11 August 2023 , 19:17
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I had almost forgotten how hard the pain of losing a close family member can hit.
Until last week, when it struck me that it was the anniversary of my brother’s death and the memory of the grief that rippled out to dozens of people came flooding back. Even though he died in 1983. Worse were the thoughts of what might have been if an overstretched GP hadn’t told the 29-year-old that his chest pain was just indigestion, not a blood clot heading to his heart.
So, I thought, if I’m still feeling sad about Vic’s death 40 years ago, imagine how raw the heartbreak is for the relatives of the 150,000 Brits who died from Covid during 2020 and 2021, and who are still waiting for answers from this government over its shambolic handling of the pandemic.
Answers they won’t get until 2025 at the earliest as it looks like the cynical Tories will not allow the Covid inquiry to publish its damning findings until after the next general election. The pain and anger felt by the bereaved must border on unbearable. So imagine how they felt this week watching Matt Hancock lip-syncing on a beach to the song I’m Just Ken from the Barbie movie, and uploading it to TikTok – captioning it I Am Kenough! – as part of his rebranding as a goofy kinda guy.
This was the health secretary on whose watch untested hospital patients were discharged into care homes, killing thousands. The minister who was sacked for breaking his own Covid rules through having an affair with one of his staff. The man who waved Tory donors, and his mates, regardless of their expertise, into the Covid contracts VIP lane, who only a few weeks ago told the inquiry he was “profoundly sorry” for his part in the NHS failings.
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And there he is prancing down a beach pretending to be Ken from Barbie without a care in the world. Had I lost someone so recently, under his watch, I’d probably need a restraining order to keep me away from his West Suffolk constituency. That’s if he finds time away from the TV cameras to still bother going there.
Talking about Ken’s VIP Covid lanes, what about Barbie? I wonder in which villa or yacht Baroness Michelle Mone of Mayfair is residing this summer? Wherever she is I hope she caught footage of the truck driven around the UK last week by protest group Led By Donkeys, which broadcast a video of an NHS doctor saying: “I want to tell you a story about greed… about a Conservative peer who used her political connections to make £29million out of useless PPE.”
Claims the absentee dame denies as the National Crime Agency investigates. But claims that would make my blood boil had I lost someone through a lack of proper PPE during Covid. Soon, joining Baroness Mone in the Lords and those ennobled by Boris Johnson (who partied while the Covid corpses piled up) will be peers nominated by Liz Truss. A disastrous PM who lasted 49days, crashing the economy and pouring mortgage misery on millions.
What a country of blatant self-interest, callous entitlement and brutal disregard for suffering Britain has become under the Tories. Bring on the next election and a chance to tell them that Kenough is Kenough.