While The British Doze......zzzzz.......

While The British Doze…..zzzz….

The government lies. Seemingly compulsively. Boris Johnson lied when he said he has made parking free for everyone at hospitals. Actually that is not even nearly everyone. Only some hospital staff, parents staying the night with chikldren in hospital aand handicapped blue-badge holders can park for free. Boris johnson lied when he said that he went to Kettering hospital and met corona virus patients;Kettering hospital has confirmed it has none. Minister Matt Hancock lied when he said the government was working closely with supermarkets to ensure supplies in case of a corona virus epidemic; the supermarkets deny any knowledge of this. So what’s the problem (other than the government’s compulsive lying)?

The underlying problem is that none of these lies are challenged in most of the press, the right--wing press. So the government can tell as many lies as it likes, confident that they won’t be challenged in the press that most of the nation reads. So the British doze…….They have already bought the biggest lie of all, Brexit, so maybe they have become immune to lies and can’t see them.

Is this healthy and, if not, what will it take for the British to wake up? The recent floods might have provided a wake-up call but seem only to have aroused some mumblings at Johnson not going to witness them. The spread of the corona virus could provide another or, as Rees-Mogg’s father has suggested, simply provide another business opportunity to be exploited. On the evidence of the government thus far, lies will simply be used to explain away any inconvenience. The cost of Brexit thus far, some £4.4 billion in readies and £1000 billion in outfliow of investment according to the FT, doesn’t seem to have done the job either. So wh at will it take?

The British are said to be a stoic forbearing lot, slow to stir, and so it seems. But thay are also said to be fierce when provoked. I can only hope that as Brexit unfolds the necessary provocation will occur and the British will wake from their slumber.