I don’t know which is the more depressing: listening to Boris Johnson or listening to Donald Trump.
The idiots are leading their countries, not so much down the garden path, but along the road to the crematorium.
Neither of these narcissistic ego-maniacs seems to be even vaguely in touch with reality when it comes to the Coronavirus.
Late in the day and without any guidance from its Prime Minister, Britain has begun to cancel large sports events though astonishingly, irresponsibly and probably fatally, it allowed Cheltenham to go ahead.
Boris, it seems, is listening to a scientist who thinks it would be a good thing if 40 million Britons contracted the Coronavirus because it may create “herd immunity” and prevent a return of the disease next year. If it was the plot in a science fiction novel, you’d say it was ridiculous.
And then Trump comes out on the White House lawn, not just to waffle and talk utter nonsense, but to give a platform to drug companies and other commercial interests, to plug their products.
I heard Professor John Crown on the radio today.
The mention of the word “Cheltenham” stirred him. I have never heard him as angry. He seemed, almost, to lose his temper over that race meeting going ahead. If he did, he was right.
But I can only imagine of the level of his ire watching the performances of Trump and Johnson, men whose similar life stories are filled with unreliability, disloyalty, lies, cheating and – though it might not look like it occasionally – failure.
Yes, I know there are those who think we could do better.
But it seems to me that we are doing what the experts tell us to do.
I have heard that our experts have made it clear, that if the government doesn’t do what they’re advised to do, they’ll walk. And they’ll explain precisely why they’re walking.
In Britain and the US the experts seem to be so much under the spell of Trump and BoJo – and maybe vice versa – that they’re all singing from the same hymn sheet. Only they’re not hymns they’re singing, they’re requiems, dirges, funeral music.
This thing has a way to go yet and yes, I am probably more concerned than most being vulnerable on so many fronts as I am.
I might get it. I might die.
But I feel happy, if that’s the right word, that we are at least trying, we’re making hard decisions, we’re building awareness, we’re doing what we can.
I love London. New York is my favourite place on earth.
Right now, I’m glad I’m in neither.
And if I’m singing anything it’s that great old Dominic Behan song: Thank God We’re Surrounded by Water!
Paddy's World 