Freedom Day

 In my 66 years on this earth, I’ve never known anything remotely like this. 

We have taken the worst approach possible - in the world - in dealing with this pandemic. It is  self-evident from the statistics and exponential increase in infections that this government cannot learn from its mistakes and keeps repeating them ad nauseam, hoping for a different result every time. Scientists around the world, including our own scientific advisors, accuse the government of "moral emptiness" and "epidemiological stupidity". 

The spectacular advantage we gained from the vaccination lead is now being squandered by this idiotically named Freedom Day, which is actually better termed Infection Day and is resulting in hospitals cancelling elective procedures in the face of an exponential rise in infections and hospitalisations.

Who exactly is experiencing this Freedom? Certainly not those who now have to navigate around the estimated 30% of morons (according to a poll) who are refusing to wear masks, despite it remaining firm government advice that's no longer backed up by law. Only the morons will be experiencing Freedom - freedom to infect others and each other.

Personal responsibility? How can I take personal responsibility for someone else not wearing a mask and infecting me, other than by not entering anywhere where people refuse to wear masks? That's not freedom!

Johnson emphasises the risks posed by nightclubs only hours after opening the damned things and we see hundreds of young people paying not the slightest attention to protective measures. Then he says nightclubs will require patrons to have Covid Passports in September, way after the horse has bolted. Can anyone discern even a shred of logic in this?

Many on social media are saying we can't possibly wait till there are no cases reported before restrictions are relaxed. However, they're guilty of the 'all or nothing' fallacy - a false dilemma suggesting that there are only two options – either full lockdown or full freedom – when in fact there are many more options in the middle ground between those two extremes, such as masks being enforced by law when cases are spiralling out of control, along with a bit of social distancing. You'd think they were being asked to deliver their firstborn for sacrifice.

It's almost as if the Conservative government wants the NHS to fail, just so it can call in the private sector and privatise it (you first destroy that which you wish to privatise); however, it's a mistake to attribute to design and strategy what can adequately be explained by a consistent track record of incomparable, astounding and repeated incompetence.  The level of corruption, hypocrisy, incompetence and cronyism is unprecedented and laid out for all with eyes to see. 

Then there’s the self-imposed disaster that is Brexit, which just lurches from bad to worse, with blame being apportioned to anyone, rather than the very architects of this act of wanton self-flagellation. 

The racism they’re stirring up with their War on Woke and Culture Wars is in negation of any shred of compassion, decency, caring, morals, ethics or general good nature. They give licence to the worst elements in human nature to run rampant, just like Trump did in America.  

Even an anti-racism gestures, made in solidarity with an abused English national football team, are an unacceptable breach of GB News standards - that certainly makes sense in a Culture War (I wasn't aware GB News had any standards). This whole government thing about ‘we don’t do gesture politics’, is intellectually bankrupt and a blatant lie. Wearing a poppy is a gesture, handing people a leaflet is a gesture, clapping the NHS is a gesture, politicians do most of what they do with  gestures - including making promises they know will be broken.  Johnson with the huge England flag on Downing Street - that was a brilliant gesture, but nonetheless a gesture and a stunt that created fantastic photo opportunity for him.  Politics is all about gestures and symbolism.

It doesn’t help that, despite all the evidence of wrongdoing, incompetence, neglect and corruption, a lot of people continue to support this appalling government, choose to wilfully ignore objective reality and treat Boris Johnson, who has been sacked from virtually every job he's ever had for lying, as if he were the Messiah, rather than the very naughty boy he is. Why? Even Peter Oborne and Max Hastings have turned on him, and both know him well.

To quote Rory Stewart, one of a small number of true, old-style Tories I can respect  (although now an ex Tory): "Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life - perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent - but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go well beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error; omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocaton and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-utruth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie."

It's as if there's a headlong rush into speculative risk taking, in the hope that at least one risk will pay off. This is despite, with the exception of going it alone on vaccines, hardly a single risk having thus far transformed into one with even a low pay-off.  A large section of the electorate has turned into infantile, self-absorbed toddlers who care for nothing but themselves.