Thread by @danielgoyal

The Johnson Legacy:
"Pursuing a mass infection policy while refusing to provide the treatment needed for those infected."
The fact this is happening is irrefutable.
But why refuse to strengthen the NHS during a pandemic?
And is there time for the PM to change this legacy?

Things are a bit hazy just now. We are all reeling from a difficult 20 months. Most are fed-up with Covid-19. And many have realised the damaging secondary impacts of the measures implemented to control it. Popular sentiment bastes in this recent trauma.

Popular sentiment will change. Indeed, for PMs in office during major historical events their legacy takes on a different quality. And I think few will argue the Covid pandemic is the most historical event since WW2. It is certainly killing more civilians.

So how will the history books record Boris Johnson and his Generals and Allies, bearing in mind the 24 hour news cycle will not apply - spin will only go so far? The facts and communications and discoverable documents will form the basis for more detailed analysis and judgement.

And be clear: it is not that healthcare is simply overwhelmed and can’t cope; it is the fact Johnson and Allies appear to be actively weakening the NHS during a pandemic, or at least wilfully neglecting it (and therefore the needs of the public), that history will judge harshly.

No other country I know of has less inpatient capacity (less beds) during the pandemic. We are not coping with more patients with the same available healthcare. We have more patients but with less capacity to treat them. And everyone is suffering - Covid and non-Covid alike.

Johnson and Co have actively chosen to invest our ‘Pandemic Money’ in non-clinical, often unqualified “commercial partners”…Anything, it seems, to avoid strengthening the NHS. And with the Health and Care Bill on the horizon there are serious questions as to motive.

But we are in the midst of one of the most dangerous periods in British history since WW2. The rate of excess deaths are now beyond that in WW2. Covid-19 has taken up 70% of available beds going into winter. People are dying waiting for care.

It would not be difficult to reverse the situation. Shifting back to a “war-footing” at least for frontline care; redeploying; repurposing, and expanding care provision is not logistically difficult nor very expensive. Most Covid-19 patients can be managed with basic care.

But the issue will not be the logistics. It will be the image, the message. Rapid upscaling of frontline care will not be seen as ‘business as usual’. And unless the Downing Street PR machine can find something to camouflage a policy shift, the short term hit will be felt.

But Boris and the Conservatives should be more concerned with the medium and long-term view. At the moment nicknames like “Boris the Butcher” and “Callous Conservatives” are not a million miles away from what the discoverable evidence will support and history may record.
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