By Andrew Gwynne MP
ON January 2, Boris Johnson tweeted “this is going to be a fantastic year for Britain” along with a picture of himself with his two thumbs up. Like so many of his other promises, the Prime Minister has failed to deliver on this.
Now, of course, as much as I criticise Johnson when he gets things wrong (which is fairly frequently) I’m obviously not blaming him for not foreseeing the scale of the coronavirus crisis back at the start of January. However, the actions (and inaction) of his Government have unfortunately all too often made things worse than they had to be.
Initial delays to the first lockdown meant more lives lost and a longer, more economically destructive lockdown – a mistake that the Government managed to repeat yet again when the second wave came.
We have seen corruption on an incredible scale as millions in taxpayers’ money has been funnelled into the pockets of the friends and close relatives of Tory MPs, sometimes without delivering anything. We have seen the Government spectacularly fail to put a functioning Test and Trace system in place, allowing the virus to spread and spread. We’ve seen whole sectors and millions of workers and self-employed people abandoned without the financial support needed to protect their livelihoods. We have seen the Prime Minister’s closest advisor breaking the rules with complete impunity. The list goes on.
Sadly, this incompetence and cronyism has led us to a situation where both our death rates and the damage to our economy is among the worst in the world. Dealing with this pandemic was never going to be easy, but it really didn’t need to come to this.
However, recent weeks have brought the fantastic news of three different working vaccines, which are the keys to taking us back to normality in the new year. While the difficulties of this period will not end once the virus is defeated, there is a lot to look forward to in 2021 as restrictions are lifted and the threat of Covid recedes. We will get back the freedom that we have all had to sacrifice for public health. Once again, we will be able to meet up with family and friends, go to whichever hospitality, retail or entertainment venues we fancy.
I won’t be as much as a hostage to fortune as the Prime Minister and say that 2021 will be a ‘fantastic year for Britain’, but I am very hopeful that it will be a good one and certainly an improvement on 2020.
I always say the job is a lot easier to do if you don’t have to do it.
Thank God J Corbin wasn’t running the country.
Another hindsight wonder – no one wants the poison chalices that 2020 has brought to the fore and if they say they do, they are lying. None of the local MPs have brought much to the game over the last twelve months, in fact they have been noticeable by there absences on more than one occasion.
All the parties should have come together from the start of this pandemic. Put all differences aside and do what’s best for the country as a whole.
Some of the people have failed their country but they are too selfish to realise it. And not just the politicians.
Happy Christmas .