RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/dedicated-emily-jones-age-7-katie-hopkins/

Dear Mrs Jones,

I am sitting in my kitchen in my dressing gown, waiting for my little world to wake up. And I am thinking of you, as I often do. Worrying for you, worrying about you.

You don’t know me, of course. I am just a mum like any other, sitting here looking down at my dressing gown, reminded that it could probably do with a wash, listening for little footsteps padding down the hall stairs. Sat waiting for my sleepy little boy who will come and snuggle in for reassurance at the start of another day.

I think of you listening out for those little padding feet, knowing they will never come. Waiting for the soft face to appear from behind the kitchen door, looking at you like you are the answer to everything. Except now all those questions can never be asked.

It is over a month since your daughter was killed. You know, I am never sure under this infernal lockdown whether time stands still or is passing at breakneck speed. Days have lost all meaning for the rest of us; I feel sick thinking what they now mean for you.

Most people will avoid talking to you about Emily’s death because it is too terrible. The things we know are too shocking to mention in front of a grieving mum.

That your child was a happy little thing playing on her scooter in the park with her family on Mothering Sunday when she was stabbed to death, her life ended in one blow by a Somali woman, a stranger to you and to this land.

If these words are too brutal for the grieving, how is it possible these things can happen to the living, on an otherwise normal day?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/rising-u-k-death-toll-from-coronavirus-draws-scrutiny-11588273558

The U.K.’s official death count from the new coronavirus is rapidly rising toward that of Italy, Europe’s worst-hit country so far, intensifying the scrutiny of the government’s efforts to tackle the disease.

Critics have linked the high death toll to government decisions to delay imposition of a lockdown until March 23, after many other countries took action.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, appearing Thursday at his first press conference in weeks after being absent for most of April with a serious case of Covid-19, vigorously defended his government’s record. “I think, broadly speaking, we did the right thing at the right time,” he said.

He said that the peak of the pandemic had passed and that he would outline a road map to ease restrictions next week. The number of daily deaths has been falling since about April 8, but the decline has been slow, with 674 new fatalities reported Thursday.

In mid-March, while much of mainland Europe went into lockdown, the British government held off, arguing that it was only worth taking such steps once the virus had started to take hold in communities. It also delayed building out mass-testing capacity.

In other European countries “lockdowns were a lot more serious and a lot earlier,” said Matthias Matthijs, a professor of international political economy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  The deaths of Britons who likely caught the disease in late March while the country waited to lock down is now buoying the death toll being recorded today, he said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-allied-plan-to-depend-less-on-china-11588288513?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

The Covid-19 pandemic is prompting reconsideration of issues that were thought to be settled. One is the wisdom of China as a hub in vital supply chains, a reality driven by cost considerations and the belief that integrating China into the global economy would moderate Beijing’s behavior. Unfortunately, China hasn’t moderated. Beijing has been an unreliable supplier that pressures trading partners.

Roughly three-quarters of American companies report supply-chain disruptions in China, according to a spring survey conducted by the Institute for Supply Management. The Japanese and Australian economies have been severely hurt by China’s lockdown of Hubei province and other supply interruptions. China’s official Xinhua News Agency has threatened to exploit Beijing’s control over medical supply chains as retaliation against U.S. efforts to hold China accountable for its actions during the pandemic.

A re-examination is overdue. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set aside $2.2 billion of Tokyo’s stimulus package to assist Japanese companies in relocating production from China to Southeast Asia. The White House’s Larry Kudlow has suggested that the U.S. government could pay moving costs for U.S. companies that leave China. South Korea appears to be planning to shift several important factories from China to India.

Washington and its partners in Asia should set up new supply chains, restructure trade relations, and start to create an international economic order that is less dependent on China. A multilateral “coalition of the willing” approach would better align trading ties with political and security relationships. It would also help India and nations in Southeast Asia develop more rapidly, becoming stronger U.S. partners.