Thread by @Big_Headers

Is the pen is mightier than the sword?

A thread to give the journalists who still aren’t with the program a bit of a nudge. This is serious. This is our country…..

1/46

This incompetence is destroying our health, food security, social structure… as well as causing 50,000+ deaths of our loved ones.

Had we emulated New Zealand or Greece these deaths would not have happened.

2/46

But firstly, to take a step back, what has this Government done?

3/46

Well, firstly, it has been led every step of the way. Whether by FIFA, or Macron, or British companies, or indeed the general public. This Govt making a sensible decision, or indeed taking the right initiative... it’s just not their style.

4/46

Students stopped going to University. Companies started home working. FIFA cancelled football matches. Meanwhile the Govt let Cheltenham go ahead. Sterophonics? Go ahead! Way after the fact was made clear that such events caused a dangerous spread of the epidemic.

5/46

The Government has done things when it has been forced to. Lockdown happened because Macron said that he would close borders unless the UK did something to stop the spread.

6/46

The Govt has one foot still in Herd Immunity ‘strategy’, and the other in ‘supress the virus’ strategy.

Doing the splits. Waiting for Corona virus to spread ‘a bit’ until ‘the right time’ to introduce suppression.

7/46

And now we have further splits – the new fantastical stay at home go to work and stay alert strategy.

8/46

That indecision, that failure of logic, has caused over 50,00 deaths, and many more of us to be mourning a friend, a loved one, mourning a death that should not have happened.

9/46

It has done stupid things. And wasted huge amounts of money. Take the Nightingale for example.

10/46

Typically, before you build a hospital, you check that you will be able to get the staff and procure the equipment that will be needed for it.

11/46

And if there is not the staff available (manifestly not the case in respect of nurses or doctors), or the equipment (ICUs), you don’t build the hospital, unless it’s a PR effort.

12/46

(Though the expectation from those on the ground did seem to believe that patients would arrive “unconscious”, intubated, with magically procured ICU equipment, and amazingly resourced teams of trained specialist nurses.)

13/46

But the awful thing about the Nightingale is that the Govt realised, too late, that it could only ever be a massive hospice and morgue, with crematoria attached. Uh-ho, “really bad PR” they thought. So they decided to change tack and make it a white elephant.

14/46

But then send the elderly back home, or to care homes, and as an awful result, spread the disease, amongst the elderly residents, and carers who had no PPE.

15/46

But also, for those who were at home, no end of life palliative drugs – huge suffering for the victims and desperation for the families.

16/46

But what has this Govt done? Well, it has setup a daily briefing where every variety of deception, half-truth, or even deliberate lie (I’m sorry it has come to believing this is a possibility), is delivered.

Johnson’s recent update being worse of the same.

17/46

The deception has to stop.

The fundamental role of a strong and democratic Govt is to be honest with its people.

18/46

But beyond the deception, there is the stupidity. If there is one hallmark this Govt has, it is one of stupidity.

To think that they could hide actual COVID-19 deaths – currently at 50,000+ in the UK, by not testing very many people, and only reporting hospital deaths?

19/46

However, what is the point of a thread on things that we all already know? It is important. Because the MO of this Govt is not really a modus operandi. It’s actually a lack of operational method.

It’s Govt by the seat of the pants.

Govt by PR guff.

20/46

But what’s worse is that the Govt, by the depths of its stupidity, the shallow venality of its cabinet, is destroying the capability of our country to operate as a democratic nation.

21/46

Wearing down and destroying the civil service, with Cummings as the cheer leader, in unison with Matthew Elliott, and the ERG.

22/46

Breaking down the balance between the Executive and Parliament, between the Executive and the Courts of Law. Demoralising and dis-incentivising and disabling every decent public servant.

23/46

And the point of this thread is to flag this up now. Because a ‘do nothing’ PR spin Govt during the worst national crisis in our lifetimes will not get better, it will get worse. We need to do something about it – using every democratic approach available.

