When is A Lockdown Not A Lockdown?

 

Next week England comes out of its second lockdown of the year, well sort of, since most of the country, some 55million people, will instantly go into the highest two tiers of a new set of regional restrictions, only Cornwall, the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly will go into  Tier One, which represents something almost like normality.

 

My hometown of Stoke-on-Trent will be joining most of the North and the Midlands in Tier Three. Since there isn't much else to do all 23million of us will have plenty of time to consider how our situation resembles that of the physicist's cat. We will be both in lockdown and not in lockdown at one and the same time; enjoy.

 

In a statement to the House of Commons when the new tiers were unveiled on Thursday Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that ' thanks to the shared sacrifice of everyone in recent weeks'  we have been ' able to bring the virus back under control'.

 

He added that hope, in the shape of a vaccine, 'is on the horizon but we still have further to go' and 'must all dig deep'.

 

That Stoke-on-Trent has ended up in the highest tier is no surprise, despite falling consistently over the past week the infection rate is still high at 419.3 per 100,000, putting us in seventh place in the league table of virus hotspots.

 

Council leader Abi Brown wrote to Matt Hancock asking for the city to be placed in Tier Two on the strength of our having brought the number of infections down twice before. The answer, unsurprisingly, was no dice, having got their fingers burnt in their tussles with Andy Burnham last month national government isn't much minded to listen to the case made by uppity local leaders.

 

This, as NHS health chief for the city Dr Paul Edmondson Jones told the Sentinel left the city with little else to do other than 'pick ourselves up and sort things out'.

 

Anyway, the government are going to be more than a little distracted by fighting a pitched battle with their own back benchers, many of whom are up in arms at their constituencies being put in the top two tiers.

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hardly poured oil on troubled waters by blandly asserting that 'every area has the means of escape ' from the highest tiers. Not least since the criteria for getting out are far from clear.

 

You don't need to be a salty seadog to smell a storm brewing that is most likely to blow up into a hurricane. Within minutes of the announcement Graham Brady, a leading light in the Covid Recovery Group, aka the awkward squad, was telling the BBC thought the policies adopted by the government since the pandemic began 'have been too authoritarian '.

 

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker, also speaking to the BBC called on the government to  publish details of the likely impact of the new restrictions on ' society, people's livelihoods and businesses ' before MPs vote  on the issue next week.

 

The government are expected to win the vote, which takes place on Tuesday, but may need the support of the opposition to do so. Labour are likely to oblige, but at an as yet undisclosed price.

 

What we have seen unfold over the past week is a rehash of the cocktail of muddle and miscommunication that has been the signature of the Johnson government since the start of the pandemic in March.

 

If the current restrictions had been implemented earlier, we might be in a better position now. We could be in a worse one yet if the planned relaxation over Christmas goes as badly as everyone apart from Boris Johnson thinks it will.

 

Add to this the fact that the Tory back benches are filled with MPs, many from seats in the North that belonged to Labour until December last year and there is the Making a of a pretty mess brewing. One that could make the upheavals over Brexit look like a vicarage tea party.

 

It is right that when the executive interferes so drastically in people's lives as it has over the past year that parliament should defend the liberties on which our democracy is founded. Unfortunately, the government is not minded to pay attention, citing instead the demands of safety as an excuse for their actions.

 

Matters aren't helped by the absence of an effective opposition, for all his obvious intellect Labour leader Keir Starmer presents a dry and lawyerly figure. What little fire here is in his belly seems to be reserved for the endless purge of anyone suspected of supporting his predecessor.

 

Without a credible figure to lead it or an argument as to what we should be doing differently that holds water opposition to the current restrictions sounds like little more than sour grapes and self-interest. An increasingly frustrated public is left stranded on the side-lines of their own lives wondering what, if anything, will be left of their hopes and businesses.

 

The promise, such as it is, is that we just have to get through the winter and thanks to the vaccines set to come on stream things will start to get better. As Mr Johnson put it, they may not be on the horizon yet, but the cavalry is on its way.

