To say that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey has dominated the news on Plague Island since the weekend is a massive understatement. We will not delve into this subject because everything written about the Royal Family is subjective and based on conjecture. Anything we write would be based on the same, and is why we will not fill Plague Island’s pages on the topic of the Royal couple.
To paraphrase Keir Starmer, we will not add to the confusion.
This isn’t us making a judgement as to whether the Harry and Meghan story is newsworthy or not. The point is that there are other stories which are pressing and extremely important. Whilst coverage and discussion of the couple has dominated the news, very significant issues have passed under the radar:
- There is no evidence that Test and Trace has cut Covid rates in England. It has cost £22 billion so far, and is projected to cost us £35 billion over the next year or so.
We should definitely have a refund.
2. The government have announced new curbs on our right to protest, giving the police greater powers to restrict non-violent protests.
Want to demonstrate against HS2 and environmental degradation?
Want to demonstrate against this shambles of a government?
Want to peacefully demonstrate about anything?
Well, you can’t because the police will have the power to break up any such gatherings and issue you with hefty fines, the kind that could financially break an ordinary person.
3. In fact, the organiser of a peaceful, socially-distanced protest about the 1% increase in NHS worker’s pay, got arrested and fined £10,000 in Manchester on Sunday.
‘We’ve been told we will not be able to go ahead with this, I’ll be fined and reported to my employer and disciplined and people here will be fined as well, so we will therefore be shutting it down.’ (Mirror).Yet Johnson has spent £2.6 million fitting out a new briefing room for televised daily press conferences, similar to those held at the White House. Apparently this is of the public interest.
Still, no more money for nurses.
Shame.
How warped he is.
4. Johnson wants to build a bridge or tunnel to connect Northern Ireland and Scotland. This has been proposed without consulting the devolved nations, and may cost £15-20 billion if approved. It has been called ‘a naked power grab’ by Scotland’s Transport Secretary, Michael Matheson.
Just like the other Tory vanity project, HS2, this will further knacker the environment.
And, just where does this money keep coming from? It’s like they’ve got a Magic Money Tree or something.
(Just not one for the NHS. Just claps for that).
5. Johnson refuses to correct the record regarding Labour, who voted to give nurses a 2.1% pay rise next year (in line with the 2019 Tory manifesto). The whole thing is like a pantomime and for once with Starmer as leader, Labour is on the good side.
As the saying goes, ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’. There was always the risk with this government at the helm that they would bring in restrictions tying them in with Covid. What is happening is that whilst the news is allowed to be dominated by a single issue, we seem to be sleepwalking into a police state; one in which no-one is allowed to demonstrate their dissatisfaction. Whereas the Harry and Meghan story will come and go, the consequences of these laws and actions could be with us for a very long time indeed.
~ L&A 10.3.21 ~
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-organiser-nurses-pay-protest-23623460
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-56295191
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56341013
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/boris-johnson-labour-nhs-pay-incorrect
Notes From Plague Island 