Thread by @PandaScottish

[thread]

I would actually say

The most important thing

Is not to imagine

But to remember

To imagine

Means first you must remember

So join me on a journey of imagination, remembering, anger, fear and inspiration

https://twitter.com/doctor_oxford/status/1380126538591571972

So first we start on imagination

So

Over 150,000 dead

How do you imagine those numbers?

Of course for each of those 150,000

Leaves behind family and friends

Each of who will be grieving

"You said you would meet with us and you went back on your promise"

How do you *normalise* that behaviour from any politician

Let alone the PM or the "First Lord of the Treasury" as he likes to style himself in text message

How do you *normalise* this

https://twitter.com/ByDonkeys/status/1329340098115227648

Oh also

"I can forgive them for what has happened. I will be unable to forgive them if it happens a second time"

https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1295661615518552064

A reminder of Christmas 2020

So in August 2020 after the death toll through the start of 2020 to August 2020 and the death toll then

41,465 dead (as of 27th August 2020)

I did a thread where I tried to sum up covid and the death toll

I didn't realise that would be a *so far*

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1298934733813014528

A reminder

The Medical Director of NHS England in early March 2020

“If it is less than 20,000... that would be a good result though every death is a tragedy, but we should not be complacent about that,”

reuters.com/article/us-hea…

So it is now May 2021

And we are at over 150,000 dead

So I am going to start with a few quotes

And then try a journey of imagination (similar to that I did deep within the Pixar thread) on numbers and visualisation

So on our journey of numbers

We start with 1

“If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”

quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/dea…

Porteus

"To sate the lust of power; more horrid still,
The foulest stain and scandal of our nature
Became its boast — One Murder made a Villain,
Millions a Hero. — Princes were privileg’d
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.
Ah! why will Kings forget that they are Men?"

And the boy who wanted to be King of the World

bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-pol…

Now in my Pixar thread

I used a number of examples to try and visualise the total death countries from town, city populations to famous cemeteries, to natural disasters or to man made disasters

A reminder: at that point it was in August 2020

It was just over 40,000

It is now

Over 150,000

But hey "Boris did his best"

I am not sure that is the praise anyone thinks it is

And I so want it to be

I want a Prime Minister to be able to say he has done his best

So this time

I am going to start small at 1

And try and visualise 150,000

Next up 6

Say the size of a picnic table

That would be 25,000 picnic tables

Let's start with a family car - well a large one

An 8 seater Toyota Previa

That would be 18,750 Toyota Previa's

Next up

The Bullingdon Club

It's a round 10

So an easy sum

That would be 15,000 Bullingdon Club posed shots

Next up 18

1996 Dunblane school shooting

That would be 8,333 Dunblanes

Next up 25

The number of members in the London Assembly

That would be 6,000 London Assemblies

Next up 45

I have chosen a German Neoplan Bus GmbH Starliner

That would be 3,333 Starliners

Next up 96

1989 Hillsborough

That would be 1,562 Hillboroughs

Oh yes and on Liverpool

liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool…

Next up Aberfan

1966

143 dead

That would be 1,048 Aberfans

Next up Piper Alpha

1988

167 dead

That would be 898 Piper Alphas

Next up Quintinshill Rail Crash

1915

226 dead

That would be 663 Quintinshills

Next up

Pan Am Flight 103

259 dead

That would be 579

Next up

The Conservative Parliamentary Party 364

That would be 412 of them

Next up

The House of Commons MP's 650

That would be 230

HMS Queen Elizabeth

Crew 679

that would be 221 HMS Queen Elizabeths

With air crew

1600 that would be 65 HMS Queen Elizabeths

You can then start going for larger numbers

You can choose the 9/11 victims

You can choose the Bayeux war cemetery 3,935

You can choose the Tyne Cot war cemeter 11,965

You can choose whatever number helps you imagine

But

In order to imagine

You first have to remember

Remembering is difficult

It is all so difficult

Because there are those who do not wish you to remember

They want you to forget

Amidst their culture wars, their "levelling up", their "build back better"

For you to forget

Is a choice *you* make

Choose

"History can essentially be divided into two: that which we like to remember, and that we seek actively to forget."

politico.eu/article/corona…

The key quote from the above:

"Perhaps the most fitting monument to the legacy and scale of our losses to the coronavirus might be to ensure that this time — we remember."

So as part of "remember"

I am going to dig up some quotes

First of all

Let's allow ourselves to "follow" or to put it more aptly as clarified by Matt Hancock

Be "guided by" the science

Donald J. Trump

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters,"

Also Donald

President Donald J. Trump

"Why don't we let this wash over the country?"

Dr. Fauci

"Mr. President, Many people would die."

