307 days since New Zealand closed borders. 310 days since Australia closed borders. 359 days since first UK Covid case. Huge queues at UK airports. People waived through without checks. CONCLUSION: Boris Johnson has shown great leadership on borders.
The first community coronavirus case in over two months has just been detected in New Zealand. A woman who had spent 14 days in a government run quarantine centre after returning from Spain late last year, and tested negative twice before being allowed home, has now tested positive eleven days after leaving the centre.The NZ government are scrambling to trace all her contacts since leaving - I'm sure that, if this happened in the UK, Johnson's eybrows wouldn't even twitch.
please log in to view this image This was the information you received if you arrived in Heathrow this morning. It seems to be a bit out of date.
please log in to view this image Therese Coffey terminates interview after suggesting public's age and weight to blame for UK's high death toll. Perhaps she should get worried and start on her diet straight away.
https://westenglandbylines.co.uk/they-stole-my-sense-of-patriotism/ I wonder how many here would agree with the thrust of this article?
I don't think he's English - he's Scottish. His words echo those I hear on a near-daily basis here. I can't speak for anyone in England, but for me he is spot on - especially with his last paragraph.
With reports that Johnson is planning to visit Scotland this week, and now Hancock talking about the medical systems being stronger within a union, it sounds as though panic is setting in. Johnson was asked would he try to prevent an independence referendum and wouldn't answer.
This could turn out to be a major problem. As far as I can see the EMA didn't go along with the emergency use in the same way that the UK did. They wanted to do a complete examination of the data and the license was expected to be granted by the 29th of this month. If their results suggest that the efficacy is that low for the over 65's then there will have been many of those over that age in the UK who have very little protection after having their first dose. What do they do now? AstraZeneca have already said that they have production problems and the expected quantity is likely to only be a third of the orders they hold.
Seems AZ have denied the report but guess they would do . Hopefully all be sorted out ok otherwise we will be back to square one .
What a massive **** show this all is. FFS. AMLO has gone down with it, unsurprisingly, his amulets haven´t worked. He hasn´t set the best example, he doesn´t even wear a mask. EDIT: AMLO is the President of the Republic here. Let´s hope he recovers. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...t-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-contracts-covid
I have been wailing and gnashing my teeth in unbridled frustration since June 2016 - embarrassed to meet our French neighbours when we go there - hoping it was all a bad dream which would go away and furious with the small-mindedness of our government which is expressed not just in Brexit, but in so many other ways. ( However, it did start a long time ago. When it was decided to charge foreign students large sums to study at UK Universities the govt. was warned that it would lead too much greater losses than might be gained by receiving a few bob. How true that turned out as students went to Canada, Singapore, Europe, less so ,but some none the less and when they returned home, they had links to other countries for trading, culture etc) Now I feel better - curiously - as this article almost exactly describes what I feel we have lost and I have lost. Now I understand why I feel the way I do. even though I feel helpless.in the face of these attitudes - particularly ( the red-tops) Little englander approach. Looking at the worlds problems, and the UK's response ( which is increasingly England's response ) is finally to acknowledge that we have become a silly little country. The only compensation is that I don't have very long to endure this state of affairs. But I am truly upset for my children , who have travelled widely , living in Australia, India, Afghanistan, Indonesia , France, Spain & Portugal. Perhaps it could be worse - US, Hungary, Poland, Brazil Turkey Syria Russia, N Korea spring to mind or differing reasons - but that is little comfort. I just hope that other countries (NZ for example) will take up the reins of influential international mutually beneficient leadership - the planet needs that.
Not answering questions is his stock-in-trade, so that was no surprise. When it comes to questions from SNP MPs in the HoC, he has a predilection for turning away from the questioner, facing his own MPs and cracking unfunny jokes about 'Nationalists', pulling various unrelated stats out of thin air and citing them as fact when they aren't, and reverting to his schoolboys days by strangely uttering half-remembered Latin quotes which have no relevance to the questions posed - anything to avoid giving straight answers to the questions. As to him coming to Scotland, perhaps it would be wiser of him to stick to his own tier level restrictions and stay wherever it is that he stays - rather than raise support for the Union, the only thing that he will raise by crossing the border and igoring the Scottish Governments Covid restrictions is the anger of a majority of voters.It's not essential travel and shouldn't be taking place. For once, Hancock appears to be right in saying that the medical systems would be stronger within a Union. He simply doesn't realise which Union though.
Just to add to my previous reply, I thought I'd share this - written on Facebook by a friend, an Aussie living in Scotland: "Can someone please remind Boris Johnson, that Boris Johnson said - just nine weeks ago - that now is not the time to be campaigning on constitutional issues? It's almost as though we can't trust what he said two months ago, on any issue. Oh, wait ... It's a rather strange tactic he's employing, though. I'm really not sure how this is supposed to be convincing, even for the unionists, letting alone swing voters. He's openly announcing that he'll be travelling across tiers during a pandemic, in defiance of the rules. He'll be endangering people, after he himself was hammered by this disease. And when he gets here, nobody will be meeting with him, because we're not allowed to. Assuming that the Scottish Tories follow the rules on this one (all right, stop laughing, settle down). And all this will be done to send the serious message that he wants us to trust his judgement on Scotland's future. Riiight. It's a supreme irony, but my miniscule respect for Douglas Ross would actually increase if he refused to meet with Johnson.The Union really must be in peril. George Osborne (remember him? No, me neither) has come forth, saying that a Section 30 request must be refused, even if the Scottish people return a clear majority of pro-indy representatives at the May elections. So 'stuff democracy, we don't care what the Scots vote for'. And this is the 'partnership of equals' that they want us to hang around for. But that raises an interesting point about Section 30 Orders. Like many, I'm a fan of the Section 30 Order referendum as a 'gold standard' for indyref2, since it's been accepted by both countries before the event. I can even see that there are growing elements within the English electorate who are pressuring Johnson to cut the 'sponging Scots' loose with a S30 order, and their pressure might conceivably be felt in Downing Street more than 129 SNP MSPs. But I'm not wedded to S30. It's simply my first preference. I'm not an historian by trade, like my wife; but I am a bit of a history buff. And I'm trying valiantly to recall any steps to independence taken by any country that actually was regarded as legitimate by Westminster at the time. American Colonies? Hell no. South Africa? Nope. Ireland? Rhodesia? India? Even the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty was a treaty between Westminster and a territory that Westminster still insisted was a part of its domain, and signed with a Dáil (Parliament) that Westminster petulantly refused to recognise, even as it put reluctant pen to paper. Of the many dozens of countries that have gained their independence from Westminster rule, I can only think of two who did it through a process that was blessed by Westminster: Canada and Australia. There may be others, but you get the point. The vast majority of British colonies who elevated their own status to independent countries did it in spite of the attitude of Westminster, rather than with its blessing. So, Section 30, plebiscite, whatever. Westminster's probably not going to say "yes" to any of them. That's not a big problem for me, or for history. It'll still happen."
Sadly - but perhaps not unsurprisingly - I'm seeing more and more social media posts such as this, highlighting the mess that Brexit has caused. And that may well be due to the possibility that, after tomorrow, criticising the UK government in any form of media could be a criminal offence. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1354098165415358465.html
"We truly did everything we could to minimise loss of life." No, Johnson, you absolutely did not. You didn't lock down. You didn't close borders. You didn't protect care homes. You didn't deliver on test and trace. You just didn't have the guts to take the tough decisions. 100,000 deaths would be failure enough in the real world to bring about a resignation, but not with this joke of a politician.
