yet Johnson and co continue to pretend they’ve been a success – and are now trying to distract the country from the emerging second wave by pointing racist fingers at a handful of migrants.
If only we had a functioning ‘mainstream’ media – or for that matter, opposition.
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Chancellor Rishi Sunack admits he hasn’t got a clue what to do next.
“I can’t pretend that I have a crystal ball,” the Chancellor said
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-declares-many-more-22508870
correction – Rishi Sunak
Yeah but but but I’m sure they’re doing their best so shhhhhhhhh.
Watcha think now, Labour heartlanders … still think ‘getting Brexit DONE’ is more important than getting a decent socialist in Number 10?
Like I said – what this country needs is a better electorate.
Fucking imbeciles.
lundiel, there was no justification for austerity last time and there’s no justification now.
On closing airports yes, except for returning UK residents, who should have been quarantined WITHIN the relatively secure airports.
On “for most of the population the virus presents no danger” that’s true for now, but though we know more now than in March, we STILL don’t know who’s vulnerable and who isn’t, but we DO know it’s not only the elderly and BAME so, like the lottery, IT COULD BE YOU.
David
The Solution (Bertolt Brecht)
After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers’ Union
Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could only win it back
By increased work quotas. Would it not in that case be simpler
for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
A better voting system – FPTP is a skid mark on the underpants of self-described democracies like UK, USA, Canada, India and other former colonies.
Hitler created a third-reich fascist-order to make sure democracy and social democracy (aka democratic socialism) were not indivisible, the British ruling class created FPTP instead. The effect is the same.
There’s nothing wrong with FPTP, given that there’s only one real choice to be made – do you vote for the rich exploiters or do you vote for the exploited – that’s us, you ‘Labour Heartlands’ idiots.
It’s them or us. STV is superfluous in a binary choice.
David McNiven 13/08/2020 at 2:48 am
History teaches us that FPTP hasn’t served the party well and STV has the advantage that it will allow us to mop up all those 2nd preference votes from non Tory voters, There’s a reason the Tories oppose STV so vehemently for UK GEs
Oh, right, so it’s the electorates fault is it, and NOTHING whatsoever to do with the lies and falsehoods and smears the corporate media and the BBC churn out on a daily basis!
Well as far as I am concerned it is YOU McNiven and your five Likers who are the imbeciles, not to mention intolerant and divisive!
There you go, I just liked your comment.
Feel better now?
You don’t really get ‘tongue in cheek’, do you, Allan?
My sincere apologies David, but I didn’t realise that calling them ‘fucking imbeciles’ was tongue in cheek. I suppose it’s just that it was somewhat reminiscent of SteveH calling them ‘fucktards’ a while ago!
But thanks for the Like, it was very sweet of you!
Allan – I don’t recall ever calling anyone a ‘fucktards’
Err… that was probably me too. 😎
Says steveh lying through his teeth!
Oh, and it definitely came across as tongue-in-cheek David!. Not!
Well that’s ONE thing you and steve have in common!!
But thankyou both for the additional material for my book. I appreciate it.
It won’t go down well here but I think we’ve massively overreacted to Covid-19 and massively underestimated the economic costs which, if austerity is anything to go by, will cause far more deaths than the virus.
Better outcomes of countries like Germany and Sweden aside, we should have closed airports sooner and only advised the vulnerable to shelter. What we actually did was enter full blown panic mode and those who follow MSM were inundated with scare stories. Also, our hospitals were not only not overrun, they sent loads of infected people into the care homes.
If it turns out this virus is in fact very different to flue viruses and as Jack T, linked to, a virus that attacks blood vessels, our response would have to be changed recognising that for most of the population the virus presents no danger but for those it does affect the results are extremely serious.
Whatever we do the outcome is not good and as ever the poorest pay the price, but on this occasion, much as I despise the Tories, I think overall they did their best and went against their natural “leave it to the market” philosophy.
You can’t despise the Tories that much if you think overall they’ve done their best. Are you employed by the 77th Brigade?
Oh fuck off you childish jerk.
Keith Starmer would have probably tackled it with the army on the streets and a massive PFI. There is no time for partisan politics now.
Yeah, they did their best to kill off all the ‘expensive to keep’ pensioners, sick and disabled people. Approx 20,000 Care Home pensioners died as a result of their genocidal actions, including my Mother. They have fucking blood on their hands, aided and abetted by most of the MSM too.
