The introduction of the digital ID in the UK presupposes that people who are not legally entitled to live and work in the UK are using regular legal channels to do so. This has to be the case if the stated intended purpose of the digital ID is to be believed.
I would suggest that people illegally working and living in the UK already avoid legal channels, as such, the stated intended purpose of the digital ID is moot and likely another white elephant that could quickly eclipse HS2, which will at least, serve a useful purpose when it's finally complete.
Now I'll acknowledge that the government may well be lying about the intended purpose of the digital ID, but I tend to agree with the principle of Hanlon's Razor; why assume malicious intent when incompetence is more likely. If anyone is doubting the incompetence of the Labour government, then I doubt their competence to make that judgement.
In answer to the wave (tsunami?) of illegal immigration and illegal workers, the simple solution is for people to stop employing people illegally. For those hoping for a cheaper price or a nice little tax dodge, that means stopping buying things that "fell off the back of a lorry", paying a builders under the table, and using pirate taxis, and such like. It might cost a few quid, but it'll improve everything for everyone in the long run.
So put simply, if you want to stop Illegal immigrants working illegally, stop employing them!
In 1957 the European Economic Community, or European Common Market, was formed to promote trade among member countries, with the common goal of preventing military conflct by creating an interdependance. In 1993 the EEC becme the European Union, seen by many as a half way stage to a European superstate, with the stated aimes of political and cultural integration. This resulted in a deal of specialisation, countries, as intended, becoming dependant on each other.
Though neither contry is a member of the EU, we now see the folly of the EU stragegy of indterdependance in the Russian/Ukraine conflict. As major oil and, particularly, gas producers, much of the EU, and the international community in general, have become so dependant on Russia that their sphere of influence has far exceded their military and economic capabilities with both the economies and infrastructures of Germany, Italy and several other major European economies being dependant on Russian energy supplies.
International trade is it only a necessity, it's very much desirable to facilitate diplomacy, turism, and, not least, economic growth but when we become so dependant on other nations for our day to day existance, it's gone too far. Not only do we risk countries like Russia emloying military force to achieve the personal ambitions of a few elite leaders, we also risk a virtual takeover of our econmies as we flounder in trying to cope with any international disagreements. What is more worrying to me, far more than our reliance on Russia for our energy needs, is the insidious takeover of our manufacturing base by China, from our toothbrushes to our cars and even extending our national infrastructures.
I urge national governments to encourage international trade to increase choice, econimic growth, cultura exchange and political freindships, but to simultainiously facilitate a level of self reliance so that an international incident may make things a little less comfortable, but should not threaten our security and very futures and will increase our ability to aide those unfortunates to be impacted directly, like the Ukraians currenly fleeing their homes in search of safety and solice.
Over the years I've always been independant and impatient of others when they try to help and don't do things to my expected standard, in many ways I am a control freak, although I didn't realise this until an incident at work a number of years ago. Over the last 3 years or so I have experienced a number of health issues, nothing too serious but all a sign of the wear and tear of entering middle age, especially as I've neglected my own well being by eating a diet including too much junk food and done too little exercise, but all in all I've still kept going without slowing down too much.
As the adage goes, all good things come to an end. After a marathon session, covering several weeks, before Christmas I worked from 12 to 18 hours per day, 6 days a week, to try to get our kitchen and livingroom into usable condition to celebrate with friends, which I managed (with help at certain points from friends and family), but in the process it seems I agrevated a shoulder condition that had been developing since October. It turns out that I now have a frozen left shoulder, a condition for which there is, apparently, no successful treatment and causes some considerable disability of movement. The pain/inflamation can be reduced but essentially, no amount of training, massage, or therapy will help other than to support the muscles surounding the effected area. My physio therapist informs me that it will resolve itself in one to two years.
I know that this is a mild embuggerance compared to some of the things my friends are tackling, heart conditions, bypass surgery, cancer, and I have relatives struggling with Alzheimer's, others with gall stones, and many of the various infermities brought on by aging, not to mention the global Covid-19 pandemic that we are all experiencing the effects of, some more tragically than others. Despite knowing this I'm feeling a little sorry for myself, this has really stopped me in my tracks. The work on the house is still not finished, I don't have the money to pay proffesionals to complete it and I can't see how I can do any meaningful amount of work myself with the smallest amount of effort likely to cause prohibitive levels of pain after just a few minutes. Add to this future plans that need to be carried out just to maintain a decent standard of maintenance, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.
I'm lucky that I have good freinds and family with the generosity to help, but I struggle to stand by and whatch them work when I feel that I should be able to contribute so much more myself. And I know, and appreciate how lucky I am to have good friends and family around me (at a socially responsible distance of course 😉 ).
