If anyone was wondering why they can’t understand the government exit strategy with regards to coronavirus, the answer is this. Nor do the government. Or do they and they know the public won’t like the answer?

The opposition leader, Kier Starmer, has been asking this question for a few days now and the answers aren’t coming back. The government appears to be continually rewriting the procrastination rule book as they get caught between two stools.

Two Stools

Stool one is the WHO (World Health Organisation) theory that coronavirus can still be eliminated. Stool two is what appears to be the government’s own theory that the virus is not going away so we might as well accept 60% to 80% of the population will get it. Therefore, all we can do is spread the infection rate over a longer period (lockdown, social distancing etc).

The theory behind this is that if lockdown is long term, the damage to the economy will be worse than the coronavirus. They are thinking of mental health, destitution and crime. Even Tories don’t want too much of that on their record. Even they know there is a breaking point that could result in a situation where ‘the pitchforks are coming’.

So, all signs are pointing towards a grim acceptance that we are heading towards a lot of dead people. The government it seems, have it in mind that around eighty per cent of the population will get the virus and of that eighty per cent, 0.5 per cent will die. That’s around 250,000 people. So, if you don’t already know of a coronavirus victim, you soon will.

Three Outcomes

By spreading the deaths over a longer period, it would appear the government are hoping for three outcomes.

First is to stop the NHS collapsing. Second is limited economic damage, and third, the timely arrival of a miracle cure or vaccine. There’s a lot of hoping going on there. If the virus turns out to have a two percent death rate, that’s a million corpses in return for herd immunity.

Make no mistake, the government have made a mess of this. By engaging a cabinet of sycophants with no discernible talent, Johnson, a lazy politician with a lack of attention to detail, lacked the political heavyweights to guide him through. If it wasn’t so serious, many of his former conservative party colleagues, friends, children and mistresses who he has screwed over, would see this as divine retribution.

But it is serious. The karma that took up his offer of “taking coronavirus on the chin” is going to be felt by tens of thousands of others who lose loved ones in the coming weeks and months. By not analysing the warnings issued by countries ahead of us, the opportunity to control the virus better, drifted away.

Playing Percentages

We are now gambling with percentages and hoping science comes up with solutions. What will happen if these figures are wrong and vaccines take two or three years to arrive? Will it skewer Johnson and his team of over privileged imbeciles?

They will already be planning their internal inquiry. It will likely attempt to subtly blame the public for not social distancing and try, once the applause and pot rattling has stopped, to highlight NHS inadequacies that failed its patients. Johnson and his cabinet will do anything but shoulder responsibility.

Maybe, in Keir Starmer, a highly skilled lawyer and former director of public prosecutions, these bunch of shitheads have finally met a political heavyweight? Perhaps they are finally drinking in the last chance saloon?

Interesting but tough times ahead for everyone.