Do other countries bitch relentlessly about their governments?

[Sodamncold]

Listening to radio. On and on the callers come on and complain about how the government has messed up.

All over mumsnet - posters complaining and whinging about Boris etc

For what it’s worth - I think the gov has done a good job overall. Yes there’s been mistakes but I don’t expect perfection. I think that many don’t realise how lucky they are to live in this country.

So curious as to what’s going on in other countries?

shutting borders wasn't something Europe wanted any of us to do, as we are still members of the EU until Dec 2020 - we should have been able to do this I agree, as we are an island but we weren't allowed

And yet other EU countries seem to have managed to shut their borders just fine. Always somebody else's fault isn't it.

Yes, apart from counties where criticism can get you disappeared. But we have one of the most spinning, leftist and most critical media here in the UK, who think their opinion is far more important than the truth. Be grateful that it is so open, then ignore almost all that it says.

@PicsInRed the ‘bitching’ just entrenches views because it encourages lazy superficial answers . What we need to deep incisive questioning which clearly reveals the shallow nature of the response and highlights to the public the flaws in policy.

Too many critics use lazy gotcha Simple statements which are easy to evade .

I agree Venus. Shame they've stopped showing it, and told Kier Starmer that it wasn't appropriate to mention it when he asked during PMQs.

@Jaxhog leftist media ? like the daily mail, telegraph, sun, expresss well known as hot beds of communist subversion !

Let's face it, all the Brits do is bitch - no action. Ever. It's still 1750 really

What we need to deep incisive questioning which clearly reveals the shallow nature of the response and highlights to the public the flaws in policy.

It's such a shame, then, that the best mainstream media can manage is Kuensberg and Peston who are incapable of deep incisive questioning!

Oh someone's posted that fucking stupid poster that's been doing the rounds on social media about the press "missing the mood" and being too negative 🙄 It is not the job of the press to tell you nice stories and make you feel good. That's what fiction is for. Go and read a novel. The press are there to report on what is happening and to hold our government to account. If you feel that hearing about what the government has been doing/failing to do is depressing, perhaps you could have a little think about that and vote accordingly next time 👍

Peaseblossom22

There are plenty of incisive questions, which are enabled and fostered by that most British complaining in the background.

It's difficult to get incisive questions asked by the media when the response is to be screamed down by an entire nation and called haters etc etc.

Honestly. The UK is doing just fine on the old "freedom of speech" score.

Our print media is 85% right wing...

British press ‘most right-wing’ in Europe

yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2016/02/07/british-press-most-right-wing-europe

'Do other countries call their PM by their first name, like they are on friendly terms?'

In Canada a lot of us do, but that's because we remember Justin as a little boy and practically watched him grow up.

there is a lot of criticism in France a country with similar population but larger area there have been vociferoious protests in Paris the gilets jaune never went away though from UK press you would have thought this was a temporary problem 18 months ago
and in Spain which has a lot lower population so obviously you would expect the numbers of dead to be lower but they are alos unhappy at both lockdown and the government
The police in France Spain and Italy have come in for a lot of criticism
raw numbers don't matter so much while USA has highest deaths they are not the highest in proportion to population
Belgium has a high death per million but is a small country
it will be only be12-18 months from now that we will really know how each country did and whether Sweden Singapore Germany was the right model, did Sweden have higher deaths to start with but lower deaths from other things as the treatment of them wase not sidelined? or did severe lockdowns reduce covid deaths but increase deaths from cancer suicide poverty etc in years ahead or is somewhere in the middle best. evaluating it will not be easy or simple
at present it is reported that there is no evidence that shielding vulnerable has worked anywhere in the world but longterm that might not be the case

