Recently reported in the media is the work done by legal experts which shows that UK Government has changed the 'rules' and 'guidance' on how to 'behave' with regard to the SARSCOV2 virus in order to avoid the COVID19 disease and 'save the economy' at least 64 times.
"Lockdown rules in England have been changed at least 64 times by the government since the start of the coronavirus pandemic..."
Here's a listing you can read to check the accuracy of this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ne4zhPYAZK8G867D1Iz0Gg2ZJFLGmF2K
Adam Wagner, of Doughty Street Chambers, whose team made this list, has been studying the regulatory response of the Johnson-Cummings-Tufton Street Tory Administration, and he has found that new national regulations, local regulations, regulations on face coverings or rules on travel quarantine have passed into law on average every four-and-a-half days since the first restrictions were introduced in the spring.
Think about that - UK, a leading 'world power' moves the goal posts, the rules, the 'guidance' for it's own population, with regard to a serious viral infection which is transmitted from person to person by aerosol and very fine moisture droplets, every four and a half days.
New Zealand, Finland, Vietnam, South Korea and a good few others reveal no such pattern, and they have achieved zero community transmission, with strategic cluster control policies that are effective, protecting both the people and their economies.
Their guidance is clear, unequivocal and their populations trusted them, and their chosen strategy - zero community transmission - worked.
Who trusts this UK Government, today?
Do you? I don't. I haven't trusted the UK Government since Chris Whitty claimed 'behavioural science' as the basis for UK Government policy back in March 2020.
"As a result, the rules have become increasingly cumbersome, with police, lawyers and ministers unable to distinguish between laws and advice. The guidance given to the public often does not reflect the law, Wagner said.
Many rules, including those demanding that people have a reasonable excuse before travelling, are effectively unenforceable." Adam Wagner's words.
We can all see truth of that.
Mr. Wagner has been analysing the laws for nine months, and he points out that every time ministers release a new set of rules, there is an element of theatre, farce and confused activity within the people before the legislation is found to be difficult to enforce.
“There was the inadvertent banning of sex between people not in the same household, which led to the creation of linked households, or support bubbles.
“There was the issue of whether scotch eggs were a substantial meal. There has been endless confusion over exercise, which I think has been totally avoidable,” he said.
The coronavirus legislation itself has grown from being a pdf of just 12 pages in the spring, to 72 pages in the autumn, to 108 pages and 50,000 words after the introduction of tier 4 restrictions" Wagner said.
Readers of my blog are familiar with my position on all of this.
I say that this situation is a case of Gross National Domestic Abuse.
We are trapped in our homes, because we care and because we are stuck with an historically lunatic, manipulative, harm causing Government whose 80 seat majority means they can dictate what ever they like to the country.
And because we all understand that we have a duty to each other to stop the spread of the virus (stopping the spread is spreading the love) we cannot protest, march etc and so we are caught between a bully administration and the risk of death among our families.
How venal and cowardly are those 'decent' Tory MPs who know this is all wrong, and yet continue to protect that elective dictatorship as their Masters preside over 100,000 and rising avoidable fatalities!
There must be at least 80 of those 'decent' Tory MPs who know what they are doing is wrong, but their desire for power trumps the people's health and safety.
I sit here in impotent fury, unable, since March 23 2020 to make a difference. What can I do?
I write songs, and I sing them. I write blogs and I post them. I try to keep myself as grounded and sane as possible, in safety, whilst millions of others are forced to take incredible risks to keep me safe. There's an ambulance on my street this morning as I write. Someone is suffering - and this odious Government is responsible for that suffering.
There are hospital staff, teachers, care-workers, bus drivers, tube drivers and builders who have died simply because Johnson's Government refused to adopt a zero community transmission strategy at any stage.
The Queen has faded in inglorious insignificance, as a moral leader of this nation. If she ever was. The English Church headed by Welby sits too close to the bankers. Starmer plays nasty games within the nearly got into government Corbyn movement. Only the SNP show any degree of genuine care.
What are we to do?
So I rewrote "Fifty Ways to Leave your Lover" as "Sixty Four Ways to Mislead the Country."
This is my first draft, as I write today, and I hope it will improve with time as I struggle with the song, and the parsing.
What I'd like to see is a 100,000 versions flooding the UK Charts ( yes a mad dream that will never materialise because I will never 'produce' in order to 'attract', that's not my style at all) in order to get the message across. Like, as if music was a public voice in the shared commons, speaking to all our true needs,
The Music Industry Fail
I am also profoundly disappointed that the UK Music Industry leading bodies, moguls, billionaires and Stars have never publicly called for a Zero Community Transmission strategy - even as live gigs and festivals were taking place in those countries that took the ZeroCovid approach, that managed so well to suppress community transmission and put in place systems to deal rapidly and kindly with clusters.
The added odium of irresponsible people like Van Morbidson and Wreck Claptout issuing a series of anti-mask, conTheory songs is unbearable to a people's songwriter. May they be publicly shamed and censured, and may their entire catalogue be handed over to fund support for low income folk across the UK. ( that's not going to happen, either. I know. I am a dreamer, not the only one...)
I know it won't happen. It's just a thought, an aspiration about the potential for justice.
I am angry and very, very saddened by all of this...
Here is the first draft.
I will be practicing it, and will probably make a video of it to go with my other songs from this period -
It will be a very dark album, when it is finished.
If I survive this Johnson Government.
My apologies to Paul Simon, for this wrecking of his song, which is a song about planning a betrayal. I think I have adapted it well, lyrically, at least for these difficult times.
I will avoid 5/4, 13/9 and 21/7....
Kindest regards
Corneilius
"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."