The Reith Lectures

[StuartO]

This year's Reith Lectures have been delivered by Mark Carny, the former Govenor of the Bank of England and I suspect few of us have listened to the whole series, although I wish I had had the stamina to concentrate enough. He's a very clever man who comes across as having no conspicuous political side and he also has a deep understanding of the many and conflicting ways in which both national and world affairs can be analysed in order to see a way forwards. This morning's Lecture (or maybe a repeat, on Freeview Channel 232) was about the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic as well as health impacts and prospects.

 

It's probably an age thing on my part but he spoke for about 40 minutes and I found it difficult to concentrate and follow his analysis and argumens continuously, managing only uts of a few mintues between periods when my concentration lapsed and my attention wandered. But during the periods when I could follow what he was saying it made impressive good sense and because he is no longer burdened by the shackles of high office, he was at ties remarkably blunt in his criticisms of world leaders - not least the leadership of America during recent times. Not difficult to feel the same way about Donald Trump ourselves of course but to hear it bluntly from Mark Carney was refreshing.

 

The series of Lectures is doubtless available of BBC IPlayer and I strongly recommend the penultimate one which concentrates on COVID-19. Well worth trying to follow, as a refreshing change from the exchanges of fixed ideas we get on Chatterbox.

 

 

[CurtainRaiser]

They have been very informative and engaging, I particularly enjoyed his take on the banking crisis.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/43GjCh72bxWVSqSB84ZDJw0/reith-lectures-2020-how-we-get-what-we-value

[747]

I have meant to listen to them and will at some point.

 

You made the point Stuart of not being shackled by Office and that is a good point. I watched an interview by the outgoing President of an Intensive Care Organisation on BBC World News today. He has basically put the reason for the dire straits we are in at the moment as being the fault of the public. He said less bluntly than I jjust have but I got his point ... and he is right. A relatively small part of society has helped greatly to let this virus run riot among us.

[Brian Kirby]

Sore point! That the virus is spread by the public is self-evident. And yet those in authority, seemingly at all levels, will not state just that: simply, clearly, and bluntly. Instead talk only about the virus spreading, of fighting the virus, of being caught out by the virus, as though it were some malevolent creature with a mind of its own. It is not, it is a dumb, passive, virus.

 

So, why on earth will they not state the simple, unvarnished, truth? That anyone who contracts the virus got it from someone else, and anyone with the virus who fails to quarantine is responsible for the outcomes, including death, for those they infect.

 

Those who are asymptomatic cannot be blamed - unless they have also failed to properly wear face coverings (though the definition of "properly", and "face covering", could be much improved), maintain appropriate separation from others, and observed hand hygiene.

 

The simple advice that one should regard all others as potential carriers, and should also regard one's self as an asymptomatic carrier, and behave accordingly, seems impossible to state. Why is that?