COVID-19 disaster in Britain

This 30 April 2020 video from Britain says about itself:

Shocking: UK on Course for 50,000 to 100,000 Coronavirus Deaths | Prof John Ashton

“We’ve now had more people die from Covid-19 than were killed in the Blitz”

00:00 50,000 to 100,000 00:52 Shocking Guardian story 03:51 Government interfering with the judicial process? 05:21 Re-writing history 06:18 Dominic Cummings & SAGE 08:50 Elderly patients discharged from NHS Hospitals caused outbreaks in Care Homes 10:29 Everyday, something new 12:23 Government to extend lockdown to June? 13:00 100,000 tests a day? 13:36 We need to learn from other countries

Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:

Poor people in England in particular die from coronavirus

In deprived neighbourhoods in England, twice as many people die from the coronavirus as in wealthy neighbourhoods, according to figures from the British Central Bureau of Statistics. In poorer neighborhoods (March 1 to April 17), 55.1 people per 100,000 inhabitants died, while that figure in wealthy neighbourhoods was 25.3.

London is the hardest hit place in the country. There, 85.7 people per 100,000 inhabitants died.

By Bethany Rielly in Britain, 1 May 2020:

Foodbank use skyrockets amid global pandemic

Trussell Trust reports 81% increase in emergency parcels

STAGGERING numbers of people are being forced into food poverty with charities reporting hikes in foodbank use of up to 80 per cent since the Covid-19 outbreak.

The skyrocketing need sparked by the pandemic and lockdown has prompted a coalition of charities to call for emergency measures to prevent people “being swept into destitution.”

One of the charities, the Trussell Trust, said today that in the last two weeks of March its foodbanks had given out 81 per cent more emergency food parcels than the same period the previous year.

Johnson pledges to “restart the economy” as pandemic rages in UK. By Robert Stevens, 1 May 2020. The continuing loss of life barely registered with a national media obsessed with reporting which chain store is opening its doors, when the lockdown “exit strategy” might be announced, and the prime minister’s new baby.

From the World Socialist Web Site, 1 May 2020:

UK protest in south London over non-essential work

A protest was organised by the Lambeth coronavirus action group on April 18 against plans by the Labour-controlled council to demolish one of its properties, Olive Morris House in Brixton, so a newbuild project can go ahead. The protesters highlighted the non-essential nature of the work in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.