This looks like one of the EU's usual fudges. It is an insignificant amount compared to what is required. Germany has described it as a 'one off, so is unlikely to back any further funds. It still requires approval from all member states. I wonder if the German court will have an opinion on this as well?
I will tell you.. Hiding.. The man has become a PR failure... Out Prime Minister.. A failure of leadership...
What unbelievable tripe... Your constant behaviour in here us to without any rational dialectic unswervingly support the Govt spin.. And then to blame all and everyone elsewhere.. Classic deflection tactics.. Which makes reading your comments on here time after time.. Illogical and nonsensical .. I am talking about your comments, not you, as you surely have a relational mind of your own. So please do not descent into abusive comments
The only person constantly relying on abuse is you. As this forum is dominated by a few politically like minded souls who control the agenda I try to add a bit of perspective so the threads do not exactly replicate the front page of the Guardian. You should not be afraid of simply using intellect, facts and experience to counter alternative views. You prefer to just shut down any dialog that does not mirror your narrow views. This is now happening in some of our lefty university breeding grounds, stifling proper debate. I'm amazed you actually have a second home in France but you are unaware or unwilling to recognise the social unrest and disorder happening there over the past couple of years. It is affecting the French people even if you hide from it during your few brief visits each year.
10 MPs have left Macron's LREM party causing it to lose its absolute majority in the French National Assembly. This has seriously weakened the President and is reminiscent of Boris's position before the recent election.
. Oh.. Here we go again.. You do enjoy the niggling and digging don't you ... This forum is not for xenophobic posts against other European countries which seem to be exactly the countries on here that some members live in..mmm. I wonder why?? When you were away none of that happened.. There was even a decent discussion with a member with very different political views. Every time the facts don't go your way you change track with some jibe.. Everyone on here sees it.
Getting back to the UK.. The pms approval ratings have plummeted in the last week.. In the main it seems due to lack of clear leadership...
Even if China had suppressed the info to start off with, it does not excuse the delay by the government not to "ram" up the preparation for the pandemic earlier !! You came across as an intelligent person, BUT .....
Not one insult in that posts... .you see things where they dont exist... perhaps that is why you said a few weeks back we had enough PPE......
This regime???..... I agreed the robospeak and denial needs to be exposed in a full and thorough review... The PM should be held to account.
All of the figures are beginning to show similar results. The ONS that has compiled theirs upto the 8th May believe that 55,000 excess deaths have occured. The Times that has been constantly about right say that up to the 18th May the figure is around 62,100 and an ex ONS statistician Jamie Jenkins puts it at 62,900. As all of the experts and politicians say that this measure is the most reliable to gauge what is going on, it makes the original 20,000 would be a good result look rather sick. If this is the best gauge, then why is the government still coming out daily with the much lower figure for tested deaths? It can only be for PR reasons
No Govt want to present bad news....of course It is the job of its opposotion, the media and the professional community to find this out.... But yes this is now becoming undeliable from the data analysed independantly
From Sean O'Grady: I predict Boris Johnson will be out by Christmas. He was never up to the task of leading this country All the insincere promises and the hasty U-turns serve only to show we have somehow contrived to place a clown with the emotional maturity of a toddler in charge of dealing with the worst pandemic in 100 years Sean O'Grady @_seanogrady 14 hours ago 221 comments Every time I see Boris Johnson, I ask myself how on earth he got the job. Then I remember that it was luck, guile, and the big red bus and the stuff about the NHS getting £350m a week extra – the promise that never was. So that question pretty much answers itself. I suppose what I really mean is that it’s just begun to dawn on me that he isn’t actually very good at the job. The posh accent and the classical references disguise it a bit, but the truth is starting to show through. He’s just not up to it. Remember what close colleague and “friend” Michael Gove said of him back in the 2016 Tory leadership debacle? “I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead”. Right first time, Gove. Every bumbling performance at prime minister’s questions, each stumbling appearance at a coronavirus media conference, each bit of misguided spin that emanates from Downing Street, all the “ramped up” insincere promises and the hasty U-turns serve only to build up the evidence that we have somehow contrived to place a clown with the emotional maturity of a toddler in charge of dealing with the worst pandemic in 100 years. When will the madness end? I think by Christmas. I cannot say how or what the manner of Boris Johnson’s leaving office will be, but I think we can all discern that the pressures will only intensify. Each avoidable, so-called “excess” death represents a tragic, powerful and eventually overwhelming argument for his departure. There will be thousands more. Will they reach 100,000? The worst record in Europe? It is surely possible. In due course, Johnson will become an insupportable political burden for his party, as well as a morally shameful one. Right now, there’s no chance of change because we are in the midst of the emergency. The long summer recess will be more politically charged this year; without parliament sitting, however, the opportunities for remote plotting will be fewer, and the time for change still not ripe. By the autumn, though, there is every possibility that the economy will still be depressed, the furlough scheme becoming unsustainable, and the death toll unthinkably high – with a real prospect of a second wave of infections overwhelming the NHS – because the lockdown was relaxed too soon. Those are the perfectly plausible developments that could unseat a serving premier with a large parliamentary majority. They will be apparent towards the end of the year, as will the public’s anger. The very trust and faith so many place in Johnson will switch back, making the sense of betrayal even more painful. By Christmas, a time for reflection, Johnson will be politically toxic. He will be no more immune to overthrow in such circumstances than Tony Blair in 2007 or Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Like them, he might well find himself replaced by his chancellor, with the promise of a fresh start. Being at the top means making the right calls and taking the right decisions, and Johnson has failed at every turn. No doubt he may have had some bad advice, but he’s also been sloppy, complacent, and reluctant to apply himself to the task even when he was well. He left a confused power vacuum when he was so seriously ill. He was wrong on lockdown, on testing, on ventilators, on care homes and on protective equipment. So determined was he to ignore the devolution settlement in launching his lockdown exit strategy that he has weakened the union with Scotland and Northern Ireland. The free-trade deal with the EU isn’t going to happen. Neither will the one with the US, without featuring British farming. He has appointed a spectacularly lacklustre bunch to his cabinet, and seems overreliant on the svengali Dominic Cummings. Now Johnson’s shortcomings have at long last been embarrassingly exposed by the replacement of Jeremy Corbyn with Keir Starmer and a reinvigorated and highly able official opposition. please log in to view this image Public confidence in government plummets after PM eases lockdown Johnson is slowly losing allies and support in his party and among its usual media allies. Perennial doubts about character and judgement are re-emerging. The exit strategy is premature and chaotic, while also too slow for his natural allies on the right. More than anything, though, the people are beginning to comprehend the human cost of Johnson’s failures. He has let us down. That is the unforgivable bit. It seems longer, but it is not yet a year since Theresa May was pushed out, and Johnson succeeded her (the muted anniversary celebration will be on 24 July). Since then, he has “got Brexit done” (in his own misleading definition), won the Tories a thumping majority and seemed to be set on a full term of strong and stable government. Of course, a global pandemic would have changed everything, as it has in every country. Preceding governments also made the wrong choices and failed to prepare. But the loss of life on the scale it is reaching in Britain was not inevitable, as the evidence of some other countries shows. Johnson told us in early March that we would be OK because “we already have a fantastic NHS, fantastic testing systems and fantastic surveillance of the spread of disease”. The response was poor, the leadership lacking. There will be a reckoning.
The Telegraph reports on unease within the Conservative Party at the government's handling of the crisis. According to the paper, one former minister compared the performance to a Morecambe and Wise sketch - where all the notes were played - but not necessarily in the right order. The unnamed MP cited the new 14-day quarantine period which they said should have happened at the beginning of the crisis, not the end. The Telegraph also says that Tory WhatsApp groups have become "increasingly critical". One source, said there was growing frustration at what was described as Downing Street's "control freakery". When this paper turns on one of its own and starts finding MPs within the party to start making critical comment, you do have to ask how much trouble are they in?
Some one should tell SH he is allowed to be Tory party member and criticise the Govt. It may even be evidence of intelligent thinking for goodness sake... Seriously though the Tory establishment must be very troubled...
With Boris's government's massive majority it allows backbenchers to criticise openly knowing there will not be another election for almost 5 years. You will find your leader in France is in real trouble with his lost majority. 26 MPs have deserted the Macron boy since he was elected.
This morning opposition is building against this idea from France and Germany. Other member states have complained they were not consulted and that the two main countries did not have 'the final say'. The Austrian Chancellor has suggested he would oppose the idea, which requires unanimous backing from all EU leaders. He only wants to help the struggling nations with loans not grants.
