So proud of the UK today

[1stDecember]

So, the UK is the first in the world to approve and roll out a Covid vaccination programme. (If another country had done this, say Germany, everyone would be going on about why can't we be as good as the Germans? )

The UK had bought and tested a major amount of the right vaccine - it didn't get here by chance!

The UK Army (which really is world-class) is going to enable the largest vaccine programme ever.

It looks like a Brexit Deal is about to be struck.

And - next year, the UK will be banning the live export of animals. (We couldn't do that in the EU.)

Just feeling really good about the UK today

It doesn't often happen, so I thought I would appreciate the moment

Cygne posted

"But, @Defenbaker, you did claim to have a crystal ball about what will happen after Brexit. So what exactly was your assessment that everything will settle down after a few weeks based on?"

No, I never made any such claim to have a crystal ball, as you well know. I stated my opinion, that is all.

@SlightDrizzle Stop being so patronising. There's no need to take such a condescending tone just because you disagree with my opinion.

But it doesn’t really matter where the various vaccines were developed if they are sitting in warehouses yet to be approved. They are available on the international market so any country could have achieved regulatory approval first, but in fact the U.K. got through the bureaucracy the fastest and will start rolling it out first. That’s excellent news.

We’ve also had good news this week in the U.K. regarding banning live animal exports, plus our judiciary delivered an important and historic precedent with their ruling in Keira Bell’s case. I think those are reasons to be proud.

Some posters upthread are determined not to recognise any positives about the U.K. It’s sad to see - no appreciation whatsoever of the advantages that we enjoy that many countries lack... rule of law, freedom of speech (twitter pile ons notwithstanding), democracy, nhs, welfare system, education. Of course there are hardships and frustrations, but if you really can’t see anything to be proud of in the U.K. then you should see a bit more of the world and get real frankly.

Although our jabs may be rolled out in a cack-handed way, they will be free at the point of delivery in the U.K. and people will be prioritised according to risks posed to an individual by the virus rather than the size of their wallet, political affiliation, religion, sex, ethnicity etc - all of which would be factors in deciding who deserves the vaccine in vast swathes of the world. I’m proud of that too.

Oh dear is that Right wingers pretending George Orwell wasnt a socialist again?

''Nationalism is the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige''- George Orwell

Some posters upthread are determined not to recognise any positives about the U.K.

Fair enough, but for people mourning all the positives that are currently being jettisoned, trampled and shat on, seeing the words "proud" and "Brexit" in the same post is going to elicit a gag reflex.

But it doesn’t really matter where the various vaccines were developed if they are sitting in warehouses yet to be approved. They are available on the international market so any country could have achieved regulatory approval first, but in fact the U.K. got through the bureaucracy the fastest and will start rolling it out first. That’s excellent news.

Approving a drug isn't about getting through the regulatory approval first or bureaucracy- it is about carefully weighing the scientific data submitted by the drug companies and deciding if it is safe. the process is not red tape - the scientific rigour and oversight applied to drug approval is an essential part of the trust people put in vaccinations and other drug programmes (and no, OP the UK didn't buy and test large amounts of the vaccine itself :)) This is already an expedited drug approval everywhere. The UK skipping ahead a couple of days is neither here nor there - that it should be a source of immense pride and "top nation" rhetoric is bizarre.

It is like a small child being thrilled because he put the first christmas card in the postbox - despite the fact that they didn't buy them or write them and all the cards will be in the letterbox very shortly. cute in a toddler.

Sadly looking at The Times and The Mirror it looks like distribution is already likely to be rolled back at first.

*after the first.

Your cute analogy doesn’t work. Can you think of another benefit of an early roll out of the vaccine, other than the thrill of being the first? Go on, think hard....anything? No...?
The benefit will be measured in lives saved that would otherwise have been lost, and the opportunity to get out of this awful position more quickly. These are the benefits that you dismiss as “neither here nor there” in your haste to shit on any tiny bit of good news. I beg to differ.

Also your insinuations about corner cutting during the approval process are bullshit with not a sniff of evidence. Such peddling of false facts and contemptuous dismissal of this positive step for the U.K... are you hoping that we fail?

Well this is ageing like fine milk.

I used to be if not proud, then definitely very positive about Britain and feel very lucky to have been born here. And to an extent that's still true as there are many countries in the world where life is short and difficult for the majority of the people.

But Britain over the last few years has changed so much that I no longer feel anything other than a sense of dread and shame whenever I see what our government has done next and the ridiculous way many have reacted to it.

It's looking like a no deal Brexit now, so in January when when vaccines and food are sitting in a massive queue in Kent, how proud will you feel then?

Sorry, but Britain has been wrecked by the Tories and those who voted for them.

@Ineedaduvetday

Hard hat at the ready OP! You can't praise the Tories on here and live to tell about it

PS: I agree with you

Totally agree. 😁

Of course there are hardships and frustrations, but if you really can’t see anything to be proud of in the U.K. then you should see a bit more of the world and get real frankly

Oh there's lots of positives about the UK. I've done a lot of travelling around the world and know that the UK is generally a good place to live. Lots of places in the world are really awful, have poor human rights, poverty etc.

