Gothmog clearly understands that Someone has Done Some Bullshit to me and I require Affection from her, but sadly does not understand that in doing so is preventing me from taking the necessary response

Has Coronavirus Brought Out the Tory Contemptous?

No matter where you are in the world, it’s hard to get away from the subject of Coronavirus. The new chancellor Rishi Sunak stated at the budget meeting that £30bn will be made available to tackle the virus. I’m sure conservatives everywhere will be declaring Mr. Sunak a hero, but it shouldn’t get away from the damage caused from the government over the past 10 years, such as 130,000 people dying through Tory austerity and the NHS being badly underfunded and understaffed at the expense of delivering Brexit. Even to this day, I’m still trying to work out the advantages of Brexit. Yes, there may be valid reasons as to why people voted to leave the EU, but do the arguments for Brexit outweigh the arguments against Brexit? Probably not. Has the damage caused by the Conservative party after a decade in government contributed to the coronavirus cases? Especially considering the perilous state of the NHS and those in poverty being made more vulnerable to the virus.

When Boris Johnson addressed the nation, it seemed reminiscent to the classic British slogan ‘keep calm and carry on’, which you’ll find many variations of that saying on many clothes and other merchandise. The slogan was actually from a motivational poster back in 1939 following the outbreak of World War II to keep up the morale of the British people. Boris’ speech, however, wasn’t as morale boosting as he had hoped, especially as there are many who are still dismayed at Brexit. On the Jeremy Vine show back in January, Remain activist Femi Oluwole explained to Conservative MP Mark Francois about the risks regarding the NHS surrounding Brexit. Oluwole stated to Francois that The Royal College of Nursing, The Royal College of GPs, The Royal College of Radiologists, The Royal College of Midwives and the British Medical Association (which represents over 140,000 medical professionals) all warned that Brexit could have a negative impact on healthcare, but Francois replied with; “That’s just an opinion!” And if that wasn’t cringeworthy enough to be an epic facepalm moment, he then proceeded to say; “Let’s try it!” Almost as if he was going to try a demo of a computer game or a 30-day trial on Netflix that you can cancel at any time. Brexit is no free trial, however. It is an investment of over £130bn which has particularly put the future of the NHS at stake. Mark Francois also had a heated argument with author and Remain campaigner Terry Christian, labelling Christian as “a living embodiment of why people voted to leave the EU.” This was after Christian labelled those who voted for Brexit ‘pitiable saps’ and ‘uneducated cretins’. Those scathing assessments may seem ignorant at first, but given what is happening right now due to the virus, you can’t help but feel that Christian may have had a point. The risks of leaving the EU were very well-documented and clear for all to see. Those who are opposed to Brexit had predicted a doomsday scenario, and the emergence of the coronavirus may make that prophecy become a tragic, devastating reality.

When it comes to the less fortunate, it is safe to say that the Conservative party aren’t the most compassionate political party in government. This reputation that Tory party are contemptuous is due to the more than 130,000 deaths, the rise of homelessness in the UK which has killed over 700 people each year and the millions of children who are living in poverty. On top of all that, cuts have been made from a number of public services, such as reduced funding in the NHS and in the police department, which helped spark a sharp rise in knife crime across the UK. Amnesty International produced a damning report on UK poverty last October, and you would’ve thought that would make people think twice about voting for the Conservative party during the last election. That was not the case, however, and that has caused more people to become more vulnerable, so you could argue that in the wake of the coronavirus, that has produced or exasperated any underlying health conditions that people have, making them suffer severe damage and even death by the coronavirus. The budget meeting announced an end to austerity, despite them last January appearing to abandon their pledge to end austerity by proposing more cuts, but it sadly doesn’t bring back those who have suffered in the hands of austerity. Jeremy Corbyn labelled the budget meeting an ‘admission of failure’ and has made Britain in a worse position to deal with the coronavirus. It showed that austerity and the cuts that were made completely pointless and the lives that were lost were totally unnecessary, showing utter contempt to those that have suffered from austerity and the cuts that were made. The astronomical amount that had been spent on Brexit also showed utter disrespect too.