Your concern with economic growth at any cost suggests that you would be opposed to a general strike or indeed any systematic reaction against the capitalist system.
Poverty does not exist because the ‘economy’ is not working properly but because it is.
We should certainly have closed the airports but we had no means of knowing, not having had the benefit of JackT’s ground breaking research, who was not vulnerable to the virus- you really owe it to the world to be more clear about this.
As these reports indicate the pandemic has made the nature of this society,l the ruling class and the government very clear. The case for radical change is obvious and easy to make.
As to the Tories having done their best, this is nonsense, what they did was to understand the need to pay attention to the concerns of an awakened and properly alarmed public. That led to their going through the motions without a real commitment to the cause of eradicating the virus and saving lives.
You’ve made a lot of, false, assumptions. I was never thinking of growth, I was thinking of jobs. I never mentioned “strikes”, they aren’t evident as yet. You know me from other forums so don’t go pretending I’m for the Capitalist system. You say the case for radical change is obvious and easy to make…..far to easy I’m afraid. The worry about a globalist “reset” is not an idle one. Our service industry’s are about to be decimated and while that’s no bad thing in the long term we are not prepared or able to prevent huge hardship and mass unemployment.
If you put your hope in new Labour and Keith Starmer you’re sadly deluded. That’s not to say we’ll fare any better under Johnson. My only point about the Conservatives was their economic turnaround from that of Cameron and May in the face of the pandemic.
Lundiel
I have done a 180 since this started. It now seems obvious that Herd Immunity was the way to go from the get-go. There, I said it (Runs for cover)…
timfrom, I could be wrong, but as far as I know the only ‘herd immunity’ is that which is obtained from vaccination. I don’t think there is much evidence to show that having been infected once with CV19 you obtain immunity.
Is there much evidence to show you don’t?
I think I’ve also done a 180 since this all started. It wasn’t a crisis as it began, it flaming well is now.
As a leftist I’m tired of the them and us divide. I don’t like the Tories or their stance on many issues, but the more I listen to right wingers the more I understand certain elements of what they are saying. I know Covid is real, but I am beginning to believe the lock downs, as they are happening, are destroying us more than the virus. The Tories either did go against their natural “leave it to the market philosophy” or something else is happening, quite what I don’t fully understand. You’re right it’s the poorest who are going to have to pay the price, nothing changes there.
Interesting Sweden had no lockdown and has Covid-19 fatality rate of about 0.06 and it had a GDP fall of of about 8.5%. In comparison the UK which had a
lockdown has a Covid -19 fatality rate of about 0.07 and it had a GDP fall of about 20%.
It’s difficult to see how on this issue you can make a realistic comparison between England and Sweden when the population density of England is more than 17 times greater than that of Sweden. Plus if the UK had locked down earlier, instead of dithering, the infection rate would have been lower our death rate would also have been considerably lower.
Well, you would expect with no lockdown they would have soared, but they didn’t. Note also the figure of 0.07% doesn’t even come anywhere Professor Ferguson estimates of about fatalities of 1% never the mind the nonsense he came out orginally of 3.4 % which the WHO called a ” pandemic ” on. Moreover, note the fall of 8.5% against 20% in the UKs case. Not forgetting of course as the NHS said in June 95% of the fatalities have 2 or more serious illnesses, eg cancer, dementia, Parkinson’s, diabetes, respiratory problems, heart disease etc plus of course the median age of death is about 80 years.
Besides of course many of the Medical Cause of Death Certificates have said Covid-19 when no such examination, test took place as NHS doctors have stated.
Furthermore, The chief medical officer of the UK said the overwhelming vast majority of the population will not get Covid-19, those that do will not even realise they have it, a small minority will have mild symptoms and even smaller number will have a serious symptoms and unfortunately a smaller number will die. Population of the UK is about 66,500,000 so the Chief medical officer was not wrong.
Meanwhile, the NHS has empty wards, hundreds of thousands of important operations have been canceled including operations for cancer and heart problems and mental health and suicides have increased. All because of a unnecessary lockdown and pumped up hysteria and fear plus hyperbole.
Oh well, the 16,000,000 people including 4,000,000 children, 200,000 homeless and the nearly 1,000,000 food parcels handed will seem like halcyon days as the economy goes into free fall.
