Covid-19 and UK politics

[some_username1]

11 hours ago, Emilie Jolie said:

Now the EU has presented its massive rescue package for those most affected by the pandemic  - like, well, us...another lifetime of austerity measures to look forward to, awesome 🙄), my Twitter feed is covered with 'brave' contrite Brexit voters who now regret putting this shower in power. I'm so livid I can't even be bothered to be sympathetic to their change of heart. Too little, too late. It's bigger than what Cummings did or didn't do last month; personally, I don't care that much about what he's done - I know plenty of people who have done worse - it's the next couple of years I'm scared about for the NHS, and I'm looking forward to the effects this series of badly handled clusterf***s will have on the average Joes and Janes.

Really? People openly admitting to regretting voting for them? I’ve seen an inkling of this on the BBC HYS comments sections in the last few days but it’s interesting to hear about others seeing the same....I’d like to take it as a good sign of social change in the U.K. but like you I was blue in the face warning everyone what this shower were really all about and nobody would listen because they were too scared of Comrade Corbyn so reap what you sow and enjoy it, I say. I can safely say that the absolute Horlicks the Tories are making of this pandemic is not in my name.

Ironically the Tories have found the money tree that everyone mocked Corbyn for and are bailing out everyone from EasyJet to the North East Cats and Dogs Walkers Society(!) to the tune of billions and saddling us with generations worth of debt. So the Tories are bringing the much feared Marxism/Socialism to the masses and yet no-one is batting an eyelid. Funny how socialism is far more palatable when it’s done under the auspices of a blue rosette isn’t it?

We are in very dangerous territory, we are heading for dictatorship for a few years given the size of the Tory majority and how Boris has increasingly moved to avoid scrutiny, but they will get their comeuppance at the next election. People won’t forget “one rule for them” and their appalling handling of this pandemic.

[elaine567]

More than 1 million people sign petition demanding Dominic Cummings is sacked
https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-dominic-cummings-must-be-sacked
 

[seren]

I’ve been in lockdown since February on the advice of my consultant, I’m immunocompromised. Aside from the idiots who mobbed the beaches or gathered in crowds, I think the U.K. has followed guidance. Depending on which Cummings you believe, either Mrs or Mr, they either suspected they had the virus and decided to jump in a car and drive 260 miles away to stay near his elderly, so high risk, parents so a sister could look after his 4 year old and do their shopping, or they stayed in London where he collapsed on the bathroom floor while the same 4 year old fed him Ribena. Aside from him breaking the lockdown guidance he was instrumental in writing, his total lack of integrity is staggering. Incidentally none of them actually had the virus, they suspected they did.

That he tested his dodgy eyesight by putting his child in a car and driving to a local beauty spot belies his insistence that only he can sort out the current crisis. It takes a special type of arrogance and stupid to do that and a total disregard for other road users. I personally know 6 people who have died with Corvid, one a 12 year old boy, another a young mother with 4 young children, it’s like a slap in the face to their families who had to abide by the rules and let their loved ones die alone.  If I still worked for Local Government I’d have been sacked, no two ways about it.

people have been fined for driving to remote areas to exercise, this family drove over 500 miles round trip and nothing is done. It’s no wonder we see beaches crammed with people, many interviewed referenced Cummings’ actions. It’s undone the, we’re all in it together and instead generated, one rule for them another for us, something we can do without.  I live remotely in Scotland, lockdown hasn’t been too difficult, though I miss my son, for all those who are in lockdown in high rise flats, with children, no garden, his actions are galling to say the very least.

Watching  Boris and his cronies dodge, twist and slither being questioned has destroyed any goodwill he built up. I’ll also add every other politician who hasn’t set an example also should be sacked. I’m just looking forward to watching PMQ’s when the House reconvenes.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by seren

[Haydn]

Cummings should sod off. As should Johnson.  The Tories have never cared about anyone but themselves. 

Kier Starmer is destroying Johnson. (Well everyone knows what i think now, phew!)

[Emilie Jolie]

17 minutes ago, Haydn said:

Kier Starmer is destroying Johnson.

@HaydnI think you're great and I agree with you on a lot of this, but I totally disagree with you here, sorry. Kier Starmer isn't destroying Johnson.