And now

We move onto the UK and Boris Johnson

itv.com/news/2021-04-2…

Now

I could write so much on my disgust

At a British Prime Minister

Who with over 40,000 dead due to his government's incompetence *so far*

Even utters the words "let the bodies pile high"

Or "let it rip"

A reminder

In Summer 2020

That Prime Minister could not answer yes when asked if he had read the autumn/winter plan

theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

And what happened in Christmas 2020

Well that 40,000 plus dead from the summer of 2020

Ramped up

Levelled up

Bounced back bigger

To over 150,000

"The first duty of the government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure. The Home Office has been at the front line of this endeavour since 1782. As such, the Home Office plays a fundamental role in the security and economic prosperity of the United Kingdom."

Taken from

gov.uk/government/org….

Yes the Home Office

Led by a woman who is a liar, cheat and bully

Who benefits from a boss who interferes with an investigation into her bullying, suppresses the report and at the last orders a party to form a protective square around her

I do not know who is worse

The PM who asks that

Or the party who comply

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1367507825082195974

If only Boris had been as energetic at throwing a protective square around the British people

Instead you have the lie of a protective ring

Instead

I don't want to focus on the words Boris Johnson used

I want to give an example of a poet

On the power of words

Of course it is Maya Angelou

The quote taken from:

quora.com/What-did-Maya-…

Another of her quotes (talking to Dave Chapelle on growing up through civil rights period)

"So use that anger, yes, you write it, you paint it, you dance it, you march it, you vote it, you do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it."

So I want to know

When in autumn 2020

Boris Johnson said

Let it rip

Let the bodies pile high

Who or what was he *angry* at?

I want to know

What moved him to such anger?

Also

Does the attitude to the bodies piled high alter based upon whom is in it?

Does the attitude to the bodies piled high alter at a certain numerical point?

Anyway

To go back to the theme of "Imagine"

If I was Boris Johnson

I would be angry

Angry that on 24/6/2016 my party did not anoint me as King of the World. Sorry I meant Prime Minister and first lord of the treasury

Angry that I was stabbed in the back by so many “colleagues” who put their careers ahead of party and country

After all

I had a plan ready to implement brexit

I was ready to be waiting in No10 on the morning of 24th June 2016 when German businesses would have marched into the office of the Chancellor and ordered the EU27 to bang on U.K. doors and gift us unicorns

I was ready to play all the cards we held

I was ready to show that we had no liabilities

I was ready to show that they do need us more than we need them

I was ready to wait until they collapsed as other nations followed the U.K. out of that EUSSR that 4th reich

I was ready to show the many solutions I had to the NI border

I was ready to show what the easiest deal in history looks like

I was ready to show that in autumn 2016 we would start to negotiate trade deals with more countries than exist on the planet and finish them all within 2 tears

Instead

I had to wait

Until 2019

And then well

I had to lie to the Queen

I had to unlawfully prorogue Parliament

I had to exploit foreign aid as a trade tool

I had to weaponise EU citizens as bargaining chips

I had to threaten to starve the Irish, invade Spain and France

I had to piss on the union and put a border in the Irish Sea no unionist could ever support

I had to hide brexit in the disaster of covid

I had to lie about the vaccine discovery and rollout to pretend it was a brexit benefit

I had to do anything an everything to sell on the shitshow of brexit

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1342019458366382081

Now I have touched on imagination, remember and anger

Now I want to touch on fear

Because Boris Johnson is afraid

He is afraid

That you *might* care at what he and his party say and do

And that at some point those who vote for him

Or those who enable him in his party

Will reach a point where they turn away

Amidst the lies of "level up" or "build back better"

Ask from whom or what?

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1202012607928061952

Amidst the corruption, the nepotism

From cheating in brexit
To lying to the Queen & nation
To interfering into a bullying report
To protecting the bully
To peddling racism
To Robert Jenrick and Richard Desmond
To Robert Jenrick and constituency bribes
To wallpaper
To a nanny

Boris

And his defenders

Know exactly what they are

They are terrified

That you might care

You choose

Prove them right

Or prove them wrong

And at the last

I wrote two threads

One on the specific comment of bodies piled high and an initial take on it

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1387327722221883397

And a slightly longer thread on Boris Johnson

Douglas Ross leader of the scottish conservatives cannot say he is a man of honour and integrity

Jacob Rees Mogg cannot say he has a moral compass

Everyone knows what he is

What a price a country has paid for the choice of him

Was it a price worth paying?

At what point would the price not be worth it?

This thread on so so many of his words and actions

Focuses on why and on what he is an inspiration for (*in a very specific and limited way* to borrow a phrase)

https://twitter.com/PandaScottish/status/1374286271732928513

@threadreaderapp unroll please