The effort of helping India amid the trying times is coming from myriad fronts and is happening all over the world which is a testimony to how fond the international community is of India.
London: The whole world cares for India, nearly every country from Canada to Australia, Israel to Poland, from Ireland to the Navajo Nation, and the Blackfeet Nation, all have stepped up to send 100’s of millions of dollars of emergency aid and medical equipment to India. The Red Cross, Water Aid, Oxfam, the British Asian Trust, and many other NGOs have continuing successful financial aid appeals. A quick look at Go Fund Me How to Help India’s Covid-19 Crisis (gofundme.com) (£1,296,288) How to Help India During COVID-19 Surge on GoFundMe ($2,784,307) shows how much just a few ordinary individuals have raised at the time of writing. This reporter knows UK yoga teachers who are fundraising in their classes had become besotted with Kerala- Goa while they were learning their practice. This effort is happening all over the world and is testimony to how fond the international community is of India. Most people who have visited ‘Incredible India’ yearn to return and are full of goodwill towards the people of India, at the time of writing folks are relieved to see reports of cases declining. In the interests of transparency it would be gratifying to see a list of all the donations accruing, in monetary and medical terms published by the GoI to appreciate exactly how the world values India; just as Jack Dorsey itemised his donations of $15milliom and published them on google documents #startsmall tracker – Google Sheets.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has bravely committed to a full public inquiry beginning in spring 2022 into the government’s handling of the Pandemic; most likely by the time the inquiry is published (2024?) folks will have enough distance from the pandemic to be more forgiving about any errors revealed.
For the moment Johnson appears invincible, thanks to the splendid management of the vaccination rollout. In the local elections, the Conservatives trounced the opposition, scoring 235 additional Councillors and 13 new Tory Councils. The Brexit Party supporters and some disgruntled Labour voters came the Conservative way and the Green Party stole the Liberal Democrat vote. Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of the opposition, managed an instant reshuffle that slightly changed the headlines, but the bottom line is he has not been a successful opposition, largely because he is always moaning. Labour fared better in the mayoral elections, maintaining Sadiq Khan in London and Andy Burnham in Manchester and gaining four Labour Mayors. The Conservatives secured 28 out of 35 Police and Crime Commissioners, with one local election to be re-run as the Conservative P&C candidate had a past criminal driving offence that had not been picked up.
The Queens Speech this week saw Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II read the government’s agenda for 2021, ‘The Royal Family’ social media account gave a running commentary on the traditions associated with the State Opening of Parliament. The government’s agenda was essentially revitalising Johnson’s post-Brexit plan and introducing the post-pandemic plan, much emphasis was on the ‘levelling up’ mantra of the Johnson government regarding education, life skills, jobs, healthcare, housing, and improving the UK’s infrastructure. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill that in part addresses protests will go to Committee Stage on 18 May. And Johnson is determined to ditch the Fixed Term Parliament Act of five years, meaning that Prime Ministers will be able to call an election whenever they want; and to introduce photo ID at the polling booth which has caused a backlash as voter fraud is negligible. The legislation will be introduced to counter hostile activity by foreign states, measures will be brought forward to address racial and ethnic disparities, and a global effort launched to get 40 million girls across the world into school. With COP26 on the horizon, Net-Zero by 2050, and green industries got another pledge, all this will require reforms and devolution, and a total of 28 bills on are the card