#10 - Victories in Europe (part II)

Chris Heron · #10 - Victories in Europe (Part II).1

A Pillar To Post

Last time oot, in Victories in Europe (part I) I RoaMed in a different direction to usual - banishing at least some of the fun and informality, in favour of some facts and figures. An absolute necessity I felt. That's right, approximately a fortnight ago I sat on this friggin' aaful chair in the spare room, bashin' away at the keys aboot a day which, admittedly, I didn't kna aal that much aboot mesel.

Am probably like most folk, a kna the gist of what happened in the war, a kna on this occasion we were the good guys and a kna on this occasion wu won. However, what I didn't realise, is just how overly simplistic my knowledge of the war had become.

Thankfully, I took that opportunity to re-educate, remember and reflect.

Whilst it was great to see that good, old-fashioned, British community spirit in full flow around the streets of Killingworth - it did make me wonder just how much of it was an excuse for a piss-up, an opportunity to take a holiday from the supposedly, laborious lock down, and how much was about what it actually meant. I think I covered my feelings on VE day sufficiently last time out though.

Admittedly, the title for that article (and this) was with the intention of providing a follow up a lot sooner. Perhaps when the similarities and contrasts had a marginally more significant relevance, but here we are, and so I will proceed...

In the days, weeks and months that led to that Friday bank holiday,  COVID-19 struck. An inconvenience to most, a hurdle to overcome for many and a war for those essential workers. Which therefore meant that the anniversary of VE day came at a very poignant time.

I have subsequently taken the decision to draw similarities and differences from that time. It came after political discussions with some of me best pals in the "Digestive Disciples" group on WhatsApp. Yi kna who yi are. The group name is appropriately random. It's testament to the varied nature of our discussions and the openness within the group. A group of real variety, with people of varying sexual orientation, religious direction and varied backgrounds, but beautifully bound by the fact no-one is an ignorant bell end.

So why's this relevant?

It's relevant 'cause amidst the simplicity in our conversations and the political incorrectness that occasionally follows, there is a complexity that we all strive to understand...life. We do so by having two eyes, two ears and one gob (cheers for ingraining that phrase Dad 😉).

We don't sit and tell each other what we should believe, we simply share our thoughts, perceptions and feelings and debate them until reason is the dominant feature. Of course this is easier when one dynamic is somewhat fixed - age. That's not to say the same cannot be experienced across multiple age groups though, as I recently discovered on yet another one of those social networking gatherings last Tuesday.

I digress - but the point being, where has the reason disappeared to in our "great" British society? It seems to me you're either Black or your White. Why not both? We aal kna that's best 💪

For example, I see the relentless ramblings of Piers Morgan (don't worry he's just an arse hole not a madman 😏), and whilst I feel he has recently been vindicated in a lot of what he has said, the provocative peppering of politicians becomes tedious and actually unprofessional. Yet, he rightly calls out the current government and asks questions we all want to know the answers to. Even arse holes have their uses.

And whilst we're discussing things that release a lot of shit. What about the mainstream media as a whole in this country?! The level of bias has become pathetic. Some things are undefendable man.

How fitting that this also leads me nicely to Boris Johnson - something else that talks shite. For additional context and to drop your mind firmly in the gutter, Johnson is the equivalent of the curry-lager-combo -shit. Little substance, painful to experience and at the end of it you're left wondering why you bothered in the first place. Is the bloke Belgian? He loves to waffle.

The irony (I know).

So rambling and ranting aside, here we are fighting a world war. Nothing near the scale of that in '45, but a war nonetheless, and wars are won across a number of platforms.

1) Strategy:

Obvious, I know. Less obvious - what is ours? I'm not sure it's ever been properly explained or implemented. Maybe, cause our government is too "chicken" to be held accountable... (get it 👉...)

This is similar to WW2, when we achieved Victory in Europe. Why? Because decisions weren't taken quickly enough to implement a strong enough strategy, just as they weren't then. Also similarly, (and naturally), strategy evolved and developed with the understanding of the enemy. Once the correct strategy was in place we defeated Nazism, just as we will defeat the virus.

Let's be fair, at the start of the pandemic no one really had a full grasp of its effects and its potential to disrupt so much of society as we know it.

For that I am in agreement with some of those near and dear to me who have made the point that Boris Johnson can only work off the advice made available to him by the experts. This would largely have been the same irrespective of which government, or indeed leader was in charge.

On the other hand, it would appear that the inaction that occurred at the start of the pandemic appears to have had a negative affect on our ability to contain and overcome the virus. This can be somewhat evidenced by the fact that the United Kingdom is the second highest nation for COVID-19 related deaths:

Image courtesy of the Financial Times

Based on my wider (perceived) understanding of how countries operate. This graph suggests a few of things to me.

