Coronavirus 17

24th March 2020

At last, far too late, the government is doing what it should have done weeks ago.

This is 17th in my Covid-19 series of little blogs. The first one, posted on the 7th of February, started with these words:

When it was first suggested that UK nationals should be flown out Wuhan, I remarked that it might be better if all international flights were grounded, reducing both the speed of infection spread and our carbon emissions.

In the old story, Cassandra did not fare well at the time but it was the leader, Apollo, who was condemned by history.

One day, when he hear the mother of all inquiries, we will revisit advice given, yet ignored, by government. There will be pile upon pile of it.

Here is one small sample out of the many, the Global Preparedness Monitoring report 'A World at Risk' dated September 2019.

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Today, however, while we sit at home, our minds should turn to how we rebuild a better society. The unfairness must go. Today we have some people sitting at home and being paid £2500 per month from public funds to do nothing, more than many in the NHS have ever earned, while millions in the self-employed gig-economy have been promised nothing but a vague recommendation to enter the Byzantine world of the benefits system with its dysfunctional Universal Credit.

And we must also turn our minds to global heating . Let's treat Covid-19 as a drill. The Climate Emergency is not a drill. 

The lesson from Cassandra must not have to be learned twice over.

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