22 October 2020

Diary of a Corbynista

Test Trace Isolate Support.

By Don Urquhart

14 October

How refreshing to observe a Westminster bubble where not everything is blamed on Jeremy Corbyn.  However on Politics Live today, Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi came close.  His intention was to expose the “opportunism” of Sir Keir Starmer in savaging Johnson’s Covid policy at PMQ’s.  Liz Kendall had him on the ropes and he was eventually reduced to:

Well he supported Corbyn who was supporting Putin, a second referendum and smashing the economy!

That’s rubbish said Liz and who could disagree?

15 October

Walton MP Dan Carden resigned from the Labour Front Bench to vote against the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill.  Here is the conclusion of his Commons speech:

In Liverpool, we have a healthy suspicion of state power, because we have felt its damaging force too often in the past. We have experienced the 30-year fight of the Hillsborough families and survivors for truth and justice. We have had striking workers targeted by state violence, and trade unionists blacklisted and spied on for representing their members, and we are not alone. Campaigners fighting miscarriages of justice across our country, such as Orgreave, the Shrewsbury 24 and now Grenfell Tower, oppose this dangerous Bill.

I fear that my own party is being taken for a ride by this Government, because I will tell you what happens. You start with the idea that legislating for something that operates in the shadows must be a good thing. You then engage in good faith with a morally bankrupt Government arguing for vital safeguards, and once that Government finish stringing you along, you end up in the perverse situation of condoning laws that ride a coach and horses through our nation’s civil liberties and could even be used against the labour movement itself.

I am sent here by my constituents to stand up for their rights, freedoms and well-being, and that is what forces me to vote against the Bill tonight.

16 October

Mark Levesley’s response to last week’s Shawsheet:

Am reading this in Turkey where, rather unsurprisingly, though the country has only 8k deaths, I am going to have to quarantine on my return. In and of itself no hardship for someone who is working from home. However, what I would highlight is the general view of all in it together. Everyone, pretty much, wears a face covering, especially in public places. The police are quite conspicuous by their actual presence.  Also, though I have not seen it yet, I have anecdotal evidence that they fly drones that are capable of identifying people who are flouting the rules and the footage thereof is sufficient to warrant an on the spot fine.

Oh, and they also have an effective track and trace, which involves actual people actually physically tracking and tracing, by going round to people’s houses.

Who is doing a better job? Authoritarian Erdoğan or libertarian sock puppet Johnson?

17 October

Mark’s report from Turkey jives with what I have been thinking.  This could be summed up as:

It’s not what you do; it’s the way that you do it. 

For me, most activities should be Covid-safe if the rules are observed.  If you can only get into a pub by booking a table and are happy to rely on table service, where is the problem?

Clearly the answer to this and many similar scenarios is that we do not believe that people will stick to the rules.

So I suggest that we invest in people to check on Covid-compliance with powers to fine offenders and close businesses.

There is strife up North because Liverpool has been forced to close gyms and leisure centres while Lancashire can keep them open.

According to the Manchester Evening News:

Lancashire County Council leader Geoff Driver confirmed on Radio 5 Live:

“Pubs and bars will be closing but unlike Merseyside it’s agreed that we won’t be closing our gyms and leisure centres but obviously monitoring them closely to make sure they are operating within Covid restrictions.”

 So if you have resources to monitor behaviour you can keep the businesses open.

18 October

The only credible opposition is Marcus Rashford MBE, a fine footballer and doughty campaigner for hungry children.

250,000 people have so far signed his petition calling for 1.5 million children to receive free meals over the school holidays.

Johnson has said no.  Does he realise what he is up against?

19 October

The Independent gave us the following headline a couple of months ago:

Robert Jenrick admits deliberately helping Tory donor avoid £45m tax bill by rushing through housing development

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick was interviewed today on Sky by Kay Burley and made much of the mutual respect between him and the local authority leaders in Manchester as they negotiated the implementation of Tier 3 in that city.

I wondered how you could negotiate with Mr Jenrick without that Independent headline interrupting your thought process.

20 October

The Government website has advice for multigenerational households (MGH).  Critically it advises household members who test positive to be extra careful about keeping their distance from vulnerable members.

Is this enough?  On Newsnight a Manchester council leader pointed to MGH as a major risk factor and intuitively this seems sound given the much vaunted ability of Covid-19 to seek out hosts.

I wonder how many victims are from MGH, of which there are around 1.8 million in the UK.

We should perhaps follow the example of Wuhan and locate people with the virus in a specific isolation facility as recommended in a Birmingham University report:

 The epidemic in Wuhan was only brought under complete control when “Fangcang” field hospitals were introduced to centrally isolate cases. In the UK, it should be possible, for example, to repurpose the Nightingale Hospitals to support isolation of infected individuals with mild-to-moderate symptoms.

Public trust and confidence that isolation in these facilities is voluntary, safe and supportive is critical. We believe this approach should be evaluated as a matter of urgency. It is high time that the UK government amend its mantra of ‘test and trace’ to ‘test, trace, isolate and support’.