What are we to make of the fact that the heir to the throne, the PM and Health Secretary have all tested positive for Coronavirus? Also, the CMO is self isolating after showing symptoms so he probably has it as well. Either Covid-19 is far more infectious than anyone thought or they haven't been following the advice they are urging us to stick to. Professor Whitty is fronting a TV advertising campaign setting out the government's guidance, which is particularly embarrassing for him.
Whitty has a rather odd mannerism anyway since his head and eyes don't appear to move as he speaks, a bit like an Action Man doll. I find it so deeply fascinating I hardly notice what he's saying.
Apart from those at the very epicentre of the drama catching Coronavirus, yesterday saw another huge jump, both in confirmed cases and deaths in Britain. The number of tests done is finally getting to respectable levels at 8,911 while new cases reached 2,885 and another 181 people died. Total mortality is now 759 while 14,543 have tested positive but the real number of infections is many times higher than that.
Yet, despite the rapidly developing crisis the government is still insisting on keeping to the Brexit timetable. A video conference meeting of the Joint Committee that has been created to oversee the details of the Withdrawal Agreement, particularly of the NI protocol will take place on Monday.
The government is behaving like a child on a beach delicately putting the finishing touches to a sandcastle while everybody else is focused on the massive tsunami just a few hundred metres away.
One wonders what the daily mortality rate in the UK will have to reach in order for the government to abandon Brexit and request an extension. There is absolutely no doubt the transition period will have to be extended (this was true before coronavirus struck) or even scrapped altogether, the only question is whereabouts on the terrible upward curve of avoidable deaths the country will be when we ask. Nobody thought we could realistically get a trade agreement completed in ten months anyway, but now we are insisting on doing it in the middle of a global pandemic. Even overlaying an alien invasion wouldn't dampen Johnson's mad enthusiasm for it.
Brexiteers may well see it as a test of their resolve, an opportunity to beat their chests and display a blitz-like spirit against an unseen enemy that threatens the long awaited prize. Sooner or later, they will have to admit the Brexit dream or nightmare will have to be set aside - and for a good long time. To believe otherwise is another fantasy to run alongside the one about Brexit being a benefit to us.
On the question of ventilators, No 10 is finding the problem with telling lies is that one very often begets another, and then another and another until you arrive at such a ludicrous point the original fib becomes completely laughable. So it is with the spokesman who floated the 'communication problem' as the reason Britain is not taking part in the EU procurement scheme.
The Huffington Post has revealed that not only was the Health Secretary aware of it, but UK government representatives actually attended EU meetings where the scheme was discussed. It was exactly as originally suspected. The reason for not taking part was deliberate and ideological.
Naomi O'Leary is the Europe correspondent of the Irish Times and she confirms we were also invited to attended meetings of European Health Ministers as early as March 6th and 10th but specifically declined:
She also noted a link to this Peter Foster story in The Telegraph on March 1st that No 10 and the Health department were 'locked in a row' about access to the EU pandemic warning system where Foster reported:Regarding UK claim that 'comms mix up' stopped it joining EU scheme to procure ventilators:— Naomi O'Leary (@NaomiOhReally) March 27, 2020
UK was invited to join health ministers meetings on March 6 & 10 that initiated procurement. It declined
Telegraph reported worries that collaborating on health could interfere with Brexit
"However, the British negotiating team, which reports to Boris Johnson, did not want to blur the UK's request for a basic, Canada-style trade deal, it is claimed. Every add-on requested by the UK would risk giving the EU leverage to demand post-Brexit alignment...."
It is clear the decision was made willfully and deliberately in order to strengthen (or not weaken) our hand in the trade talks. If ultimately this costs lives I hope those responsible are punished for it.
And in another strange twist to the story, G-tech, a rival company to Dyson who have been awarded a contract for 10,000 ventilators, has been told not to continue working on their version. Could it be that Dyson is a Tory party donor? Surely not?
My heart bleeds for Italy. I worked for a wonderful Italian company near Perugia in Umbria for six great years and still do the odd article in trade journals for them. What is happening to Italy is a tragedy. Yesterday nearly 1000 people died and scientists say the peak has not yet been reached. Don't forget they have been locked down for two weeks and we are following exactly the same path.
In Spain 769 people died but with the number of new infections seeming to slow. Confirmed cases are now at 64,000 but increased by 14% on Friday. This follows an 18% increase on Thursday and a 20% increase the day before.
All eyes are beginning to turn to the USA which has now surpassed China in the number of confirmed cases with 104,256 and 1,704 deaths. Unemployment has increased by over 3 million in a matter of days. America's lack of an integrated health care system and very weak welfare arrangements is going to cost them dearly.
Trump's handling of the crisis is even more appalling than Johnson's is over here.
All eyes are beginning to turn to the USA which has now surpassed China in the number of confirmed cases with 104,256 and 1,704 deaths. Unemployment has increased by over 3 million in a matter of days. America's lack of an integrated health care system and very weak welfare arrangements is going to cost them dearly.
Trump's handling of the crisis is even more appalling than Johnson's is over here.
Finally, I'm sorry to harp on about the economy but one day we will have to contemplate what's left of the wealth creating engine we all rely on, but the ratings agency Fitch has now downgraded the UK's credit rating further to AA- as reported by Reuters. Our valued triple A rating went years ago under George Osborne. This is not calculated to make the raising of billions of pounds to fund our lifestyle easier or cheaper.
We are now at the same level as Belgium and the Czech Republic.
We are now at the same level as Belgium and the Czech Republic.
