We
are living in Joseph Heller’s Catch 22. Set inside a US Air
Force unit in World War II Italy, Heller's novel sets out a devastating
critique of the rackets carried out, ostensibly, as part of a
nation’s war policy.
“I
distribute my plum tomatoes under an assumed name,” said Milo, “so
that Colonel Cathcart can buy them up from me under his assumed name
at four cents apiece and sell them back to me the next day for the
syndicate at five cents apiece. They make a profit of one cent
apiece. I make a profit of three and a half cents apiece, and
everybody comes out ahead." “Everybody but the syndicate,”
said Yossarian. “The syndicate is paying five cents apiece for plum
tomatoes that cost you only half a cent apiece. How does the
syndicate benefit?” “The syndicate benefits when I benefit,”
Milo explained.
Dominic
Cummings is our Milo, Boris Johnson is Squadron Commander Major Major
Major, always in when he's out and out when he's in. The
long-suffering Yossarian is you and me.
Here
is George Monbiot in today's Guardian: "When the government did
at last seek to mobilise the system, crucial bits of the machine
immediately fell off. There is a consistent reason for the multiple,
systemic failures the pandemic has exposed: the intrusion of
corporate power into public policy. Privatisation, commercialisation,
outsourcing, and offshoring have severely compromised the UK’s
ability to respond to a crisis ….at the end of the chains are
manufacturing companies, some of which have mysteriously been granted
monopolies on the supply of essential equipment. These private
monopolies have either failed to meet their contracts, or provided
defective gear to the entire NHS, like the 15 million protective
gloves and the planeload of useless surgical gowns that had to be
recalled.”