Firstly, the two nations whom have been worst hit are those with some of the most financial clout. With both the United States and the United Kingdom taking the unwanted top two spots. This would appear somewhat irrational. Surely those with the most money available should have the best education, healthcare, etc., etc.?! However, the downturn in various industries also means that a halt to work would potentially impact these two nations the most. Hence some calls of "conspiracy" that this is an attack attempting to balance the financial playing field. Maybe though, this was the reason for the inaction in these two nations? To protect the economy.

Meanwhile, Germany does what it is best at. Decisive, robust, efficient and organised. It addresses the issues and contains the virus early, thus allowing them to hit the plateau point sooner than others.

In Italy and Spain, they acted sooner than we did here in Britain. An example we should have followed. Yet, their freedoms are too treasured (as they are here) and instead of listening to advice,  it's inhabitants continue to travel and get on with their normal lives. The virus spreads but is contained sooner.

Finally, China, where they have less freedoms but more control. The virus allegedly began in Wuhan and so they have had the longest time to address the issues, but have also implemented and followed preventative measures more strictly. Naturally, they have contained the virus sooner, or so it would seem.

All in all, it seems to me that the only real strategy that has been followed in the US and UK is to hang the very people that voted you in, out to dry. The lock down came into play late and at medium heat, it's now been loosened down to mild and in the coming fortnight, as a need for the economy to heal becomes increasingly apparent, we will drop back down to extra mild.

Do these leaders care about our lives or rather our lifestyle?

It'd seem money is king.

That's exactly why there's been a lack of...

2) Direction

So we had the lock-down implemented. It started relatively clearly, I suppose. Keep 2 metres away from others. Exercise once a day for up to an hour. Stay within a radius of your home. Don't venture out unnecessarily. Work from home if you can. Only "key" workers are to continue under "normal" circumstances. We had a degree of direction but nothing abundantly clear.

Conversely, in WW2 we had an absolutely clear direction. Stop Nazi Germany and defend your country at all costs.

Now we have "stay alert".

What the friggin' hell was that message aal aboot?

You should but you shouldn't. You can but you cannot. You will but you wont.

A message designed to create confusion. A display designed to disengage. It was like watching Vicky Pollard off Little Britain.

"Designed"? You may be asking yourself. Aye. Cause if business and the general public have to make their own decision on whether or not they return to normality, and more specifically work, then all responsibility and accountability for ill health and potential death is taken from the hands of the government and squarely placed upon that of your average Joe / Joanne / 0 (😕).

That also develops a pressure for those on the bottom rung and / or breadline who simply have to do as their told by employers - forcing them them back into work, and so the cogs of the economy begin to turn once again.

Is this our direction? I mean Trump seems fairly open about it, in fairness to him. We just seem be whimpering along like some bullied little brother. Which brings me to...

3) Leadership

And a massive difference here.

Winston Churchill wasn't always right. Boris Johnson isn't either. Yet, there is an absolute difference in leadership.

One has the ability to engage absolutely everyone in a room, and fill them with emotions of passion. He'll have your blood boiled and you on the edge of your seat, desperate to shout in a spontaneous combustion of love or hate and the other, well the other empties rooms.

Clarity and direction provided with passion and charisma. Absolute assertion and a rigidity that developed belief. Whatever Churchill said would inspire or enrage, but you knew where you stood, and so did he.

With Johnson it seems like a broken (single) record. It jumps, it skips, it doesn't play correctly. It often repeats itself, and then when it does, it seems to skip and jump even more. It never gets to the 2nd track, or the B-side for you auld codgers. "Let's get Brexit done" will prove to be his only #1 hit.

Then you have to consider the degree of accountability and responsibility being taken. A leader who's rarely at the forefront answering the tough questions which he should be well versed and drilled on.

Thank Christ we haven't reached WW3 (yet!) with him in charge. Mind - the same could be said for Corbyn, just for balance.

4) Resources

Inevitably resource is key to any battle. Those with the biggest army, the best guns, the best hospitals and the biggest factories tend to win - but not always! By such a definition, you'd expect Britain (amongst others) to have some of the least deaths in this latest battle, but that's not the case.

PPE was the stick used to beat Boris with in the early weeks of the pandemic. Something which appears to have subsided somewhat in line with the virus itself. Thankfully.

Yet, this is where I must bring some balance to my Boris bashing. Can we really blame him for the lack of PPE?

Admittedly, this isn't my area of expertise by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd have thought that there's a strong likelihood that a lot of PPE is probably produced in the far East. Where the virus outbreak had already reached peak long before it did here. Therefore, not only were these people requiring the equipment, they were producing it. It's a double-whammy of decreasing supply vs increasing demand.

Now you can blame past governments, (on both sides).

(...had there whilst a put a daft quid on the Bundesliga and finish me apple😅)

Chris Heron · #10 - Victories in Europe (Part II).2

Reet..so...the reason why, is that industry over the last 75 years has slowly disappeared from our shores. Costed out of the market and incapable of supplying our own demand. Why isn't PPE produced here? If it is then fair dues - maybe the demand was just too much? But surely, we should be able to manufacture our minimum requirements by having factories re-organised, retrained and geared up to cope in such times of need? In which case, should business owners not be stepping forward?

