A roadmap of potholes

Impressed, I am not

When I was asked if I was looking forward to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s roadmap on the eve of its announcement, I did not hesitate with saying I had no expectations and that meant I would neither be disappointed nor frustrated.

When the announcement eventually came, what I saw was the fact that what we are going through that might eventually ease completely by June the 21^st could have been dealt with more conclusively this time last year, but for the hubris and arrogance of the UK Government who were ready to sacrifice lives for the economy and have now sacrificed both lives and the economy in the end. [BBC News: Lockdown: Boris Johnson unveils plan to end England restrictions by 21 June]

The numbers matter

At 120,757 deaths, many quite needless, this remains the biggest failure in the handling of the pandemic. One must however commend the vaccination effort as 17,723,840 (26.01%) have received their first dose, but only 624,325 (0.9165%) people are fully inoculated having received their second dose of the vaccine. The percentages based on the projected population of the UK being 68,116,498 today. [GOV.UK: Vaccinations in the UK] [Worldometer: UK Population Live] [FT.com: Covid-19 vaccine tracker]

We are nowhere near out of the woods, there is a whole long way to go before we can have the freedoms to do as we like and live as we desire away from restrictions. Boris Johnson could not help himself without finding some bombastic bluster to fulminate over us, it called his roadmap, the ‘One-way road to freedom’, all I could say was you are sure to bungle it. Without doubt, I have no trust in the competence, candour, integrity, or truthfulness of this government.

Blog - Opinion: Of our PM, cometh the hour, cometh no man

A leader with a heart

Over in America, we read a different story, with now over 500,000 COVID-19-related deaths, it called for a time of reflection just as the day before his inauguration President Joe Biden commemorated the loss of 400,000 lives. In leadership, in times like this, we need people who can carry the feelings and the sentiments in such as way as to lead us towards a future of hope.

This is what the president had to say, “As a nation, we can't accept such a cruel fate. We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow.” That is something I find missing at home. Compassion and empathy are attributes and virtues that are absent from the heart of persons that people the government of the UK, not to think of considering any sense of humility.

I long for a time to be with my lover at the time of my choosing with the freedom to travel at will to fulfil the pursuit of happiness and the joy of living. Hope reigns supreme, we would see this through, with or without the help of those who think they have a handle on this thing.