This is the most challenging thing any recent government will have faced. But my sympathy is limited and I'm not convinced the government has handled it well at all but at the same time I can't really offer any alternatives. I do not trust Johnson and do not believe in his sincerity, and there is definitely something fishy about his illness and certainly his subsequent recovery. He always has more than half an eye on his popularity rather than the crisis itself and when we really needed firm words from him all we got were weak messages advising us not to do this or that. I'm sorry but his focus on not straying from his lovable buffoon, everybody's friend persona has potentially cost lives. So far only Matt Hancock is coming across as someone genuinely trying to do the right thing, he's as close to human as they've managed to get. The others i dont believe give a **** and anyone defending Patel can go **** themselves.
So many people just have extreme opinions on Boris, I don't particularly think much of him but to think he could bluff his way into intensive care is bollox. Stainesy will tell you they have devices for measuring blood oxygen levels and that would be a prime indicator of how serious his condition was. I've used one for diagnosing a possible sleep disorder, it's an amazingly simple device but very effective. The government have made many mistakes in the past 6 weeks but are acting on 'expert' advice which, with hindsight, may well prove to have been wrong, only time will tell...
I do not like Boris either, but I agree with Sooper, there would be enough NHS people (whistleblowers) to point out that Boris was cheating or messing about if he was. He wasn't messing about...he was ill. He was very ill. Maybe if he wasn't PM he would not have got quite the VIP treatment that he did. But hey who would want to take the risk of killing the PM (any PM), just to make a point by not admitting him. I am not party to many/any of the main conspiracy theories here at all.
Bloody hell did I just read that some think Boris faked his ICU visit? There really are some sad tw2ts in this World. I watched an interview with one of the nurses parents. The nurse described it as ‘surreal’ and would ‘never forget’ helping the PM. I also heard something interesting about PPE which I didn’t know before. But too late to discuss tonight. on another note did anyone catch Donald’s press thing tonight? ... it was like listening to a 5 year old arguing with another 5 year old.
Four more deaths today 3 from the rest home making 6 from there 17 new cases 1366 in total 628 recovered Can't find any number for hospitalisations Nine deaths in total
Apparently in America and probably not alone, nursing home deaths, don't count. ( what a sad world we live in )
I don't want to get into a slanging match, but to suggest that Johnson's illness was anything other than genuine is laughably pathetic and actually demonstrates the way some on here will demonise someone just because they're a Tory.
It might not be because Frome is anti Tory, but maybe he just doesn’t believe the narrative. Anyway, that’s up to Frome to disclose, or not.
Maybe Bono will transfer hisoney back to the country he says he loves so much and help with his tax in the recovery
Lots of interesting points of view - on a wide range of different angles. And a lot of angst. Watch the blood pressure boys. We’re all on the same side! A question for Beth. It seems Germany has done fairly well with its testing and tracing. Is there evidence that earlier diagnosis, and hence earlier treatment for a virus like this, reduces the chance for fatality? Clearly earlier diagnosis would aid tracing of contacts. But that still seems, to a layman like me, that they are just reducing the spread and nothing more. Yet Germany seems to have a lower fatality rate (more than happy to be corrected on this). South Korea also seemed to have faired better with a strong test and trace approach. It seems if this is the case. Then this is the one area we have failed. However, as I’m sure I will be corrected, this would be down to our inability to process such tests as we don’t have enough labs to manage such a task even if we did have the tests and could have done them. Is this correct?
Great start to the day. Wake up to the sound of Jim Naughtie on the wireless, moaning inexplicably about being ‘forced’ as a country boy to spend most of his life living in cities (he clearly had no choice about this), and then reading a **** poem to make us happier in this time of ‘pestilence’ (his word). Still, allowed me to yell ‘**** off Jim’ as I face the day. I assume that John ‘me me it’s all about me’ Humphreys will get his turn next, enabling me to have a real Tourette’s moment. ****ing hell, now they have Will Self, a man who was an interesting writer briefly in the 1990s, and is now a ranting self centred husk, talking about and reading from JG Ballard. Ballard is probably my favourite writer, and I deeply resent the fact that both Self and Martin ‘two great books decades ago and a load of ****’ Amis not only knew him but claim to represent him in public in some way. Bastards. This should probably have been on the review thread, but both items were related to the virus.
I used to refer to him as Will Self-centred. He was one of my lecturers many years ago. Agree in the early days he was interesting but now he just rants.
So anyway.... if anyone gets a chance to watch last nights Trump briefing please watch as it’s comedy gold ( in serious times). He started by saying in January he knew that the Wuhan Virus was coming. It wasn’t the experts but him. Following that he told a reporter that their paper would go bust in 5 years after his presidency has finished because “people only buy the paper because of pictures of him”. Then he showed this weird propaganda film about people saying how good he is... that was bazaar. There was then a weird attack on Binden Finally the best bit, when reporters asked questions he kept calling them Fake. Like a kid he said “ you’re fake you know you are”.
