Skip to main content
NEU Senior Regional Support Officer
Why they let the bodies pile up
SOLOMON HUGHES reveals the real reason why we have flitted wildly from lockdowns to free-for-alls: lack of decent sick pay

BRITAIN has veered between general lockdowns and periods when we let Covid-19 generally run free.

Boris Johnson saw the choice as being between “lockdown” and his occasional preference for allowing infection to spread, “letting the bodies pile high in their thousands,” because his government ruled out a more traditional way of virus control — quarantining infected people.

The free marketeers thought a traditional quarantine would have been too great an interference in society. They thought proper public health measures would interfere with “the economy” and, as a result, messed up both health and the economy.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Kerala
Features / 27 May 2025
27 May 2025

Under Modi’s hard-right regime, India is going backwards — but not in the state of Kerala, where the communist-led government continues to deliver remarkable results in infrastructure, economic growth, healthcare, welfare, education, science and social harmony, reports PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY

POISON: Centivax workers study antivenom to counteract the bites of various snakes at the company lab in San Francisco
Science and Society / 7 May 2025
7 May 2025

A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

International Women's Day 2025 / 8 March 2025
8 March 2025
Persistent inequality for women shows we still have a long way to go, but Wales TUC leader SHAVANAH TAJ is confident we can build a fairer country when we work together