Andrew Gray

Disgracefully and yet wholly unsurprisingly, on 3 February 2020, Boris Johnson’s henchmen prevented half of the attendant media hacks, who were already assembled inside Number Ten, from attending a briefing. Naturally, the prohibited hacks were from media outlets which didn’t regurgitate Tory spin: The Daily Mirror, Independent, The I, The Huff Post and others.

Brilliantly – and in service to their country – journalists from the BBC, ITV, Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Sun, The Financial Times and the Guardian, walked out in solidarity with their journalistic comrades.

Johnson’s dangerous tactic was of course straight from the “Fake News” Trumpian playbook. Each of those principled journalists – particularly their leader, whomever they were (because I bet there was a ringleader) – have performed a great service to this country, giving us all hope in an era of extreme partisanship. Democracies demand a free press.

Laura Kuenssberg, BBC Political Editor, was one of the journalists who walked out. To journalists worth (or not) their salt, this was some story – and they were the story. Given that when Trump did the same thing across the pond the BBC reported it, you’d expect that the BBC would lead with this newsworthy event, or at the very least report it that day. Additionally, you would think that, the ever-tweeting, Kuenessberg, with her 1.1m Twitter followers, would have tweeted from Number 10. But no, nothing.

I knew about the walkout because The Guardian reported it here – on the day it happened. I’m unaware if other news outlets ran this huge story on that day.

I complained to the BBC about their decision to omit this significant event. Here is my complaint:

Was it bias? Did they not want to rock the boat? I don’t know. Regardless of reason, by walking out, the BBC and others were upholding their journalistic vows. But by failing to report their actions, the hacks laid bare their spinelessness. Dominic Cummins now has a self-censoring semi-supine press, just where he wants them.

Here is the BBC’s reply dated 7 February 2020.

Lesson learned: go out of your way to read from a variety of news sources.

In another blog, I’ll share another victory I had against the BBC, for another example of biased reporting.

Pre-pandemic, only someone inculcated against hearing accurate news about the NHS would not know how just parlous a state is it in. Never-events are now commonplace, often leading to deaths. A & E waiting times are the highest on record. Children are left on hospital floors, yet Boris wouldn’t look at the proof. Staff morale is at its nadir. Short of 40,000 nurses and 10,000 doctors, it is little wonder that the NHS is unfit to face its greatest challenge.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

When in March 2015, after studying the Ebola outbreak, Bill Gates cogently explained why a pandemic was so likely and would be so harmful to health and to the world economy, the powers that be in the UK – the Tories – ignored it.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

When coronavirus – precisely the type of virus which Gates had foreseen – surfaced in December 2019, the Tory Government did next to nothing. Only when the best Italian hospitals, in the wealthiest region of the country, became mortuaries, did the Government click into gear.

Now into the middle of March, I will not forget receiving this letter, which was forwarded to me by Harrogate Borough Council. What is unforgiveable about this letter is the date that it was circulated. Only in mid-March did the Government deem it a good idea to purchase more ventilators – ventilators which hadn’t been designed or manufactured yet, and designed and manufactured during a pandemic. Matt Hancock tells us that “If you make them, we will buy them.”

If we are short of ventilators, and this scarcity kills people, the Tories ought to be toast.

(For context, I type this blog just minutes after Johnson and Hancock have tested positive for COVID-19.)

When the electorate cast their vote in December 2019, multiple factors influenced each decision. Chief amongst those reasons was a question of party leadership. When placing the X, most people’s decision comes boils down to this: in a time of impending doom – such as a war – who would you trust most to steer us through?

Above all else, people demand a competent – if not brilliant – leader.

Going into the election, Corbyn’s poll ratings were the worst for any leader of the opposition, ever. Only a person of extreme arrogance and/or incompetence would have led their party when they were fully au fait with the polling. It was the incompetence and intransigence of Corbyn, aided by the follow-the-leader-at-all-costs mentality of the Corbynistas, and abetted by the spineless Labour MPs who wouldn’t derail such an obvious loser, which gave Johnson his commanding majority. Brexit didn’t lose Labour the election, it was toxic Corbyn.

Though Boris must be the least moral of the Prime Ministers in my lifetime (my kids love to ask Alexa how many children the PM has – given that there are a few different answers), as much as it pains me to write it, given our parlous predicament, I’m glad that he beat Corbyn. It isn’t that Johnson is competent – he isn’t – it is that he is more competent than Corbyn. The same can be said for the Cabinet versus the Shadow Cabinet. Bizarrely, faltering Diane Abbot was front and centre of the Labour campaign, whereas Jacob Rees-Mogg was forced by Cummins to self-isolate, given his penchant to put his foot in it.

Now imagine Corbyn, in a national broadcast, asking those who despise him – including 90% of the media – to stay at home. Imagine Corbyn, flanked by McDonnel, introducing what is a Universal Basic Income and nationalising the railways. I don’t believe that most people, even if Corbyn had won the election, would have listened. The Daily Mail and Express would have taken a Trumpian – it’s just the flu – line. We would, therefore, be in a worst position.

But just imagine just how much better a situation we would be in now, particularly in terms of the funding for our beloved NHS, had we not gone through such unnecessary, cruel austerity since 2010. The mad dash to create 10,000 ventilators wouldn’t be a story. The calibre of the leader usually swings an election, but the calibre of the policies makes for a prepared, caring country.

All hail the State! All hail the State.

Those of you who claimed that the only way to recover from the International Banking Crisis of 2008 was to cut, cut and then cut some more, have now been exposed as the phoniest of phoneys – all thanks to this Tory – yes, Tory! – Government’s recent double budget. Theresa May’s Magic Money Tree has been found! And it isn’t just one, miserable tree – oh, no, no – rather it’s a whole forest of Magic Money Trees, prepared to bail us out.

Austerity, meted-out by the Tories for a decade, was a political choice, cloaked in a dishonest narrative, regurgitated by our right-wing press and lapped up by far too many of our citizens. Throughout the last decade, George Osbourne’s project to rewire the country, to penalise those who relied on the State, was proved intellectually and morally bankrupt by all key life indices, yet still too few people took the time – nor had the curiosity – to appraise themselves of the facts. In light of recent events, I dare you to argue with me that austerity wasn’t a choice.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spending bonanza – “to do whatever it takes” – to get us through the Corona Depression has killed, once and for all, the Tory lie that the principle which should guide a family’s finances (that you shouldn’t spend more than you have, with some tucked away for rainy day) is the same principle by which a country’s finances should be managed. It isn’t, and never has been. Name a family that can print money, nationalise a bank, create a bond, build HS2. Managed correctly, the State can create confidence, stimulating demand, increasing the tax-take.

Out of the ashes of World War Two came the NHS, Legal Aid and the modern welfare state, even though the world’s economy was on its knees. But what will arise from this Corona Depression? Like World War Two, this virus is no respecter of class. At rapid speed, more people realise that we are all interdependent; that we all rely upon the other. If one of us is destitute, we are collectively all worse for it.

For example (should an example be required), if someone is too impoverished to isolate then spreads the virus, we are all impacted. If someone doesn’t wash their hands, then we all suffer. If one business lays off staff, we all pay to support those unfortunate people.

For those who previously doubted it, know now that we rely on most of our public sector services, as well as our key private sector employees, such as delivery drivers and supermarket personnel. We must all do our bit. Private sector no longer trumps public sector: we need both. And now, surely, we can all accept that if we don’t adequately fund our NHS – just as people have chosen not to do this last decade – we will all catch the cold?