Your views on how the Tories have handled Coronavirus.

[pms67]

I believe this is perfect for the government, there always has to be a way to distract the G Public and 1 senior figure is worth it, the guy has done next to nothing wrong but his employers will let this play out as it stops people mentioning the lack of testing and the early returns to school.
It’s like the clap for the NHS, a welcome distraction from reality

 

[foxy]

I'd be interested to see what @foxy would say the Aussies would do about this. My understanding from friends living there is that they wouldn't put up with this stuff as much, and the PM would be on borrowed time, and bloody well know about it. They have elections with great regularity.

The reasons we have elections more frequently than most is because of all the back stabbing between the different factions within the party, labor or liberal. Its embarrassing.
I did read that the Corbynites were sharpening their knives against Starmer but that was in the Express so I shan't take much heed.

 

[the_quick]

You say that BJ him self didn't break the rules? I think he did travel to Chequers on one occasion during the lockdown. We were all told that no one is allowed to go to second home. I think we going to have new PM early next year, maybe sooner.

 

[Fireside Ales Homebrewery]

For anyone who has nightmares and wakes up in a cold sweat I recommend that they read and digest the following article. It was written by a Doctor in the NHS.

"As a doctor, I have always known that a time like this might come. That there might be a national public health emergency of some kind, and that my colleagues and I would be deployed to the front line. We were aware of this risk when we signed up to the profession. We know that we have a moral duty to serve the public and to save the lives of others, even if it comes at great risk to our own.

But what is about to happen is beyond what any of us have imagined. Not because of the scale of the crisis that lies ahead, but because we have been abandoned by our government.

The government’s approach to COVID-19 has diverged dramatically from World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, which call for widespread testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and stringent social distancing policies. We have seen these strategies work elsewhere in the world – in China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. As someone who has trained in public health myself, I know that this is the bread and butter of epidemiological intervention. So I am in shock that our government’s “herd immunity” strategy meant that in the crucial first weeks of this crisis it decided to do, effectively, nothing.

The Director General of the WHO said that to shift from containment to mitigation was “wrong and dangerous.” Richard Horton, the Editor-in-Chief of the Lancet, likened the government’s policy to “playing roulette with the public.” Anthony Costello, an ex-director at the WHO and Professor of Global Health at University College London, called it “reckless.”
Perhaps most shocking of all, the government decided to stop widespread testing. This doesn’t make any sense. How are we supposed to know what’s coming down the pipeline if we don’t have the faintest clue of how quickly this virus is spreading? How are we supposed to know when and where to tighten our interventions? We are completely in the dark.
Meanwhile, NHS wards are quickly filling up with COVID-19 patients. Frontline staff do not have adequate protective gear. Some of them are beginning to show symptoms themselves, and yet they are not being tested and therefore cannot know if they are spreading the disease. They fear for their families.

We know that the infection rate for doctors working in this pandemic is high; in Lombardy it is 20%. We will be exposed to an extraordinary viral load. How is it that healthcare workers in China and the rest of East Asia are equipped with hazmat suits and respirators, while the government of one of the richest countries in the world cannot even issue us basic masks? We are not being treated with the dignity and care due to frontline workers. Instead, it feels like we are being treated as cannon fodder.

The scary thing is that all of this comes after a decade of brutal austerity. Following cuts to the health service, the UK has been left with one of the lowest intensive care capacities in all of Europe, and among the fewest hospital beds per capita. The NHS will be overwhelmed in short order. We are being set up for failure. Like my colleagues in Italy, we will be forced to make decisions about who to treat and who to let die.

If I were confident that my government was doing its utmost to protect people, I would join the fight wholeheartedly. But I see no signs of such good faith. I feel that my colleagues and I are being deserted to a disastrous fate. We are being made to take the fall for a decade of austerity, and for negligence and dithering at the top. Who will take responsibility for the lives that will be lost as a result of these decisions? Who will be held accountable?

