In Episode 17 of his new book, author Julian Roup notes that the Emperor has no clothes: Covid-19 has stripped him bare.
In case you missed Episode 16, click here.
Life in a Time of Plague
Sussex, 23rd April 2020
By Julian Roup
This Government is ‘incompetent, inexperienced, floundering and an embarrassment’: an off-the-record quote from just one of Boris’s Tory supporters, who are horrified at the slow train crash they are watching unfold as UK citizens die in their thousands, with no end in sight, and little evidence of a coherent plan. It is just what one expected from a Boris Johnson Government. Truly, the Emperor has no clothes.
The New Scientist reports: “The pandemic has already caused at least 41,000 deaths in the UK, according to a Financial Times analysis of ‘excess deaths’ data from the country’s Office for National Statistics.
Amid this charnel house news, there is evidence that some organisations are doing very well, thank you; proof that every cloud does indeed have a silver lining. Netflix gained nearly 16 million new subscribers in the first quarter of 2020, twice as many as predicted by analysts, as people turn to streaming to provide entertainment amid coronavirus travel restrictions.
But not everyone is watching TV. Domestic violence rates are rising fast across the UK and Europe. The Guardian reports that domestic abuse killings have ‘more than doubled’ amid the Covid-19 lockdown. At least 16 suspected domestic abuse killings in the UK have been identified by campaigners since the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were imposed, far higher than the average rate for the time of year, it has emerged.
Jan sends me information about Karen Ingala Smith, the founder of Counting Dead Women, a pioneering project that records the murders of women by men in the UK, who has identified at least 16 killings between 23 March and 12 April, including those of children.
Smith’s data records an average of five deaths for the same period over the past 10 years. Her findings for 2020, which are collated from internet searches and people contacting her over social media, were raised during evidence to the government Home Affairs select committee on Wednesday.
Dame Vera Baird QC, the Victims Commissioner for England and Wales, told MPs at the remote session: “Counting Dead Women has got to a total of 16 domestic abuse killings in the last three weeks. We usually say there are two a week, that looks to me like five a week, that’s the size of this crisis.”
It is unimaginable what some families, women in particular, have had to contend with during this time. While so many of us have welcomed the additional peace and quiet to be creative, others have had to contend with a living hell. My heart goes out to them with the wish that when this time of suffering is over a happier future awaits you.
A newsflash: politicians have warned that the government is considering a ‘blanket ban’ to prevent older people leaving their homes during the coronavirus crisis. The health minister, Lord James Bethell, twice refused to deny that older people will be told to stay in extended lockdown in response to questions in the Lords on Wednesday.
“I was very concerned by the government’s refusal to answer my question,” said Lord Blunkett, the former home secretary. “Older people must not be subjected to arbitrary incarceration as well as isolation.”
Blunkett added: “The more the government make restrictions age-related, rather than risk-related, the more they risk people pushing back very heavily and refusing to keep to the rules.”
I smile at this exchange, imagining an army of the elderly, like me, frolicking in Britain’s parks and on beaches to a Woodstock soundtrack, the hippy 60s reclaimed just before death takes us on the final trip. To the American psychologist known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs, Timothy Leary, I say: “eat your heart out!”
Leary said: “My advice to people today is as follows: if you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out.”
Well, Tim, old cock, we are sure as hell dropping out!
Another delight on today’s news is that “government scientists are expected to recommend against the public wearing medical face masks.” WHO spokespeople are also saying that there is “little evidence that wearing masks stops the spread of Coronavirus.” But people will still want masks, and there is plenty of evidence that they protect other people, should you be infected.
Meanwhile, in New York, two cats are the first confirmed cases of coronavirus in companion animals in the US, federal officials reported yesterday April 22nd. The cats, which had mild respiratory illnesses and are expected to recover, are thought to have contracted the virus from people in their households or neighbourhood. The finding, which comes after positive tests in some tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo, adds to a small number of confirmed cases of the virus in animals worldwide.
The world is on track for an ‘unprecedented’ post-war recession, say countless news outlets, quoting an army of experts. Ratings agency Fitch says the world is heading for a recession of “unprecedented depth in the post-war period”, with global gross domestic product predicted to tumble by 3.9% in 2020. “This is twice as large as the decline anticipated in our early April GEO [global economic outlook] update and would be twice as severe as the 2009 recession,” said Fitch’s chief economist.
