We are not supposed to know

 Subject: We are not supposed to know.

Listening to Chief Operating Officers of both Heathrow Airport and of the Hotel Industry (both incidentally women, the gender based glass ceiling has its holes) one was witness to a display of people defending the indefensible.

The reason for their appearance in front of one of the political committees in parliament was the problems experienced by passengers of delays of up to 6 hours from disembarking from the aircraft and walking  to freedom through the front door.

Slowly the government has woken up to the threat of the virus being carried in from outside the country by passengers and after many pleas to the effect that people are not having checks as they pass through the airport, a set of requirement are now in place.

If you enjoyed the “Carry On” farces which were popular in the 80s and 90s they were based on a comedy of errors, people doing stupid things. Well we now have another farce this time with life threatening consequences, enacted by the same set of comedy writers employed by Boris Johnson to script our passage through the pandemic.

First we had to lock down, or not to lock down, to close our schools, or not to close our schools, to inoculate our aged in the hospitals and the care homes or not to, to make available PPI or live in hope it wasn't needed or that maybe there would be enough.

Not really a "comedy of errors" but a "tragedy of errors" with a death rate then projected by our doughty Prime Minister at 20,000 but now reaching 125,000 and still  climbing.

It's almost an attitudinal thing with the British. Instead of saying at the outset what are the objectives and then putting in place the assets to meet that objective they start at the other end, "what is the least disruption we can get away with" and we must at any rate curtail any thought of a major spend until it's too late of course when due to circumstances which might have been avoided, we have to empty the bank.

These Executives, like the politicians in Westminster are coached to say as little as possible by using as many words as an interview allows, not answering direct questions and rather ploughing on with an agreed script is the preferred tactic which usually puts us all to sleep and no wiser. The Airport CEO spent most of the time defining how her system was designed to work whilst rigorously avoiding the sight of the queues which was the issue behind most of the questions. What sort of people can consistently deny reality as part of their job description, who can tell lies with a straight face and worse of all, keep a smile on it.

Maybe this new found disregard for the truth is part and parcel of the fakeness of our society today. Too much news, too much information disqualifies truth because truth is now commodified to suite the commodity and if that's to mislead people, so be it.

What worries me even more is that the people asking the questions seem complicit in the charade. There is little or no contradiction, no delving into the answer,  no palpable sense of disbelief. It seems to be a game. I'v asked my question, the answer seems irrelevant.

Where do we the public go for truth and reconciliation, where do we to find  answers. Perhaps that’s the answer, we are not supposed to know.