From Havana to Bristol

 

“If I asked you what is the most corrupt place on Earth you might tell me well it’s Afghanistan, maybe Greece, Nigeria, the South of Italy and I will tell you it’s the UK.” Roberto Saviano, expert on the criminal dealings of the Italian Mafia.

With only 83 deaths to date, Cubans are 24 times less likely to contract Coronavirus than neighbouring Dominicans.

US Professor of government William Leogrande, has said “The whole organization of the Cuban healthcare system is to be in close touch with the population, identify health problems as they emerge, and deal with them immediately ."

Compare that to the UK where it would seem that the whole organisation of the healthcare system is to be in close touch with companies using the epidemic to grab hold of new business opportunities.

A good example is Serco, a firm in-line to be awarded a contract for Covid-19 contact tracing and that has already been awarded contracts for testing centres.

My personal experience of Serco’s catering skills during an extended stay in hospital motivated earlier research into the privatisation of the NHS.

 

In 2019, Serco—the same company whose logo you see on the side of prison vans—was fined and had to pay £3.7 m in costs to cover an electronic tagging scandal. The company, along with G4S, was accused of charging the government for electronically-monitoring people who were either dead, in jail, or had left the country.

 

Amongst many other privateers like Richard Branson and Virgin Healthcare, there is technology consulting company Deloitte who were awarded PPE-sourcing contracts by the Johnson government. They shipped in supplies from Turkey which breached safety standards and had to be sent back at your and my expense.

Does anyone else get the feeling that just as "Black Lives Matters" posters had to be hurriedly prepared for the movement now taking to the streets, the Johnson government had better prepare themselves to join Edward Colston.