As we move to re-open our economy and start to enjoy a return to a normal rhythm of life I can’t forget where all of this began and the awful devastation and loss of life throughout the globe. It started in Wuhan in China. At no stage have we been given a satisfactory explanation as to how it all started. The World Health Organisation have not been sufficiently robust in their approach and the Chinese have been at best obstructive and secretive. Increasingly it looks likely that it originated from a leak in a laboratory in Wuhan. This is clearly the belief of the former head of M16, Sir Richard Dearlove, who has said “The thorough biochemical analysis puts the weight of evidence to this being a man-made laboratory experiment – a natural virus that has been enhanced”. I share Sir Richard’s views. The Chinese government is one of the most ruthless totalitarian regimes on God’s earth. Don’t forget they run vast and secretive internment camps where systematic rape, abuse and torture are commonplace. They are strangling democracy in Hong Kong, trying to intimidate Taiwan and gain control of the South China Sea. I am delighted that President Biden last week ordered U.S. Intelligence to “redouble” their efforts to establish the source of the pandemic. Just think about this for a minute. If Covid was created in a Lab in Wuhan and leaked by mistake or intent, the Chinese authorities must have known fairly rapidly what was happening. By suppressing that information they allowed their cursed virus via aeroplanes to spread all over the globe. We need answers. If, as I suspect, Sir Richard Dearlove has been right all along, governments around the globe need to re-assess their relationships with the Chinese regime, and that includes our own. Nobody has escaped untouched by what started in Wuhan. If Sir Richard proves correct, what government will raise the issue of reparations? On this subject, one fairly widely held belief is that the Chinese are doing well out of the pandemic. Well, not exactly. China is behind the curb on vaccinations and are now dealing with highly infectious variants. Their vaccines, according to George Gao, Head of Chinese Centre for Disease Control, don’t have very high protective rates and they may have to be mixed with mRNA technology to cope with further waves of the virus. Finally, China is shrinking literally. Its population is falling and what in particular brings a smile to my face is that it is the US economy that is surging ahead. It really is the Roaring Twenties – Let’s hope we get some of that here.
Now I’ve been in the concert business for 40 years and like so many in live entertainment would appreciate any government initiative to help the industry. So what’s with this talk of a concert in the Phoenix Park. Who’s going to play and what is the proposed attendance. Oh Yes, who’s going to run it and will it be free ? Finally, who will pick up the tab ?
So for this Bank Holiday weekend I’m going to enjoy the outside, play a little music in my brain and think of concerts next year, because I hope by then what started in Wuhan will be under control.