COVID-19

I did indeed, had Corbyn won then that would have been the alternative to what we have now obviously, so what other scenario could there have been..?

 

What world is it that you inhabit? As Off posted, everyone is supportive of the lock down measures but to then assume 90% think the govts doing a great job, you're as deluded as Bolsonaro is calling this just a little flu. Get a grip, put the boris shaped pom poms down and look at whats actually happening around you. Again I also can think of several Tories I'd rather have had handling this as opposed to the guy who can't make tough decisions because he wants everyone to love him all the time.

 

Well obviously, and sadly, it was a choice between two very poor leaders.
No one will ever know whether a Labour government under Corbyn would have handled the situation better or worse than Johnson. I'm inclined to think they'd have done better because they would have taken it more seriously and worked harder on preparing for it. You obviously differ, which is your prerogative.

But the point is that it's irrelevant what Corbyn might or might not have done. That's just idle conjecture. What's relevant is what Johnson and his crew have done or not done. And for all the reasons set out in the Sunday Times article, it's now obvious that they let down the country very badly in their gung ho attitude and failure to prepare us for the crisis that was quite obviously coming our way. They, and we, are now playing a desperate game of catch-up because of their hubris and sloth in February.
It would help if they were to front up, admit that they made very serious errors and are doing what they can to mitigate them. Instead, what we are seeing is blame-deflection; under-reporting; *@?$-ups (such as our manufacturers selling PPE abroad because they aren't getting answers from our government; buying huge stocks of unproven test kits that don't work) and making a string of promises on PPE and testing that they can't keep.

 

This

 

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-covid-19-has-mutated-into-more-than-30-strains-say-scientists-in-china-11976380

In addition to the implications for a vaccine, I wonder if this impacts the level of immunity and assumption that 'herd immunity' is a key step in returning to normality.

 

Insane people dont realise the folly of gifting power to someone purely because they can imagine he'd be a good laugh down the pub.

 

Scottish schools closed until next school year now according to Swinney our education supremo.

 

Wondering how it’s possible to be literally paid to take unrefined barrels of oil, I came across this https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-03/that-time-i-tried-to-buy-some-crude-oil

It’s literally a case of too much oil being produced, and if you have the space to store it and look after it, you’ll be paid to take it away, which means fuel is cheap at the pumps now. But in the future, we could be held to ransom by those who stored the oil waiting for the price they want, meaning higher fuel prices.

 

Wouldnt you think that was the logical thing to do, we saw what a poor effort Theresa May made of it, he was hardly going to have a cabinet of remainers was he.

 

Scotland and krankie need to f@ck off. (now wanting to hang on to England)

Unless they take all the over 70's from England we can crack on here.

 

Not sure this is particularly true. Admittedly I took A-Level subjects that were particularly opinionated subjects. But unless you're teaching math, you can have a bias/opinion on pretty much any subject.

I haven't a clue what these extremist views are by the way.

 

Had I had to vote for the PM at the last general election, I'd have struggled.

As it was, my local constituency presented an absolute no-brainer. We literally didn't have the option of voting Conservative, so ridiculous was the candidate they fielded.

But I totally agree that while Corbyn was no more appealing than Boris, there are many more politicians I'd rather have had leading the country than either.

The conservatives took the populist route, probably given the success of Trump in the US, using a cynical headline writer behind the scenes spamming media on all fronts and a smiling rhetoric-spewing funny man delivering lines in the House of Commons. To be fair, I prefer him to May, the soul-sapping pragmatic budgeteer, but I'd have had any number of MPs in his position before Johnson.

 

As a teacher you can facilitate discussion without imposing your own views, surely?

 

Not at the cost of giving jobs to people who are clearly incompetent, as not everything needs to be sacrificed on the altar of Brexit. We now have the Kai Bruenkers of the ministerial world in charge, completely useless to the point you question how the hell they even got there but at least they're enthusiastic.

 

Devastated when we could have had the likes of Abbot, McDonnell,Burgon,Long Baily etc, we're gonna live to regret it....

 

Are you saying they were incompetent with regards the situation we find ourselves in or were they incompetent with regards getting Brexit done, Brexit was still in its infancy with regards the new negotiations, then Covid-19 came along, I was quite enjoying reading some of the stuff David Frost was telling the EU we were not prepared to give the EU. to get a deal from them.

 

It's one of them. I liked Corbyn, but his failure to build on 2017 turned me off him as someone to carry the torch on the left. Starmer seems reasonable enough and I like that Rayners his deputy as she doesnt take any shit herself.I would have May over Johnson any day as at least she wasn't a lazy *@?$ and put the hours in. Electing people based on how likely you are to have a laugh with them needs to get gone from politics, I understand people need someone they feel they can relate to but spinning a ripping yarn has absolutely nothing to do with running a good govt.

 

They were/are just generally incompetent, all this crisis has done is shine a light on how bad they actually are as they haven;t got anywhere to hide now. Brexit still won't be done for years in legislative terms (aka the negotiating and deciding on rules that actually affect things) it was just an easy slogan to get people on side, so they aren't even good at doing Brexits.

'UK ministers took a political decision not to be involved in an EU ventilator scheme, Sir Simon McDonald, the foreign office permanent under-secretary said today, so challenging previous claims that the UK did not take part due to missed emails, writes the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour.

McDonald was asked by a Labour MP Chris Bryant at the foreign affairs select committee whether the ventilator scheme was put to Ministers he said “It was a political decision. The UK mission (UKREP) briefed ministers about what was available, what was on offer and the decision is known”. His remarks appear to blow a hole in the case originally most prominently by the cabinet office minister Michael Gove.

He also said the prime minister will consider in the next few weeks whether to go for an extension of the deadline for EU withdrawal date beyond December. He said he was stressing the theortetical possibilities, and added he believed the prime minisyre will confirm the existing timetable.'

This, taken from the Guardian earlier today, is exactly what I mean.

 

Loved it when Mike Graham tore up The Guardian live on his radio show the other day.......lefty rag..!!