Turning away from the horror of this scenario, I read that the UK is planning to embark on a large-scale study of 300,000 people to find out what proportion of the population has already had the coronavirus and how many may have some immunity to it as a result.
Studies are being undertaken around the world to work out how widespread the infection is. So far, they have found the proportion of people with antibodies showing they have been infected is low. The World Health Organization said this week it appears that only around 2-3 per cent of people in the general population have been infected, with or without symptoms. So much for herd immunity.
The results of the British study will be crucial for planning a strategic endgame to the pandemic in the UK. Some 25,000 people will be invited to take part in the first wave of the study in England. It is expected it will be extended to 300,000 people over the next 12 months.
One of Britain’s glories, our universities, are facing their own meltdown. Our academics are looking disaster in the face as a report predicts a £2.5bn tuition fee loss for universities next year alongside the loss of 30,000 university jobs, based on gloomy predictions that both British and overseas students will stay away if the pandemic remains unchecked.
The government is negotiating with the university sector to limit the number of students each institution can admit in September, in the hope that it will help some avoid cut-throat competition and possible bankruptcy if their student intake slumps. Supply and demand, that old killer, is alive and well alongside the pandemic.
Having a break from this news misery, I am greatly cheered by reading a recent essay by Philip Pullman, the novelist knighted in May for his services to literature, and perhaps best known for His Dark Materials, the fantasy trilogy about the adventures of the preteen heroine, Lyra Belacqua.
Pullman writes (and I agree with every word): “It’s all got to change. If we come out of this crisis with all the rickety, fly-blown, worm-eaten old structures still intact, the same vain and indolent public schoolboys in charge, the same hedge fund managers stuffing their overloaded pockets with greasy fingers, our descendants will not forgive us. Nor should they. We must burn out the old corruption and establish a better way of living together.
“It’s fitting that the Houses of Parliament are already falling down. We should begin there and tear the place down entirely, to rebuild it on a better plan. All the absurd ceremony, all the pegs for hanging up your sword, all the fake drama created by deliberately not having enough seats for every member and crowding through lobbies to vote, all the contemptible pomposity that only serves to tickle the fancy of those addicted to history-porn, the blazing stupidity of maintaining seats for hereditary peers – away with it.
‘And let’s reform the voting system. At the very least, let’s do that without delay. It’s no wonder that people feel disconnected from politics when most of us live in safe seats, and might as well not vote at all. We must be able to see that our opinions are accurately reflected in the composition of our government, not completely disregarded as they are now. So it might lead to coalitions: excellent. Discussion, compromise, working together, are exactly how to run a decent country.
“Then we must educate our children properly. It is quite extraordinary that one school, Eton College, should have such a hold on the high places of politics. It’s also extraordinary, and scandalous, that the magnificent facilities and opportunities that the public schools (the commercial schools, as A.H. Halsey liked to call them) offer to their pupils are not equally available to every child. The present dreary culture of mechanistic tests and meaningless league tables and invented fetishes like ‘fronted adverbials’ should be swept away like filthy cobwebs; children need light and drama and music and poetry and science and art and curiosity and libraries and plenty of grass to play on, and plenty of time to run about and fool around.
‘We should start by abolishing the tax privileges the commercial schools benefit from by pretending to be charities, and pour money into the schools most children go to.
“If it turns out to be true that the government for Brexit-related reasons refused to take part in the procurement advantage offered by EU governments, thus making it harder for the NHS to deal with the Covid-19 and placing thousands of people at risk, the entire front bench ought to resign. But of course they won’t: they have not a single grain of shame. So they should be arraigned on charges of conspiracy to murder. Nothing less will do. They knew the risks, and thought they’d rather appease the foaming zealots of Brexit.
“And now the circumstances have changed so profoundly, we must hold back on Brexit itself. There are so many clear advantages to being in the EU, and the benefits of leaving are so tenuous and fanciful, that we must revisit the referendum and hope that this time the Labour Party under a new leader will play a proper part in the argument; and that the lies, the cheating, the flagrant and shameless mendacity will be fully exposed by a strong, passionate, and focused campaign to remain.
“There’s so much more that needs to be done, but this is how I think we should start. The way we allow ourselves to be governed at the moment looks like the triumph of habit over putrefaction. We can’t go on like this.”
Phillip Pullman, I say: “Amen to that.” When I hear a voice like his, I wonder why we are unable to attract people of his calibre to government? If we get the governments we deserve, then we are all culpable in this mess. And that, is a truly sobering thought.
Click here for Episode 18.
