Mastodawn

Asahi 🖖🙂 | UFP-Liaison 🌈18h ago

Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷

RE: https://mas.to/@therightarticle/116300144161152058

If ever there was proof of the damage done by neoliberalism, this is it! The second wave (which killed 87,000 people in UK) was driven almost entirely by Sunak’s “eat out to help out”, and Johnson’s defying the experts to ‘save Christmas’.
It is extraordinary that you can kill tens of thousands of people with your obsession with the economy, and yet face absolutely no consequences.
Mind you, that’s nothing compared to the death toll that climate inaction will produce.

Cabbidges 1d ago

@KimSJ
And then there was the way covid died down a bit during the school holidays, but surged again as soon as schools opened, but I'm sure nobody wants to look too hard at that. Parents must work...(and many found parenting 24/7 a bit of a shock I think).

Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷1d ago

@TheDailyBurble
It still frustrates me that nothing has been done to improve the air quality in schools. Such a simple win, but no, that would involve admitting that schools have a role in keeping the country unhealthy.

TC Won't Give In To Lies 1d ago

It's not about "the economy", right wingers and their oligarch backers *want* a poor, sick, desperate working class.

More deaths, like fewer services, means they take what they can get without resistance. It's a return to Dickensian times.
#NeverTrustATory

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE 1d ago

@KimSJ And they *never* explained *either* of:

(1) what use "the economy" was to a dead person, or:

(2) what use a dead person was to "the economy".

@TimWardCam @KimSJ "The economy" mostly represents investments so second houses, stocks and shareholdings, that sort of thing.

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE 1d ago

@nini @KimSJ Whatever it represents (and I get that there are different views on this) neither of the above questions was ever answered.

@TimWardCam @KimSJ You thought there was an answer?

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE 1d ago

@nini @KimSJ It's the first question I would have asked of civil servants if I'd been one of the decision makers (eg for the "eat out to help the virus out" policy).

@TimWardCam @KimSJ "The economy matters more than dead people, what good is that knowledge to the dead people? Well, they died doing something important which is protecting the economy."

Circular reasoning? Not at all, it's logical if you don't think more than two steps ahead and only need to consider the next one.

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE 1d ago

@nini @KimSJ Well, I dunno about you, but just right now I'd rather be alive, whatever the state of "the economy", whatever that is.

@TimWardCam @KimSJ You expect too much of the civil servants by having them think consciously about their decisions others have to bear the consequences for.

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE 1d ago

@nini @KimSJ I've not dealt with that many civil servants but I have dealt with many council officers providing factual background and technical advice to political decision making, and I would expect civil servants to be even better at it, being better resourced.

(OK, so there was once a civil servant who wouldn't answer a question of mine, presumably because it would have undermined her minister's decided policy ... but her refusal to answer was performed in such a manner that it was blindingly obvious what the answer was.)

clarkiestar 1d ago

@nini @TimWardCam @KimSJ they aren’t the decision makers though. They provide info and can help implement minister’s decisions but ultimately the buck stops with the minister. I want to see prosecutions!

clarkiestar 1d ago

@TimWardCam @KimSJ I’m sure I remember Cummings or Johnson saying something at the time about old people not being value units to the economy so losing a big tranch of them wouldn’t be a bad thing - don’t have to pay their state pensions and ongoing healthcare costs if they’re dead!

@KimSJ Here in Iceland like comparing the CoVid situation to the plot of the movie Jaws. We could have closed the borders and kept people safe on the island but tourism had to happen. It eventually landed in a way that the border was monitored for the virus (with insane exceptions) and that went the same way as in the aforementioned movie.

I might consider dying for the economy.

Nah, not really, but I hope many politicians decide it's their time to GIVE back.

@KimSJ check again, those spikes correspond with the vax launch.

Antonio Patriarca 1d ago

@shwell @KimSJ I did it, and the vaccination for the normal population started on 18/01/2021 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccination_in_the_United_Kingdom). It is exactly at the peak, before the numbers started to go down. That means they had nothing to do with the previous increase in cases (how could they have caused something happening one or two weeks before being rolled up?!). But they may be linked to the decrease in cases after and during the rollout. If you see a graph and think something happening at a spike is what caused it, then you really don't understand how cause and effect work.

COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

sadly I remember also that a huge proportion of the population backed both Sunk and Johnson on their anti-science measures

yes, Sunak and Johnson were cynical

but the basic secondary-school science education of too many people is lacking

sorry if this sounds harsh

@KimSJ Naan to kill Nana.

@KimSJ The thing is they’re not trying to “save Christmas” they’re trying assimilate others shoving Jesus down our throats, although today, their own “savior” if you approve of his words about love, tolerance, etc would not approve of their actions. He’d be asking, “what the hell happened to you people “?

Bodhipaksa 1d ago

@Huntn00 @KimSJ I think it was "save Christmas" in terms of making sure retailers make high profits, rather than in terms of promoting Christianity.

@bodhipaksa @Huntn00 @KimSJ
Quite so. However, they're not wrong about Jesus himself holding and promoting values that are at odds with the mammonist profiteers who seem to care more about the bottom line than the people at the bottom.

David Cohen 1d ago

@KimSJ @therightarticle I heard a speech recently from a science advisor who was working for the Government during the pandemic.

They were asked what they thought about Sunak’s dining out plan. They said that they were not consulted and heard about it when we all did in a Government press conference. The science team referred to it as ‘Eat out to spread out’.

@KimSJ The world decided that profit margins for the rich were down, so screw the normal people. All we're worth is increasing value for the boards and CEOs after all.

What I still can't believe is that people just... accepted "we have to get things back to normal." Nevermind that this was code for "get back to working and spending and stop caring about yourself and others," even just on its own... *WHY* do we have to get things back to normal at all costs as fast as possible no matter what?

The Casual Critic 23h ago

@KimSJ John McDonnell rightly called it social murder (though in relation to austerity) and was excoriated for it by both the press and politicians of all colours, as it was too rude.

This is a country where if you steal some bottles of water you go to prison, but if your policies kill thousands of people, you end up on the Board of the British Museum.
(Though come to think of it, that is fairly apt).

Martin Vermeer FCD 14h ago

@thecasualcritic @KimSJ The Brutish Museum

@KimSJ
what gets me about all of this is that they're acting like covid is over and the damage is done. like the current government isn't killing thousands from covid every year. like the damage isn't cumulative and continuous. they're all complicit.

they're doing this, mind you, while having full ventilation and precautions in the enquiry itself.

they know. they all know and they don't care.

@KimSJ dont forget the (altready woeful) "2m rule" being diluted to a ridiculous "1 metre plus" rule