I suppose we should be grateful for small mercies when it comes to the BBC. Having all but given up objective news reporting when it comes to Boris Johnson’s sleaze-driven, crony-infested, corrupt government, at least they have managed to find space on their website to report the shocking news that 4.7 million people in England are waiting for operations. The story goes on to explain that these 4.7 million people are waiting for routine operations and procedures. Before you think of adding the word ‘only’ before routine operations and procedures, just remember that these include hip and knee operations, cochlear implants and vascular operations. So, not minor stuff. Pain-relieving and life-changing surgeries.
As far as I am concerned, this is a scandal. Matt Hancock can, with some legitimacy, blame COVID-19, but problems are more systemic than that. Long before the NHS was confronted with the virus, millions were waiting on treatment. And why? Because the NHS has been grossly underfunded since the Conservative government of 2010, in which some Liberal Democrats had jobs, took the axe to it. Government always knew there was the chance that something like COVID would come along but decided to do nothing to prepare for it. That’s why 4.7 million people are suffering.
That’s without even mentioning cuts to mental health treatment. I know myself just how bad things were long before the virus took hold. I had waited over a year for basic therapy after my own meltdown caused by the bullies and abusers from the British Red Cross. I am sure that people will have died as a direct result of underfunding to mental health services. Who knows what the numbers of mental health sufferers really are? But then, they – we – don’t count, do we?
That 4.7 million people are waiting for operations and procedures and countless millions are floundering with poor mental health, nothing is done because over 60 million are not suffering. I mean, many of us do care about the condition of our fellow women and men, but in Johnson’s cock-eyed vision of our brown and unpleasant land they don’t count either. Even if you do not have two feet, Johnson still expects you to stand as if you do.
People are suffering, people are in pain and people are dying. Meanwhile, on the BBC/ITV/Sky and the whole of Fleet Street there’s an old man to bury, as well as a lot of bad news. My hips and knees are okay thanks, bad luck with yours. Unlike Big Phil, you probably won’t live to 99 but with the mess our country is in, it will probably feel like it.
