Introduction and initial thoughts

So, I have started this blog as much for my own benefit to get my thoughts out and as a means to be able to evaluate what is clearly an extraordinary time. The keys areas that I will focus on are ones that I find most interesting, predominately politics and current affairs. Clearly there will be a lot of cross over!

To give you some insight, I am 35 years old, living in a Worcestershire village on the Birmingham border, with my wife, who is as a write, due to give birth to our first child (a daughter). Professionally, I am one of three owners of a small business based in Worcestershire, that operates throughout Britain. We currently employ twelve staff and are environmental consultants who specialise in managing the risks in water and air systems from legionnaires disease. In a later blog I will describe the impacts of the last year on the business, and the challenges that we have faced as a result.

Whilst I would not describe myself as particularly drawn to a political party, I would generally define myself as ‘centre-left’. During the December 2019 election I voted for the Liberal Democrats — as someone who backed the remain campaign, and still believe that being a member of the European Union was more beneficial to us as a nation than the negatives that come with it, I could not vote for the Conservatives with Boris Johnson as leader but believed that Jeremy Corbyn’s potential premiership would have been even more dangerous to this country.

Regarding COVID19 in the UK, the last few weeks has seen a steep rise in cases and deaths which are threatening the ability of our health services to function safely. From a personal point of view this is particularly worrisome as my wife is expecting our first child imminently, but more widely this is very concerning and hopefully we are at the last stage of the pandemic. With regards to the recent lockdown announced on 4th January, it is clear just from walking around the village I live, that there is no where near the level of diligence being followed as there was during the lockdown in March and April last year. To my mind there are many reasons for this, of which our government must take a large share of the blame. Most importantly, the mixed messaging that we as a public have received from the authorities has clearly had a huge affect on the understanding of many people of what they are expected to do. I will not harp on about Barnard Castle, but I do not think it can be overstated how damaging Dominic Cummings’ expedition was. At a time when the country had come together in a way that I cannot remember it doing for a long time and so many people making sacrifices, Cummings’ actions undermined that and played into the long-held belief that it was one rule for one and one rule for the ruling elite.

I have read this morning of a potential tightening of restrictions further in the UK, which I find deeply concerning, especially the suggestion of reducing allowed exercise to once a week. Whilst I appreciate that there is a likely leaking of possibilities to attempt to create a greater following of the current restrictions, I cannot see how a once-a-week allowance to go outside will be anything other than hugely detrimental to the wellbeing of millions of people. In addition, as it is only one week since the last restrictions were put in place, how can we be looking at further restrictions before the impact of the existing ones can be evaluated.

On a more positive note, the vaccine rollout does seem to be progressing and clearly, we have made good headway in relation to neighbouring countries. It was good to hear that the army have been brought in to assist, their expertise in quick setups can only be to our advantage. Hopefully, my 84-year-old Nan will get her first dose shortly, mostly so she can stop asking me why it is that her neighbour has had it, but she has not! We should have a good idea in the next couple of weeks whether enough progress is being made so that the governments target of mid-February can be achieved. I would like to see teachers moved up to being the next in line — I believe there are half a million teachers in the UK, which if 2 million doses are done in a week, should imply that it is not a huge deviation to inoculate them quickly.

Whilst I believe, there have been many mistakes made by the government (I will write a separate blog on this), they have the opportunity to leave a positive mark with a successful and efficient vaccine rollout. If they get this right and are able to vaccinate at least 2 million people a week, whereby a sense of normal life can be achieved by late spring or early summer, I think the general public will mostly overlook the significant errors made so far, however, if they do make more mistakes in the coming weeks and months then they will really struggle to get back any trust with the public.

That will do for now! I will get a few more thoughts out in the coming days and weeks, which will cover;

- The government responses to COVID19 across the globe

- The US election and Trump’s refusal to concede

- The violence in Washington last week

- Impact of COVID19 on small businesses

- How Labour and particular Sir Keir Starmer have responded to the heavy 2019 election defeat

- Thoughts and predictions for 2021 and ahead

Hope you enjoyed my first blog

Stay safe

Luke