I’m off work with covid. Imagine those words 5 years ago. Imagine a friend messaging that to you back then. Covid still can be dangerous for many people- and was deadly for many more half a decade ago. It killed family and friends -and work colleagues- and the devastating footage of people dying without their families allowed near them, or buried without proper funerals played out on news programmes was awful. But the efforts of scientists working not for profit, but for humanity, and our brilliant NHS workers has seen Covid probably as dangerous as flu (don’t get me wrong, flu and covid still kill thousands of people a year!)
My current covid is miserable, razor blade sore throat, flu like symptoms and it triggered a migraine this morning. But most frustrating of all is the fact I can’t get on my bicycle and do a few miles. First World problems. I feel lucky. I’ll probably be back at work before the end of this week, and hopefully on my bike again next week.
I’m off work with covid. Imagine those words 5 years ago. Imagine a friend messaging that to you back then. Covid still can be dangerous for many people- and was deadly for many more half a decade ago. It killed family and friends -and work colleagues- and the devastating footage of people dying without their families allowed near them, or buried without proper funerals played out on news programmes was awful. But the efforts of scientists working not for profit, but for humanity, and our brilliant NHS workers has seen Covid reduced to probably being as dangerous as flu (don’t get me wrong, flu and covid still kill thousands of people a year!)
My current covid is miserable, razor blade sore throat, flu like symptoms and it triggered a migraine this morning. But most frustrating of all is the fact I can’t get on my bicycle and do a few miles. First World problems. I feel lucky. I’ll probably be back at work before the end of this week, and hopefully on my bike again next week.
In Gaza and Sudan, respiratory diseases, diarrhoea and illnesses that here, vaccinations, antibiotics and statutory sick pay keep under control are spiralling and killing thpusands of people. Children are being born and not given necessary vaccinations or sanitary conditions, which mean what we would think of as pre ww2 or victorian diseases as well as diseases of malnutrition are killing children by the thousands. The luxury of a few people saying, “I don’t believe in vaccinations,” either unaware of what herd immunity is, or just plain brainwashed by conspiracy theory is not open to people living in places where the only water available to them is contaminated by sewage and harmful chemicals. Its not open to people and babies who have no homes and are, in the run up to bitter winters, sheltered only in huge swathes of land given over as tented refugee cities.
Here Farage, Musk (by way of his awful X and grok, and massive reach on his media platforms) and the far right, those people who during WW2 our ancestors would have _and did_ shoot, are doing what they can to create fear of refugees. Fear and hatred of people who are desperate for safety and medical help for their children (and whats more, fear and hatred of British black and brown people). Farage, Musk and the far right have cheered on the present far right Government of Israel as it stepped up its ethnic cleansing of native Levant peoples. Farage, Musk and the far right will cheer on the ethnic cleansing in Sudan, if it means profits for their tech companies- Sudan is axresource rich country. Reform, the ultra-slowly (at the moment) melting iceberg that the Tories and BNP/English Defence League etc are decanting to is NOT on your side. It is not on the side of ensuring refugees are a thing of the past. It is not on the side of families and cares nothing about your health. It has welcomed the creation of millions of new deaths and refugees and to “correct” the fact that Britain under Reform will limit the number of poor refugees/low paid workers being given refuge from genocide here; they want to ensure your children are paid less when they start to work. This week Farage made a speech in which he said he’d LOWER the minimum wage for young people. Farage wants to force them into having to do more than one zero hours contract jobs, and also ensure children are unable to do without the support of their parents- forcing parents to work far beyond pensionable age.
Farage’s plan is decline. But in that, Farage’s plan is to up his profits- along with medical insurance companies profits. Farage’s plan for an American style NHS and to legally limit our rights, means that in the future, my Covid would still kill thousands (but increase Farage’s bank balance). As a teacher, I’d be forced into work, in front of 30 or more children (in my current job, I can be in contact with more than 100 children from around 80-90 Glasgow families), spreading covid, flu or any other sickness throughout Scotland and beyond (we saw how quickly Covid19 arrived from China- and we know how speedily flu flies in from Australia and other places). If I could afford treatment or vaccinations, Farage’s promotion of insurance companies and profiteering pharma corporations would enrich him.
After 14 years of Tories, the party who have impoverished Britain to the point that it is rapidly heading towards being one of the poorest nations of Europe, of course -we all want change. But another tory Party, with a new name and even worse tory policies will literally kill people.
For me living in Scotland, Scottish Independence seems like OUR only option. If that isn’t on the horizon, I really hope that people stop falling for the (*alien to me!*) charms of the fascist Farage.
At present, many, many zero hours/gig economy workers in this country have not got the rights and luxury of sick pay etc many of us have. Rather than voting to level us all down, I really hope people think very carefully about choosing someone to vote for who is fighting to level us all up- which will in turn, keep us safe. An aside – the potato famine -An Gorta Mór (“The Great Hunger”) became more than hunger and starvation of the poor and subsistence farmers. The starving and dying contracted diseases that were then passed on to *and killed* many in the middle and upper, land owning classes. What goes on in Sudan and the Levant will spread here. And if the poor (and the young and old) here are worked to death, with rights of medical care and rights in the workplace stripped away, the result will be that the only social mobile entity in the UK will be poverty, disease and death.
Be careful of the lies that our NHS isn’t working. It is cash strapped and in turn, worker deprived -but it is the most efficient health service in the world- and American tax payers spend MORE on their awful indebting health service. You go in to the NHS ill, but you don’t come out having to sell your house. Our NHS, in the face of what the tories did, is a miracle. NHS workers perform miracles working long, hard shifts.
Reform seem to be the end game for Thatcherism+ the far right. Thatcherism has taken away rights we once had that if you were to tell younger people they wouldn’t believe you! Thatcherism, neoliberalism and unfettered capitalism Exploiting and encouraging wars in ex colonies – is literally creating slaves of your children. It is literally killing by the tens of thousands, children in the Levant and Sudan and Trump et al want to spread that to Uganda, Nigeria, Venezuela (all resource rich places he wants to destabilize) and beyond. Musk wants to do the same here in the UK, poking us with a stick telling and convincing phone addicted idiots that we are at the stage of civil war.
Think hard before you are taken in by the lies that are created to make us hate the poor, the refugee, black, brown and LGBT+ people. These lies are created to have you voting for your own impoverishment. These lies are designed on the same rooms where sectarianism and racism were designed in order to justify division -and horror. Don’t vote for horror.
