Good: the manoeuvres of Dim and Dom have shown up the vulnerability of our democracy. Hopefully it won't take the shock that Germany experienced for us to move on from populism and back to competent governance with probity and integrity. In that sense I am hopeful that in Starmer we have a leader who manifests the qualities that takes: intelligence, rigour, a genuine passion for public service and fairness, an ability to delegate to the people most effective in any policy area. (and I don't think that those qualities are only to be found in any one political party, arguably whatever you thought about Thatchers policies, her motivation was not in question). But, as is the concern with with Trump, has populism, with all the effective tools it has developed to manipulate our democracies, made it impossible for leaders who display those qualities to gain power?
Louise How can you attempt to lay any blame whatsoever on our local public health resources when the Johnson government has done the exact opposite of enabling them to respond. If you are in Leicester you have the local example of your local public health officials crying out for the data to enable them to do their job properly.
Across the country you have examples of where people with the skills to respond to Covid have had to do so in spite of government not because of it, and the infrastructure set up by the government has sidelined their expertise in favour of businesses who have responded inadequately. When my DD had elective surgery she was not tested at the big Deloitte's drive in testing centre a mile from the hospital because it is simply not fit for purpose, workers on minimum wage with minimal training sit idle most of the day clad in hazard jackets and wellies, and the same mask and gloves all day, if the testing is even done properly the test result is too late to be of any use to the hospital, and the data they get is inadequate. So the hospital has repurposed its sexual health clinic as a drive in testing centre served by it own labs and using the contact tracing skills of its sexual health nurses. The trained HCPs who do the testing change their PPE for each test, very publicly disposing of it in the hazardous waste bin with each test.
The Crick is now up to 5000 tests a day with its local initiative with Cancer Research UK and the North London hospitals. It still has absolutely no government support though the government did build on the initiative Cambridge took with Addenbrookes based on the protocols developed by the Crick. The government ignore all the skills and capabilities of all the small labs across the country who could have been working with local hospitals to test staff from the beginning of March, and providing hospitals and public health officials with timely and specific data. Not only that but it requisitioned their best PCR machines to sit idle in superlabs whilst they struggled to work out how to use them and to recruit scientists with the necessary skills. The Crick actually had to furlough scientists with those skills because Cancer Research UK have already had to plan for a 20% reduction in funding next year. So the government were actually paying scientists with needed skills NOT to use them. Something Layla Moran has shown personal interest in to be put as evidence to the cross party enquiry.
The UK has some of the best scientists and public health processes in the world and the government failed to mobilise them. It does not bode well for them mobilising the best of Britain to trade with the rest of teh world after Brexit does it?