Jinglinghellsbells.
I can’t lay the blame for everything solely at the feet of the gvt, but there’s a lot I can blame them for.
Putting Dominic Cummings onto the board to the scientific advisory group and then saying you are listening to the advice of the scientists - one of the members was not a scientist and was on it to push the direction of the discussions. If that wasn’t his job, to have politics influence the science, why was he there? The science should be independent and should not be political.
Sending a letter to care homes telling them to take in Covid patients. We know they did, my gran is in a care home and they forwarded a copy of the letter. When we queried it with the MP for the area (a Tory) he got back to us with a reply saying that it was nothing to do with the gvt, but a decision by the carehome and to take it up with them if we were unhappy. A blatant lie. They’ve since lied about this in the press briefings.
A massive failure to close borders. This was core to Brexit, yes? We were desperate to close borders. So why, when it made sense to, did they not bother? We had friends who travelled home, with a stopover in an African airport. In Africa, they all had temps checked before being allowed on to their first plane, off that one or on to their connecting one. They got to Heathrow. Nothing. Not a single check anywhere.
Being less than honest over PpE. Issues of sourcing it could have happened to anyone. But then lying? Saying that a pair of gloves is two articles of PPE to make yourself look better? Shameful.
Schools and the shambolic way they have gone about reopening. There is no easy way to reopen them, I accept that. But to announce it in the press briefing, with no guidance given beforehand, to then send out guidance which is so the opposite of common sense (and BMA advice) that plans that were made earlier have to be ripped up, to then send out several different sets of guidance over the next week, and leave it all right up to the deadline....
I can blame them for other things going on now too. I can blame them for deciding to still charge immigrants, you know, the people who are propping up our healthcare system in the middle of this pandemic, for an extension to their visa. Please stay and nurse us, but please pay a few thousand for the privilege of risking your life here. And I can blame Priti Patel for promising a review and then refusing to conduct it - that was a blatant lie and I don’t see why she shouldn’t be held accountable.
There’s lots of things the gvt cannot be blamed for but there is a lot they can and should be held to account for. It’s the lying I cannot tolerate. Especially surrounding care homes. I listened to one minister saying they had never asked people to take in Covid patients. Yes, they bloody did. So yes, they need to Take responsibility for the consequences.