Divide and conquer, so said Julius Caesar. A well known phrase, and yet it seems the government haven’t understood that it can be used against us as well as by us.
The UK is currently facing two mammoth challenges:
– the worst pandemic in living memory: a huge logistical and public health problem
– potential No-Deal brexit, with all the organisation this takes
The sensible leader might think: “ok, to get the best outcome here I should stop or delay everything I can, so I can throw everything I have at the things I cannot stop or delay”, in this case, the pandemic clearly cannot be turned off, so one might assume we would throw all efforts against that. This would necessitate delaying our exit from the transition period, however it would be justified and necessary delay to free up hands in the fight for the literal survival of our public and businesses as a result of the global pandemic.
However, the government prefers to do things by half. For purely political reasons they’ve deemed we cannot slow down Brexit, hence regardless what else they say, they cannot by definition be throwing everything they’ve got at either Brexit or the pandemic. Both, each of which would consume nearly the full attention of any administration, are being bodged.
By splitting our attention whilst tackling these two massive challenges we are allowing ourselves to be divided and conquered, as our national performance in the pandemic, and the crumbling negotiations, have shown.
In light of this, Swindon for Europe have been out on the streets raising awareness, and trying to get people to tell our MPs whether they are serious about throwing all we have against COVID-19, or indeed Brexit.
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