No. 191 - It's War. And all We've got is 'Dad's Army'!

Dear James,  

This is war! Or at least, it should be. Instead our top General still cannot bring himself to declare full hostilities. He dithers and dathers, flips and flops and just cannot make up his mind. Boris is trapped in his ideological optimism, cut off from the realities of the front line and surrounded by unsackable yes men and women who make ‘Dad’s Army’ look like an elite fighting force! 

Yesterday, over 55,000 new infections and 454 new deaths were recorded, bringing the very minimum number of deaths so far to 75,024. Again, we’ve overtaken Italy as the worst case in Europe. The virus is out of control and yet on Andrew Marr’s show yesterday morning Boris, continued to sit on the fence. Hesitation is not always a good quality in a General. 

Governments do not win wars on ideological optimism run by sub-standard ministers who regularly and consistently dodge responsibility for their bad decisions and continuous errors. Yesterday morning Boris was still spouting the same message that he has been spouting all year. Strike a balance between controlling the pandemic and keeping the economy going. When the virus is running rampant, surely that balance should tilt towards safety?  Surely now it is time to inflict pain rather than endless suffering later? But all Boris could say was that a we must prepare the country for more serious restrictions ahead. Why can’t he just declare war and put us into a new National Lockdown? Today!      

Sorry James, it is ‘cake and eat it’ again. The situation on the second wave is about to put the NHS under water for the first time. And yet General Boris ploughs on, fifty miles behind the lines, blind to facts, frozen in his belief in his personal optimism.

It seems that the jury is still out regarding the transmissibility of the virus through primary school children although today Birmingham announced the infection rate for its primary school children had risen to 194 per 100k. But that apart, what is the first thing to do if a General wants to defend his country and win a war? Is it to ‘give the troops a rousing speech’? Is it to tell them that every cloud has a silver lining. Is it to tell them that the cavalry has just arrived?  Is it to try to reassure simply by dumping his own bulk as PM in front of the tv cameras? Of course not. The first thing you do is to equip the front line troops with adequate protection and the tools to attack the enemy! In my inexpert view it is a matter of priorities. If schools are to remain open, then the staff must be protected first. They, with NHS staff, Care Home workers and even bus drivers are our front line troops risking their lives every day. Surely they should be the first to be vaccinated? Everything else comes from this.  

A good army needs good generals. And, of course, supporting and competent staff officers leading an army of professionals supported by the best intelligence people and of course the troops themselves. We have such an army. They created the Nightingale Hospitals in a matter of weeks. They built Camp Bastion in Helmann Province in a similar period.  They ask the right questions and if they do not get the answers they commission others to dig them out. They are practical, efficient and fast. Unlike your government.

Democratic governments do sometimes face situations the require bold and decisive actions. It is of course impossible to do a ‘Wuhan’ but we could have done our version of that act. This government has never had a real strategy and to say that its tactics have been amateurish is to insult honorable amateurs everywhere. Back in March or April they should have set up a dedicated centralized command. As I said several time in my letters to you, the situation was so severe that a small, cross party ‘Coronavirus National Coalition Commission’ should have been established to sit above the Army Logistics Command who would have conducted their affairs through the established local health trusts and laboratories. It was all there ready to go. But Boris spent billions on ‘private enterprise’ to reinvent wheels everywhere and most of the wheels came off long ago. The only exception is the pharmaceutical industry which has come up trumps and will save the day.

But there is one thing your government can do first James. Declare total war and call another National Lockdown. Now! 

Kind regards, 

BH - Your Concerned Constituent.