In paediatrics, we don’t take chances with people’s lives. If a baby comes in and there’s a threat of infection, we treat swiftly because the risk of delay is so high. We can’t afford to lose a single moment. Similarly, given how dangerous this virus is, it is imperative that we act now, on the evidence of what works.

We need rapid rollout of widespread testing, contact tracing and quarantine. We need to shut down major cities to bare bones. We need to protect frontline staff with the highest quality equipment. We need to requisition factories to produce ventilators. We need to expand ICU capacity and commandeer more space for hospital beds. With any luck, we can hold this virus off long enough to develop an effective treatment, or even a vaccine.

The government needs to release funding for all of this, as quickly as possible. And the private sector needs to step up too – it’s in the national interest.

We dare not passively consent to this government’s inaction. Not when the chorus of expert dissent grows louder every day. To Boris Johnson and the Chief Medical Officer, I say: please, turn this ship around while you still can."


Reference:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/op...Y6uk-jVOX5vwzacOlwrz5_TS1qCqOxuZ0yKNcMr14C32c

Call me mr controversial, but I think instead of clapping for the NHS, we should vote for a government that doesn’t treat these hero’s like ‘cannon fodder’. How can Tory voters stand out side of there houses every Thursday and clap and not feel responsible.

 

[the_quick]

I have always a problem calling NHS workers heroes - as it implies they can die and that what heroes do. They doing theirs jobs as best as they can with what they have (and they don't have enough). I have question to Tory voters - are you happy with your choice, after everything what happened in last few months?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

You say that BJ him self didn't break the rules? I think he did travel to Chequers on one occasion during the lockdown. We were all told that no one is allowed to go to second home.

I'm no fan of Johnson but I'd cut him some slack on that. No 10 is not just a home, it's primarily an office block at the centre of government administration and it's just not helpful for anybody to have someone with live virus around people working at the top of government.

 

[dad_of_jon]

If I had no safe childcare and I thought I was going to to come down with covid because my mrs was showing symptoms AND my parents had an annex to their house where I could self isolate then I would drive to get there.

I would make sure I had a good pee and some food for a break without having to go into a service station/garage. I can drive around 200 miles fine without the need for a break. Nobody really knows what will happen to them if they get it although you may guess based on your health age ethnicity etc. So I'd have done the same.

The aim of the regulations is to contain the virus and there are some parts of the legislation where risk to oneself (or others) overide the containment of the virus. So a good deal of common sense applies just I it would be hard for me to socially distance on my bike close to home as the cycle paths are busy. Hence I cycle where I can avoid pedestrians.

I'm sure DC is smart enough to realize that if he was flouting the rules there are enough haters around to drop him right in it.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Except if the childcare excuse was real the genius would have had a consistent story from the start. Instead it was "grandparents looking after the kid". Then when it was pointed out they were vulnerable it was "sister looking after the kid". Then it was "sister delivering groceries but no actual contact". And then it came out that he'd made two separate trips and this whole "needs help because both ill with Covid" argument falls apart completely. He didn't need to go to Barnard Castle for childcare.

I'm sure DC is smart enough to realize that if he was flouting the rules there are enough haters around to drop him right in it.

He's made it pretty clear he just doesn't care what people think, and appears to not care what effect his actions will have on public acceptance of the lockdown.

 

[Pavros]

I think it's his arrogance which is the problem.

If he had said at the beginning that what he did was probably not in line with the guidelines and that it was probably wrong but he did it to ensure his child was looked after if needed, then it probably would have blown over by now.

But saying to the press 'I don't care what it looks like' suggests that he believes that he can do what he likes and is above reproach.

And all the ministers backing him sends the same message

 

[the_quick]

I still don't understand why he went there. They where taking care of the child themselves, they got shopping delivered, so what was the point?
Childcare argument is so weak - he has family in London, they could take care of the child. But they were not bad enough ill to warrant that either.
I think he was just running away from the virus and London, maybe hoping to get better medical help outside London.