However, the banks, financial institutions and stockmarket are doing very nicely thank you with another £240,000,000,000 from QE to trouser. Nice work if you can get it.
Still, you always have the consolation of wearing a face nappy.
brianbotou – If the population density in Sweden was the same as England I have no doubt that their infection rates would have rocketed. To try and claim that Sweden and the UK are in any way comparable is errant nonsense.
As I pointed out above the population density in Sweden is 17 times less than England.
You can pontificate all you want about co-morbidity but the inescapable fact is that there are 10s of thousands who have died in the UK who would still be alive today if they hadn’t contracted Covid-19.
The daily commute must be a factor in the spread of viruses.
Future research may find significant differences between countries with mass transport systems and those without.
Stockholm I do know has a Metro, the ‘Tunnelbana’, the other Scandinavian countries I don’t know about.
Sweden now has the worst Covid death rate in Scandinavia. Their experiment didn’t work out too well in the end. To contrast their method of tackling it with say Vietnam’s (0ver 95m population)…….Vietnam locked down asap and made mask wearing compulsory and has had ZERO deaths.
Sweden has not had a fall of 20% in their economy and, despite no lockdown the fatalities are about 5770 out of a population of about 10,200,000. Try keep things in perspective.
Sadly,we have had 18 deaths here in Vietnam after a 2nd outbreak thought to have started in Da Nang.However,the record here is still far superior to that of Capitalist countries,so your general point is still well made.
Compare and contrast UK fatalities rate of about 0.07 and a fall of -20% in GDP with a lockdown. Sweden fatalities rate of about 0.06% and a fall of -8.5% with NO LOCKDOWN. Of course the fallout from the UK lockdown is only just beginning. 2 000 000 cancelled operations for cancer, heart problems etc. Plus the increased mental illness, depression, despair and suicides from a totally unnecessary lockdown which affects by an overwhelming majority old people. Fear, hysteria and panic pumped to full volume. But not in Sweden. Looks like the Swedes won’t be led by the nose.
Sweden adds vitamin D to food. Vitamin D is hugely important to the immune system.
Agreed Florence. As VitD is the ‘sunshine vitamin’, being in lockdown will mean that many/most of us will not be getting enough of that vital vitamin. I don’t agree with mass medication, therefore VitD supplements are the way to go, coupled of course with that good old faithful – VitC.
Patchwork foundation is running a vote for the years best MP.
To your duties, fall out
(You know the shits need trolling)
This is the link to vote
https://patchworkfoundation.org.uk/peoples_choice_2020_votesopen/
Well as I said earlier in my blog (https://lovesexwomenmenpoliticspoetrylifedeath.wordpress.com/ ) :
UK: The Worst Of The Worst
Having racked up more deaths than anywhere else in Europe, Boris Johnson now has another feather to stick in his hat: the worst fall in GDP of any G7 nation. And it isn’t just a little bit worse than the others. Th nearest rival to our estimated whopping fall of 21% is France at 13.8%. It’s tragic. And what do we hear from Sunak? This: ‘Hard times are here.’
But the fact is that we have harder times than anyone else. We have more deaths than anyone else. We are in every way the worst of the worst. And yet, as I listen to Radio 4 Today, I don’t hear the comparison with other nations highlighted. I don’t hear criticism of an already failed Tory government that within only one year has taken a wrecking ball to this country. And support for Johnson and his corrupt incompetent rabble though reduced remains steady, in no way reflecting the horrors he has wrought upon us.
What will it take for the English addiction to the Tories to change? I fear it will never change. The Tory pied piper Boris Johnson will dance us all into the river where the UK will sink without trace before English people will abandon their cap doffing subservience to toff Tory bastards. Scotland has to peel away, to separate and make its own way leaving England and Wales to snort their fill of the Tory powder, unopposed by an opposition Labour Party that’s become a joke. It’s never going to change. Enough is enough.
Ahhh But but Brexit dear boy ,,,,, just soooooo much more important to just get it done yah know !
