EMMA LEWELL-BUCK: we are being led by the worst PM and Cabinet in living memory

We have been unable to hold the people we love as they took their last breaths, we have watched others suffer the pain of isolation and loneliness, we have seen shops and businesses closing and people losing their jobs.

The pandemic has highlighted the importance of good leadership, global collaboration and well-funded social and health care systems. Right at a time when we are being led by the worst PM and Cabinet in living memory. A government who are dragging us away from the rest of the world and have

depleted our health and social care systems.

That is why the PM is trying to turn us against each other, deflecting the blame to us, dividing communities and threatening military enforcement. It is a classic tactic of a weak leader. Yet it is each other, our family, friends and neighbours that have got us through this so far. The fear of contagion has

torn us part whilst brining us closer than ever before, do not allow him to divide us.

The blame for our heartbreakingly high death rate and increasing infections rests on his shoulders, from the outset he laughed and boasted about shaking hands with those who were infected, and he ignored the warnings that we lacked pandemic preparedness.

I know many of you are worried and frustrated that there are restrictions on our lives, but some of these restrictions will ensure we get to continue our lives. But continued local or national lock downs cannot be the long-term solution. There are those who deliberately don’t wear masks, don’t wash their hands and refuse to physically distance claiming this disease is just like the flu. It is not the flu; we have vaccine for the flu and a greater understanding of it. Speak to any health worker, nurse or doctor who has witnessed someone’s last breath struggling with this terrible disease and they will make it very clear to you, this is not the flu. This is a deadly, highly contagious disease.

The history of pandemics shows us we are stuck with this virus for the long haul, in the absence of a vaccine we need to find ways to live that keep ourselves and each other safe. But there is hope, because unlike the pandemics of the past our scientific capabilities and knowledge is far more advanced, we have the ability to send a vaccine around the world much quicker than in the past and messages of how to keep ourselves and each other safe can be disseminated quickly. We have the technology, the means, and the will to do so. The people of this country, the people of South Shields are far better than those

who lead us, and it is they who will ensure we come out of this.