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Thread 38 Starmer: Tax your Hamster

1000 replies

DuncinToffee · 19/11/2025 15:22

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https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5440759-thread-37-starmer-pinko-commie-slimeball?page=1

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OP posts:
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Evenstar · 20/11/2025 23:00

@BIWI both DH and I were in that position and it felt strange feeling grateful that they hadn’t seen such terrible times or suffered as others did.

BIWI · 20/11/2025 23:07

My brother’s MIL died in the early days of Covid - she had late-stage heart failure, and never left the house, but the doctor who arrived to confirm her death said that it couldn’t be said she hadn’t died from Covid Hmm. Which meant that my brother, SIL and SIL’s two siblings, who had all come to the house when she died, then had to quarantine. They had to have an online funeral.

placemats · 20/11/2025 23:09

Claire Fox on Newsnight - good grief, she's off the scale on her right wing views.

PandoraSocks · 20/11/2025 23:12

RafaistheKingofClay · 20/11/2025 22:41

I’ve hidden the thread before I end up in danger of saying something that will get me deleted.

Exactly why I stopped posting too.

Eta: just saw something posted on another thread. Really having to sit on my hands. 😡

MsJinks · 20/11/2025 23:19

Thank you for the kind words - really appreciated- I still can’t think about it much, but I do sometimes say it, as people should know what did happen to many - an (ex) minor friend tried to tell me it was all blown up once (and final time) - I won’t have what I saw and know many saw experiences dismissed like it was and partly because I barely managed 10 minutes on the ward with a dr having to tell me (and so many) sad stuff and nurses watching people dying daily - I don’t know how they coped and the reality should never be denied. The ward was full with elderly and some younger but clearly vulnerable and then some just not either. I don’t shout at random folk though that occasionally told me the same in shop queues for unknown reasons to me 🤷🏼‍♀️
A further point for the elderly - a nurse told me - is the rapidly advancing frailty without a bit of the outside, short walks to the shop, company even if just in shops - such a big impact there even if they avoid disease.
Re shutting down early, as a public authority worker I was told to get all the team ready to wfh for the week before, then suddenly that was dropped - I heard that man had just changed his mind that week at last minute, though had only reluctantly agreed in the first place to that original date. Later when at my parents’ for shopping I mentioned he should have shut down earlier as it was being discussed on the news and I got a right telling off from my mum, as I was just contrary and refusing to agree with all boris’ good decisions just because I didn’t like him, though they didn’t know why 🙈 - laugh and cry at that one! My ma realised later but not the magnitude and I never told her my dad died of covid as she was always so scared of it - just said pneumonia.
Final thing on covid is my 9 year old, very healthy, grandchild was in hospital in January 2020 for a week as couldn’t get his sats up - some sort of chest thing but unnamed and unknown!
I don’t know what any other government, or even leader, would have done, mistakes would have been made, but hopefully no parties, lies and laughs - they reminded me then of a bunch of posh lower sixth formers pretending to run a country for shits and giggles - not adults at all.

PickAChew · 20/11/2025 23:22

We were also glad that MIL had died before the pandemic. If Covid hadn't got her (which it would have - she had a hole in her heart and had been struggling in recent years, as a result) the isolation would have finished her off.

We're in one of the areas that was hammered when the tiers were introduced. We barely knew what we were supposed to be doing from one week to the next.

LlttledrummergirI · 20/11/2025 23:23

I haven't seen those threads thankfully. I was lucky and didn't lose anyone through covid, although dh did. His Uncle passed away and there was no funeral as his close relatives had illnesses which made them vulnerable so were shielding and it was wrong to do it without his wife and dc.

To find out no10 couldn't give a stuff and were partying at the time was gut wrenching.

We were at the tail end of it when mil passed away, and we knew she was seriously ill when they broke the two visitor rule so we could all see her in pairs. She survived and was able to return home for another 6 months before we finally lost her.

Flowers for all those who lost people.

derxa · 20/11/2025 23:43

bombastix · 20/11/2025 20:44

I think it is the rule following element that enrages people. As it should. We will never know if it was worth it.

I think of the effort people made to repress their needs for human society - and their credulity to authority. Awful. And the damage to physical and mental health was immense

Yes and the huge damage to children.

Deafnotdumb · 20/11/2025 23:56

Covid and lockdown mangled my family. I couldn't see my father or help my mother after a bad traffic accident took his leg (and nearly killed him). My sister had her baby on the floor of her bathroom. My grandfather had a stroke, followed by Covid in the care home.

I will never forgive Johnson for this. He damaged our country with his crap Brexit and damaged us all with his carelessness over Covid. I wish there were a way to make him accountable.

ilovesooty · 21/11/2025 01:01

PandoraSocks · 20/11/2025 23:12

Exactly why I stopped posting too.

Eta: just saw something posted on another thread. Really having to sit on my hands. 😡

Edited

Yes. I wasn't going to be lured into replying to posts where my reply might have got me deleted.