 

Writing this article in a city where pretty much everything is closed and may stay that way until Spring it is hard to hear their hoof beats over the din of politicians squabbling.

Capitalism of the Living Dead.

 

Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy

Kerry-Anne Mendoza

(New Internationalist, 2016)

 

There are some books that are considered to.be important enough to reside in the intellectual canon of their time. From the outside this looks as sedate and any such institution. Inside though it is as rowdy as a saloon in a Wild West boom town as the scholars residing within squabble over who should be allowed in, and who should be thrown out.

 

There is a smaller as quieter anexe off to the side, this is where the books that are genuinely necessary live. The entrance is as narrow as the one that keeps the rich out of paradise.

 

First published in 2015 and then revised to include extra material by Dinyar Godrej and David Ransom Kerry-Anne Mendoza's first book would slip through as If it has been greased.

 

Beginning with the Bretton Woods agreement signed at the end of the Second World War to the  austerity policies foisted on countries by the EU and the IMF following the 2008 crash Mendoza shows how capitalism has sold we the people a pup. This has been intertwined with a plot to systematically dismantle worker’s rights and those that underpin the democratic system itself to create a corporate state. This is to the benefit of the 1% and hugely to the detriment of everyone else.

 

These are challenging ideas and ones much of the media and the commenting classes would like to dismiss as just another rant emerging from the ragged tent of the Occupy movement. This is true in the sense that Mendoza was one of its leading lights before going on to set up alternative media outlet The Canary.

 

The text itself though is diametrically opposed to the sort of spiel earnest types deliver to small audiences in rooms above pubs. It is a forensic half-dozen of the myths propping up an economic and political system that recent events have shown to be dangerously flawed.

 

There are some grumpy academics who will say that few of the ideas she expounds are original. Fair cop, so far as it goes, which isn't all that far. What Mendoza does brilliantly is lay them out in clear, jargon free, language for the audience who need to.be exposed to them most; we the voting public.

 

This matters even more since the advent of the pandemic led to governments around the world throwing the fiscal rule book out of the window. An optimist might see in this the possibility of a new age of egalitarianism and social democracy.

 

Unfortunately, this is no time for optimists, there is a better than average possibility that the death by a thousand cuts Mendoza describes being inflicted on our economy and political culture will be accelerated. An unprecedented crisis may yet prove to be an excellent opportunity for the wealthy few to balance the books.

 

Capitalism and cynicism have always walked in lockstep. Read this book to be informed about what has gone before and forwarded about what may be to come. Read it to as a call to arms for the 99% to get angry, take to the streets and turn things around.

 

Rise in Food Parcels Provided During the First Six Months of the Pandemic is Only the Tip of the Iceberg Warns Charity.

 

The Trussell Trust, the charity running most of England’s food banks saw a 47% rise in need for its services during the first six months of the pandemic.

 

Figures published by the charity show that it provided 1.2million emergency food parcels between the start of April and the end of September, 470,000 of which were for children.

 

An emergency food parcel consists of enough food to last one person for three days, during the pandemic the Trussell Trust have also been providing seven-day parcels. The figures are based on the total number of both types provided.

 

The trust warn that the figures represent the ‘tip of the iceberg’ when it comes to food poverty and do not account for people helped by the many local groups that have sprung up since the start of the pandemic.

 

Trussell Trust chief executive Emma Revie said ‘throughout 2020 communities across the country have stepped in to provide vital support for people left without money’, she praise the work of food bank volunteers, but added that it is ‘not right that any of us are forced to turn to a charity for food’.

 

MS Revie also praised the ‘incredible compassion and concern for people facing hunger’ shown by the public ‘following Marcus Rashford’s brilliant campaigning’ on the issue.

 

She also welcomed steps taken by the government to prevent people from falling into destitution, but said such support must ‘work in coordination with a national welfare system that is strong enough to act as a lifeline to anyone struggling to afford the essentials’.

 

The Trussell Trust are calling on the government to do more to help struggling people by locking in the £20 rise to Universal Credit and to suspend benefit debt reductions until a fairer payment system can be developed.

