Itās the 70s and 80s all over again, when nobody wanted to be in charge of the economic reconstruction but once that was on track all the parties were pulling out every stop to get in. There was even a Spitting Image sketch about Labour desperately trying and failing to alienate the voters.
I think the biggest mistake, and @Saint-or-sinner did try and point this out in his inimical way, was having Cummings in āchargeā, everything that Boris did or didnāt do seems to stem from Cummingsā ideologies.
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Well that is the biggest problem with Boris, and by extension, a lot of politicians. Theyāre empty vessels that have spent far too much time playing politics to have any vision of their own. Thus, they all tend to need āreal peopleā to act as buffers between their very limited understanding of the world, and often fail in the attempt.
Boris is far from alone. Theresa May had Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill advise her because she knew fuck all about real life. The problem was, neither did they so they spent most of their time bullying people in Number 10. They were the ones that encouraged her to do the 2017 election.
Cameron was the same. His chief spin doctor did the offs over Brexit though, and he was never the same.
The problem weāve had since the 1970s is a dearth of politicians with practical professional experience. The only thing they know how to do real well is develop Teflon shoulders.
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I agree. Far too many politicians who have only ever worked as āresearchersā or āadvisorsā before getting a seat and have never done a real job.
This AZ v EU thing is becoming a farce
The Eu is accusing AZ of confidentiality breaches for revealing the existence of the ābest effortsā clause. AZ only did that because the EU was getting stuck into them publicly and not being entirely forthcoming with all the facts.
Now theyāre upset that they donāt have a vaccine, which they havenāt approved, which theyāve said is ineffective, which they ordered late, which they underordered and they ballsed the contract
And their response - they are going to reappropriate vaccines from an entirely different supplier that belong to other countries.
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Lock down to at least 22nd Feb (it will be longer - thatās just the date of the next update). Schools shut until at least march.
Can you imagine where weād be if:-
- Weād locked down earlier
- We stopped public events
- Strict quarantines on international travellers
- While in lockdown, track and trace developed properly
I genuinely think we could have had the lot done in three months.
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Covid: Wrexham vaccine plant evacuated over suspicious package - BBC News
Now they are sending letter bombs to knacker our effort (maybe)
Who are they?
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Yeah and everyone would still be fucking moaning about it. āIt was too soonā, āWe didnāt need to be that draconianā, āLook at enter name of any other country, they donāt need to lock down like we doā.
Trouble is everyone has good ideas in hindsight. Take a look at Guernsey. Lockdown total. No-one in, no-one out without very close supervision. Covid free for weeks. Suddenly out of the blue 61 cases all stemming from 1 school kid who hadnāt set foot out of the island.
There is no right answer, just an excuse for everyone to moan and fucking moan about how shit the government is.
And yes, before you ask, it is a shit day today. But I feel better now. SCD xx
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The problem is that people had ideas in foresight, and while they were good ideas, you didnāt have to be Einstein to conjure them, especially as other countries were busy implementing them.
I think there is a right answer. Itās called New Zealand. While itās a much smaller country it does share many geographical and demographic similarities. Weāre both islands, we both have an urban population of around 85%. Jacinda took a completely different path from the start, and seems to be the only Western leader to have gotten it right.
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Three months is possibly slightly ambitious, but you are absolutely correct with the four things you listed. I would also add Johnsonās weakness and cowardice in refusing to even reprimand Cummings when he opened the floodgates of non compliance with lockdown to the list. Indeed, far from reprimanding him, he led the charge in supporting him. This was the point when the government lost control of the messaging, and is a major factor in where we are today.
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BoJo at PMQs saying that schools are absolutely safe and they should be opened, and then in the next breath we have a new conference tonight saying schools to remain shut until 8th March!!
On the āschools be safeā thing, tell that to my wife and daughters and about half a dozen other families that all contracted Covid due to a couple of pupils in their class/school. Remember this is a SEN school as well, the parent sent their child in to school when they were showing Covid symptomsā¦
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I was being silly re the EU
So how is that BoJoās problem Bob ? Unfortunately its indicative of the general attitude of ādonāt give a fuckā which is (IMHO) the reason weāre still in this mess. The whole argument about too early, too late, not enough blah blah is futile when there are people like this in our society. Theyāre everywhere ā¦ even Cummings.
Helen works in a school in a deprived area of Lowestoft so we are also living it. Itās amazing how stupid parents (and teaching staff I hasten to add) are when faced with rules that the general population seem to understand. We have a society that is more focused on how to bend the rules than how to live with the rules.
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Have to agree with that point. The virus spreads through people being in proximity to other people.
We should rightly blame the Govt for some / several / many (delete depending on your point of view) major errors.
But even now, 10 months and 100k deaths on, police are breaking up parties, large funerals, facing protestors without masks, dealing with maskless people in shops and on public transport and on and on. FFS people. Blame the Govt for some of it, yes, but people are also to blame
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Couldnāt agree more, just highlighting that schools will only be safe as long as people stick to the rules and use their common sense.
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Weāre doomed LOL
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