So “crisis-what-crisis?” Johnson went to Spain on holiday - just as a new hit threatens to drive workers’ living standards down to the lowest level in 25 years!

    Yes, now, after food and fuel price hikes, the price of gas and electricity has shot up! The boss of Ovo energy told Andrew Marr on Sunday that prices were up 1000% already in 12 months - yes, as much as that!

    And this means costs “passed onto the consumer”: every single energy boss and manufacturing boss says exactly the same thing... the “public” will have to pay...

    Oh and by the way, if the bosses are paying more for their energy supply, they’ll be trying to cut costs elsewhere too, of course! So workers’ wages - far from being increased - as that joker Johnson claimed - are to be pushed down!

    Indeed, which section of the working class has actually been offered an “above inflation” pay rise? Not one! Ford just offered its British workforce a 3% de facto wage cut with its offer of 1.5%. NHS workers are still fighting against that 3% offer - which also amounts to a 1-2% cut compared to the already-underestimated Retail Price Index! And its ever-increasing...

    What’s more, the lack of HGV drivers has extended to abattoir workers and is causing utter carnage: pigs are being shot and then burnt in their thousands... Yes, thanks to a government which said Brexit was a great idea because it would create worker shortages! Ironic that Johnson hightailed to Marbella, inside the EU...

    But now it seems, after the Treasury and the Trade minister have kissed and made up, company bosses are likely to get help with their energy bills. While the working class and the poorest will be left to switch off their heating, because they cannot afford it. Already the cost for those with pre-payment meters (the poorest) is £30 higher. From 1 October everyone else paid £139 more.

    And when energy companies go bust, as 12 just did, the big 6, which take on their customers, can bill the rest of us for the costs, adding at least another £90 to each household’s bill!

    Last winter 10,000 people died as a result of inadequate heating. The only way to stop this lethal and escalating cost is for workers to turn up the heat against the bosses and their government - collectively - in the workplaces and in the streets - ASAP!

The report on the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t tell us anything new. Of course it’s “damning”! How could it not be? Doesn’t Britain have the highest Covid-19 death toll (150,000+) of all the rich countries, only second to the USA?

    The joint report by 22 MPs from all parties, calls this “one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”. But what has been learnt so far? After all, we are already into the second year of this virus running rife.

    Nobody sensible would dispute that the 1st lockdown came too late. That’s no great revelation. “Wrong science”, banking on “herd immunity” is blamed. So when the 2nd wave began in September 2020, (because Johnson and Sunak opened up travel/hospitality during the summer), and surprise, surprise, the 2nd lockdown was also too late, it was “wrong politicians” to blame, rather than “wrong science”. This time, even more people died, even though vaccines were already rolling out.

    And now we’re in the 3rd wave, despite vaccines. After Johnson’s 19 July 2021 “Freedom Day”(!), all restrictions were lifted in England. Yet today, we aren’t free of infection. Covid rates are still the 2nd highest in the world. In fact this week they went above 40,000 again. It’s true that deaths are far fewer. But this virus causes long-term ill-health and today previously healthy teenagers number among the dead.

    Worse, mask-wearing has been officially abandoned. Never mind that it’s the sole protection in crowded spaces against a virus which might sometimes dodge vaccines and which has been found not to confer “herd immunity” after all!

    Former Tory Health Minister, Jeremy Hunt said that the course of the pandemic had been: "a game of two halves”: in the 2nd half, all the “correct” decisions were made, because science is being followed! Like hell.

    In fact this comment should damn him - and not just because he likened this lethal pandemic to a “game”! No, because science has never been followed. Not just in Britain, but throughout the world, politicians have hidden behind stooge scientists (in their pay), while the interests of profit were put first, before the populations’ health.

    The fact that nobody is safe until everyone is safe - i.e., vaccinated - is forgotten, as the rich countries give their people a third jab - a luxury only they can afford, while the poor countries are left without. In fact the failure in “handling” this pandemic is a global failure. It’s the failure of a world run on the basis of the capitalist system - organised purely for the blind pursuit of profits - instead of being planned and organised according to human need.