30 April 2020
Diary of a Corbynista
Capacity and Delivery
by Don Urquhart
23 April
Corbynista received two types of response to Downing Street Press Briefing Bingo (DSPBB). Clearly a number of utterances had been left out:
“unbelievable” (Hancock delivers time after time);
“rolling out”;
“driving hard”;
“challenges”.
There must be many more.
We are ramping up production and distribution, having enlisted the formidable logistical skills of the Girl Guide movement.
24 April
Here’s the Morning Star take on the leaked report: The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to anti-Semitism, 2014 – 2019:
A factionally organised conspiracy among Labour’s senior and middle-ranking staff, one with clear personal, family and political ties to a substantial body of Labour MPs, through and by a large measure of incompetence and malice, sabotaged Labour’s election prospects and disabled efforts to deal with a measurable if exaggerated problem of anti-Semitism.
Many people have already left the Labour Party since Sir Keir Starmer’s election on April 4th. Many more will leave if he does not deal quickly with those in his party who sought to sabotage its election prospects.
25 April
Emile Heskey was a formidable striker who played 62 times for England between 1999 and 2010, yet scored only 7 goals. He managed to convince 8 England managers that he had the capacity to score goals but missed too many opportunities.
Matt Hancock told us some time ago that he would be carrying out 100,000 Coronavirus tests per day by April 30th. Then a couple of days ago he started talking about having the capacity to undertake 100,000 Coronavirus tests per day by April 30th. People phoning up to arrange tests are discovering that having the capacity is a far cry from delivering.
As far as I know Emile Heskey is hale and hearty but we joked that the appropriate epitaph for the lad when the time comes would be “Sadly Missed”.
Perhaps the same could be said of Matt Hancock.
26 April
This week’s quiz. Identify Corbyn’s critics. Answers next week.
- He didn’t command respect, and he therefore wasn’t able to command that collectivism in the Labour party.
- A fucking anti-Semite and a racist;
- Would knife Jeremy Corbyn “in the front, not the back”
- Accused Corbyn of a “flat-footed and lackadaisical attitude” to tackling anti-Semitism which is “simply unacceptable”.
- In Jeremy we have a man without honour and without shame – and a type of preening narcissism that means he thinks he’s still got something left to offer our Labour movement.
- “I’m helping colleagues, banging on about the NHS for them but it’s awful for them, and it’s the combination of Corbyn and Brexit… outside of the city seats…it’s abysmal out there…they can’t stand Corbyn and they think Labour’s blocked Brexit.”
- Did not believe Corbyn was the right person to lead the Labour Party into the next election.
- Claimed Mr Corbyn was “not able to lead” the party. He then refused to rejoin the front-bench team until a set of demands were met.
- Everyone knew that he couldn’t lead the working class out of a paper bag.
- If he becomes Prime Minister of this Country I am out.
27 April
Last night’s Downing Street Press Briefing was notable for Professor Stephen Powis’ casual discarding of the issue of care home deaths.
Paul Brand of ITV was brushed off when he asked about them, then Jennifer Williams from the Manchester Evening News followed up:
What evidence is there that they (care home deaths) are actually falling.
The Professor’s answer was lengthy and largely irrelevant to the question posed but he managed to get across that he was responsible for NHS England which had well-established and efficient reporting lines. The care home sector was an uncoordinated mess so don’t blame him if they are not able to report Coronavirus deaths.
28 April
Hopefully today is the day when the great social care reform takes off.
Yesterday’s Newsnight had Tory peer Ros Altmann calling for national organisation of care homes. Today the Office for National Statistics reports that Covid-19 deaths of care home residents stands at over 4,000 and that 200 per day are dying and this number is increasing.
Government claims that they are wrestling Covid-19 to the ground appear meaningless. They must demonstrate that they have a plan in place to reduce non-hospital deaths and this has to include provision of PPE to carers in all contexts. The medical experts wheeled on at the 5 pm briefings are employed by the NHS and demonstrate no sense of responsibility for problems elsewhere.
The Chief Scientific Officer Sir Patrick Vallance reports that SAGE flagged the care home problem to the government in January but this was clearly scientific advice that could be safely ignored.
29 April
Nicki Cregland is the Chair of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses. On Newsnight she said her nursing colleagues were just ordinary people doing their best for patients often with inadequate PPE. Here’s what she said about the Government spokespeople:
We don’t need rhetoric we need PPE. I found the terminology unsettling. We’re not angels, we’re not heroes…we simply want to go and do the job we trained to do and be protected to do it.
