#Covidvaccinations - the row with the EU (& the Americas Cup!)

It is early Saturday morning and still lockdown. I am just back from my early morning bike ride along the seafront. It was not the usual gentle saunter. The wind was strong and blustery. What was unusual was the driving rain because it usually comes from the west or more specifically the south west. Today it was easterly. What made it worse is my gears have started to slip on my old boneshaker - so it was a hard high gear all the way. It woke me up!

I have several blogs on the go - and this blog was not one of them. It is a queue jumper - so it can only be a short one as I have set myself decorating objectives for the next few days and I am already behind - ha (as usual). 

Before I write about the vaccination row and want to just say something about the totally absorbing Americas Cup regatta being played out in New Zealand. The races take place at between 3 and 4 am UK time. Unless the British boat is sailing I would not set the alarm but quite often a wake up about 4.30 anyway. I did this morning and watched the semi final races beween Italy and the USA. If you have been following the AC you will know American Magic all but sunk 10 days ago following a spectacular capsize. They have pulled off something incredible to be racing again. However the Americans were trounced by the Italians. The Italian boat will now go through to face the unbeaten British boat in the Prada Cup final.

I just want to make a couple of observations. The British boat has a defined leader - skipper Ben Ainslie and his right hand man - the tactician Giles Scott. Both are British - and who is running the boat is clear. Both are totally committed to bringing the AC Trophy back to where it all started 170 years ago - GB.

However Italy and the USA boats have joint skippers or joint helms and on each of these boats one of the leaders is a paid recruit from another country. Jimmy Spithill the lead on the Italian boat is Australian and the American lead helm is Dean Barker - a New Zealander.

My general point is I cannot see how joint skippers / joint helms can work better under pressure than a defined skipper. It is bound to create communication and relationship issues. I also cannot understand how employing a "foreigner" on the boat as a lead (albeit a very talented one) will not detract from the momentum of a national cause.  Of course I am supporting my nations boat - Ineos. I am delighted to see we have clarity regarding leadership and that that leadership is British. I firmly believe these will be the defining factor and Ineos will beat the much improved Luna Rosa in the final ( they looked slick in the semi against American Magic but at no time were they under any sustained pressure from the under performing US boat. )

Now what I really wanted to quickly write about - the EU vaccination mess.

I will quickly summarise what has happened :

• Many countries - and most notably the UK invested in, formed collabarations with and ordered and paid for vaccination doses - long before the vaccines were proved to work or were authorised for use.
• This was a gamble but a gamble based on a fundamental realisation that ultimately the only way out of this pandemic is/was by vaccination and there would be a scramble for vaccinations .
• This push for a vaccine and its manufacture required collaboration between government money and resources, research bodies and big pharma.
• The UK have been outstanding at achieving this and have been nimble, pragmatic and decisive.
• The EU by contrast have been the opposite - indecisive, bureaucratic and high handed with big pharma.
• Consequently the UK have taken delivery of good supplies of vaccine and have commercial contracts in place and the EU largely haven't.
• Now nations within the EU who were part of the 27 nation EU joint vaccination task force are asking where is our vaccines - because the British have theirs!?
• Obviously the EU will not admit they have messed up especially when it is the UK (who has recently left the EU) that has done a better job. So what have they done?
• They have demanded to queue jump.
• They have threatened to impound vaccines being manufactured in the EU by big pharma rather than let big pharma fulfill their legally binding commercial contracts.
• They have assumed the war time right to take over the manufacturing facilities themselves.
• They announced (and then quickly backtracked) that they were going to break the Brexit agreement regarding the customs rules regading NI - effectively creating a border.
• And perhaps the most sadly - the most pathetic - President Macron of France stated the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine that much of the row has been about does not work properly.There is no science behind his claim and ironically he said it on the day the EU authorities authorised its full use! I suppose he is trying to compensate for not ordering it promptly (as the Brits did) by saying it is no good. Dangerous if it was not laughable and nonsense.

So what to take out of this debacle :

The UK gov't were castigated at the time by remainer types for not joining the EU Vaccine Procurement Programme.

Labour MP Catherine West, shadow minister for Europe: the decision is “dumb and dumber” Bianca Jagger: Johnson is “endangering people’s lives” “Comedian” James Felton: how “to kill your citizens” just to stuff the EU Lib Dem Health spokesperson Munira Wilson: “it’s unforgivable”

Corbynista MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy: “yet again [the government] is putting ideology before saving lives? “Comedian” David Schneider: it’s like an episode of “”Who cares if you die as as we Brexit”. Not joining EU scheme proves “Brexit is a death cult”. James O’Brien — ad nauseam

Then there’s the abuse heaped on Kate Bingham, former head of UK’s vaccine task force at the centre of our success, just because she’s Tory MP’s wife. Pretty good case study of everyday sexism. LD “leader” ED Daley: she “must resign”. Johnson’s “dodgy cronyism” is a “disgrace”

Labour MP Zara Sultana: “Bingham must step aside” Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner: “This cronyism stinks” Runnymede Trust even goes to court to get her appointment declared “unlawful”. James O’Brien — ad nauseam

However Boris Johnson understood there was urgency required and he appointed an industry specialist tasked with leading our vacccination task force. He understood the EU would be bureaucratic and slow. He was right. The UK were pragmatic and nimble and look where we are now - compared to the EU.

This issue has also shown in many peoples eyes that the EU Commission are self serving bullies in the way they have conducted themselves since they came under pressure from the EU nations on lack of vaccination supply.

So where are we now ?

Well the EU leadership have just about offended and undermined everyone including all parties in Ireland and N Ireland.

They have undermined confidence in the corporate world that the EU can be relied on as a place to do business in an orderly way.

They have exphasised to Brexiteers and many remainers that the UK decision to leave the EU was undoubtably the right one and they have reunited many in the UK in common cause.

They have also shown that Boris and his team have played a blinder. It has also evidently taken some gloss off the SNP's referendum/rejoin the EU position.

That the UK is a force in life sciences.

There is evidence that many businesses have rejected project fear in the UK and can see the UK steaming ahead as an open trading nation engaged with the whole world. By contrast they can see an increasingly disparate, inward looking, self serving bureaucracy that is the EU.

As a fundamental leaver I take satisfaction in this.

However we must move on. The Johnson gov't has been firm, clear and magnanimous. It is clear to everyone that while any governments first priority is to safeguard its own citizens, vaccination only makes longterm sense in handling a pandemic if the vaccine can be rolled out worldwide. Obviously it is important to the UK that the EU countries have an effective vaccination roll out as soon as possible. To this end the UK is a world leader and I am sure will do everything it can to help including making excess vaccine available to other countries.

It is sad to see the Oxford Astra Zeneca get so much negative publicity from the EU commission - particularly as the Oxford University stipulation was Astra Zeneca must make the vaccine available at cost only to poor nations. (ie non profit making) and they have done so much great work so quickly.