“What will it take for the English addiction to the Tories to change? ”
Political education and systematic campaigning for socialism. This was well understood a century ago-the alternative of relying on the charity of an enlightened and liberal ruling class does not work.
well said Bevin , was 100% true then and 1000% true now , how to get it heard above the howling shit storm that constitutes the foaming frothing rabid dog MSM is another matter
And how is that likely to happen? 45 years of neoliberalism , rewriting history, replacing leftwing academics and teachers, constant revision of education syllabus and finally the virtual privatisation of higher education have made real change virtually impossible. Our elite universities are riddled with American academics and PHD students working for global corporations and NGOs, not to mention the security services recruiters.
There is very little political education apart from “the green new deal” which is a massive con and identity politics like “BLM” that are sponsored by neoliberals and designed to divide and rule under the allusion of democracy which in reality is nothing but ‘Managed democracy’.
The working class is split like never before between libertarianism (keep the government out of my affairs) and socially conservative nationalists. Basically a split between young and old. What worked a century ago won’t work under current conditions.
The establishments centuries old game of divide and conquer by race, religion, class and fear, as we are witnessing with the so called “ pandemic “ has always been to distract the people from the real enemy not left or right but the oligarchs who control the vast majority of the wealth and want to keep it that way. Under the new knight of realm we are back to the facade of two sides of the same party their party the business party.
“What will it take for the English addiction to the Tories to change?”
Knowledge of the truth about them.
With everything working according to plan that’s never supposed to happen.
There’s always the unexpected though, like CV.
So far the Tories have caused UK to have the highest death rate and the worst economy, but the true figures on the comparisons between UK and the next worst nations aren’t fully known yet.
There must be some level of failure that will shock the electorate out of its apathy but we don’t yet know what that level is or whether the Tories will ring that bell or not.
Is it reasonable to hope? Maybe.
If we add up all the other deaths they’ve caused it’ll be many times more than will die due to CV – and if we then add all the deaths they WILL cause, hoping seems reasonable.
Oh well chaps.. That’s this week’s bad news out. Hope something else as almost as shite – or even worse- comes along so the man will get the goldfish to concentrate on that instead…
Or at least until when starmer gets round to making a brief sound bite that this one ‘looks bad’ …
*Sighs*
MSM .. not ‘man’ … Blimmin phone
England 747 per million, Scotland 456 per million: https://www.travellingtabby.com/uk-coronavirus-tracker/
“ Based on our research, England population will reach 55.93 million by 1st July of 2020. We use first day of July each year due to Office for National Statistics (ONS normally publishes the estimated population data for the same period. “
“ England 747 per million” = 0.0747%
“ Based on our research, Scotland population will reach 5.50 million by 1st July of 2020. We use first day of July each year due to Office for National Statistics (ONS) normally publishes the estimated population data for the same period.”
“ Scotland 456 per million”= 0.0456%
http://www.ukpopulation.org/england-population/
August 12, 2020
Public Health England has changed its definition of deaths. The new definition is now death in a person with a laboratory-confirmed positive COVID-19 test and died within (equal to or less than) 28 days of the first positive specimen date will now be reported
The new data can be accessed here.
What this means is that England has had 36,695 deaths using this definition as opposed to the previous reported 42,072 – a difference of 5,377.
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/public-health-england-death-data-revised/
Steve H, but they didn’t and they didn’t have an economy fall by 20%.
Just to remind you it was the NHS figures showed 95% of the fatalities had 2 or more serious illnesses such as cancer, dementia, Parkinson’s, heart disease, etc and therefore did not die of Covid-19 but with it.
Just to remind you the NHS figures showed the median age of the fatalities was 80 years old. Therefore 50% of the fatalities were either side of the age of 80 years old.
Just to remind you the NHS figures showed that 5% of the fatalities died SOLELY FROM Covid-19.
Population of the UK about 66,500,000 fatalities from Covid-19 0.07%. Original estimates from Ferguson 3.4% revised down to 1% difference of 0.93%.
Just to keep things in perspective. Unemployment 3,000,000+, people living in poverty 16,000,000 including 4,000,000 children, homeless people 200,000 and poverty set to soar over a totally unnecessary lockdown which only benefited the banks, the financial institutions to tune of £240,000,000,000 nice work if you can get it. Just to keep things in perspective.
brianbotou – Funnily enough I remember from the last time you reminded us all, and the time before that etc etc etc.
None of what you’ve cut and pasted (yet again) alters the fact that there are 10s of thousands who have died in the UK who would still be alive today if they hadn’t contracted Covid-19.
