Imagine how this chunk of Earth might look to a hovering Martian.
Well-fed Earthlings cannibalising each other like rats in a sack, bent on clawing their way out of it a few weeks earlier than the next.
First dibs to the British prime minister who let the virus rip, presided over a new British variant, ate all the vaccines and now piously frets that Europe’s third wave “will wash up on our shores as well” because – wait for it – “we’re all facing the same pandemic, we all have the same problems”. But . . . but the third wave IS the Britain strain. We don’t like to rub it in but the highly transmissible Kent mutation is the one that “washed up” on our own and Europe’s ravaged shores a few months ago.
Now Boris Johnson suddenly realises “we all have the same problems” just as the river of vaccine gold flowing into Britain comes under threat. The second big national jab is due (failing to reserve second doses was always a gamble), AstraZeneca’s Indian deliveries to the UK are falling short and the more resistant South African variant is in the wings. All that interconnectedness. Who knew?
And still the second World War crashes around inside their heads. The Times headline, “Don’t start vaccine wars, Britain tells EU leaders”, was easily the most restrained of a rabid English array on Monday. “When a neighbour threatens you with wartime measures, you can hardly carry on treating it as an ally,” opined Daniel Hannan in the Daily Telegraph.
Special mention here to the consummate diplomat and foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, who accused Ursula von der Leyen of the kind of brinkmanship usually practised by dictators.
Made in Europe
Now imagine most of the vaccine manufacturers in Europe were located in the UK – but the companies insisted on filling to the brim orders from the EU where half the adults were gleefully getting their first jab while only a trickle remained for UK citizens ? Where would the UK be if a ruthless EU had taken the Me First route?
Where would the UK be if a ruthless EU had taken the Me First route?
If the European Commission looks like a bunch of flapping mackerel right now, it’s probably because they thought January 31st had freed them from these buffoonish mindgames. To recap : The EU has exported over 41 million vaccines of which 10 million have gone to the UK. The UK has exported zilch. That’s a de facto export ban. The UK-AstraZeneca contract – which would presumably confirm the company’s purported priority obligations and date of signature and we could all go home – remains unpublished. We note that in her farewell to Britain, France’s ambassador Sylvie Bermann described Johnson as “an unrepentant and inveterate liar”.
To suggest the EU brought a knife to a gunfight is to glamorise the secretive, toxic, nationalistic protectionism driving the Johnson government’s behaviour. This is not about frozen sausage meat. People are dying, battling long Covid and mental illness in the embers of crushed economies.
The interconnectedness of the world, always a subject of derision to Brexiters, was never more exposed. Arguing against the EU’s proposed export ban, Taoiseach Micheál Martin pointed out that 280 materials go into making up the Pfizer vaccine, involving 86 suppliers and 19 countries.
Implicitly he was making a larger point about interdependence.
Two-month delay
Johnson’s programme is in jeopardy because he failed to co-ordinate and co-operate with Europe.
Britain's roaringly successful vaccination programme faces a two-month delay if the EU agrees on an export ban
The ban could inflict real harm according to an Airfinity analysis.
Britain’s roaringly successful vaccination programme faces a two-month delay if the EU agrees on an export ban on Thursday. That would derail the government’s plans to reopen this summer and “force the government to extend restrictions on people’s lives” to quote one report.
Images of tiny violins pop into European heads. So lush was the British delivery schedule that it was set to beat its own target for a first dose to every UK adult by over six weeks.
At its simplest, the EU could bar any attempt by AstraZeneca to make up for its India shortfall by exporting supplies to the UK from its EU plants. It could also ban Pfizer exports under a different mechanism. This would seriously endanger the second dose programme (the 10 million already exported by the EU to the UK are believed to be Pfizer).
Is this where the EU finally pulls the Smith & Wesson Magnum?
Principle matters, and the rule of law. If decency and reciprocity are seized on as EU weaknesses and used to harm its people, should the gun be fired to prove strength? Or should the EU nod graciously and facilitate the UK in completing its world-beating programme ahead of schedule? What, you might ask rhetorically, would the leviathans of Britain First do in the EU’s position?
But would firing that shot be worth it? In practical terms it would speed up the EU vaccination project by a little over a week. It’s hardly worth the energy. The injunction never to play chess with a pigeon is applicable here. The pigeon just knocks all the pieces over, sh*ts all over the board, and then struts around like it won.
Let EU values prevail. Let the lawsuits proceed.