James O'Brien's epic monologue dismisses claims that NHS staff have enough PPE
28 April 2020, 12:24
James O'Brien's monologue on the people trying to gloss over the government's shortcomings over the coronavirus crisis is a must-listen.
The LBC presenter got especially passionate as he dismissed the claim that there's no shortage of protective equipment for NHS workers by pointing to the testimony of nurse after nurse and doctor after doctor.
James stated that it is nonsense to suggest that because some NHS workers have PPE, that means there isn't a shortage for others.
He picked up on comments from Maria Caulfield, the Conservative MP who has gone back to working as an NHS nurse. Ms Caulfield wrote: "Nose and ears sore from wearing masks for last 48hrs but not complaining as despite media reports we have plenty of PPE."
But James said: "This is why that troubled me so deeply. When she added that little line 'despite media reports' she was handing out these pathetic fraudulent little flags that you're supposed to wave when you're presented with evidence of shortages.
"But somebody having something is not relevant to the question of whether somebody else has it.
"So she's handing out these pathetic fraudulent little flags and decent people are picking them up and waving them.
"This isn't like Brexit. This is life and death. This is doctors and nurses on the frontline, who we spend a minute every Thursday night apparently worshipping, being sent to war without the weapons that they need.
"So that little line 'despite media reports' - that's why it troubled me so much. I've finally understood why that was such an obnoxious intervention. They way they sought to address reports of shortages was by saying that some people don't have any shortages.
"And if that doesn't chill you to your core, then nothing will.
"The death toll that is estimated to be at the 44,000 mark once you include non-hospital deaths, we're poised to become one of the worst in Europe, one of the worst in the world, we've got a Prime Minister trying to describe elements of it as an 'apparent success' and we've got a political movement rhetorical attempt to say that because that doctor over there has got a visor, then the doctor over there who hasn't got a visor should somehow be ignored or even insulted.
"That is why some people are getting increasingly desperate in their calls for criticism and scrutiny of this government to be stopped. These generally well-meaning, but often North Korean calls for journalists to stop doing journalism because the public has actually forgotten what it looks like.
"We've spent so long down the rabbit hole that we've forgotten what daylight looks like."
You can hear his barnstorming monologue in full at the top of the page.
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