On the UK Passing a Grim Milestone
Good lord. I was supposed to post an article about greyhounds this week, but that will have to wait. I’m far too incensed right now. This opinion is a hot mess of unstructured ranting, fuelled by doomscrolling. I apologise in advance for its quality.
Everyone likes pet videos, right? I’ve certainly become a connoisseur over lockdown, whilst being trapped at home in a blanket fort like most people. Well, there’s a particular genre that really catches my eye, where an owner walks into a room and finds a complete mess on the floor, playfully wondering who could have done it. The camera then points to the culprit, usually a cat half-buried in a plant pot or a dog with a face full of its bed stuffing looking incredibly guilty but still cute, so we have to let it slide.
It would seem that many major news outlets have critically analysed this strategy, as shown in many of the front pages today. As the UK’s COVID death toll passed 100,000, most of the major papers chose to focus on Boris Johnson looking sad and promising that he’s really sorry that this happened but the government tried their best and that’s what matters. Whilst others did attempt to focus on the stories of those that died and hold the government to account, they are in the minority.
Bafflingly, that guilty puppy excuse will likely work for a scarily large number of people, who’ll say to themselves “Well 100,000 people did die but at least he delivered Brexit, and just look at his cute ruffled hair!”
Respectfully, no. He should resign. The whole government should resign. If they truly feel sorry for the deaths of 100,000 people, they should take responsibility and walk. They capitulated in their COVID response from day 1, and this sort of propaganda protecting them should not be left unchallenged.
To demonstrate just how much of a failure the Conservatives have created, it’s worth putting 100,000 deaths in context. In terms of local geography, it’s approximately the equivalent of wiping either Chester, Lincoln, or Carlisle off the map. In terms of death rate per million, we have the 3rd highest in the world.
One may argue that this is because we have an older, more physically unfit population vulnerable to the virus, as the BBC did. But Japan, the oldest population in the world, currently has a death rate per million of 41.96. The UK’s is 1,495.71. Even the US, a country often used as the prime example when referring to the obesity epidemic, has a lower death rate than the UK.
The whole defence also rests on the assumption that the death rate isn’t that bad because it’s only really effecting the already vulnerable. Not only is this not the case and inherently dystopian, but sets a dangerous precedent that other abysmally handled crises can be defended by creating a narrative that its victims are not of equal value compared to the rest of the population. Although, I would argue that this precedent has been set previously and cranked up to 11 to match the scale of COVID (see the government’s continued inaction post-Grenfell).
Moving on, there is no question that this crisis has been handled incomprehensibly poorly. The UK was late to lockdown three times over the year and eased travel restrictions in the summer. We also had no proper circuit breaker before Christmas, and the early failures of the test and trace system had a huge impact in limiting effective mitigation. These actions and countless others have combined to create a perfect storm for COVID to spread.
Other ministers have also managed to get away with heinous scandals amidst the chaos, diverting efforts and attention away from any attempt at an effective response. See Gavin Williamson threatening to sue a school to stay open days before a new lockdown, Priti Patel escaping scrutiny after a report found she broke ministerial code, and Robert Jenrick unlawfully approving a property development for a Tory donor for examples.
In any other country, just one of these scandals would have been a death knell for the government, such as the Netherlands, but the Conservatives have got away with it, in my mind largely due to the guilty puppy defence that many of those that should be scrutinising the government is offering.
For instance, Labour should be having an absolute field day in the polls, but Keir Starmer’s main position seems to be agreeing with the government on most occasions and reaffirming that they’re trying their best. Even on issues outside of COVID, he appears to be proposing an opposition of no change, including a recent Labour party tweet promising to protect the 48-hour workweek, rather than pushing for the highly promising 4-day week that the pandemic has highlighted a potential need for.
In my mind, there has to be a proper response to all of these failures, and it can only be the government’s resignation. Otherwise, this will be the accepted response to every crisis. I can picture it now, in the not too distant future, when a new PM holds a press conference announcing their sorrow over the deaths of thousands due to a prolonged climate-change-induced heatwave, the media will focus just on the PM’s sorrow, using the same guilty puppy strategy that will garner clicks but no opposition, no real change, and no real recognition for those that have died.
Anyone in a position to oppose the government has to offer more right now to force them to take responsibility, lest they get away with worse without consequence.
