GOVERNMENT BY CRISIS

 I have been frustrated and disturbed by the UK government under Boris Johnson it is timid and late with decisions, it refuses to be answerable for decisions and shows an appalling lack of regard for citizens.

 

I first heard about Boris when he was a local MP. He came across as a fresh thinker prepared to give straightforward answers. In those days a refreshing change from a stale Conservative party. I realise that he enjoys the image of a maverick that challenges the establishment. In truth he has shown himself to be con artist prepared to conceal and beguile people to keep from confronting the disastrous effect of his policies.

 

On the corona virus he consistently ignored the established ways to keep the virus in control and to save lives. He ignored the example of Asian counties he believed instead in fantasy of past British excellence. Yes Britain has some of the best people in the world for handling this crisis but they looked inward for leadership and Boris with schoolboy optimism and shallow thinking was there blindly leading the way. He failed to make choices that had safety as a priority and ignored the evidence from the rest of the world. Consequently, Britain has one of the worst virus responses. The government are now pointing to the vaccination roll out as a success. This success is not some result of government intervention but due to the hard work and dedication of the NHS.

 

Once again Britain is facing rising infections and hospitalisations. Once again the government are delaying the decision to take precautions. Even minor changes could make a big difference to the infection rate; mask wearing and distancing rules would slow the rate and allow the booster and vaccination process to get ahead. Instead, government delays will result in a deepening of the crisis which forces actions - GOVERNMENT BY CRISIS.

 

Every day I tend to listen to the farming news before 6. For the last months there have been several issues discussed -

• Lack of tankers to pickup milk which than is poured down the drain when no tanker arrives.
• Concerns about the impact of the Australian trade agreement and recently the New Zealand trade agreement.
• Multiple stories about the slaughter of animals in particular pigs, the scheduling of pig maturity is such that there is a few weeks of slack in the scheduling of butchering before the farmers have to destroy the animals, unused.

I heard multiple interviews and discussions about these problems but very little empathy from government. Government seemed to insist that there wasn't really a problem.  As the problems increased in intensity and the simultaneous shortage of hgv drivers resulted in fuel shortages at pumps, government started to lose control of the media story.
 

When it came to the crisis in trained butchers to deal with the processing of pigs, the government made every effort to avoid the issue. Boris even remarked that he couldn't see the problem as the pigs would die anyway. No understanding of the role of government to use its position to help citizens. The farming industry is important for all of us and a little care about the problems could save everyone from the waste of life and effort about to come.

 

It seemed like they were afraid to address the problems because they didn't want to admit that brexit was a factor. Instead they blamed industry for not investing in training and recruitment and made no effort to help; until it became clear that the solution to the problem would take a long time to fix. They said the lack of action was because they wanted to see wages rise - any responsible government would have been proactive and taken proper actions to reduce the impact. GOVERNMENT BY CRISIS.

 

The energy crisis first became an issue when gas prices started to rise. The early crisis was a lack of CO2 which is used by numerous industries but notably in food packing and processing. It is produced by 2 foreign owned companies as a by product from producing fertilizer. With gas prices rising it was uneconomical to continue producing their main product so they stopped production and consequently all the CO2 stopped. Suddenly hundreds of businesses that relied on CO2 had no supply and no backup. After many alarms and requests to government to help the crisis deepened till eventually they were forced to do something to avert looming problems. So a deal was made with the foreign companies to help with the price of gas.
 

This was short sighted and showed once again that this government has a poor understanding of governing. Subsequent to the actions taken and gas prices continuing to rise, many of British core companies began to struggle. Ceramics, glass and steel just to name a few also began to threaten closure. This now was a serious energy crisis. GOVERNMENT BY CRISIS could be avoided if central government stepped away from a rigid free market approach and took measures to control and protect certain shared resources and industry to benefit the population.

 

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