Light Brigade had been ordered to chase a retreating Russian artillery company. However, poor communication meant that they instead fought a different, much larger, more prepared army and suffered heavy losses as a result. It’s easier than we think for messages and communication to be misinterpreted or distorted. The adage “send reinforcements I’m going to advance” ending up as “send three and fourpence I’m going to a dance” has its origins when military orders were sent via a series of radio relays. Each operator would listen to a command then repeat it to the next operator in a series. Indeed, if you’ve ever played “Chinese whispers” then you’ll be familiar with how the frequent passing on of messages can end up
being distorted and ultimately end up very different to the original.
Since the beginning of the year, there has been a new world war. Not a conflict between nations, but one between humans and a contagion called Covid- 19.
Intelligence has identified that Covid-19 is highly contagious but can be stopped and appears to be more dangerous to the weak and elderly. In its fight against the virus, the government has unleashed a barrage of weapons from a wide- reaching armoury consisting of: Hand sanitisers, face masks, social distancing, regional tiers, PPE, travel bans, test and trace apps, vaccines and a figuratively speaking nuclear option - a national lock-down. The nuclear option was first used in March and while it appeared to have a reasonable impact on suppressing the virus there was a lot of collateral damage. Casualties included a
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massive economic slump, bust businesses, huge unemployment and loss of routine NHS treatments. Treasury medics dispensed furlough bandages, but they were only able to temporarily slow the economic haemorrhaging. It’s a shame the PM and his cabal of advisors in the SAGE committee didn’t have a veteran military General there to help them effectively weaponise communication. It’s a shame because, just like any other battle, the secret to reducing casualties and ultimate victory is effective use of communication. From the beginning, the government has mishandled, and continues to mishandle, communication in the fight against Covid-19. It started with a policy of panic and scare mongering equating coronavirus to a biblical plague. Then came a mishmash of statistics and projections that never materialised. Then it was revealed thousands of mainly young people had caught it with few or no symptoms. Then we got a crazy mixed bag of regional tiers and restrictions that constantly changed and were often different depending on where you lived. Then we got told to “eat out to help
out,” then a few weeks later told pubs and restaurants will close again. Then we got “work from home”, which later became “go back to the office”, and now it’s back to “work from home” again. Despite many warning of more collateral damage a second nuclear lock-down was deployed in November, just in time to further devastate the retail and hospitality industries at the most profitable time of the year for them. All this crazy disjointed communication is not helped either by the Chinese whispers that is social media. No wonder there is widespread desertion and insubordination. Sadly, it’s been
more of a Charge of the Light Brigade than a D- Day.
Send three and
fourpence I’m going to a dance.
Angus Long is owner of
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