Coronavirus

[Petrushka]

Robert Buckland, the justice Secretary, interviewed on Sky News this morning, has let the cat out of the bag regarding care homes:

Asked by Kay Burley whether the government focused on the NHS “to the detriment of care homes,” Buckland said:

'I think we needed to make a choice about testing and we did decide to focus upon the NHS. The issue with care homes is that we’ve got many thousands of different providers, different settings, there have been lots of examples of care homes that have mercifully stayed infection free, but sadly far too many cases of infection and then death'.

Pointing out that deaths in care homes represented 40.4% of all coronavirus fatalities in England and Wales in the week to 1 May, Burley again asked Buckland to confirm that government policy was to protect the NHS first and foremost.

He replied: “That’s right and I think that was essential. Now is not the time to blame people, I think that would be wholly counter productive.”

This is an admission of criminal negligence by the Government and should be prime evidence for the, one hopes, future trial of Johnson, Hancock and Cummings

[DracoM]

Wow! Well, BJ get out of THAT!

[gurnemanz]

Just been reading an article about the threat to German boys' choirs. http://www.klassik-heute.de/4daction...ldung?id=23603

Covid is a threat to all music groups, but the article points to the particular existential threat that boys' choirs (about 30 in Germany) are subject. Schools are closed. The lack of continuity caused by longer-term lack of rehearsal is more damaging for these choirs. Also the disruption in essential recruitment of new members.

[oddoneout]

Wow! Well, BJ get out of THAT!

Oh he will - that's what Mat Hancock et al are for

[oddoneout]

Just been reading an article about the threat to German boys' choirs. http://www.klassik-heute.de/4daction...ldung?id=23603

Covid is a threat to all music groups, but the article points to the particular existential threat that boys' choirs (about 30 in Germany) are subject. Schools are closed. The lack of continuity caused by longer-term lack of rehearsal is more damaging for these choirs. Also the disruption in essential recruitment of new members.

Isn't the particular threat the fact that boy's choirs are affected by the 'shelf life' of the voice? School closure, recruitment and lack of continuity will affect many other choirs than just boys' choirs.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Robert Buckland, the justice Secretary, interviewed on Sky News this morning, has let the cat out of the bag regarding care homes...........
..........
This is an admission of criminal negligence by the Government and should be prime evidence for the, one hopes, future trial of Johnson, Hancock and Cummings

"File on Four" R4 last evening filled me with despair. Remember, not only the care home residents were placed in peril, but also care workers outside the NHS were left in desperate situations with PPE supplies commandeered by the NHS. Just three examples from the programme:

Resident who went to hospital but judged not needing treatment. The care home agreed to take the resident back but only where a Covid test showed clear. Unarranged, the resident appeared at their door with the Trust ambulance crew demanding they be taken, and threatening the police.

We know GPs did not go to care homes. Hospitals refused to take care home residents over the age of 65 and they were left to take their chance in the home. There was no treatment input for Covid 19. What was offered, only, was pallliative care in an end of life context.

The recipe " protective ring ….we gave £ xxx million funding for care homes…." ministerial spaffspeak translated into Local authority budget holders not handing over the money with any urgency, but when they did with revised contracts where homes were required to agree to their requirement to take covid patients discharged from hospital. On top of all the patients cleared out from hospitals in the early days of the UK pandemic response

Coronavirus: The care homes catastrophe

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000j81c

The awful impact of Covid-19 on the lives of care home residents and staff is now well understood. But many in the industry believe the authorities, both local and national, didn't recognise the threat of the virus on the most vulnerable elderly early enough and didn't react quickly enough to stop it spreading through their homes.
File on 4 hears from those who say opportunities to collect and share information were missed, that vital PPE supplies weren't secured quickly enough and that a policy of discharges of untested patients into care homes was ill thought-out and badly executed. The effect this has had on residential elderly care, they say, isn't just measured in the deaths of those who went too soon, but also in the threat the virus now poses to the survival of the whole private care industry.
With testimony from those at the front line at the very beginning of the crisis, File on 4 examines the fight to keep care home residents safe on the frontline and investigates the circumstances which led to care homes becoming one of the most significant crucibles for the virus.

[oddoneout]

Any one of the main factors - staff volatility, lack of PPE, vulnerability of residents already present would have been problematic in itself in a pandemic, so to add on deliberately/knowingly seeding the virus into care homes how could there not be an appalling outcome?
For me the worst aspect of this is that absolutely nothing will change as a result. We will be subject to crocodile tears, hand-wringing, faux apologies, a lot of talking and 'initiatives' but no action - an abhorrent insult to both the casualties and their families. The Home Office stance on foreign workers is a first move in avoidance of a solution.

