Diary of a Plague year (Entry 2)

Well, Day 2 is bringing a mixed bag of emotions and news.

The Prime Minister’s announcement brought no real information and, for me, has sewn more seeds of confusion.

On the one hand we as a Nation are being told that we are moving to Phase 2 of the Government plan which is “Delay” Basically “Keep calm and carry on.”

In the same breath the Prime Minister is saying that “many more will lose loved ones before their time”

So is this really that serious?

The Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that this is a critical pandemic and Parliament will debate it… On the 23^rd March so ten days’ time. If this is THAT CRITCAL then surely it should get priority?

Ireland and Scotland have banned public meetings, Ireland has also closed schools. The US has closed borders with Europe (not us for some reason… maybe Trump thinks because we left the EU we are no longer part of Europe. The World is talking about postponing the Olympics, the FIFA European finals. If you watch the media this could be up there with plague or Spanish Flu.

This country’s plan? Stay at home where possible and in your house you have to stay away from other people – if you have the ability sleep in a separate room and use another bathroom, use the kitchen separate to everyone else but it’s cool to go to a football match (Breaking, these are now banned.).

How serious is this outbreak? Apparently 1000 dead in Italy, 3000 dead in China, 10 dead in the UK, Tom Hanks isolated, Justin Trudeau isolated, Katy Perry Isolated, Nadine Dorries Isolated, staff urged to work from home, people to stay away from Doctors or hospitals – self diagnose where possible. Sounds frighteningly serious but at the same time no one seems that bothered in other ways.

Shops are selling out of things, last night Aldi in Gillingham had meat shortages and bread as well as a few other things. Since I moved out of home I’ve had to start again with a lot of things including that I no longer have access to a large source of tinned goods and pasta which we had stockpiled over the years. My flat is a bachelor/student style larder of what I will eat that week. I need to lay down supplies for a possible isolation.

I continue to muddle through. Maybe next week will bring more coherent news.

Journal of a plague year (entry 1)

Ok, so I have not written in this blog for four years apparently! I guess I've moved away from politics by quite some way.

What a time to reignite this blog eh?

I've not really been paying attention to the news over the last few months. Those of you who know me personally will know that I've been going through things in my personal life which have taken up a lot of my attention and time. I'd heard snippets of a new illness coming over from China and of quarantine but frankly that was pretty low on my list of concerns.

In my new flat I must admit that I don't have television. I have a pile of DVDs to watch but to be honest I have had no inclination. I am in the process of researching a book on pre-Dreadnoughts during World War One and so I have a literal pile of papers and books to be reading but again, I've not always got the inclination to do that either. I am more likely to be reading about World War One battleships than the news.

I work at the Imperial War Museum for the Security department... well the company that was outsourced to look after the security. As a public building and manned by civil servants there has been regular updates for Museum staff but I've been kept so busy that I have not had time to read all of them. My company has also released updates but beyond skim reading them and passing them to my staff I've not read all of them. In a way I have been blissfully ignorant of it.

Today though is the first time that I have really started to worry.

I've watched a lot of movies.

Probably too many movies.

Today I felt like I was in a zombie apocalypse movie.

These sort of movies have a certain archetype of characters including the person who saw it coming, the female victim, the loving couple and the guy who had no idea that anything was happening - suddenly I realised I was that guy.

I had noticed people wearing face masks from time to time in the streets in London but not really thought much about it.

I had heard of cases in other countries especially Italy as my manager had to cancel her journey home to see her family.

I had heard that Covid-19 was coming but so what?

Suddenly I have a moment of clarity when stood next to a man on the train reading the metro with a headline that read something like "159 dead in Italy"

I sat down at work and started reading the updated plans and statements and found myself asking;

Is this really as bad as they think it is?

The news hasn't helped with borders closing (Trump closes European travel but not the UK -

dumbass), schools closing, workers being advised to stay at home where possible. Then there is the death rate - currently 4300 (3000 in China) which is steep but not on a Bubonic plague level.

Then I caught a brief part of the Q&A on the BBC with the Deputy Chief Medical Officer who said that around 80% of the British population will contract the illness but should recover - oh and you can get it multiple times....




I'm not worried for me.

Probably famous last words but - I don't get ill. My constitution is frighteningly robust (and can be augmented with rum).

I am worried for my mother who is pushing 70 and more importantly I'm worried for my son,
George.

You may or not know but George has a rare heart condition which has left him with half a heart, some epic surgery scars and a prederiliction to contracting illnesses which will hit him hard. Should he get a cold he can be laid up for a week, the flu maybe a fortnight, Covid-19 who knows? We had been originally told that Chicken pox could kill him (thankfully it didn't) or hospitalise him (again, he was fine).





I don't know what the future holds over this. It could be another SARs, it could be another plague, I don't think anyone really knows at this stage.

I don't think this will be a Dawn of the dead sort of thing but the way people are panic buying toilet rolls and hand sanitizer you wouldn't be blamed for believing it might be.



I'm hoping to form a bit of a weekly blog/journal of what is going on for posterity and also for my own joy.... Let's see what will happen.

Defence cuts and reshaping

Lions led by Donkeys - as always

The British armed forces have always been badly treated by the Governments who sent them to war. The sailors who fought of Phillip II of Spain's armada were left in port to die from disease unpaid, the infamous redcoat of the 1770s was poorly paid in comparison to other less dangerous jobs in the motherland, battalions were sent to garrison forts in the Caribbean and decimated by yellow fever. The Boer war saw poorly trained troops massacred for financial gain and the First World War repeated the same mistakes for no gain at all.

