Front page of FT today

£15bn of useless PPE written off since the lockdown. That's just the UK.

I wonder what the environmental impact of the manufacture, transportation and disposal of that £15bn worth of ***** is.

 

I wonder how much Tory corruption its funded?

 

I agree with you, for what it’s worth. But I do sometimes wonder what sort of corporate entity you are involved with and their environmental impact. Probably massive if we’re being totally honest.

 

You're probably right Jamie. But you can't accuse me of not trying?? Surely?

 

The whole covid debate feels like an argument nobody wins, at least among those of us with non-millionaire status.

You have a very vocal side who say it was blown out of proportion and therefore we threw our money away, shady interests are profiting from it, it’s an environmental disaster, and lockdown had dangerous consequences.

You have another very vocal side who say we haven’t taken it seriously enough and any money spent fighting it is money well spent, and that our economy’s and therefore society’s biggest threat is allowing covid to run rampant.

Covid kills.
Our response is killing the planet.
Etc.

Both sides come at it from reasonable and human points of view. On one side it’s a case of protecting life, on the other it’s a case of protecting quality of life and fighting economic and therefore social and environmental injustice.

Surely the truth is somewhere in the middle? I think Covid was and is a public health emergency. I think it’s right for society to do everything it can within reason to limit the spread. It’s a real disease. And it kills.

I also recognise that a wealthy elite absolutely have been and are profiting grossly from it at the expense of the rest of us, and said elite also have a monopoly on the media and therefore the public narrative.

I think it’s awful that people have died from Covid. I also think it’s awful that people have had their freedoms restricted while the global elite coin it in and take the piss out of us

 

Thank you so, so much for at least recognising the humanitarian motivation behind our side of the argument. It's massively, massively appreciated.

 

Nobody picks a side because they want to be an arse. There are genuine arguments both ways. I just wish we’d at least band together in assessing our leaders’ decisions on whether they are decisions to help us, or decisions to help them and their pockets.

If our politicians were in it for society and not for the gravy train, at least we’d find it easier to come to a consensus that would help us all.