COVID-19 pandemic in Boris Johnson’s Britain

This 29 May 2020 video from Britain says about itself:

“It’s the economy, stupid” with Professor Paul Rogers

Paul Rogers is Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University. We discussed with him how UK security services face awkward questions when the pandemic is over and austerity in the age of COVID-19. Is it a Match Made in Hell?

With CND general secretary Kate Hudson, and Ian Chamberlain, CND’s press and communications officer.

TORY PM Johnson during the daily Downing Street press briefing yesterday, repeatedly blocked journalists from asking his scientific and medical advisors about the ongoing scandal surrounding chief advisor Dominic Cummings, whom Johnson refuses to sack. Cummings travelled 260 miles to see his parents, breaking the lockdown rules, leading to an ever-expanding chorus of MPs, including from his own party, calling for him to quit. Durham police confirmed yesterday that he had broken the law: here.

By Ceren Sagir in Britain, 28 May 2020:

Schools are not safe to reopen on Monday, scientists warn as government refuses to backtrack

A report by the Independent Sage committee finds the government’s own model for reopening schools shows infection rate could increase

SCHOOL reopenings on Monday will not be safe, a group of Britain’s top scientists warned today as the government refused to backtrack from its decision.

A report by the Independent Sage committee, finalised over the last week, has found that the government’s own modelling of reopening schools shows that the R value — the infection’s ability to spread — rising above critical level of one.

The most recent estimates for Britain place the R value between 0.7 and one, and all the scenarios modelled by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) risk pushing R beyond that threshold, the report says.

By Solomon Hughes in Britain, 29 May 2020:

Millions have gone to work throughout lockdown – but are they being protected?

SOLOMON HUGHES says the government data is deficient but there are indications that many open workplaces are unsafe

WITH Boris Johnson’s switch from “Stay at Home” to “actively encouraging” returns to work, arguments grow about who goes back and under what conditions.

But millions of workers have actually worked through the lockdown – and not just those who are seen as “key workers”.

The statistics we have about what is happening during the lockdown are not fully nailed on, but the available figures indicate around nine million workers continued travelling to work.

Tories lay groundwork for police-military dictatorship to force a return to work: here.

UK: Weston General Hospital shuts due to coronavirus outbreak among staff. By Robert Stevens and Ben Trent, 29 May 2020. The outbreak reveals the enormous dangers to the health and lives of National Health Service workers.

UK: Johnson government forced to retreat over attacks on migrant NHS workers. By Tony Robson, 29 May 2020. The government had insisted that only doctors, nurses, and paramedics would be made exempt from the NHS surcharge and that only their families qualified for indefinite leave to remain (permanent residence) in the event of their death.