Now occupation forces from Afghanistan are returning to redundancy and uncertainty on civy street- Thanks for all you've done guys!

Whilst I remain horrified at the human cost and the treatment of the heroes by the Ministry I can also see the motives, however cold, and insensitive they are.

Warfare is a fluidic and evolutionary creature that needs to be kept up with, something we failed to do in 1914.

Although the teachings of Guderian in Achtung Panzer and the Blitzkrieg showed that the day of the Infantry and Cavalry were well and truly over for successful offensives but it soon became evident that vast swathes of infantry still had to be used for garrisons and policing roles. Some seventy years on and we're in a similar boat. In fact things have moved backwards as aircraft design has accelerated. Modern fighter jets are too noisy and fast for photo reconnaissance and satellites too expensive to move. Moreover in a war against insurgents who hit and fade into the countryside rather than fight as a division it is hard to spot them, especially when you're travelling at 600mph and filling the area with noise sending people running for the hills. So who has to go on patrol and see what's what? The infantry.

Unmanned drones are silent, hard to spot on radar and visually, they're also slower as well as more fuel efficient. For recon purposes they are the pinnacle and they save lives. No one will be put in danger of attack and the drone can coordinate an artillery barrage, air strike or missile strike.

Once the occupation is started it is difficult to mount strikes with infantry ales time. Helicopter infantry is very dicey these days as any untrained fool can take down a helicopter with a one shot rocket launcher. Also the time needed to mobilise infantry, who aren't trained for surgical strikes, takes time. Modern warfare against plain clothed terrorist insurgents requires time and effort that is watched. If an incident happens around the world , and let's face it it is happening now in Mali, Algeria, Somalia - an armed response can be a logistical nightmare to organise and deploy.

Small teams of highly mobile elite squads is much more preferable for special operations. SAS and SBS teams can be mobilised and dropped into a combat zone within 48 hours rather than 48 days plus. They're harder to find and combat too. You can also arm and equip small teams with the best equipment for a lot less than outfitting a regiment and it's support staff with standard equip. It is thus very understandable, from an operational point of view, to why the MoD are scaling back and moving to a more fluidic form of warfare that will be more effective at combating terror and insurgents than sending our boys enmasse into a situation they're not equipped or trained to deal with properly.

If this scale back is to occur though, it is the duty of this government to thank the troops for their return and help get them jobs, homes in the same way demobbed troops were received after World War Two.

Could Starkey be right about Britishness?

David Starkey

I did it again, I saw Laurie Penny glaring out of the cover of Monday's Independent and found myself flicking to the page and reading her comment about historian and right wing enthusiast David Starkey and their spat that occurred this weekend. I gather from a source that it turned quite ugly and almost turned to blows! Obviously I don't (and am sure most people won't) condone this at all.

But what was it all about?

According to the Comment piece that appeared in Monday's Independent David Starkey apparently said;

real British values [are not] entrenched in the foothills of the Punjab.

Well... that's true despite Ms Penny's retort of Xenophobia.

I don't know if there is any more to this statement so I'm writing from what I do know was said.

Briticism is defined in Linda Colley's "Britons; The forging the nation 1707-1837", was forged by many external factors. After all "Britain" was forged by military conquest, aggressive foreign policy by England and royal marriages. In fact many would argue the "Act of Union" with Scotland was heavily forced upon the Scots and stacked well with in England's benefits.
This polyglot of nations with separate cultures were thrown together and had to face a common foe in the form of Catholic Europe and then against Napoleonic aggression.

During this tumulus time the middle mercantile class began to bloom and so capitalism flourished and the enterprising nature that encouraged greater cooperation and global ambition kicked off and combined with Military adventure led to the creation of the Empire and a state of identity for Britons.

Briticism grew from this period and adapted to an Imperial way of life but with it came a certain amount of racial superiority over the peoples of the colonies, the "cowardly" French and the "War mongering" Hun.

In post war Britain this state of identity was lost along with the Empire, greater trade and Industrialism from America and all the nations started to drift apart within the union.

As Europe grew closer together, Britain became suspicious but had no Empire to fall back on. Britain had undeniably lost its place in the world and politically, economically and socially it is still lost, it came from Britain and was moulded by events that happened to Great Britain both internal and external.

In this respect he was right.

There are those who still cling to the old deals of Britishness, some are labelled, as Ms Penny has rightly or Wrongly in this case, as Dinosaurs and in some cases bigots - often deservedly so. The old Imperial British is gone and a new Britishness needs to be forged taking in the multi-cultural society that we find our country in today.

It may seem difficult as Language, culture and religion, once a common factor amongst Britons is now varied wildly and there is a lack of understanding amongst groups. There is also the self divisive nature of some groups who form enclaves within sections of major cities or only settle within certain locales.

However we have been here before, when the Union was first formed Scotland, Ireland and Wales were very different to England and yet in time they moulded and worked together towards a common gain and interest and I am sure that they can do so again it’s just early days.

We White Caucasians need to get over ourselves though and embrace the grand project of redefinition in the same way as others need to.

So where as Britishness was not entrenched in the Punjab it should now start to absorb these new identities and influences. Be it Indian, Jamaican or Polish this ethnicities and ways of life can and should be part of the New Britishness.