
Originally Posted by
KerrAvon
I think this is where I differ from certain other posters; you see smoking guns, whereas I see newspaper chatter that is largely based upon the notion that there were and are easy solutions to the pandemic. Newspaper companies want to sell newspapers; wanting to inform may be secondary to that.
Take for example, PPE. I have pointed out earlier in this thread the massive task that our government and every other government in the world has faced to acquire it in quantity given the sudden massive demand. The Guardian article that you linked to yesterday illustrated the difficulties they have faced where, on the face of it, suppliers are putting sub-standard products into the market to take advantage of the situation. Despite that, the media approach the issue upon the basis that it can be solved with the click of a finger and the nod of a ministerial head. Poor government comms haven’t helped however.
I hope that we will have a Public Inquiry –informed by science- at the end of this in order to establish exactly what did happen, but, with respect, your post exemplifies an issue with such a venture, which is that some people have already decided what the outcome should be. In other words, if an inquiry concludes that the government made some mistakes, but largely did its best based upon the information and science available, there will be large swathes of their political opponents who will simply not accept it and who will, instead, insist that ‘the establishment’ and ‘money’ has distorted ‘the truth’.
In the event of the government being ‘acquitted’, I can pretty much guarantee that the media and Labour Party will wheel out people who have lost loved ones to Covid19 to make (understandably) emotional attacks upon that finding.
And the other issue with an Inquiry will be whether it has any sacred cows. If we are interested in the truth then there can be no stones unturned, including any that might be unpalatable. What do you suppose the response will be (from the Left in particular) if, for example, an investigation were to point to fault with the concept of the NHS or which suggested that some ethnic minority communities might have contributed to the high death rates within them for behavioural reasons? I would stress that I am not suggesting that either would prove to be the case (said Kerr from the middle of the minefield), but an inquiry needs to look at every possible issue, not just those that would afford ammunition to those who want to find fault with the government.