RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Get Britain out of this Covid coma NOW!

Someone in Whitehall must have been watching the 1976 sci-fi movie Logan's Run, starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter.
The film is set in a dystopian future where everyone is killed when they reach 30.
It's the kind of radical, outside-the-box policy which would probably appeal to a blue-skies thinker like Dominic Cummings.Drop Dead. Protect The NHS.
After all, practically no one under 30 is in mortal danger from Covid-19. But the risk increases exponentially the older you get.
Maybe that's why ministers are considering a plan to quarantine everyone over the age of 50 in the event of a second wave this autumn. With the over-50s confined to barracks for ever, the chances of anyone catching coronavirus would be drastically curtailed.
In time, the Government could whittle down the cut-off to 30, Logan's Run-style. That way, nobody would ever die of Covid and ministers could finally declare total victory over the virus.
Of course, the very idea is rip-roaring bonkers. But we're told authoritatively it has been 'war-gamed' by Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, along with locking down London by closing all the slip roads on the M25. Perhaps they intend to station armed guards on motorway bridges with the power to shoot anyone trying to escape.
When the news of the over-50s lockdown leaked, ministers started backpedalling and insisting that it wasn't being 'actively considered'. But the fact that it was even being considered at all, actively or otherwise, is disturbing evidence of the madness and panic which has engulfed this Government since March.
Ministers have been so spooked by the pandemic, they have lost all sense of proportion. How else would they even begin to entertain the notion that millions of people 50-plus should be put under house arrest indefinitely?
Most of us were happy to give them the benefit of the doubt at the beginning because nobody, including the so-called 'experts', was quite certain of what precisely we were dealing with.
Since then, however, the messages coming from Government have been increasingly incoherent and inconsistent. There appears to be no joined-up thinking at all. For weeks, this column has been highlighting the absurd contradictions — for instance, Dishi Rishi subsidising hamburgers and pizzas, while at the same time increasing spending on gastric-band surgery to combat obesity.
Ministers urge people in the private sector to get back to their desks, but cave in cravenly to the Civil Service and teaching unions who refuse to tell their members to go back to work, citing bogus 'safety' concerns.
Yesterday was supposed to be the day Britain got back down to business. But office blocks and transport hubs were practically deserted, while restaurants and fast-food joints were doing a roaring trade knocking out half-price meal deals, courtesy of the Chancellor hosing them down with money we haven't got.
For weeks, this column has been highlighting the absurd contradictions — for instance, Dishi Rishi subsidising hamburgers and pizzas, while at the same time increasing spending on gastric-band surgery to combat obesity
For weeks, this column has been highlighting the absurd contradictions — for instance, Dishi Rishi subsidising hamburgers and pizzas, while at the same time increasing spending on gastric-band surgery to combat obesity
The suburbs are teeming with people spilling out of pubs and cafes, yet city centres still slumber, as if in permanent hibernation.
As long as the Treasury continues to top up the salaries of some nine million people on furlough, there's no incentive for anyone to go back to the office.
Perhaps it's time ministers and private employers followed the example of Charlie Mullins, the boss of Pimlico Plumbers, and started sacking anyone who refuses to return to work.
Instead, they're considering a crazy scheme to force everyone over 50 to stay indoors, just to be on the safe side.
Speaking as someone who won't see 60 again, let alone 50, I think I've probably been around long enough to work out for myself the inherent risks or otherwise of catching Covid.
My Generation may well have sung along with The Who, hoping to die before we got old.
But we're not all decrepit just yet. We may not be the full Miss Jean Brodie, but some of us still think we're in our prime.Yes, we are well aware, thank you, that the older we get, we're another day closer to death. And we realise that age increases the chance of succumbing to coronavirus. But the same goes for any illness, from heart disease to cancer — none of which are currently being treated properly by Our Amazing NHS, which has all hands focused on the Covid pump.
We certainly don't intend to shut the door and throw away the key until the Grim Reaper comes a-knocking.
For ministers even to be contemplating locking down the over-50s is proof positive that this Government has lost the plot on an intergalactic level.
It would be economic suicide, at a time when the country is already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
The over-50s are substantial taxpayers, and relatively big spenders on everything from leisure to financial services.
We are the backbone of Britain; the Bank of Mum and Dad; the carers for elderly relatives; babysitters for grandchildren. Many of us are running our own successful small businesses, creating wealth and much-needed employment.
All this, the Government appears willing to put into deep freeze because of an irrational fear of a virus we are learning more about each day.
That's not to diminish in any way the early impact of Covid or the devastating effect it has had on the frail elderly (by which I mean the over-85s) and those who are morbidly obese or afflicted with serious underlying health problems. Sorry to sound callous, but many of these people would have died sooner rather than later anyway.
Looking at the international league table of new Covid infections yesterday, Britain is way down the list. Most of those contracting the virus now are asymptomatic.
So why has the Government gone into another blue funk, cancelling at the last minute plans to reopen everything from beauty parlours to casinos and considering a ludicrous proposal to quarantine millions of allegedly vulnerable over-50s?
From the outset, ministers have given too much credence to the 'science'.
They have been unwilling to challenge the assertions of tunnel-vision experts like the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, who appears to have been our real, unelected Prime Minister these past few months.
My fear all along has been that some of the more contentious decisions are based not on what is best for Britain, but what will protect individual politicians and their advisers when the inevitable public inquiry is held.
Risk-aversion is the order of the day. There is no boldness, no willingness to trust us with detailed information so we can assess the dangers for themselves.
Much of the nonsense coming out of Whitehall now seems to have been made up on the hoof, such as the stupid suggestion that if the schools are to reopen in September, then the pubs will have to shut.
Why? Who is asking these questions within government? Nobody, from what I can gather.
Covid has infantilised the nation. Policy is made in private, by unaccountable committees and scientists.
They have been unwilling to challenge the assertions of tunnel-vision experts like the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, who appears to have been our real, unelected Prime Minister these past few months
They have been unwilling to challenge the assertions of tunnel-vision experts like the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, who appears to have been our real, unelected Prime Minister these past few months
With most MPs content to stay home in their constituencies since March, Westminster has become a ghost town. There has been no proper scrutiny of the Government's handling of the crisis.
And now, after the exertions of all those Zoom sessions, Parliament is in recess as MPs enjoy six weeks' paid holiday.
The Commons should be recalled immediately. If it's safe for holidaymakers to sit cheek-by-jowl on aeroplanes, and for diners to enjoy cut-price piri-piri chicken and chips in state-subsidised restaurants, it should be safe enough for socially distanced MPs to reoccupy the green benches at Westminster.
Politicians should be leading by example, not relaxing on the beaches while our increasingly erratic leaders tinker with deranged schemes such as placing everyone over 50 under house arrest.
In the end, we're all going to die of something. We can't spend the rest of our lives trying to postpone the inevitable. Short of an effective vaccine, we will to have to learn to live with corona, in a grown-up fashion, for the forseeable future — not keep stumbling from one emergency lockdown to another.
Britain needs a serious plan to get us out of this catastrophic Covid-induced coma right now.

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