You can argue that a multitude of ways - for example labours desire to improve upon the minimum wage or tax bigger business in a more heavy-handed fashion. Or the Tories for finding unsuitable replacements for areas hit with unemployment as a result of their closing down of our industries. Subjects probably for another day.

If not then it boils down to my penultimate point...

5) Preparation:

Above all else, being prepared reduces the effect of the enemy, should it ever plan to attack. This is where we can draw a similarity from the second world war. Much of Europe wasn't prepared for Adolf Hitler and hadn't planned to defend against such an unknown enemy, just as few countries have been sufficiently prepared for the Corona Virus.

We must do all we can to live, first and foremost, but then learn from the action (and inaction) taken this time around - but try telling that to thousands of families who've lost loved ones at the hands of COVID-19.

As a labour voter and a 'remainer' from recent elections. The only solace I can take from the outcome of those elections is that with more control over our industry and our economy hopefully next time we have a global pandemic we can be better prepared than this time, through the introduction of more UK based textile factories for PPE and manufacturing as a whole.

For that, it will take a lot of people to swallow their pride and accept defeat. It will take for us all as a nation to finally act like adults instead of children, and find compromise. Only then will we ultimately achieve our end goals. For democracy to work, we must find a unity in our desire to ensure Britain remains great and Brexit doesn't mark the exit of our...

6) Unity

Somewhere where we differ from 1945 and sadly more so than the other areas mentioned.

Unfortunately, (and again with some degree of hypocrisy), social media and tosspots writing blogs, filling the interweb with opinions that are unfounded and occasionally uneducated is contributing to a world of polarisation. For there is no longer a requirement to read, understand and interpret other points of view. Simply don't like the one you don't agree with. Confine it to the depths of your ignorance and block them. How sad, yet how understandable. We cannot be reading shit that enrages us aal the time can wu?!

In addition to that, it's also understandable that our biases occasionally cloud our judgement. It will no doubt be apparent throughout this edition of The RoaM, but what we must do is learn to compromise and reason.

Whilst Piers Morgan might ask a lot of questions, he doesn't get lots of answers. That's partially because there's a lack of belief in what the interviewees are answering with, but is largely because his nature and line of questioning isn't to get answers, but rather to make people look stupid. It is occasionally gained too, but to what gain? Is that going to change that persons view?! Being shouted at via TV...

Likewise, the BBC in recent weeks had labour activists interviewed who were critical of how the government has handled the virus. Yet, despite their supposed impartiality, didn't provide the conservative response. How is that remaining impartial?!

I sympathise with both these instances, naturally, because I agree with a lot of what's being said, but that doesn't make their actions right. Similarly, almost every national newspaper continues to defend Boris Johnson and Tory government - again...money talks.

As mentioned, I'm a labour voter and a remainer. There's some that will read this article and say "bloody hell mate, what you going on about it's not Johnson's fault about the PPE?!" That's perfectly fine, teach me why. There'll be others saying "Well Corbyn wouldn't have done any better", okay - why? Does a shitter leader excuse the current one for also being shit?

Just because you voted for Johnson doesn't make this personal when I slate him. People vote for policy, for people, for beliefs, traditions, all sorts. you may have voted conservative because like me you don't think people should get money for doing shite all. So you're allowed to be angry with Johnson too. I say this as a labour voter and remainer who is pissed off with how the left has acted and subsequently lost.

There's several great ironies in the UK at present, of which, just one of them is the fact that we expect youngsters (who cannot vote) to act more like adults, and so we attempt to teach them to compromise and reason, and yet we - the adults cannot compromise for shit.

Yet despite all of the above, the greatest way to win a war is stop it before it starts. So before you take to Facebook or Twitter to tell the world "Fuck China" for the virus, first think what put them in a position to (allegedly) eat what was eaten in the first place. Consider that they may have fuck all money, fuck all opportunity and fuck all to live. Consider that they made a mistake. Consider the complete imbalance of wealth across the planet, across multiple countries and even on our own doorsteps.

Most things (granted not all) have reasons for happening. Maybe we should consider and control the causes before we feel the wrath of the effects.

So before there's a third world war and a need for military victory elsewhere - fuck bigotry, fuck greed and fuck Trump.

Finally...

For those of you who don't explore social media much, often or even at all. I'd like to point you in the direction of two videos from a gentleman named Hassan Akkad (sorry - I couldn't work the embed function please follow the links):

Hassan Akkad 1


Hassan Akkad 2


Whilst the reasoning for the first should have been unnecessary, both videos were nonetheless a perfect display of some of the best of British. The NHS for one, but in this instance freedom of speech, democracy and in the end equality - virtues which we helped protect in Europe, our greatest victory.

Ciao for now... 😉







P.S. Sarmon you're awesome!
You finally learned to read. x