[Dave2002]

Oh he will - that's what Mat Hancock et al are for

Matt Hancock's expressions during BJ's PMQs today were very "interesting". I couldn't stand it in the end, but I assume Starmer had a field day - should have been a duck shoot. BJ's approach - deny everything, shout louder, rant a bit ...

[LMcD]

Any one of the main factors - staff volatility, lack of PPE, vulnerability of residents already present would have been problematic in itself in a pandemic, so to add on deliberately/knowingly seeding the virus into care homes how could there not be an appalling outcome?
For me the worst aspect of this is that absolutely nothing will change as a result. We will be subject to crocodile tears, hand-wringing, faux apologies, a lot of talking and 'initiatives' but no action - an abhorrent insult to both the casualties and their families. The Home Office stance on foreign workers is a first move in avoidance of a solution.

Spot on! (Unfortunately). Perhaps Boris wants us to nominate carers for honours because that will be cheaper than giving them a wage increase.

[Jazzrook]

Interview with philosopher Slavoj Zizek:

https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/489149-slavoj-zizek-going-underground/

JR

[jayne lee wilson]

Terrific grilling at the 1700 spot given to the latest faceless ones from Nick Watt, Peston etc....I felt like cheering, but then.....death-death-death-death to the chimes of Big Ben.....

So grateful to GG. johnb and others here for the updates and analysis...all you can do is keep the profile high, keep hammering away with petitions and MP letters and hope those who remain BJ supporters will finally..... etc....

Starmer should just keep going, steady and clear.....the government show all the classic signs of those in power too long, who cannot even change their habitual approach in a severe crisis... flap around in a panic, throw money around when its too late etc....

Then claim its thanks to "austerity" that they have the means........
...over, over and out out out!!

[Serial_Apologist]

Interview with philosopher Slavoj Zizek:

https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/489149-slavoj-zizek-going-underground/

JR

I think Zizek is probably right. We have to re-think the question of agency anew: who and what is going to be the driver of change. World War 2 brought about a situation that was as damaging to the future of capitalism with regard to its democratic legitimacy as capitalism's very threat to maintaining our planet's natural life support systems, (do I really need to spell out in what ways?) and today's Coronovirus outbreak. This is a reality which is as threatening to the rich and powerful, infrastructurally dependent on the low-waged, as to those lower down in the pecking order. We may not even be able to discount the possibility of the ruling class in its chief political expression, the Tory party, literally giving up under the pressure of events and negative publicity, in similar manner to how the Soviet bureaucracy and its internal and allied agencies gave up and relinquished power 30 years ago. At which point the state apparatus will be forced to step in to maintain order and the basics of civilisation against the odds that have become encrypted into the feedback media they have encouraged into being for running their system more efficiently - the army of bedroom hackers, instant rent-a-crowd coordinators, and informal community support networks post-Grenfell they will be forced to co-opt to keep society together and functioning.

We now need a radical economist like David Harvey on to explain how all this is going to pan out with regards to its financing.

[DracoM]

Isn't the particular threat the fact that boy's choirs are affected by the 'shelf life' of the voice? School closure, recruitment and lack of continuity will affect many other choirs than just boys' choirs.

Except that the German fast response to the virus has made a massive difference to their nation's timetable for any return to 'the new normal'.

[Serial_Apologist]

Starmer should just keep going, steady and clear.....the government show all the classic signs of those in power too long, who cannot even change their habitual approach in a severe crisis... flap around in a panic, throw money around when its too late etc....

Then claim its thanks to "austerity" that they have the means........
...over, over and out out out!!

As I said, they might just throw up their hands and give up on the job.

One of the things that ha become brazenly manifest is just how the very de-centralisation of production units and decision-making post 1979 that was supposed to lead to more profitability and efficiency has turned the country - indeed the world - into a place that is even less prepared for a crisis affecting all sections of society than Britain was in 1939.

[Count Boso]

I enjoyed this contribution by Mr Speaker in response to some disorderly heckling, "Secretary of State for Health, I don't mind you advising the Prime Minister, but you don't need to advise the leader of the opposition." Followed by a not-so-veiled threat to chuck him out of the chamber.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52732463 (scroll down).