That Sunday Times article firmly skewers the government over Covid-19

The Sunday Times piles the pressure on the government once again with this weeks revelation that the government has willfully neglected its duty when it knew exactly what the COVID-19 pandemic was going to do to the people of Britain. It is culpable in the manslaughter of thousands – as a direct result of its what it knew and what it did about it. Is Boris Johnson about to be sacrificed to save the Tories from sinking into oblivion? The word in political circles at the moment is one of ‘hold your breath’ – somethings going down.

 

Boris Johnson was absent from the first Cobra meeting on coronavirus. Instead, he was hanging out with a Chinese new year dragon and continually played down the looming disaster. He claimed Britain was prepared and missed four further Cobra meetings on coronavirus and by then it was all too late. The Prime Minister’s reputation as lazy and complacent was now proven and all the fears about him were vindicated.

Scientists pleaded with the government that mass casualties were coming, and they needed to obtain emergency supplies of protective gowns and masks. Instead, and quite unbelievably, the government actually exported its own supplies to China.

On January 22nd, Professor Neil Ferguson warned that coronavirus would be deadly that there needed to be a lockdown to protect the country. The government dismissed this as “something out of a post-apocalypse movie.”

By late January, the seriousness of the virus was clear to all who chose to see it, as was the fact it was going to imminently arrive on British shores. The government pretended that the pandemic was the biggest threat facing Britain but in practice, preparations for a pandemic had been destroyed by austerity and they preparing the country for a no-deal Brexit anyway.

The government were fully aware that the pandemic would turn into a crisis with a lack of ventilation equipment and PPE and yet they continued to look away.

Pandemic planning was repeatedly bumped off the diary, and the government advisory on pandemics joked amongst themselves “Haha let’s hope we don’t get a pandemic“.

The government pursued its herd immunity programme, essentially treating it as flu, so abandoned a testing and contact tracing strategy. The country, abandoned by its leadership was facing total breakdown and failure.

 

This entire story is behind The Times paywall. But you can read it in its entirety by clicking THIS LINK to archive.today webpage capture

 

In any normal functioning democracy, the PM would stand down after such as abysmal performance, but in a normal democracy, what has led the country to this point would not have happened. But is it possible that Boris Johnson’s lies have finally caught up with him? It appears that Johnson is at Chequers and no longer being briefed on daily events.

Has Rupert Murdoch, in league with Tory ministers decided to throw Johnson under a bus? James O’Brien at LBC  thinks Boris Johnson’s time in office will be very short-lived after this. Tim Walker at the New European thinks Michael Gove is about to become Britain’s fourth PM in under five years.

 

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