Saturday, 21 March 2020
Covid 19 and the suspension of politics
Photo: By Duncan Harris from Nottingham, UK - Fox Trot, CC
Given the nature of the current crisis over the corona virus it's hardly surprising that all other political discourse has come to an end. Even the pubs are now closed something that never happened at the height of the Blitz. the Briton was entitled to his pint.
No more it seems. Drink at home alone or with the family. Avoid all others.
About the only political activity still taking place (and will it ever end) is the Labour party leadership contest which some of Corbyn's supporters tried to stop even though most members who are going to vote already have except those whose ballot papers have (coughs) ""gone missing".
More incompetence rather than conspiracy. the result should be a foregone conclusion. If it isn't there will be questions.
Meanwhile the Government have continued to do their job without the panic that has erupted in some quarters. Yes questions need to be raised where necessary but the gradual close down of the country has been marred more by panic shopping rather than any failure on the Government side.
The statesman-like response of both Boris and Rishi Sunak has been measured and in the national interest. It's not 100% perfect but then no society can do everything. Some people no matter what they do will lose their jobs and have problems. People will still fall ill, that can only be partially controlled. It's up to the rest of us to co-operate.
The whole world has virtually shut down but there are still those who take advantage by promoting ridiculous conspiracy theories. It didn't take long for the Jews to be fingered though an escape from a Chinese Laboratory is probably the one a lot of people believe even though the most likely explanation is the virus jumped species.
Meanwhile while the NHS struggles to cope and supermarkets strain to keep us supplied one far-left newspaper Solidarity decided this was the right time to "open the borders" and let untold millions of "refugees" into not just this country but Europe as a whole. It shows how out of touch their ideology is with reality and why I'm thankful their ilk around Corbyn are not in charge and hopefully never will be.
We will come out of the crisis at some point but the time has come for a quiet reflection on where our politics does go next and at some stage that discussion needs to take place. For the time being such debate is suspended.
What for me began as a "campaigning month" has become a virtual lock-down. The Free Tibet demo was the last one I (or anyone else) will be attending for a while. From time to time I will continue to blog as there has been an audience, albeit small in the grand scheme of things for the articles by guest writers and myself, but as I sit at home reading, listening to music then there may be more posts of a non-political nature.
Stay safe everyone.
Shalom Aleichem,
Howie
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