On the Channel 4 News, NHS neurologist Dr. Jenny Vaughan warned that medical staff will be preparing to literally sacrifice their lives as they treat people with coronavirus. Vaughan said; “We will lose our colleagues; we will be burying our colleagues. We know that has happened in China and we know that has happened in Italy, but let’s make no mistake about this. The medical frontline is ready, willing and able to try and help deal with this pandemic. But we must have faster testing, more equipment and we must have the proper staffing to try and help us deal with this.” This grave interview was a tremendous display of courage from Vaughan and the staff should get nothing but praise for their noble deed. Not many people in the world would have the courage to do what they are about to do. It just makes you disgusted with how the government have treated the NHS in recent years, having struggled to cope with increasing demands and higher costs. In the financial year of 2015/16, the underlying deficit was over £3bn. This makes grave reading the wake of the coronavirus. The future of the NHS was a huge talking point as well as Brexit in the last general election in December, especially as there was speculation that Boris Johnson would sell and privatise the NHS. What’s also disgusting is the abuse of NHS staff, particularly racist abuse. Last month on Question Time, an audience member angrily said that the UK should completely close the borders and claimed that immigrants were costing public services too much money, and cited that some of the budget for the NHS were being wasted on translators for NHS workers who couldn’t speak English as their first language. It was revealed days later that the audience member was an ardent supporter of English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, who had recently been accused of making false allegations about a teenage Syrian refugee which had led to the teenager and his family to be threatened by far-right activists. Robinson has also been accused of having racist incentive to do so and subject the poor teenager to such vile abuse. It’s easy to say that those who voted Brexit are racist and as I mentioned earlier, people may have had their valid reasons for doing so, but the majority of so-called Brexiteers are known to be racist (eg. Tommy Robinson, Katie Hopkins) and racism and discrimination has risen in the UK since the first Brexit referendum back in 2016. Hence why many people will have that assumption about those who voted to leave the EU. For the incredible sacrifice that the NHS staff are making in this moment of time, the foreign doctors, nurses and other members of staff there don’t owe us anything, it is us that owes them our respect and our gratitude.

The way the government has handled the pandemic has been nothing short of farcical. While other countries have taken strong action against the virus by going in lockdown, closing down schools, shops, restaurants and many public places, however on top of the variation of the ‘keep calm and carry on’ phrase as I mentioned earlier, Boris Johnson refused to close down public spaces and just adviced everyone to wash their hands while singing the happy birthday song. There have been 21 coronavirus fatalities so far in the UK, and you hope that this figure doesn’t increase. However, my faith in this government, as well as a lot of other people’s, is rather lacking in this moment in time and the laughable yet controversial ‘herd immunity’ plan, which is to deliberately infect 60% of the UK population and then for them to become immune as a result. Herd immunity is a phrase used when children have been vaccinated from a disease, but there is no vaccination for coronavirus, making this strategy such an alarming plan to tackle this pandemic, especially as it could result with masses of lives being lost and the plan not working. The Premier League’s handling of the current situation has too been farcical, when on Thursday night they announced that the next set of fixtures will go ahead as planned, despite coronavirus being labelled a pandemic by the World Health Organisation and the Arsenal squad self isolating after coming in contact with Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis who did test positive for coronavirus. However, moments after the announcement from the Premier League, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea winger tested positive for coronavirus, and then the Premier League followed suit from other major European leagues and announced the following day that the Premier League and the EFL will be suspended until at least April. There is talk that the season may be scrapped and everyone starts again the following season, providing the situation involving coronavirus doesn’t get any more dire than it currently is.

Despite my criticisms of the government, I am not for one minute blaming the virus on Boris Johnson, the Tories or leaving the EU. If we had stayed in the EU, it’s likely that the virus would still have happened anyway. However, the tories and Brexit has left the NHS in a vulnerable position in the wake of this pandemic, hence why there is a doomsday tone to what’s happening in the world right now. The media have certainly contributed to the way we’re reflecting on the situation, by sensationalising the issue just like they did during the swine flu pandemic back in 2009, which isn’t helping anyone’s wellbeing in all honesty. What we must do now is take the necessary precautions, like washing hands and keeping up our hygiene, and be aware of what the symptoms are, however mild they may be. If you need to self-isolate for instance, make sure you do so. I won’t end this blog post with a grave note, especially as someone who got through the bird flu and swine flu pandemics, but it’s important that we know the facts and do read the NHS website to understand coronavirus. I’m confident that it won’t be the doomsday scenario that everyone is fearing, especially as the devastating it’s had in other countries like China and Italy. Many people may label me a ‘remoaner’ and a ‘sore loser’ for being against Brexit, but when life and death is an issue, this is not a game. It’s a serious issue and anyone would be forgiven for thinking that the campaign was just spreading nationalist, far-right propaganda and throwing out slogans and buzzwords to appeal to the small-minded of Britons. There is nothing Britain could’ve done to prevent coronavirus, but there was a lot that could’ve been done in the way that this country was prepared for the pandemic and the way that it’s been handled in this present moment in time. Even after coronavirus is stopped, my views of the government and Brexit will not change. Boris Johnson has had a reputation of making misogynist and racist remarks and he famously hid in a fridge from a media interview, went on holiday during a looming war threat from Iran and scheduled an urgent emergency meeting about coronavirus for three days time. Therefore you can forgive myself and others for believing that Boris Johnson may not be able to handle any form of crisis, let alone a pandemic. Even his own voters are starting to doubt him, but many of us knew that he was never up to being prime minister, and also that the Tories should not be in government. They say that democracy won the election, but the reality is that sheer ignorance and complete idiocy won the election. We can now see that Brexit is having a more devastating impact than many would have hoped for, and we can see that couldn’t be any good reason for spending over £130bn to leave the EU. It seemed that austerity, poverty, cuts, underfunding the NHS and now Brexit was all for no other reason than greed.