Time to Put COVID Behind Us.

Local Medway blogger, @Ed_Jennings, has produced really regular and useful updates on the COVID19 situation in Medway.  However, in a very testy response, now deleted, to a tweet of mine reflecting on my experience of COVID19, which was very mild Ed responded to me quoting all the cases and hospitalisations and deaths that had occurred since the start of the pandemic as a put down.

I do not criticise Ed at all for doing this and I hope it would be accurate to say that Ed has been a supporter of lockdowns. My own view has been that lockdowns have extended the emergency, been a very blunt tool in dealing with COVID and has had devastating unintended consequences for individuals, businesses and the economy which which will be with us for many years to come.

The lastest wave, Omicron has been a disaster for the Government, Scientists, Data Modellers and the Labour leadership with the travel, hospitality and bricks and mortar retail sectors very badly affected and with little compensation.  The messaging has been confused, publication of stats especially over the Christmas period problematic and very unclear.  Undoubtedly there has been an increase in hospitalisations but substantially down on last year.  It is looking increasingly likely that Omicron has replaced flu for this winter?

The focus on aggregate case numbers is very problematic taken with other opaque and misleading data that has been used to justify Government decision making.  The reporting of COVID19 admissions and deaths is very misleading, probably intentional on the part of Government.  Some of our media are using COVID stories as click bait then providing a number of contradicting stories and the BBC seems entirely focused on the the most negative numbers.  Thankfully the @DailyTelegraph has stopped reporting daily COVID19 numbers.

Clear, unambiguous data is urgently needed so that individuals can see what is going on with COVID and that data needs context by comparing against other diseases. Year-on-year data would be much more useful as we do for every other disease. 

The Government should stop producing daily figure and move to weekly summary produced every Friday listing with it other reasons for hospital admissions and deaths to provide perspective.  At the end of February the stats should be produced monthly and from the end of April three monthly. This should continue until the end of 2022.

The Government should continue to provide advice and run campaigns to get more individuals to have at least two jabs and then move to an annual immunisation shot in the Autumn with the flu jab.  A cheap antibody test should be produced and freely available so that individuals can monitor their own immunity and make decisions based on those test results.

There should be no vaccination passports as these are against everything that we stand for as a nation that believes in Liberty and would represent a massive overreach by the Government.

There should be no further travel bans or disruptive requirements for testing pre or post travel.  The Government needs to work with our partners around the world to stop impinging our freedom to travel and which will allow countries relying on tourism, including here in the UK to rebuild their economies.

All civil servants should return to there place of work with immediate effect.  Government business is being hampered by home working and no-one really believes that civil servants are more productive at home.  Delays in passports, driving licences etc clearly prove otherwise.  If civil servants resist, the Government should step-up its use of AI and other technologies to rapidly fill the gap.

Finally, the Government should already be working on its response to the next pandemic especially around producing testing kits, PPE which should all be sourced and produced in the UK.

We are a resilient nation but Government scaremongering and propaganda has done permanent damage to what used to be called the Blitz spirit.  Time to stop and time to move on.

 

Socialism defeated - again.

The outcome of #GE2019 was not a surprise, the surprise was the size of the Conservative’s majority and the consequence for Labour. A rejection of socialism and once and for all of the Remainer narrative that Britain had turned against leaving the EU since the Referendum of 2016.

The Conservative landslide majority was a surprise, I had thought a 30 seat majority likely, with many traditional Labour voters rejecting the metropolitan elites prescription for the economy as unbelievable and undeliverable.  The Labour leadership contempt for their traditional voting base that they could be bought off with loads of free stuff and giveaways whilst surrendering control of big chunks of their lives to the State.

The Conservatives are now the party of the working class, middle class and entrepreneur class whilst Labour have become the party of the liberal metropolitan and academic elite who can afford to gamble with our people’s livelihoods whilst enjoying the protection of their State salaries and gold plated pensions.

In Medway, an outstanding result by any measure for our three sitting Conservative MP’s, Rehman Chishti, Kelly Tolhurst and Tracey Crouch romping home with big increases in their majorities and 62% of the vote between them leaving labour candidates Andy Stamp, Vince Maple and Theresa Murray irrelevant.  Labour only success on the night was retention of Canterbury by the not so genial Rosie Duffield.

Labour’s attempt to cast the “rich” as the only losers who would pay for its manifesto promises, was so easily exposed when it became clear that married people, pensioners with shares receiving dividends, anyone with a pension scheme and almost every small business owner would pay much more for Labour’s socialist agenda.  The lack of detail on the true cost of Labour’s manifesto billions fooled no-one, especially their own supporters.

Labour’s Remainers were gleefully expecting a big victory so that they could grab control of Brexit and then quietly kill it off whilst genial Jeremy was going through the motions of attempting to get a better deal from the European Commission.

EU loving establishment types, John Major, Tony Blair, Michael Heseltine, Dominic Grieve, David Gaulke, John Bercow, luvvies such as Hugh Grant, Lily Allen were all put to the sword by the patriotic working class, described as stupid and uneducated by the ultra-Remainers.

The new Conservative administration has a mandate to get on with Brexit and to move the nation on from dealing with the 2008 financial crash.  Boris Johnson needs to ensure that his ‘One Nation’ brand of Conservatism does not repeat the mistakes of the post-war period of ineffective Government intervention.  

Lower, more efficient business taxes and reasonable de-regulation can and will make Britain more competitive, which will increase economic activity, create more jobs and generate a higher tax take for the Exchequer which will allow for further investment in public services and infrastructure.

This Conservative Government will need to encourage more house building of all tenure types, this will means painful planning reform, get on with reforming the culture of the NHS, to make it totally focused on patients, as well as an increase in funding and the time has come to take decisive steps to deal with the issues in the Care sector.

Updating Britain’s infrastructure must be a priority, and we must not repeat the mistakes of Crossrail, more funding for policing, education particularly skills based further education, so long as it meets the needs of business and a root and branch review of where the Government intervenes in markets to ensure that it is not creating perverse outcomes for consumers and taxpayers.  Shared ownership in housing and the energy price cap are not working.

Finally, we must stop doing things on the cheap and all of us need to be prepared to pay more for better services provided in the public and private sectors.  Travelling on business regularly, I am struck by just how much better certain services are.  In Latvia always on 4G mobile broadband almost wherever you are puts Britain to shame.  It’s a surprise if you can get 3G in Medway as just one example.  

The battle of ideas has been won, now its time to deliver for the nation.

Andrew Lawrence, Medway resident, business owner and former Council Candidate in Watling Ward at the local elections in May 2019.