No. 143 - The 'Sunray Cure' or a 'Duty of Candour'? Boris's Very Own Stalingrad?
Dear James,
One stark winter’s day in January 1943, a highly decorated German officer was chosen by the encircled Sixth Army at Stalingrad to fly to Hitler and deliver the bad news. The officer was warned by his fellow officers to be wary of Hitler’s ‘Sunray Cure’. The ‘Sunray Cure’ has been described by historians as ‘the mesmerizing optimism’ with which Hitler could overcome any ‘Cassandra’ reporting bad news to him. Whenever a general came to him with the unvarnished truth about a military situation Hitler would give his optimistic view of the bigger picture and send the general away feeling that miracles would happen. This is what happened at Stalingrad. Hitler listened and then forbade his generals to surrender. The rest is history. Hubris and disaster are the usual graveyards of narcissists everywhere.
Today such ‘mesmerizing optimism’ is known as ‘Boosterism’. Remember Boris’s wonderful futurology of the ‘Sunlit Uplands’ of a post Brexit world? Mr Cummings injected his own genius into this ‘Tory Theory of Communication’ with his ‘Countdown Clock’ in Downing Street. If you believe in something enough, that something will happen. And it did. They won the 2016 referendum. Boris became PM. ‘Brexit got done’. But now boosterism has crashed into reality of Coronavirus. No amount of ‘mesmerizing optimism’ can avoid the fact that, so far, in excess of 16,500 British people have died and that Boris’s own version of ‘The Sunray Cure’ may have been a contributory factor in their deaths. That must make even Mr Cummings feel a little uneasy?
Everyday we see and hear different cabinet members projecting ‘Tory certainty’ to the media and every day that certainty crumbles into dust. Mr Gove on Sunday attempted to defend Boris from accusations of being ‘missing in action’ during the now infamous 38 days, telling us that he was very much taking the lead at all times and that such accusations were ‘grotesque’. Not exactly a forensic riposte to the Sunday Times article? Mr Hancock, in the meantime, has been promising the Earth and delivering very little. We are still waiting for the delivery of gowns and masks from Turkey. And now, even your own boss Mr Sunak has succumbed to boosterism. Yesterday he attempted to gloss the Turkey situation by announcing that we had received a consignment of PPE from Myanmar over the weekend! Myanmar! My goodness, how the mighty are being made to grovel!
So far it is calculated that up to 100 NHS and Health Care professionals have died due to infection by Coronavirus. Today an NHS doctor from ‘The Doctors Association UK’ announced the results of a very recent survey of doctors in the UK. They found that 38% of the 1,100 respondents had no eye protection, 38% had no access to FF3 masks, 47% had no access to long sleeve protective gowns and 60% had not been ‘fit tested’ for the masks they did have. (Fit testing ensures that the masks are properly fitted to prevent any contagion around the edges.) In the face of your promises and reassurances, the NHS front line was revealing the gaping difference between your spin and reality. Boris and his team of lackluster ministers are being found out on a daily basis.
Since the Stafford Inquiry of 2013, doctors have had a ‘duty of candour’ to their patients. It requires them to be open and honest with their charges and to apologize when mistakes are made. This morning, the doctor from ‘The Doctors Association UK’ made this, her first demand of the government. Everyone that I know would agree wholeheartedly with her wishes. It is a pity that your government cannot rely on such public support.
So here’s a suggestion, James. If the doctors can ask for a duty of candour, why can’t we? Surely the ability to be open and honest with the public and apologize when mistakes are made are signs of confidence and political maturity? So why not stop all the kidology? Why not stop all the pretence of omnipotence? The answer is, of course, that you can’t. Such a policy would be the antithesis of the very ethos of your party in the last three years. Bit of a cleft stick I guess? If you do change, all your spin will be revealed. If you don’t, this whole sorry business could become Boris’s very own Stalingrad.
Kind regards,
BH - Your Concerned Constituent