24/46

Competing with the US and Brazil for the most crazed and lethal approach to Corona virus in the world, the UK Govt wants still to proceed with Brexit. When the EU needs to focus on recovery from Corona. The UK Govt still wants to proceed with Brexit.

25/46

When there is not enough time to negotiate everything, and indeed the UK has not even put forward competent rational positions, the Govt still wants to proceed with Brexit.

26/46

If the Govt doesn’t participate properly in the negotiation process, and asks for mutually exclusive concessions, then from a purely rational perspective, it’s effectively gunning for no deal.

27/46

If Corona virus was the whip with which to lacerate UK, then No Deal Brexit is the crucifix that this Govt wants to nail the UK to. To die.

28/46

And when I say the pen is mightier than the sword – there is an irony. This Govt is comprised of ex. comms people, ex. political journalists, and managed by PR SpAds.

29/46

The important area of comms is now a liability, because, beneath the comms strategy, the Govt does nothing apart from the wrong thing first, and then maybe the right thing, but too late.

30/46

This correct focus on Corona Virus. This outrage about the daily lies, and the massive incompetence, that this abject failure of a Govt generates. What it does is distract from the current atrocities but also even bigger atrocities in the future.

31/46

One such current atrocity is that the elderly being sent home to die, without the palliative drugs, or to care homes, where they spread coronavirus to other residents.

32/46

Another current atrocity is that the UK recovery rate from corona virus is so appalling, that the Govt has simply dropped reporting it. And the press does not pick up on it?

33/46

A third atrocity is that hospital health workers that are getting coronavirus are the ones that are *not* working in the COVID wards.

They are the ones who have not been provided with PPE. They are spreading it onto patients who came to the hospital free of the virus.

34/46

With the BBC promoting ‘social distancing’ street parties as acceptable, and congo dancers spreading the virus between the lot of them, it creates more noise, more upset, and basically further handicaps us in flagging and dealing with the other, far more serious issues.

35/46

Johnson’s chaotic announcement on Sunday merely adds to the confusion, distraction, and reduces the ability of people to do the right thing.

36/46

We are being killed by PR guff. PR is a tool. If used well, and correctly, is of huge value. If used badly, it’s a weapon that causes societal and governmental malfunction, and in this current crisis, huge numbers of avoidable deaths.

37/46

Matthew Hancock thrown onto the table each day like some sort of furless dead cat rigid with rigor-mortis.

38/46

We know that there aren’t enough people to pick our crops. Yet no mention in the press. The Govt sure as hell has done no contingency planning or risk mitigation.

A food shortage, and issues with supply due to Brexit?

“Bring it on” say the Cabinet honchos.

39/46

They want to piggyback the Brexit disaster on top of Corona Virus catastrophe.

Get them both ‘done’ at the same time.

40/46

We know that no deal Brexit will cause an absolute evisceration of our economy.

The very Brexit process has already caused vast numbers of job losses, bankruptcies, and companies moving abroad.

Yet the press provides no overview of this.

41/46

The withdrawal agreement stipulates that the transition can be extended by “one or two years” but this must be agreed before 1 July this year.

42/46

There is not a chance in hell that this lackadaisical lot of gurning incompetents masquerading as a Cabinet have the strategy, the nouse, or the seriousness to get to an agreement. They want no deal & to blame the EU. That’s about the height of their strategic capability

43/46

The Govt wants to cruise past the deadline. We must secure a Brexit extension. This Govt of dead cat zombies will otherwise accomplish nothing but a No Deal.

44/46

We need to make sure our food supplies are secure. That our jobs will not be lost for a generation by Brexit. That our public services including the NHS can be financed by a working economy that provides tax revenue to the Govt.

45/46

But we also need journalists, from all sides of the political spectrum to report rigorously to prevent the gaslighting, and inform correctly so that enough of us will fight to prevent the further waves of catastrophe that otherwise will be inflicted upon us.

46/46 & Ends.