Dear Derek Thomas MP,
I hope you are well.
I was going to write to you about the threat from China again but that has been well documented elsewhere.
What changed my mind was encountering this article ... "Pandemic Response Is Our Vietnam" - https://www.aier.org/article/pandemic-response-is-our-vietnam/
The article reminded me of a phrase I'd forgotten ... "Stuck on stupid" ... Much points to the governments approach currently being a public policy disaster ...
"... to quote the feisty Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré of Hurricane Katrina fame, our political leaders are “stuck-on-stupid.”" (quote from article above)
In the Katrina Hurricane disaster the real threat was of course the weather. However, due to the actions of a minority of criminals and looters, disaster victims quickly found themselves all tarred with the same brush. Everyone was "dangerous" and had to be held in the Superbowl or quarantined in the disaster area. This has more than a few similarities to an entire nation being "locked down".
In Vietnam the USA fought a real and deadly enemy, but the inventor of the term groupthink, psychologist Irving Jani, studied Lyndon Johnson's original group members who began the agreed policy approach to Vietnam. None of them (or too few) felt empowered enough to openly voice their criticisms which is one of the reasons Vietnam turned into a public policy disaster. This has also been the pattern here in the UK over the last year. Criticisms of approach have not been allowed to be stated openly ...
"Those who questioned the virtues of quarantines and lockdowns were vilified and censored from mainstream and social media as purveyors of misinformation or conspiracy theorists." - https://www.aier.org/article/pandemic-response-is-our-vietnam/
There is masses of information and statistics out there arguing everything under the sun about the current situation but without a healthy atmosphere in British government the correct course of action, as well as evaluating current performance, will not be carried out effectively.
I hope you will consider my views and communicate them to your colleagues.
Sincerely
