What a mess

It is a shame that our country has got itself into such a mess over the Covid-19 crisis. I predicted this, as our country has simply become decadent and lacks excellence in all walks of life. We have simply been unable to manage the crisis as well as other countries such as Germany, New Zealand, Australia and South Korea etc.

There is now no doubt that we have been unable to contain the virus resulting in one of the worst death rates in Europe and the numbers who have died are simply shocking. Pro-rata they are much worse than the US.

If, we as a country do not face up to the facts then we will fail badly. There is some ideological belief that Britain is exceptional and superior. The British are not superior to anybody else neither are we inferior. We are a European people whose culture is essentially the same as that of our neighbours. We are a multi-cultural nation like all the others in Europe. We have their strengths and weaknesses.

Our problems stem from our political system and its "winner takes all" voting practices. This means that ideological and populist leaning governments can easily take power. Populism has been proven by history not to work: nations need leadership which operates in a truly democratic and consensual framework. We have had Prime Ministers from both political parties which are not selected  by popular vote but by party ideologues. The Prime Minister then acquires all the powers of the monarch. We have an unelected Prime Minister and Head of State rolled into one. This form of government is not fit for purpose in the twenty first century. We cannot have rule by populists and ideologues and rule by referendums where a simply majority can change the constitution. This form of government does not work. There are no checks and balances.

Our system of public health has not protected our nation as it should have done. It has been good enough to prevent hundreds of thousands dying ,so far. However, it has allowed thousands of people to die prematurely. We must face this fact.

The NHS has been overwhelmed and has not proven itself the best in the world. The staff are but they cannot operate in an environment where protective equipment is not available. GP and Dental services have almost completely shut down, patients have been left in severe pain or with untreated life threatening problems. The NHS has been overwhelmed.

Patients who are obviously infected with the virus have been released from hospital  and sent back into care homes. If this has been part of a deliberate policy then it could be considered as criminal negligence, if was accidental then it was sheer incompetence. Whatever it is, it is shameful and whoever is responsible at the top should resign or be sacked.

At one point ideologues were averring that the Covid-19 virus should be allowed to run wild. You do not have to be a professor of epidemiology to work out that with a mortality rate of 1% then  around 330,000 people would die if only 50 % of the population caught the disease. This would mean that hundreds of thousands of older people would die, as would ten of thousands of younger people. The health system would collapse and so would the economy. This "herd immunity " policy is simply mad and anyone advocating it should be sacked.

It is quite possible that after acting too slowly to lockdown the country, the government is acting too fast to end the lockdown with the result of thousands more dying and worse economic damage.

I am fed up of being confined but three or four weeks of more lockdown is preferable to months of more misery.

We need test, track and trace to be up and running now and efficiently, otherwise we could be in for severe trouble. It is time to forget ideology, populism and public relations nonsense and start leadership by  democratic consent.

Hopefully, we can get ourselves out of this mess before ideology gets us into more trouble with Brexit.