Chris Green MP: More problems to deal with in 2023

Normally, I enjoy the media when they do their round up of the year as we approach Christmas but, looking back, there was not much to feel happy about.
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Everything was either overshadowed by war in Europe and the after effects of the Covid lockdowns or was a crisis directly caused by them.

The Covid-19 virus first emerged in China and spread like a plague across the world. It was nothing like as dangerous as a medieval plague and much of the damage that we suffered was more due to the lockdown rather than the disease itself.

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It was obvious to me that many decisions had no scientific basis and would have terrible and predictable side effects but the Government could always role out Professor Witty or Sir Patrick to play their part in convincing the country of the merits of those actions.

Bolton West MP Chris Green Bolton West MP Chris Green
Bolton West MP Chris Green

Matt Hancock’s embarrassing behaviour on a TV programme do not measure up to one of his biggest decisions as Health Secretary.

He admitted, in his autobiography, that the only reason why he imposed the wearing of face masks on English children was because Nicola Sturgeon imposed them on Scottish children.

The Government, with all their scientific and medical advisors, had decided against imposing masks but they flipped not because of new evidence but because of a political decision that was fundamentally about Scottish separatism.

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There were already plenty of reasons for loathing the devolution agenda of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown but this is yet another particularly powerful one.

Whilst those Labour leaders took Britain into two wars – Afghanistan and Iraq – by choice, Boris Johnson led Europe in his reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Prime Minister could have fled the country but stayed to resist the Russian invasion and lead the Ukrainian people in fighting back.

Britain, under three successive Prime Ministers, has done the right thing in opposing tyranny and supporting the Ukrainian people in their time of need.

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The USA, Poland and some other European countries have been resolute in supporting Ukraine but it would be wrong to think that the major other countries in Europe have been as robust.

Just as with the break-up of Yugoslavia, Europe has stood aside to watch a European war on our borders and have done as little as possible to help the victims.

Worse still, we already have the sense that some European leaders are ready to impose the partition of Ukraine to ease their own economic problems.

Appeasing Vladimir Putin in the short term is going to lead to great problems in the long term.

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Russia is using Europe’s energy dependency against them. Germany has been busy decommissioning her nuclear power stations which is making the situation even worse.

Inflation, wage cuts and a host of economic problems are due to Covid, lockdowns and war in Europe. The story of the coming year is how we deal with the problems these events created.

I am not looking forward to the 2023 round up.