LETTER from Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour member
The BBC’s distinguished reporter, Clive Myrie presented a Panorama programme entitled, The Virus vs the Vaccine, in which he said that the route out of the pandemic is mass immunization and, indeed, the NHS is embarking on the largest vaccination programme in history. The aim is to vaccinate 40 million people by mid-March, whether this will be achieved, remains to be seen.
Myrie’s principal investigations was the situation at schools. Only three weeks ago, the Government sought to keep schools open through mass testing. Without warning, Johnson then announced a lockdown which included schools.
John Murphy, Chief Executive of the Oasis Community Learning Group, said that there had been a 43% increase in the number of vulnerable students. A spokesperson of the Resolution Foundation said that there will be long term consequences as a result of the widening inequalities in education and a survey suggested that 80% of teenagers have suffered at least one mental health event since the start of the pandemic.
Myrie also interviewed Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, who said that the current lockdown isn’t as stringent as the one in the Spring of last year, and that there is scope for further restrictions. However, this would mean further economic and social costs. He believes, assuming that the roll out of the vaccine goes to plan, that we will see a return to normality by the Autumn or Winter of this year.
UK is highest death rate in Europe
Johnson has been bragging about Britain being ahead of the rest of Europe in its vaccination programme, but he can’t escape the fact that Britain has a higher death rate and a worse economic outcome than other nations in the EU.
But the programme failed to mention the full impact of the pandemic. Sunak, the Chancellor, and the current darling of the Tories and Big Business, has said that 800,000 thousand jobs have already been lost. They have already announced a 5% increase in Council Tax and reductions in Universal Credit. The intention is to make working people pay for the costs of the pandemic and protect their friends in big business.
To take one example, I’m employed by Stagecoach, one of the big bus operators, as a bus driver. Because of the collapse in revenues, the state has bailed them out in the form of grants, furlough payments and the waver of pension payments. They are rather coy about the amounts they have received, but they have still sacked some staff and refused to discuss a pay rise.
They say that they are protecting the business. In truth, they are protecting profits and dividends to their principal shareholders. It is time for Labour to campaign for the renationalization of the major bus companies, so that the profits can be used to improve pay and provide a better service for passengers.
The programme is still available on BBC i-player, here.
