I’m not denying others have, but by just about any metric we are right up there as one of the worst. Whether France/Spain/Belgium end up with a worse health or economic impact than we do or not, it doesn’t excuse the mistakes/corruption here. The scientists are clever blokes. It’s a shame Johnson ignored them.
Yeah and I heard a SAGE fella this morning saying that T&T would be ineffective with 50-100K daily infections... and guess what? Another SAGE bod was saying T&T was the Answer? I heard that a two-week lockdown (two weeks ago) was the way forward... then I heard it wasn't the answer and just a bit of a delay? If SAGE and all the experts keep changing or contradicting each other where does that put the government? I totally agree that the government has made a few silly mistakes but I will keep saying that this is a 'disease' and our government, like others are trying to juggle with many things. As I said I will listen to the people who actually know about this rather than some plumber on Facebook
I don't recall Starmer being mocked on the issue, but if he was, I agree it was wrong, because the government always had to keep this weapon in its armoury. The scientists pay little or no heed to the effect of lockdown on the economy. And it's a fallacy for anyone to say that a two week circuit breaker would end the virus. It just postpones it, as this current lockdown will. Starmer could support the circuit break knowing that if it was implemented and people lost their jobs (as they will over the coming month), the government not Starmer would take the blame. So it was an easy decision for him to make. As Ellers says, there isn't a major nation in Europe that isn't struggling with this or being critical of itss leader. Even Merkel is being heckled in the German Parliament. They are all struggling to find the least bad way forward and the learning curve is almost vertical
He was given serious amounts of grief, it was dismissed as point scoring by some, said it was a waste of money, etc... Do you honestly think he’s point scoring or following figures and suggesting the best possible solution for the U.K with the information provided, by waiting we are now in a much worse situation, and will now impact the economy much worse as well. I’d agree that the rest of Europe is struggling but both the death rates and economic impact is higher in the U.K. than pretty much anywhere in the world. Yes the government were always in a no win situation but they’ve got so many things so badly wrong. I still can’t get my head round how the contracts are being handed out. I noticed this comment from another page. Corruption on an industrial scale. Govt spent £120m on “PPE supplies” with a company called PPE Medpro Limited, which was incorporated one month beforehand. The listed director is Anthony Page, who has no other companies or directorships. Why would the Govt trust a company, one month old, with a £120m contract? These power mad despots should be in jail.
There are some Tory MP's that don't believe lockdown works, and gave Starmer grief, in the same way that they're giving Boris Johnson grief now. As to corruption on an industrial scale, how is it that Starmer has not raised this? How come BBC or Sky haven't raised it? There may be questions to answer on competence in spending taxpayers money, but this corruption stuff seems to be coming from Twitter conspiracy theorists.
I see the grief for Starmer everywhere including people calling him captain hindsight. It is unbelievable, as there are facts that are out there, maybe due to there not being a smoking gun... there will never be enough for proper prosecution. From my understanding the information in the passage in regards to the ppe contract is correct, along with the ferry contract with a company with no ferries, amongst others. would you deny there has been some very bad contracts given? If so has anyone been held accountable?
All will be thoroughly and fairly investigated by anti-corruption champion, John Penrose MP, in due course.
I think there was panic in the government last spring, and money was thrown at PPE. The government will be judged in due course on whether is was good value. The same applies to money spent on test and trace. The government must show to the electorate that their money was well spent.
Cheers tories for another lockdown to ruin our economy. Hopefully it doesnt get so bad we get some sort of purge that might happen
live bait. In all honesty though, either have done the circuit break for 2 weeks or don't lock down at all in favour of the economy. Now we have the worst option of AT least a month where the economy will once against grind to a halt and we're going to borrow even more money and kicking that can down the road
The circuit break was never going to be two weeks though. It was open ended as is the current lockdown, and Gove has already admitted it may be extended beyond a month.
As someone that despises my country for not backing the patriotic Full English Brexit, I approve of this. Hope he gets violently bummed to death.
i honestly don't know. I was all for a lockdown when it first happen as we needed to keep infections down and "beat" the virus and protect the vulnerable. I think having seen half the effects of the lockdown (we haven't even had the full effects yet as we still have furlough and money being spent left right and centre and mortgage holidays) with basically how the NHS is trying to palm off treating people with covid, a lot of people struggling and general flip flopping from our government and scientists as well as a distrust in public agencies, i just don't know when this vaccine will arrive. Economically and mentally people are being affected and there is no easy answer. The question is do we sacrifice the future for the old or do we sacrifice the old for the future. It's not a pretty answer either way. If another lockdown will get rid of the virus i'm all for it, but if we're just going to stop the spread and then get a spread later on with another lockdown come april/may time then i say why even bother.