 

The charity are also asking members of the public to support their Hunger Free Future campaign by signing up at  https://www.trusselltrust.org/hunger-free-future/.

 

The pandemic, Emma Revie said, had ‘shown how the unexpected can hit us suddenly’ and have a devastating impact on the lives of individuals and families.

 

It has also shown, she went on to say, how ‘we can make huge changes to how we live and look after each other’, adding that ‘when we come together to push for change, the government responds’.

 

 

Help for Families Struggling to Put Food on the Table Due to the Pandemic.

 

Stoke-on-Trent City Council and supermarket chain The Co-Op have announced initiatives

aimed at supporting individuals as families struggling to afford food did to the pandemic.

 

The Trussell Trust, the charity running most of the UK's food banks estimates that it will give out an extra six emergency food parcels every minute this winter.

 

Research carried out by the charity in partnership with Heriot Watt University earlier this year estimates that it will give out 846,000 food parcels between October and December, a 61% increase on last year.

 

It also identified that half the people who turned to the Trussell Trust for support during the first wave of the pandemic has never done so before.

 

Families have been hardest hit by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with a YouGov poll conducted for the Food Foundation finding that two in five respondents had needed support from a food bank.

 

As economy struggles to cope with the on-going crisis the Office for Budgetary Responsibility predicts that a 13.2% rise in unemployment could see between 251,892 and 336,533 people becoming food insecure. The Trussell Trust estimate that an extra 670,000 people could be struggling to pay for food and other essentials by the end of the year.

 

This makes the initiatives announced by the council and the Co-Op even more vital.

 

Using funding provided by the department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs the city council are making £19,200 available to local organizations that provide food and essential supplies to people who are in need.

 

The Co-Op are offering grants of up to £1000 to community organizations working to tackle food poverty.

 

Funding from the city council can be used by eligible organizations to purchase food and other essential supplies, to cover storage and any extra costs associated with supporting households affected by Covid -19.

 

Organisations applying for grants from the Co-Op need to meet their funding priorities, which include providing access to affordable food for families on a limited budget and reducing food waste.

 

The deadline for applications for funding from the council is 27th November, application forms can be requested by emailing communities@stoke.gov.UK or calling 01782-233265

 

Applications to the Co-Op should be made through The Community Foundation on https://staffsfoundation.org.uk/grants/ or by calling 01785-339540

 

 

 

An Inclusive Mental Health Service Creates a Safe Space for Everyone.

 

The Centre for Mental Health has published the third briefing from its on-going commission for equality in mental health chaired by former Disability UK chief executive Liz Sayce.

 

Previous Georgia have focussed on the determinants of mental health and access to support services.

 

This has seen them highlight issues such as high levels of PTSD in the African -Caribbean community and children from the poorest 20% of UK households being four times more likely to have a serious mental health problem by the age of eleven.

 

Previous briefings have also suggested improvements to how mental health services are delivered. These include building stronger links with community groups and a greater role for peer sport groups.

 

The remit for the third briefing states that 'an inclusive mental health service creates a safe space for everyone, in which past discrimination can be redressed and support is offered'.

 

Building on the work done for other publications the briefing identifies large inequalities in services offered to people with mental health issues.

 

These relate to interconnected issues of age, gender, income, and specific ethnicity such as membership of the Roma and Traveller communities.

 

As a result, people with the most serious conditions are at risk of being offered services that are 'the least effective, the least relevant and, for some, the most coercive'.

 

The briefing recognises some of the steps that have been taken by the NHS to improve mental health services. These include implementing the Advancing Mental Health Inequalities initiative and the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework, both of which were recommended by the independent Mental Health Act review.

 

The briefing says that if 'fully implemented and adequately resourced, these two initiatives will improve people's experience of mental health care nationwide '.

 

The briefing makes recommendations for how mental health service providers can address issues of inequality, these include, valuing lived experience through co-production and adopting more culturally aware models of service delivery.

 

The commission will publish its full report on 12th November.