Foresight is possibly an even more wonderful gift than hindsight, but few use it as it requires confidence and integrity as well as luck - and it may sometimes be wrong, whereas hindsight is always right, but that's why that's so fatuous when used by folks in charge. Most of us on here (and my other friends in life) have all been ahead of the curve compared to the government since this started - it's like watching a bunch of malevolent toddlers, frankly. Saying they're hopeless is giving them too much credit though, as much of this is sheer mendacity, and in many cases, pure evil. It's been my contention since last March that the government were following a policy of herd immunity for at least the first few months, and only reluctantly since have they accepted that such a policy is insane, though they're still hanging on by their fingertips in some cases.
There's been no serious effort to restrict travel, in or out - as NewStuff pointed out, we're an island, and could have eradicated this in two months if we'd really tried. Every policy has been counter-productive at best, deliberately dangerous at worst. 'Eat Out to Help Out' was the most irresponsible policy I can imagine in a pandemic - but the public could have pointed that out and refused to participate. But no, all the retards flocked out in their millions - I know, they were in the restaurant below my flat every night for a month, packed to the gills. One night I enjoyed myself by standing outside the window staring at a huge family gathering a metre away, scrutinising them like they were chimpanzees - it was really funny and I totally ruined their evening.
So I think in many cases, you get what you deserve. The country is in a woeful state in many, many areas, and the denial in facing up to them is staggering to see, both in the government and the population. Think about property in the City of London, most currently empty, and the cash value of all that, and then go to some shitty run-down estate in any city, where many are skint, ill or insane, and try and work out how this can happen here, the smartest, funniest, least racist and most liberal democracy on the planet. If you're better-off you'll never meet these people and could forget they exist, but there's millions of them out there, and they're not a happy or healthy bunch. Take-up levels of the vaccine in those areas will be much lower, and as has been pointed out all week on the news, the BAME community too are way, way down on 'indigenous white' (as they called us on the news) members of the public - so when people start realising that a huge chunk of the population aren't (or won't get) vaccinated, they will be shunned, like lepers. Vaccine passports will then start to be counterfeited to get round that, and off we go again. There's some foresight for you - 10th February 2021, PW.
JG Ballard would be loving this if he were still alive - so much good material for another novel.
