QUIT THE SNIPING By Maarten Hoffmann
I
don’t know about you, but l am sick to the back teeth with all the sniping at the government when it comes to their response to the coronavirus. I am not referring to party politics but rather this, once in a lifetime (we hope), global pandemic for which no one has a template or a guide from which to work from. All global leaders are making it up on the fly but when it comes to the UK, they are making a fair fist of it. The popular press have a lot to answer for on this subject. Good newspapers lead with sound editorial and expect their readers to follow. The rubbish ones, that are good only for lining the budgie cage or wrapping your chips in, follow the lead from their readers, leaving them in a race to the bottom. The fury that radiates from their pages every time a decision is made does not highlight the faults of government,
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rather it highlights their total inability to give a damn as they chase readership. You’ve seen it shrieking from their pages: Day 1. WE HAVE TO LOCK DOWN AS FAST AS POSSIBLE Day 2. WE CANNOT TAKE THIS LOCKDOWN ANY MORE AND SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE Day 3. IT IS TOO EARLY TO UNLOCK AS WE WILL ALL DIE Day 4. THE GOVERNMENT HAS TO HELP BUSINESS Day 5. THE CHANCELLOR ANNOUNCES A RESCUE PACKAGE BUT IT DOESN’T GO FAR ENOUGH Day 6. £330 BILLION BUT THERE IS A CHAP IN BRADFORD CALLED JOHN WHO CAN’T ACCESS THE SCHEME Day 7. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH PPE Day 8. DOCTORS TO SUE OVER THE LACK OF PPE Day 9. EVERY PERSON IN THE COUNTRY SHOULD BE GIVEN PPE
And so it goes on. I am well aware that the media’s role is to hold ministers feet to the fire over an array of matters, but there comes a time when we should realise that the government has an horrific ‘once in a lifetime’ job to do. They should be allowed to get on with it, without all the sniping from the sidelines by uneducated and unprincipled journalists who couldn’t run a bloody whelk stall. Of course, they are going to make mistakes and, sadly, on this subject that could lead to some death, but name me a single soul in politics who would be doing a better job? Corbyn? Now there is a man who couldn’t run a whelk stall. Starmer? By the time he had finished consultation with every union leader and special interest group from Noddytown to Loonytown, we would all be dead. The Greens? Yes, that one policy party