Anyway, what he did was wrong - he should go, as other officials were made to resign, after they did broke the rules. Boris Johnson should apologise and not make lies to protect that guy.
Instead our Government says bluntly that the rules do not apply to them.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Except if the childcare excuse was real the genius would have had a consistent story from the start. Instead it was "grandparents looking after the kid". Then when it was pointed out they were vulnerable it was "sister looking after the kid". Then it was "sister delivering groceries but no actual contact". And then it came out that he'd made two separate trips and this whole "needs help because both ill with Covid" argument falls apart completely. He didn't need to go to Barnard Castle for childcare.



He's made it pretty clear he just doesn't care what people think, and appears to not care what effect his actions will have on public acceptance of the lockdown.

ta for the video. "It's not about how it looks its about doing the right thing."

That quote reminded about an employers meal allowance when on a training course. Alcohol is not allowed to be refunded even if taken with a meal or as part as an offer, so we worked out I would buy a meal with a soft drink and give that to a colleague because their meal didn't include a drink. What a faff that wouldn't look right but it saved the taxpayer money which IMO was the right thing to do.

In my view the proper solution would have been to take the cost of a pint of punk off the meal deal (and I pay for the punk in full). Anyways I feel there's a lot of woke & PC ness in our lives and by damned I intend to do the right thing in the cases where the regulations are not producing their intended outcomes rather than what something might look like. If you have the choice to do the right thing & it looks right that that's your aim but it's not always the case you can do that.

Be less judgmental , be sensible and try to be kind always - That's what I strive for.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Anyone who does not believe that Cummings is in the wrong, and has completely undermined a lockdown which was respected by people who knew it would ruin their businesses, cost jobs, and mean that lived ones would die alone with no funeral and proper goodbye, has sold themselves out in complete commitment to partisan, zero accountability style politics aka the American model.

We can only hope these people do not win out over the coming years or the country is more screwed than it is now.

What we can hope even more than the above is that the people of Scotland see this as the final straw for removing ourselves from the utter cesspit that is Brotish politics in pursuit of something better.

There are true colours flying about everywhere here whilst a significant portion of the public and media are shutting their eyes, putting fingers in ears and screaming LALALALLALALALALALALALALALALALALAL I CANT HEAR YOU

 

[MyQul]

I'm no fan of Johnson but I'd cut him some slack on that. No 10 is not just a home, it's primarily an office block at the centre of government administration and it's just not helpful for anybody to have someone with live virus around people working at the top of government.

Prior to going to chequers he was esconced in no.11 downing st with his Mrs. A spacious 4 bedroom flat. Hardly an office block. He could have quarantined in there

 

[Pavros]

Prior to going to chequers he was esconced in no.11 downing st with his Mrs. A spacious 4 bedroom flat. Hardly an office block. He could have quarantined in there

Wasn't she 8 months pregnant then?
I thought he was isolating in the flat then went to hospital then Chequers. I'm not sure she was with him during any of that time and she stayed at no.10 but may be wrong.

 

[Brianbrewed]

My views on how the present Conservative government are handling the coronavirus. Not great tbh

.

 

[MyQul]

Wasn't she 8 months pregnant then?
I thought he was isolating in the flat then went to hospital then Chequers. I'm not sure she was with him during any of that time and she stayed at no.10 but may be wrong.

According to google she moved in with him to No.11 in July last year. Whether she was actually with him whilst he was isolating Im not sure and she may have moved out by then.

 

[MyQul]

I see Cummings is digging himself further into the hole he's made for himself

"He said "I do not regret what I did" but added that "reasonable people may well disagree"

which begs the question does that mean he's being unreasonable?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52800595

 

[Linalmeemow]

I'm staggered that he was sick with the virus but wasn't tested at any point. One of the most powerful people in the country, and he didn't get tested???

 

[Linalmeemow]

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...minic-cummings-trip-durham-coincided-18305879

 

[MyQul]

I'm staggered that he was sick with the virus but wasn't tested at any point. One of the most powerful people in the country, and he didn't get tested???

Course he did. Goves daughter got tested April 8th, well before many NHS workers