In keeping with the theme of the unintended consequences of Covid-19 I have been working on ta story with a colleague in the Six Counties.
Last week, after a tip from an impeccable source we put the following question into the MOD Press Office in Lisburn:
“Can you confirm or deny that British army reservists within Northern Ireland have been told to prepare to be called up in the province for deployment to assist with coronavirus efforts?”
Of course, it is always a good idea in journalism to ask a formal question when you already know the answer and we did.
The MOD in Norn Iron stalled for a week and passed it onto HQ in London.
Today they finally got back to us:
“At the moment, only Reservists with specialist skills that meet specific requests for help from other government departments will be called out”.
Given the crippled state of the British NHS calling out the military might seem like a proportionate response to many people.
However, deploying the British Army in any role in the Six Counties has undoubted risks.
If they are mainly confined to hospitals, medics, nurses and the like then that is one thing.
However, British Army roadblocks are another thing altogether.
As ever the chaps in Whitehall once again prove that they have little knowledge about their first colony which will ultimately be their last.
It was ever thus…
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As usual the bitterness will show in these comments.
Even in scary uncertain times where people are at risk, there will be that tiny % of people who can’t see past their own BS.
If it saves lives the army should be brought in and anyone who does anything to disrupt them in anyway should face harsh consequences.
Even if the Irish army were called to deploy up north there would be scum trying to stop it.
Everyone in this time should be doing their part to help and put their feelings to aside.
Realistically, the people who have a problem are a very small minority and shouldn’t have an impact on those in NI who want our troubled past kept in the past.
To the comment about what do army make ventilators. No they don’t make the stuff but they are highly trained in situations to get places prepared for the worst and their medical teams can adjust to work anywhere in any conditions.
If the shit hits the fan there will be panic and you will need someone who can control bad situations.
If you still can’t see past your own BS then just think in the worst case scenario when the NHS can’t give you a bed when your laying dying and no one come to your aid. You will be glad that there’s a British soldier holding your hand to comfort you in their hospital while you die.
I’m from Derry and my father was from the Bogside.
So believe me I know the cities troubled past better than most.
But we put the future first before the past.
Love and peace to all
If the english are stupid enough to put their cannon fodder goons on the streets of Ireland again they may find themselves reoccupied with counting more than one deafh toll.
Yeah, 1970’s called, it wants its bitterness back!
Personally, now 60, and having lived through the worst of the “troubles”, i have no time for the macinations of the british army, in any shape or form, however, these are extraordinary circumstances and if they were used to build field hospitals, or the like, which happened to save the life or lives of my loved ones [or yours] then i would have to put my personal animosity to one side.
Strange times indeed. God Bless You All.
If the army in these circumstances, helps to prevent the loss of life, then so be it. Now is not the time for “whitehalling” . This Could turn out to be another positive chapter in “moving on” for those that genuinely, yes I mean genuinely want to do so.
Cheap labour? I doubt that it is all that cheap. Their wages would go a lot further than a labourer’s.
I see the situation in Ireland is being misrepresented by limited testing.
Mission creep? The lockdown invites such responses from a UK government which is struggling to keep on top of a public health crisis made all the worse by decades of underfunding public health… the Tory argument will be that funding has increased, but as everyone and their terrified grannies knows, funding has fallen behind the needs of an ageing population and the levels of spending on health seen in comparable countries.
The suggested use of the army in the Six Counties reflects yet more mutton-headedness. The key to the current response has to be consensus, and continued public support. Deploying soldiers anywhere is likely to ramp up tensions, and result in increasing disaffection with a public health message that depends on everyone’s personal commitment for it to work.
There does, however, remain some issues with the science behind the lockdown. Some of the controversy is fuelled by traditional online conspiracy theorists and assorted crackpots (the Putin-loving left, anyone?). But there remains some big questions about the apparently new virus sweeping the globe: the nub rests on testing… how can any test for a new virus discount the many forms of coronavirus, some regularly implicated in common colds, to produce accurate positive results? How many people (remember, testing so far is reported to be patchy and unreliable) are actually dying of the newly named disease, Covid-19, rather than of underlying conditions, including old age or even seasonal flu? Why can’t an antibody test (showing that someone potentially already has a coronaviral immunity and might therefore freely socialise or return to work) be quickly developed? The answers to those questions are unlikely to be quickly forthcoming, as the science itself will take many, many months to establish answers based on what partial data there is about this WHO-declared pandemic.
Therefore, irrespective of any personal doubts about the science, the public health message makes sense given the fragile state of the NHS, and current predictions of excess deaths (more people dying at this time than would normally be the case). After all, the people who will most suffer from the neglect of the NHS will be those working in it, and the most vulnerable, the sick, the elderly, the frail, and the poor in our midst. It is for them that, until the growing debate on how to extricate us from this public health emergency is resolved, I will be continuing to keep to myself and my own until such times as it is decreed safe to once more shake a neighbour’s hand in friendship.
Keep safe.
They’ve allegedly been spotted in a few strange places recently. If the allegations are true it seems to me that it could be preparatory exercises to see just how quickly they could deploy.
I have to say however, that one of the places they were supposed to have been seen, was Strathclyde Park. There was even a question asked about this in the Scottish parliament. I made a point of driving through the park from all three approaches the morning after the rumours began to circulate and saw no sign of them or ANY evidence that they had been there at all.
There are two ways the army can be called upon. The first, Military Assistance to a Government Department (MAGD) is basically just using cheap labour to build field hopsitals, repair infrastructure, operate fire engines, etc. during a crisis, disaster or industrial action (remember the yellow goddesses in the fire strike?). The controversial one is Military Assistance to the Civil Power (MACP) which is where they act as soldiers, not labourers, to enforce law and order. I know that after 30 years of MACP the people of Northern Ireland are unlikely to dwell deeply on the difference between these two roles but it is worth keeping an eye on – especially to avoid any suggestion of mission creep.
We are all together I hope. Proudest times are now
Lets be honest, if the health service was under pressure to find you a bed and ventilator, would you really care if it had been built by the army..? i know i wouldn’t give a flying one, and if fairness they do seem to be making a professional looking job of it elsewhere in the U.K, if it saves lives great……maybe a first though.
What beds and ventilators do the army make?
Because that is your point.
And when the answer is none, your answer becomes……
The Army is clearly excellent at converting convention centers into 4,000 bed NHS Hospitals, to NHS Regulated Standards, in nine days.
The British Army on the streets of anywhere in the UK is a despicable sight, but in NI it is especially wrong.
If my only option to stay alive was the Army, sure I’d take it, but is it really the only option? Or is it people forcing an agenda that really doesn’t have to be part of saving lives?
Giving a flying one, is crazy in the extreme, sure Mi5 have their HQ here at any rate!!!
Whatever it takes to be gone with this shit. Its not like england doesnt owe us anyway!!!