I for one cannot forget the blatant ignorance the Tory Party chose to display when ‘Party Gate’ unfolded. We watched as Bo Jo tried to plaster his government - ever fragmenting away from public opinion - together with empty platitudes and apologies that meant nothing when they’d so blatantly ignored the rules, they’d instituted in the first place.
Since government officials were ignoring the impacts of Covid when we were in the depths of it, blissfully and intentionally ignorant of the impact catching the virus would have on themselves, their families, and the innocent people around them I’m not surprised they’re ignoring real concerns in a post-pandemic society.
During the pandemic access to healthcare was nearly impossible to get, beds were filled with the sick and the dying and all healthcare workers took a brave, important step into the fires of Covid and worked their best to save lives at every opportunity. We clapped these people on the streets but now… now junior doctors and nurses strike because they get paid less money per hour than a barista at Pret a Manger. We were promised new hospitals and healthcare workers but instead have received budget cuts and increasing threats of privatisation.
Then, of course, there’s the complete ignorance to how people where mentally affected by the pandemic. During the pandemic anxiety, depression and substance use disorder rose exponentially. Though these feelings now may be less widely felt there are still people who suffer from the long-term mental health impact Covid instilled and I think the social anxiety instilled in society is something that will be present for a very long time.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his government haven’t acknowledged this impact at all as far as I’m concerned. They want people to go back to work in busy offices, get out of the house and support the economy but there are many people out there who’s anxiety about leaving the house has become an ordeal they have to deal with. After two years stuck inside, some of us completely isolated from other people, it is no surprise that a long-term nervousness surrounding leaving the house for anything, but the essentials has risen.
Rishi Sunak has also recently announced plans to trial stripping GPs of their power to sign people off work, he attacked what he called the UK’s “sick note culture” in a speech he recently gave about welfare (I’m not sure if he’s ever cared about Britain’s welfare). He wants sick notes to be difficult to obtain for the average person which to me is insane. I, as a person who lives, studies and will (one day soon) pay taxes in the country think this plan is as insane as it is inane.
Doctors’ ability to sign people off work is crucial, especially for those with mental health problems. People need urgent help sometimes and that comes, often, in the form of a break from work to recover whether this is in a mental or physical capacity. In a Guardian article a GP gave a statement saying that it is likely suicide will rise because if people aren’t being allowed time to heal and get themselves to a place where they can function and are instead told to ‘get on with it' they will be forced to take even longer breaks from work to recover from what they’re putting themselves through.
This new policy, to me, just proves how blissfully ignorant our current prime minister is to the state of his own country. Covid affected everyone, in a hundred different ways and if we can’t acknowledge that and craft policies that work around that then there is nothing we can do to stop the spiral of negative mental health, lack of funding and many other things that began with Covid.