Outraged! BBC Beware (the) Boris Charm
A true Kafkaesque alternative reality awaits.
The government’s self-prognosticating 'Creating Confusion Programme' will end up with everyone admitting that actually, it was entirely our fault all along.
Weeks of carefully managed press releases, carefully scheduled appearances on carefully chosen political shows in which the government thoroughly utilised the beginnings of a stage-managed perception that the game of blame will start and finish with us mere mortals. At last count, close to 50,000 mere mortals have died since the pandemic began.
Fifty thousand! It doesn't matter how that number is said, how it is presented or how it is written; the figure looks and sounds grotesque. On the 17th March 2020, at the start of Lockdown, Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s Chief Scientific advisor, stated that keeping the death toll to 20,000 would be seen as a good outcome. At that time the official death toll stood at 71. Just eleven days later with England in full swing with lockdown, confirmed cases of COVID 19 were at 17,000, and the death toll had risen to 1,091. Stephen Powis, the government’s Chief Medical Officer, advised reporters that if we, the public, adhered to the nationwide lockdown, the total number of deaths could be kept below 20,000. Something went very wrong.
It was widely reported at the time that the figure of 20,000 was almost certainly reached a long time before the official statistics were released and this was due in part for several reasons. Firstly, the official figures were only taken from those people who died in hospital. It didn't take into account those who died in their own homes and most outrageously, those who died in Care Homes. The latter reason is particularly disturbing because Care Homes were asked to take those ill COVID 19 patients into their care and to make matters worse, these patients weren't tested. As it turned out, these were the people who were most likely to die. Anyone who was looking for leadership from Boris at this juncture was always destined to be bitterly disappointed. A true leader is proactive and will preempt. A leaderless government during this pandemic, messing around with misleading death rates will only be reactive, ad-hoc and end up blaming everyone but themselves.
It can be argued that there are many people, forces and unknowns to blame for the mess. The narrative from the government from a very early stage was to focus on the public's common sense, whilst knowing full well that the British are not renowned around the world for their common sense. However, for a government whose spin-doctoring was spinning out of control, it was a masterstroke. Even in the early stages, look closely at the narrative. Powis, when warning people against complacency, said everyone had their part to play in hindering the spread of the virus – “...the public needs to adhere to the lockdown rules.” However, the government then managed to score a spectacular own goal in the guise of Dominic Cummings trip to Durham. At this point it was clear the public needed to adhere to the rules while different rules were allocated to government political advisers; and so, the blame game began.
The government dramatically stepped up its 'attack and blame' agenda on everyone but themselves when on 6th July the Prime Minister appeared to accuse Care Homes of not following procedures. The question that needs to be asked is - to what procedures was the Prime Minister referring?
Earlier in March, when responding to a question on the plight of Care Homes across the country, a spokesperson said, "It remains unlikely that people receiving care in a Care Home or the community will become infected." So, at that time, there were no real procedures to follow... apart from the wearing of PPE. Which the majority of Care Homes didn't have, and were unlikely to get from the government anytime soon. Also note, lockdown hadn't yet been introduced. As with the majority of institutions, schools, hospitals included, Care Homes were essentially advised to get on with it.
The head of the Charity, Community Integrated Care, Mark Adams told Radio 4's Today programme that the Prime Minister's comments were "cowardly" and "a travesty of leadership." Very true. However, Boris has always been the very essence of a false, absurd, and distorted representation of leadership, and well before this particular crisis played out and took hold.
Mr. Adams added: "If this is genuinely his view, I think we're almost entering a Kafkaesque alternative reality where the government sets the rules, we follow them, they don't like the results, they then deny setting the rules and blame the people that were trying to do their best."
It is us the public who will take the full hit of blame. The government have very prudently given us the keys to liability and responsibility of either stopping this pandemic in its tracks or extensively increasing the death toll. No longer the realm of government to decide what we can and can't do.
The Care Homes debacle was simply a precursor to the principal of a publicly played out Chess match of which we, the public make excellent, yet tiresome opponents because, on the whole, we are stupid. Forced to join the game are headteachers, councils, supermarkets, employers, the NHS...the list goes on. In the government's own words, it is down to us to decide what is COVID 19 safe.
The government will 'lockdown' areas and places of work at will. Every forced local lockdown will echo the familiar soundbite of "you didn't follow procedures, and you didn't use your common sense."
There is, however, one thing worse than all of the above - Boris putting on the charm. Boris is very good at putting on the charm. It can be the only explanation for why he's had so many mistresses and is the father of a good number of children of which he has in some cases been unwilling to accept are his children. That is all by-the-by, of course. It is disconcerting watching Boris now peddling his latest Dominic Cummings sponsored narrative which on the face of it sounds sane. 'We the government may have made mistakes'. A good leader will always acknowledge their mistakes. However, we have already discussed his leadership qualities - he has none. So, this new charm offensive is something we need to be wary of and fearful about. Recently he has agreed within the Parliamentary framework that there will indeed be a Public Inquiry once the dust has settled. I would suggest no one holds their breath. What the government need right now is time. They need to think this one through with great care and thought. It's odds on that any inquiry will concur that the government have not handled this well. So here Boris can demonstrate, that although he hasn't got the nuance and skills to preempt scenarios as a leader for our country, he can do so, as an individual. Hence it will become clear that he will manipulate events to his personal benefit and gain while simultaneously trying to save his disgusting little hide.
