We are inside 'Catch 22'

We are living in Joseph Heller’s Catch 22. Set inside a US Air Force unit in World War II Italy, Heller's novel sets out a devastating critique of the rackets carried out, ostensibly, as part of a nation’s war policy.

“I distribute my plum tomatoes under an assumed name,” said Milo, “so that Colonel Cathcart can buy them up from me under his assumed name at four cents apiece and sell them back to me the next day for the syndicate at five cents apiece. They make a profit of one cent apiece. I make a profit of three and a half cents apiece, and everybody comes out ahead." “Everybody but the syndicate,” said Yossarian. “The syndicate is paying five cents apiece for plum tomatoes that cost you only half a cent apiece. How does the syndicate benefit?” “The syndicate benefits when I benefit,” Milo explained.

Dominic Cummings is our Milo, Boris Johnson is Squadron Commander Major Major Major, always in when he's out and out when he's in. The long-suffering Yossarian is you and me.

Here is George Monbiot in today's Guardian: "When the government did at last seek to mobilise the system, crucial bits of the machine immediately fell off. There is a consistent reason for the multiple, systemic failures the pandemic has exposed: the intrusion of corporate power into public policy. Privatisation, commercialisation, outsourcing, and offshoring have severely compromised the UK’s ability to respond to a crisis ….at the end of the chains are manufacturing companies, some of which have mysteriously been granted monopolies on the supply of essential equipment. These private monopolies have either failed to meet their contracts, or provided defective gear to the entire NHS, like the 15 million protective gloves and the planeload of useless surgical gowns that had to be recalled.”