“Your life was destroyed because people were afraid of the flu.”
After maiming the economy because people got scared of the flu, the government of the United Kingdom is starting to tell people to prepare for things to get rough.
Other governments in the West are likely to follow their lead soon.
Rishi Sunak tonight warned of ‘more tough times to come’ amid warnings the economy faces shrinking by more than a third this quarter with two million people made jobless.
The Chancellor said people should brace for ‘hardship’ as he insisted the hit from the lockdown measures designed to combat the deadly coronavirus would be ‘temporary’.
And he flatly dismissed the idea that ministers must choose between propping up the economy and stopping people dying from the outbreak, saying the government would ‘protect our people’.
Yeah but whose people, Rishi?
And how can a government protect anyone from an economic collapse?
The comment came as shocking analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted curbs staying in place for three months will slash GDP by 35 per cent, with unemployment soaring to 10 per cent and the government’s deficit hitting £273billion – the highest level since the Second World War.
The watchdog ominously said it was assumed ‘for now’ there will not be any fundamental economic damage, and much of the crash will be unwound as pent-up demand is unleashed. However, the resulting 13 per cent drop year-on-year is still worse than anything in the last century.
This is called “buttering you up.”
They’re just currently announcing the collapse, so they’re tying to make it sound like it’s not really that bad. They will make progressively dire statements as we move forward, until you eventually find out what you’re going to get.
Responding to the chilling scenario – which emerged as the IMF predicted the worst global downturn since the Great Depression in 1929 – Mr Sunak said ‘people should know there is hardship ahead’.
At the Downing Street briefing tonight, he said the UK was facing ‘tough times and there will be more to come’.
But he said the effects would be temporary and he expected a ‘bounce back’, and pointed to the government’s massive bailout plans. ‘We are not going to stand by and let this happen,’ he said.
The apocalyptic figures emerged after Dominic Raab moved to quash the idea of an imminent loosening, with the UK now facing restrictions until at least May 7.
But there is growing alarm about the potential death toll from economic misery, with life expectancy set to take a major hit. Doctors have also warned that suspending all non-urgent NHS operations to focus on coronavirus cases means more cancer and heart disease patients will die.
They are expecting about 150,000 people to die as a result of the lockdown, which is significantly higher than the number of people that will end up dying of coronavirus.
That may be a pretty conservative estimation.
After the economy is destroyed and people realize that jobs aren’t coming back, civil unrest is likely to rise to levels we’ve never seen.