But...given what we have. Given our wealth, our achievements - we could be so much better. And we don't seem to want to do that.

We still have some massive social issues. Structural inequalities. And we have the resources and capabilities of making such a difference to our lives and the lives of others - both in the UK and abroad.

We could be much more than we are.

So sick of the culture online that just has to shit on anything good.

Fair play to all who have worked so hard on the vaccines, the nation and the whole world owe you an eternal debt of gratitude.

Jesus Christ....

@FortunesFavour

Your cute analogy doesn’t work. Can you think of another benefit of an early roll out of the vaccine, other than the thrill of being the first? Go on, think hard....anything? No...? The benefit will be measured in lives saved that would otherwise have been lost, and the opportunity to get out of this awful position more quickly. These are the benefits that you dismiss as “neither here nor there” in your haste to shit on any tiny bit of good news. I beg to differ.

Also your insinuations about corner cutting during the approval process are bullshit with not a sniff of evidence. Such peddling of false facts and contemptuous dismissal of this positive step for the U.K... are you hoping that we fail?

Completely agree

Some posters upthread are determined not to recognise any positives about the U.K. It’s sad to see - no appreciation whatsoever of the advantages that we enjoy that many countries lack... rule of law, freedom of speech (twitter pile ons notwithstanding), democracy, nhs, welfare system, education

Also available or better throughout Europe, some of our welfare payments are derisory compared to many in the EU and well, our NHS is hardly world beating either, pre CV we were sending routine surgery cases to france because we couldn't cope.
How can anyone really be proud of 60,000 covid deaths and perhaps 80k excess deaths, the highest in Europe?

We can of course give ourselves a small pat on the back for approving the German BioNTech vaccine but lets not get ahead of ourselves here, its enough for 400k people and we don't know when we will get anymore.

If the OAZ vaccine gets approval, then i think the UK (& Sweden) will justifiably be able to heap praise on themselves.

I can be proud of things that I consider to have been done well.

That does not negate things that haven't been done well. And vice versa.

Do you see?

As for Fauci - he is fast rowing back on yesterday's rash comments. He was defending himself and his department's decisions, and chose to do that by attacking ours - politics happens in every country, you know.

@Defenbaker Who knows? No one has a crystal ball, as far as I know.

You could borrow Dido Harding’s? When asked when we could face the next surge in demand for testing, after claiming no-one anticipated the increased need in September after schools went back and people returned to workplaces under the Governments encouragement:
Armed only with my crystal ball, all of us are working so hard with experts in science, in medicine, in behavioural science to understand what may happen as we go forward.’

It is possible to be proud of your country AND critical of the Government’s actions as they are not one and the same.

@FortunesFavour

But it doesn’t really matter where the various vaccines were developed if they are sitting in warehouses yet to be approved. They are available on the international market so any country could have achieved regulatory approval first, but in fact the U.K. got through the bureaucracy the fastest and will start rolling it out first. That’s excellent news.

We’ve also had good news this week in the U.K. regarding banning live animal exports, plus our judiciary delivered an important and historic precedent with their ruling in Keira Bell’s case. I think those are reasons to be proud.

Some posters upthread are determined not to recognise any positives about the U.K. It’s sad to see - no appreciation whatsoever of the advantages that we enjoy that many countries lack... rule of law, freedom of speech (twitter pile ons notwithstanding), democracy, nhs, welfare system, education. Of course there are hardships and frustrations, but if you really can’t see anything to be proud of in the U.K. then you should see a bit more of the world and get real frankly.

Agreed. It is odd how insular some people are, who are so quick to criticise the UK. Very inward-looking, not aware of the issues and politics in other countries.

As for the Keira Bell ruling - that was indeed another reason to be proud.

@Onedropbeat Big up to us

Ermmm who do you mean by ‘us’? For what?

I’m onboard if we are celebrating the global effort of the scientific and medical community.

Agreed. It is odd how insular some people are, who are so quick to criticise the UK. Very inward-looking, not aware of the issues and politics in other countries

OTOH - many people who say how good the UK is - and talk about the welfare system, the NHS etc aren't aware of other countries and how they are. The UK is certainly up there - however, as someone said, travelling does broaden the mind and having travelled a lot, there are certainly some countries that just seem more modern, fairer and just slightly more advanced than the UK.

That's not putting the UK down. It's simply stating that sometimes some people view the UK through rose-tinted glasses because they simply haven't come across what some other countries are like because they haven't experienced them.

As I said -we do a lot of things well. But we could do a lot of things even better.

On the flip side having lived in three countries and with two passports, the U.K. has the biggest tendency for being very negative. Especially on here.

As I said -we do a lot of things well. But we could do a lot of things even better.

Indeed! I have lived in various countries, and each has their weaknesses and strengths.

Which is why I find this constant "Oh my god we are soooooooooooooo awful" a bit tiring, and ironic.