So acknowledging all this, where does this leave me? I guess I'm going to have to take a step back, use these next (potentially) two years to develope other areas of my life, learn a little humility, and become gracious in accepting the kind of help that I've always prided myself on being able to offer others. And perhaps that is the root of my self pity, "the kind of help that I've always prided myself on being able to offer others". It seems that a little humility goes a long way.
Just 4 short weeks ago I urged people to take sensible precautions to avoid spreading novel Coronavirus Covid-19 but to not panic and to carry on with life as normally as possible. Whilst we should live as normal a life as possible, we really need to comply with the scientific wisdom and guidelines set out by the authorities, and with a third of the World's population ow in some form of lockdown, normal life will certainly be strained if not suspended completely for the foreseeable future. Stay safe out there everyone, a minor sacrifice now may well save the lives of a good number of people, yourself included.
In the opening scene of the modern science fiction classic, Independance Day, R.E.M's Michael Stipe declairs over the airwaves, "It's the end of the world as we know it". There are events, moments in history that leave an indelible mark, perhaps even shaping the future, changing the direction of a culture, technology and our very escence, our spirituality. I have been toying with the idea of attempting to write a dystopian novel, inspired by the events of recent days and weeks and the fine tradition of dystopianism exemplified George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I'm not sure if I'll go ahead but the very concept has forced me to examine the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak and how society is tackling it, along with the technology employed to allow our society to continue to function.
Any anthropoligist will tell you, we are social animals, yes, there are loners, those that would rather keep their own company, but on the whole it's not just for convenience that we live in these social groups that we call families, villages, towns and cities. We are now facing a very rare situation, for the first time since 1918 the entire world is facing a threat that knows no national boundries, no ideology and respects no colour, creed, race or religion. During the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 mistakes were made, decisions like the the one made in Philadelphia to go ahead with the Liberty Loan parade, which raised millions of dollars in war bonds but resulted in the city's hospitals being overwhelmed within 72 hours and 2600 being dead by the end of that week. Today we face similar decisions, we need to balance 3 main elements and our elected representatives have got their hands full and shoulders weighed down with the responsibility of keeping the world safe whilst maintaining a functioning society and protecting the economic interests of us all, to ensure that there is something to come back to when this storm is finally over.
So where does this leave us? Every country around the world is acting in what they believe to be the best interests of their residents and citizens, and it's important to recognise that no one knows 100% what the best solutions and measures are, indeed there is no "one size fits all" pre-packaged "How to..." Corona prepairedness kit, each society is at a different stage in the outbreak, each country has a unique infrastructure and each population has varying dispersal patterns. However, there are some common measures being employed in all societies around the developed world right now, namely, social distancing, self isolation, working from home and now we are starting to see various forms of rationing coming into play, something not seen in the UK since shortly after the end of the second world war. It seems that we really are on a war-time footing.
Governments around the world are investing huge amounts of money, not only in terms of resources to fight the pandemic but also in terms of support of individuals and businesses. Commentators have observed that Borris Johnson's right wing Conservative government, in the UK, will probably end up employing most of the election promises made by Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party in their socialist manifesto. With airlines and rail industries apealing to governments for economic assiatnce, it has been said that we might well be witnessing the death of capitalism, at least in it's curent form.
I don't know what the best solutions are for each country, indeed even the World Health Organisation can only give general guidlines, given the different needs and resources avaiable in each country, and I do worry about so called third world countries, that have neither the resources available to combat the situation, nor the communication channels or the education systems avaiblable to help their people understand the dangers and what they can do to mittigate them. I do know that, when this is all over, when we start to see light at the end of the tunnel and can return to our normal lives, we probably won't recognise the world we return to, that world will be gone: Businesses will have learned and habitualised new practices, many will realise that working from home is not only cheaper, it endemnifies them from future contageous outbreaks, that need not be as serious as the one we are curently experiencing, billions of pounds/dollars/euros/kroner are lost each year to seasonal flu. Many business meetings will happen through video conferancing, once this has become normalised, how many will return to international face to face, even national face to face business meetings that are so expensive, both in terms of time and money? We are learning a distrust, yes many of us are embracing the concept of socia responsibility, protecting the weak and vulnerable, but we're doing so by isolating ourselves and them alike, and whilst we mitigate this by means of social media, there is no substitute for human contact, the act of spending time together. Over the last decade or so, the concept of mail order, more recently internet shopping, has exploded to levels never seen before, the convenience of shopping from our livingrooms has been irresistable, especially with next day delivery and extremely cheap imports direct from manufactures becoming a reality, an industry which I am personally involved in, an industry that has seen significant and measurable growth just over the last 2 weeks. Will we ever return to shopping on the high street? Finally, despite a good number of people with good and noble intentions, we see a society being driven by insecurity and fear, something that has driven the phenomenon of panic buying that we are now seeing, an emotional state that breeds selfishness and mistrust, leaves people fighting over goods that are normally plentiful, and a cultivates an environment of "every man for himself" where we drop the frequent and often sociable visits to our local shops in favour of hoarding and staying at home as much as possible. Japan has previously identified falling birth rates, due to the younger generations social inhibitions brought about by a social media culture, with interpersonal skills being lost to the digital deity that rules our lives, I suspect that the rest of the developed world may find itself heading in the same direction.
