A Horseradish
Thursday 9th April 2020 3:45pm [Edited]
8,475 posts
Quote: Rood Eye @ 9th April 2020, 2:59 PM
Another 887 deaths were added to the UK coronavirus total during the past 24 hours.
The youngest victim was 23, and 43 of the victims had no underlying health conditions.
The running total is now approaching 8000 UK dead.
And how many of these died because they were forced into getting essential food in shops? Lord Adonis - a man with whom up till now I have disagreed on everything - calls for the resignation of the Head of Tesco. That is on the basis of Tesco accepting Government funding while handing out senior bonuses. But many might say that it is much worse.
Deaths Caused By Supermarkets
The Tesco boss and some other supermarket bosses are now blaming middle class and lower middle class households for stockpiling early on while currently delivery slots have totally petered out. Lets be clear about what is going on here. To the extent that stockpiling was taking place at all, that was done in many cases to reduce visits to supermarkets later and hence virus spread. It was also done on behalf of vulnerable family members and other members of the public.
The supermarkets have no way of knowing the extent of charity that was involved - a stepping in to fulfil the role that should have been undertaken by big companies and the state - so in the accusations of selfishness they protest too much. In any case, it was said by the same supermarkets that it hadn't affected the supply of goods to them so what exactly is their issue? Or are they lying? Many goods are unavailable. Their lack of adaptability is frankly stunning.
Most of the slots in all supermarkets are now allegedly reserved for vulnerable people. They say that they are going by the Government's list. But that list is 1.5 million people. Of itself, that is not enough. I have responsibility for a 90 year old who is on post double heart bypass medication, has osteoporosis and diverticulitis, is partially deaf and partially blind - but yes she can walk - and an 89 year old whose dementia is so severe that he has little concept of what year we are in, let alone that he should maintain social distance - although, yes, he can walk too. These people are not on that list.
If it hadn't been for me, and I live in a different house, they would have been in and out of buses and supermarkets - our nearest supermarket is a mile away and there is no car - with no protective support from these supermarkets or the Government. Personally, I find that totally unacceptable. There are millions who are in a similar sort of category. Moreover, it transpires that Tesco was given a list of 110,000 people by the Government and other supermarkets similarly so it isn't even as if there is adequacy for the 1.5 million. Far from it. Are they giving most of the slots to their friends?
Anyone with a few tins in their cupboard has in any case ongoing weekly needs for certain groceries as advised by their GPs - milk for bones, bread for the bowels, bananas for potassium, salad and fruit for all round health. There is really no excuse for any of these supermarkets with - if necessary additional state support- not to have multiplied their delivery slots a hundred times over by this time. They could have gone 24/7. They could have supported the vehicle industry by buying up cars. They could have taken on the millions sitting at home doing nothing as drivers. They could have narrowed down what was being supplied so that it didn't involve chocolate and many other things. They haven't done any of it.
So much for the British multinationals. Then one goes to the German ones which everyone so adores. Aldi and Lidl just didn't bother at all. There are no deliveries there. People should remember this well if they manage to get through this.
Inadequacy of Small Businesses
It would be nice to say that smaller businesses had done much better. Sadly they haven't done but what gives them the edge is that they do have more of an excuse. Less money. But while delivery pizza and curry joints continue to deliver as they have always done, they are generally located virtually next door to grocery provision stores which are expecting people to go to them, just as they have always done. It's pretty lame of them all actually not to have had the imagination to collaborate so that basic groceries from the latter are delivered with and by the former even without more drivers.
The Government could have introduced that idea to them but it hasn't done. Meanwhile, farms are doing their best to meet unprecedented demand and are delivering where they can. But mostly they aren't being supported to take on more delivery drivers and now we hear when it comes to dairies that masses of milk is even being thrown down the drain. They too want handouts to make up for the fact that their business and hotel trade has vanished. I'm unsympathetic. Give them the money but on the grounds that they start delivering milk and other basic farm products to the general public instead.
Finally, one word to the Government. If you are even beginning to think about removing outdoor exercise in the next stage of the lockdown, don't. Unless you manage to properly address the delivery fiasco, many of us who have so far been keen to hold to the line will flout it. Because there is no way that we are going to accept that the only place we can even walk to is into a food shop which could then give us and others the virus. The choice between entering those places and starving or eating wrongly is already close to being in the Somme. But at the point where the only permissible destination is the Somme, there must surely be a case for legal redress. Outside wartime, you can't just send people to their deaths.