August 12, 2020
Public Health England has changed its definition of deaths. The new definition is now death in a person with a laboratory-confirmed positive COVID-19 test and died within (equal to or less than) 28 days of the first positive specimen date will now be reported
The new data can be accessed here.
What this means is that England has had 36,695 deaths using this definition as opposed to the previous reported 42,072 – a difference of 5,377.
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/public-health-england-death-data-revised/
It seems the Tories are finally beginning to admit that the previous statistics for fatalities were inaccurate
In those cases where the doctor is confident on medical grounds that a particular cause of death is likely then that should be entered on the MCCD. COVID-19 is an acceptable direct or underlying cause of death for the purposes of completing the MCCD, even without the results of a positive test, and it is important that likely COVID-19 deaths are reported as such via the registrar.
The rules surrounding the completion of the MCCD have changed following the Coronavirus Act 2020. In order for a doctor to complete a MCCD without referral to the coroner any doctor must have seen (including via video link) the patient in the 28 days before death, or alternatively in person after death. If these conditions are met, then a doctor may complete a MCCD which is sent to the registrar who will record the death and complete the paperwork to allow burial or cremation.
If these conditions are not met but the doctor is satisfied regarding the likely cause of death, then a MCCD may still be issued but should be clearly marked to indicate that the person was seen neither in the 28 days before death or after death.
Verification of Death (VoD), Completion of Medical Certificates of Cause of Death (MCCD) and Cremation Forms in the Community in England and Wales
It also appears that Doctors have been recording MCCD as Covid -19 when no such examination took place
Over 95% of “COVID Deaths” recorded in England and Wales had potentially serious comorbidities, according to statistics released by NHS England.
Er no tens of thousands didn’t die because of Covid -19 they died with Covid 19 as the figures from the NHS confirm
OK, so you’ve learned to spell ‘solely’.
No need to shout about it.
Have you not finished reading your wee tales from the river bank book yet.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/COVID-19-total-announced-deaths-3-June-2020-weekly-tables.xlsx
What is the relevance of this data , it’s more than 2 months old and does it alter the fact 10,000s of the recently deceased in the UK would still be alive if they hadn’t contracted Covid-19?
The NHS data is as relevant now as it was then . 95% of the fatalities had two or more serious illnesses and died with and additional illnesses not because of the additional illnesses, namely, Covid -19. Plus the median age of death was 80 years old. Are you now trying to say that old people didn’t die before Covid-19?
brianbotou – I’m simply saying that tens of thousands of the victims of SARS CV-2 would be alive today if they hadn’t contracted Covid-19.
I see SB is determined to maintain the reputation of the slow-of-understanding at the back of the class.
For Christ’s sake – only a duggie would now claim that lock-ups worked in any shape or form, or that the epidemic hasn’t now disappeared, or tat masks are a good idea. Unless they were surreptitiously supporting the raddled Johnson or the oleaginous Starmer.
This repository of unintelligent knicker-wetting babble is hardly a great advertisment for ‘the left’.
Do catch up.
“ I am simply saying tens of thousands of the victims of SARS 2 would be alive today if they hadn’t contracted Covid-19”
As the NHS stated 95% of the fatalities had 2 or more serious illnesses, which in plain English means that Covid19 is not repeat not the primary cause of death, and the median age of death was 80 years old.
This graph shows the percentage of all UK deaths from the top four leading causes in 2017. These were dementia, heart disease, stroke and lung cancer.
What is the link between dementia and deaths involving COVID-19?
Dementia was present in around one fifth of deaths involving COVID-19.
Why is dementia now called the biggest cause of death in the UK?
Age is the biggest risk factor for dementia, so as we are living longer the number of people developing dementia is increasing.
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/research-dementia-UK-biggest-killer-on-the-rise
brianbotou – None of which alters the fact that there are 10s of thousands who have died in the UK who would still be alive today if they hadn’t contracted Covid-19.
“ None of which alters the fact..” But it’s not a fact as the NHS have stated 95% of the fatalities died WITH COVID -19 NOT BECAUSE OF IT AND THE MEDIAN AGE OF DEATH WAS 80 YEARS OLD. It doesn’t how much you try to play the game of semantics. The undisputed fact is that 95% of the fatalities didn’t have the primary cause of death as Covid19. Now, I ask you again are you stating that old people only die of Covid19.