Ultimately I am in no doubt that we will come through this emmergency with some form of society in tact, though probalbly not the society we all knew just a few weeks ago, but what scares me most in all of this is how this outlines a clear blue-print for the conscience-lacking religeous extremists to create far more damage and chaos in a world that they demonstrably despise, far more effectively and potentially requiring fewer resources to put in to action, than any paramilitary campaign. I just pray to my God, and any other that will listen, that we learn enough through this process to be prepared for the next time this happens, as it innevitably will, whether in the near future or not, history shows us that it will happen again. We need to be ready!
But oddly enough, I feel fine, yes, I'm concened but I have faith that we are resiliant enough to make it through this and I have faith in my fellow man to recognise their mistakes and to make amends, to make society work again, whatever form it takes. Now is the time to come together, if not literally, and work for a better future, let's use this disater as an oportunity to dismiss the "I'm alright Jack" tendancies of the 95%/5% society and embrace the opportunity to develope a caring, compasionate society. Let us be inspired by the British blitz spirit and face down this common enemy with the determination and unity that only the human race is capable of.
I recommend this TED talk from 2015 by Bill Gates:
I thought that this was typical Daily Mail exaggeration until I saw US based friends, on Facebook, actually joining the panic. Now whilst I agree, it's all a bit scary, we need to put things into perspective, there has been one USA based death from the corona virus in a country with huge geographical distances and a population of over 320 million, during February, there have been 280,000 hospitalisations for "regular" cases of flu with some 16,000 flu related deaths this winter, a far more worrying trend. Whilst I accept and encourage sensible precautions, increase washing of hands, ensuring everyone you know sneezes into the crook of their arm when they sneeze, even wearing a surgical mask when in public if you want (all of which will help for seasonal flu), we really don't need to start doomsday prepping and life can and should continue pretty much as normal.
According to the website
Businessinsider.com, the average cost of delivering a baby in the USA is $10,808
US, this does not include ante- and postnatal care, this is just the cost of
delivery and any subsequent hospital stay that is normal and expected as a result
of childbirth. Now whilst I am aware that America is not the only country
that follows an out of pocket/voluntary insurance healthcare system, they are
certainly the most prominent and arguably the most developed nation to do so,
and though an insurance model can work, whilst there is no federal mandate for compulsory insurance and no safety net for those that simply can't afford to pay
insurance, a significant percentage of the population will be consigned to
paying out of pocket, whether they can afford it or not, either that or they
will be left to suffer.
Barack Obama tried to
address this situation; the colloquially named Obamacare bill (the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act), amongst other things, extended the reach
of the Medicaid program, increasing the number of people totally covered by
between 20 and 24 million (source - Wikipedia). Now whilst impressive,
this still leaves a significant number of American citizens either wholly
(around 27 million nonelderly - source kff.org) or insufficiently
insured. A bill, mind, that the Republicans have (unsuccessfully) voted
to repeal either entirely or partially some 60 times.
The arguments for various healthcare systems are many
and varied, so I'll not be falling down that particular rabbit warren on this
occasion, I will simply and succinctly state that any country that does not
consider some form of UNIVERSAL healthcare to be a human right can in no way
consider itself to be a civilized and mature society. The vast majority
of Americans that I know are very caring people so, taking political ideology aside,
I can't imagine a single one of them disagreeing with this proclamation.
With all this said, I call on all Americans, old and
young, rich and poor, to demand better of your elected officials, to demand
that they work out a solution to this most basic of human rights. I call
on the elected officials and appointed civil servants, take this solemn responsibility
that you have been entrusted with seriously, remember that you are the servants
of the people, not their masters, and reassess your priorities. When a government
chooses to allocate some 60% of its federal budget to its military might,
whilst neglecting the welfare of its citizens, one has to question why and how
things have been prioritized and just why such a country has involved itself in
the lives of so many other nations when they have such a long way to go to get
their own house in order.
As former US Vice President once said, “the
moral test of a government is how that government treats those who are in the
dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly;
those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
