Well, that was a fascinating week of ups and downs. We are now firmly locked into the Coronavirus crisis and everyone from amateurs, to experts, must sit back and watch where we are heading. By week three of the lockdown, the answers will be there. Whether they are the answer we need or want, remains to be seen.

What I do know is that because a government is struggling under the weight of it all, it doesn’t mean that blind support should overwhelm criticism of some of its failings. We are not a totalitarian state yet, are we? Whilst there should be nonpartisan backing of sound decision making, finding and exposing government flaws does not make an individual or a journalist a traitor.

Wishy Washy Decisions

I can’t comment in detail about some of the situations my clients have had to endure this week. However, I will say that when the lockdown was announced, the construction industry (London in particular) was left floundering in no mans land. This was due to wishy washy decision making that was either utterly inept, or corrupt.

One London based client of mine faced a scenario where if he didn’t send staff to a project in Ealing, his client was going to smash him with project delay penalties. By coincidence his daughter is a nurse in a London ICU unit. Imagine him telling his daughter that work must come first? He couldn’t do it, and now awaits the fall out.

It could have all been avoided if the government had simply shut down all non-essential construction sites. Construction is a big cog in the London finance sector and the finance sector is closely tied to our government. I’ll let you do the maths.

The NHS

The other thing that struck me this week was the universal support of the NHS. It is a time like this that everyone pulls together, united in their support of people seemingly building a dam out of matchsticks as the tsunami approaches.

I sincerely hope this makes people study the birth and the history of the NHS more. Whilst clapping and banging pots is all very nice and I assume, appreciated, it doesn’t fund a beleaguered and cash starved public service. Preparing the NHS for this type of event, is impossible. To do so would be like blowing public funds on a thousand gritting lorries for a once in a lifetime blizzard.

However, if it hadn’t been starved of the magic money tree that has suddenly come to life, it would have strategies in place and would be far more robust. Surely a better scenario than becoming the medical equivalent of the debacle at Dunkirk. An event that, for reasons beyond me, is seen as a great victory, rather than one of the luckiest escapes in 20^th century conflict.

We can’t go on looking for lucky escapes as if they are a virtue. Luck runs out and unlike in the world of military, viruses don’t tend to change tactics and focus on events elsewhere. Coronavirus hasn’t arrived in Britain with one eye on how it can overcome Russia.

The best thing the public can do for the NHS, if they love it so much, is do more research into how it is funded and who wants to sell it off to the highest bidder. They can follow that up by voting for a political party that will protect and fund equal healthcare that is free at the point of delivery. Every person who has had children delivered in an NHS hospital should do this research.

Then they can rattle their pots and applaud loudly, safe in the knowledge they are not self-isolating themselves from hypocrisy.