Keir Starmer, on the other hand, is mauling him. There, I said it. See, I'm not afraid of political clashes and saying what I think either.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Emilie Jolie

[Haydn]

3 minutes ago, Emilie Jolie said:

@HaydnI think you're great and I agree with you on a lot of this, but I totally disagree with you here, sorry. Kier Starmer isn't destroying Johnson.

Keir Starmer, on the other hand, is mauling him. There, I said it. See, I'm not afraid of political clashes and saying what I think either.

I agree. I have been pretty politically emotional given the recent state of our shambles of a government. 

A good `mauling` is a good start. 

But, sadly the only way this shower will go is some sort of total implosion. 

I hope it`s soon.

 

[Emilie Jolie]

Same, but I'm not banking on it. The last 5 years have been one political disappointment after the other, I have next to zero faith left. I'm warming to Sir Keir though, I think he may have the potential to turn things around not just during the pandemic (not too difficult with the series of own goals and nutcase-y decisions Cummings and Co have been making) but the only thing that'll make these crack is a Tory rebel with influence. I'll take Grieves over any of the current lot, for instance.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Emilie Jolie

[some_username1]

7 hours ago, Emilie Jolie said:

@HaydnI think you're great and I agree with you on a lot of this, but I totally disagree with you here, sorry. Kier Starmer isn't destroying Johnson.

Keir Starmer, on the other hand, is mauling him. There, I said it. See, I'm not afraid of political clashes and saying what I think either.

Starmer will end up with a handicap if it carries on like this, just to make it fair. By that I mean he’ll be forced to speak slowly, not use big words and draw a picture in crayon related to the question he’s asking just so Boris has got a chance of understanding what’s going on.

[some_username1]

7 hours ago, Haydn said:

I agree. I have been pretty politically emotional given the recent state of our shambles of a government. 

A good `mauling` is a good start. 

But, sadly the only way this shower will go is some sort of total implosion. 

I hope it`s soon.

 

Mark my words, if Johnson stays, they have already lost the next election.

This just in:

”Public trust in the government as a source of accurate information has collapsed in recent weeks, suggesting ministers may struggle to maintain lockdown restrictions in the aftermath of the Dominic Cummings scandal. 

A new survey shows less than half of Britons (48%) now trust No10 to provide correct information on the coronavirus pandemic – down from more than two-thirds of the public in mid-April. The research, conducted on behalf of the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute, was carried out in the last week of May.“

Damning stuff and nice to see that people haven’t been fooled by Boris’s over-relaxing of lockdown just to try and get us all to forget about Cummings. That has backfired spectacularly.

 

[Philosopher]

1 hour ago, some_username1 said:

Mark my words, if Johnson stays, they have already lost the next election.

This just in:

”Public trust in the government as a source of accurate information has collapsed in recent weeks, suggesting ministers may struggle to maintain lockdown restrictions in the aftermath of the Dominic Cummings scandal. 

A new survey shows less than half of Britons (48%) now trust No10 to provide correct information on the coronavirus pandemic – down from more than two-thirds of the public in mid-April. The research, conducted on behalf of the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute, was carried out in the last week of May.“

Damning stuff and nice to see that people haven’t been fooled by Boris’s over-relaxing of lockdown just to try and get us all to forget about Cummings. That has backfired spectacularly.

 

I get the impression that people are now increasingly flouting the lockdown restrictions due to the actions of Mr. Cummings and the attempt to cover it up. Obviously this is not good for controlling the pandemic. A large segment of the population clearly now do not believe what the government says.

[elaine567]

Relaxing the lockdown and getting the kids back to school opens up the economy, gets people back to work and shopping.
Releasing the shielded makes the grannies and grandpas feel better, and lets them contribute to child care albeit illegally but who cares? 
Get the masses back to work.
I guess the younger really vulnerable folk or the wiser or richer ones will be staying put...
If the shielded group stayed in much longer then there were going to be calls for compensation...
Cummings actually was the catalyst for getting people to go outdoors, some were too fearful, too stuck.
There are some who say it was all contrived... His sudden and obvious departure from No 10. too stage managed...
 
IF the virus comes back with a vengeance then it will hit the careless and the free ranging shielded, herd immunity part 2.