It was worse in Italy constant complaints about PPE covid patients on blankets in hospital corridors lorries of coffins leaving Milan etc none of that happened here it is not that Governemtn did brilliantly but that maybe better was not really possible

it is not hard to see why there is a shortage of PPE
suppose ( I am using round made up numbers for convenience) normally the NHS use 1 million basic masks per day and they have 10 million in stock so 1 million are used per day 1 million arrive in stock per day, the everyone in the world starts using double so now NHS is using 2 million a day but still only 1 million arriving so by day 5 we are running very low, we order more and double order on day 1 but manufacturer can only make 6 million masks and of course 6 other countries want them too, they try to keep machines running longer but they only have so many staff and you can't train new ones in a day and also you need extra raw materials too so it doesn't matter who is in charge; the logisitics of suddenly getting more PPE are not straightforward and even if there had been 20 million in store it would just have been an extra 5 days before PPE was short then people who never normally wear PPE on ward rounds just a white coat on top of own cloths (like Pharmacists) suddenly are expected to wear scrubs the care home staff that normally just used PPE for intimate care are now using it routinely, it is really not hard to see why there was a chronic shortage
you can't whether socialist capitalist left wing right wing interventionist or libertarian magic PPEetc out of thin air, when Italy needed PPE desparately it would have been selfish to buy it all up so they had none when we did not at that time have a huge problem or need it that day.

VenusTiger Sun 17-May-20 17:09:11
shutting borders wasn't something Europe wanted any of us to do, as we are still members of the EU until Dec 2020 - we should have been able to do this I agree, as we are an island but we weren't allowed

We can do this. We are allowed.

Till now, VenusTiger, I thought maybe you were a bit of a Tory cheerleader but basically well-intentioned. Now I just have you down as a shameless propagandist.

Germany closed its borders to the extent it wanted on 16 March – and it wasn't the first EU country to do so. Wasn't prevented by being member of the EU; could have chosen to close them even tighter.

Coronavirus: Germany latest country to close borders
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51905129

Nine EU states close borders due to virus
euobserver.com/coronavirus/147742

The UK didn't begin restrictions of any kind (that I can find) till the "soft" lockdown on 20 March, and then announced actual lockdown on 23 March.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_United_Kingdom

I don't think we've formally closed our borders even now, although obviously traffic has dropped.

Goes to show (what we've always known) that casting the EU as the bogeyman is a habit that will never die. It's just too convenient.

'Twas ever thus.

protest about Belgian PM

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-52699962/coronavirus-belgian-hospital-staff-turn-backs-on-pm-sophie-wilms

All the smart ones do.
Unless you prefer the North Korea / China/ Russia approach?

Actually, scrap that. All the lucky ones do.

@venustiger. I've reported your misleading image re abortion in NZ. HTH

You will always get this because of our divisive political system. The government in power will always be the focus of hate because they were the winners of the election and not the choice of the haters. The government will always be criticised no matter what they do. If they do 99% right the critics will focus on the 1% they do wrong.

@user1497207191, journalists like Laura K do not ask what seem like stupid questions because they don’t know the answers.
They ask them on behalf of viewers/listeners who may not know the answers, or who are confused.

It’s quite a normal thing for TV/radio journalists to do.

The government were slow to act but I'm going to defend the op here. They did get somethings right that not many on Mumsnet appreciate it. E.g.....furlough.... which has helped and continues to help so many people who would have been made redundant. 80% is a very decent offering and seems to be overlooked by people on Mumsnet. Schools remaining open for key workers another positive. The food boxes that were delivered to vulnerable people....building the hospital's very quickly, to name a few things!

I am not saying the government have done an amazing job...but it hasn't been bad.

And yes we have the highest infection rate, but we have the most densely populated country in Europe. Also our population is higher than places in Europe. Obviously this will mean that more would get infected and die in our country.

Have you not actually read the news for years.
Have you not noticed uprisings in many countries?
France being at a standstill many times because of protests. Uprisings in Chile, the protests in Spain. God theres absolutely loads

Maybe you could try reading more intefnational news if you think every nation except ours blindly follows their government.
I guess China and North Korea are possibly avoiding criticism.because they get shot for it, but even Putins approval rating has dropped

I am not saying the government have done an amazing job...but it hasn't been bad.

It has been bad though! Really bad! So many mistakes, so slow to act, just a bloody embarrassing shambles.