There are lots of ways you could kill someone...
You could throttle them with your bare hands. You could lace their porridge with poison. You could stab them or shoot them. You could drive them off the road or push them over a cliff.
And there are other ways...
You could put pollutants in their rivers and reservoirs. You could clad their high rise buildings with flammable panels. You could instigate wars. You could simply neglect them. You could delay action at the start of a deadly pandemic, perhaps imagining that everything would be okay in the end, even when the signs from abroad suggested otherwise. In mitigation, you could chant repeatedly "We're following The Science" even when "The Science" was never clear. You could transport infected hospital patients to care homes without proper safety provision or informed agreement.
Who knows how many British deaths might have been avoided if Johnson had been a wise political leader and not an unapologetic optimist and showman? His dithering and delay at the start of the pandemic caused thousands of avoidable deaths and this is the clear conclusion of parliament's Health and Social Care, and Science and Technology Committees.
Will he ever appear in a court of law to answer to the charges that should by rights be ranged against him? Never. As sure as eggs are eggs, he will get away with this unintentional mass killing scot-free. There will be weasel words and the world will move on and one day Johnson will write a book about his years in office. It will sell like hotcakes but he won't give a penny of the profits to the grieving families of his coronavirus victims. No way will he do that. He will remain a killer on the loose just like Tony Blair.
And just like DJT. Pathetic and disgraceful all.
ReplyDeleteDJT sounds like a disease of the gut that causes excessive trumping.*
Delete* In Britain, "trump" is a polite word for "fart".
If it makes you feel any better , our premier , Jason Kenney is the worst of the worst. We just want the guy to disappear.
ReplyDeleteWhy not train to be an assassin Red? You could become an Albertan hero.
DeleteSo many ways to death, this time the vanity of one man. On one hand he did not do it deliberately, He just did not know how to run a country, as do most of the cabinet as well. He is a terrible man, being out of the country on holiday when this bad news is revealed - priceless. But doesn't he represent a section of the country who don't give a **** about others. The majority of people are responsible, we have to have faith.
ReplyDelete"Levelling Up" is a cruel joke, adopted by Johnson and his crew to emasculate Labour.
DeleteDidn't you and I tell him so in early days of Covid? You're doing it wrong Boris. The fallout from the Grenfell Tower goes on and on and what happened illegally under government regulations and the eyes of local councils, owners who did nothing wrong and acted in good faith are expected to pay to remediate. Utter disgrace. Never mind that he cut funding to the rather incompetent and ill prepared London Fire Brigade. I could go on. He is directly responsible through his actions for so many deaths.
ReplyDeleteDeaths by political incompetence are apparently okay.
DeleteI have been following this Pandemic all the way through on various sites and there is a lot I have read that I would never write online, it would probably be taken down anyway as freedom of expression has gone out of the window.
ReplyDeleteI think there is more to come out of the woodwork and I sincerely hope it does.
Those responsible should be taken to task over the misjudgments they have made over this and a great many other things.
Tom Grandson's girlfriend lives in a flat with this cladding and is stuck in limbo not able to sell or get another mortgage.
And don't get me started on the ill effects on humans and wildlife of 5G.
Briony
x
I can sense the anger Briony and I applaud it.
DeleteOne could also list ill-advised interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya to name but a few.
ReplyDeleteExactly. That's why "Tony" and "Blair" are the last words in this blogpost.
DeleteI wouldn't be a politician for all the tea (or Covid) in China. They are dependent on advice from their civil servants (I know, because I was one), advisors and scientists. Accept the wrong advice and your political career is doomed. Get it right and you're a hero. Captain Hindsight Starmer gets on my nerves too. He was full of Eastern Promise but states the bleedin' obvious after the event has happened
ReplyDeleteor someone else has said it. They're all tarred with the same brush, but it's not an easy path to tread and certainly not one I'd choose for a career. And certainly not during the largest pandemic we've ever known.
Johnson's nickname for Sir Keir Starmer appears to have stuck because you have used it. One of the key roles of a Leader of the Opposition has always been to reflect on what has happened. To be fair in mid-March 2020, Keir Starmer did urge Johnson to go into lockdown. This wasn't hindsight - it was current and of the moment.
DeleteI had to chuckle at Captain Hindsight To boldly go where every man has been before..
DeleteI think that Keir Starmer got it right when he described Johnson as "a trivial man" and a "showman".
DeleteIf a decent, honest, upright, caring politician appeared on the scene - would we recognise him/her as such? It seems that almost every country has the same complaint about their government these days. It's frightening to think that things may only get worse.
ReplyDeleteWhen the pandemic was first identified as such, few if any governments had any real idea of the correct procedures to take. Most were harking back to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, and measures taken then. We had all become so used to relying on the medical profession prescribing the right pills and potions to make it go away. No-one could have foreseen the devastating effect Covid would have on every single person on the planet.
Italy realised how terrible COVID would be early in March 2920 but Johnson covered his ears and said "Na-na-na-na-na!" to blot out the awful truth.
DeleteI've said more than once that the governor of our state should be arrested for murder for forbidding mask mandates in schools.
ReplyDeletePeople may think you are crazy for saying that but I agree with you 100%.
DeleteTrump caught a lot of slack for the same reasons and we lost 400,000 people due to Covid during his 10 months in office during the pandemic. Biden has now been in office 9 months and another 300,000 people have died. How much can be blamed on the leader and how much is just due to the nature of the people within their respective countries? I would guess the latter plays a bigger part in the deaths than the presidents or in your case, prime minister.
ReplyDeleteOrdinary citizens like me did not have the authority to declare a lockdown. If Johnson had ignited our first lockdown on March 16th 2020 and not March 23rd, thousands of lives would have been saved.
DeleteJohnson played the buffoon and that was ok - to an extent - before he became PM in tough times! But he wanted to be PM without doing the work. As for all those unnecessary deaths, well he couldn't give a sh*t. He knew what he was doing! He just wanted the glory without doing any of the work!
ReplyDeleteYou are right. He wants the limelight and the glory, not the hard graft.
DeleteThe question is, will he or his party be held responsible at the ballot box? I echo your doubts on that one too.
ReplyDeleteBlind optimism is a curious trait among some conservatives. I have an uncle who's very politically conservative, and his motto has always been, "It'll be fine! Everything's great!"
I wonder if he said that on 9/11. Optimism is a wonderful thing but realism is better.
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