As Johnson’s government acquiesces to China doing a
‘bit’ in our internet infrastructure (oh please) it might be worth looking at
some other technical know-how that has the UK looking rather pathetic and
behind for a supposedly developed nation (Rule Britannia blah blah blah…)
No. I’m not
talking about the failing, under-invested rail network. No. I’m not talking
about the stumbling school system. I’m not talking about the horror show which
is our privatised energy sector or the privatised water companies that are
failing so badly on so many levels. I’m talking about hospitals.
As the coronavirus shows us some of China’s
failings, mainly the ones we already knew about, it also shows us that a modern
country with modern technology should be able to build standard blue-print
structures quickly as needed. So contrast the 1,000 bed hospital in Wuhan being
built in about a fortnight with the embarrassing abomination of The Royal
Liverpool hospital – initial tax payer bill £335 million – and not usable or
even finished three years after its due completion date.
The construction company Carillion – was a mess of a
mega monolith with sub-contracted companies so spaghetti like it will take as
long to work out who screwed who as it did to build the still-unusable
hospital.
As Carillion was collapsing in full view it was still receiving lucrative government
contracts. The hospital Carillion was supposedly replacing has not been kept up
to date because there was meant to be a new one on stream. The unfinished
structure is unsafe which brings into question why a previous Tory
administration (in 2010) took away the right of local authorities to inspect
buildings on their territory built by the private sector. Why?
Coronavirus and Carillion show us that in a crisis you
either need co-operation or control. Britain has neither.
Related – a recent letter of mine published in The Independent (fuller version in The New European)