No. 138 - Boris in Intensive Care

Dear James,

First of all, let me add my name to the list of well wishers to Boris Johnson who last night was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit of St. Thomas’s hospital. Despite my severe reservations of him as a leader, I would wish no one to be faced with what he is facing. Get well soon Boris!

Apparently, the tenth day of this virus is recognized as a possible danger point. Until that day most people’s immune systems work hard to beat off the virus and most succeed. Those who fail to get better go onto needing ICU treatment shortly afterwards. In the worst cases, the immune system can then overreact and lead to what is known as a cytokine storm where the immune system attacks its own body causing heart, liver and kidney failure which will need to be supported by machines thereafter. 

At the moment Boris is said to be conscious but that does not mean that he is not sedated. This would mean that he is no longer able to make decisions. For this reason we are now in the hands of one, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary. What does this all tell us? It tells us that in the middle of a crisis of this proportion, a government already weakened by the winnowing for political reasons of many of its greatest talents, handicapped by social isolation, obsessed with an irrelevant agenda called Brexit and and resorting to cabinet meetings by Skype, is now further weakened by the serendipitious selection of a new and untested leader. That cannot be good for any nation facing its biggest test since the Second World War. Our crisis has all the elements of a perfect storm. 

This crisis has already confirmed that our NHS has been underfunded for years. Not only this but it is severely understaffed and crying out for reorganisation. The lack of clear central control was revealed when the government and its advisers swerved from a policy of mitigation to repression in the early stages of coronavirus. The lack of readiness and the confusion at the top has been clear from the start. Since then we have had the underwhelming Matt Hancock doing his impression of the ‘crow’s nest lookout’ yelling at the captain to alter the course of the Titanic. And now even that captain is semi-conscious in his sick bed. Oh boy! I only wish I could say it doesn’t get much worse than this. But I cannot say that. It can get worse and probably will. 

Until now the government has resorted to telling us all what to do. ‘Instructions’ have become the euphemism for ‘orders’. Parliament is no longer scrutinizing government and the government itself has become almost totally dysfunctional. There is just one brief light on the horizon. On Sunday Labour elected a new leader. Kier Starmer, a calm, intelligent and uncharismatic character will soon be leading the Opposition front benches. He has already elected a shadow cabinet of some talent and one which will pick up on the clear revaluation of our nation’s priorities. The massive surge of support for the NHS from the grassroots indicates a major change of political direction for our country. Suddenly we have become a society again

With your government in chaos James and the crisis darkening by every hour surely now is the time to at least consider doing what every government has done in such situations and negotiate a coalition of all the parties. This is not the time for the guerrilla warfare of the likes of Mr Cummings and the crazed Brexiteers who still, run your party. Their day is done surely?  Now is the time for pulling together, for valuing our civil service, the NHS and the BBC. No doubt your party will attempt to claim that it is a new Party. It is not. It is the party that created austerity, the party that is dragging us, kicking and screaming, out of the EU. And it is a party that is weak and, temporarily one hopes, leaderless.  

Get well Boris! But in the process, please don’t prevent our nation rediscovering its new unity. The time has come to drop all those crazy notions of national sovereignty and independence. We’re all in this together as a nation and essentially we’re all in this together internationally. Isn’t there a message for you in that James? 

Kind regards, 

BH - Your Concerned Constituent