Saucery · 21/11/2025 06:33

I still find it incredibly difficult to write / talk about the Covid period so I will just say I’m so sorry to everyone on here whose lives were affected by the more horrendous aspects such as losing family and friends. And also to those who were contending with the day to day uncertainty and worry.
I remain angry at the people in charge at the time, for their prevarication then which we knew would lead to more deaths than there ‘had’ to be and for their outright lies every day to all our faces while we all struggled along in our own way trying to do the right thing.
Flowers

BIossomtoes · 21/11/2025 06:42

While the partying was going on in No 10 thousands of healthcare workers like my stepdaughter were grappling with PPE shortages. She was pulling 13 hour shifts in ITU without a break because they had one set per shift. She had weals on her face from her mask and her hands were raw. Every patient she nursed left in a body bag for weeks. As a result a talented ITU specialist nurse was lost because she just couldn’t face it any more after the height of the pandemic.

TheOnlyMrsW · 21/11/2025 08:20

[Flowers] for all who lost people, struggled or are still struggling, it makes me so angry when the apologists come out. DH and I often said we were glad his dad wasn't around to see it.
I can't bear to think about how Dmum might still be here if she hadn't been so shattered by shielding for nearly 18 months, or how DD's health might be so much better had her EDS/AuDHD diagnosis not been delayed. @msjinks your story is heartbreaking I'm so sorry.
Hugs to everyone x

bombastix · 21/11/2025 08:52

This is where I would really like to be more candid about what I do… but it would be very outing

I have a recollection of a woman who had put some balloons out for a party for some children outside her house. A few children playing in the garden. I think for a birthday. I watched two policeman quiz her in her garden. I watched them from across the street doing this to her, and they saw and they left.

Otherwise there was not a soul in the street.

I thought then Johnson had done something wicked. He had created a dobbers in society overnight, and perfectly normal behaviour was now sub criminal.

Later it came out about parties and cake and whatever. I don’t think the full story was ever clear.

I think of all the people criminalized or scared shitless by his rules, the culture he made and the mental harm his government did. I think many people barely handled it, and the damage it did to our society was immense. He was a total inadequate

pointythings · 21/11/2025 08:52

My parents, husband and in laws all died before COVID, and I had it easy - got DD1 home from uni before lockdown and it was just me and the DC. I was WFH 10 to 14 hours a day project managing staff redeployment, but we had each other. We also had half a patio to sit in the sun and play board games together. We were fortunate.

DuncinToffee · 21/11/2025 09:09

Hugs all around

Thread 38 Starmer: Tax your Hamster
OP posts:
DuncinToffee · 21/11/2025 09:12

No surprises here

A cryptocurrency backed by one of Nigel Farage’s biggest donors has been used to help Russia fight its war against Ukraine, British investigators say.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/nov/21/cryptocurrency-farage-donor-used-for-russian-war-effort?

Also, Gill is being sentenced today for 8 counts of bribery from a Russian agent.

OP posts:
PandoraSocks · 21/11/2025 09:16

bombastix · 21/11/2025 08:52

This is where I would really like to be more candid about what I do… but it would be very outing

I have a recollection of a woman who had put some balloons out for a party for some children outside her house. A few children playing in the garden. I think for a birthday. I watched two policeman quiz her in her garden. I watched them from across the street doing this to her, and they saw and they left.

Otherwise there was not a soul in the street.

I thought then Johnson had done something wicked. He had created a dobbers in society overnight, and perfectly normal behaviour was now sub criminal.

Later it came out about parties and cake and whatever. I don’t think the full story was ever clear.

I think of all the people criminalized or scared shitless by his rules, the culture he made and the mental harm his government did. I think many people barely handled it, and the damage it did to our society was immense. He was a total inadequate

I think some of the police really enjoyed having that power. There was one chief constable or some such who threatened to start searching shopping trollies.

The pandemic also brought out the best in people though. Some really pulled together and helped each other out.

I had a plumbing emergency and at that point was not coping well with lockdown and felt at my wit's end. Knocked on my plumber neighbour's door, who I had never really spoken to before as he was a few doors down. He came round, fixed everything and refused to take a penny.

Spandauer · 21/11/2025 09:18

Much love to anyone whose awful Covid memories have been reactivated by the inquiry findings.

I remember watching the news over that February 2020 half term and thinking "Why are people still going fecking skiing?!"

Johnson is first up against the wall in my revolution dream. (Well, joint first with Trump)

Efacsen · 21/11/2025 09:42

I remember watching the news over that February 2020 half term and thinking "Why are people still going fecking skiing?!"

Exactly - don't think anyone needed to be an epidemiologist to regard all the unnecessary travel as probably a 'bad idea'

See also Cheltenham race meeting and the Liverpool football game in Spain

Just a bit of common-sense required

BestIsWest · 21/11/2025 09:44

Not only skiiing but the bloody Cheltenham racing, rugby and Stereophonics concerts being allowed to go ahead mid March was ludicrous, two days later we were sent home from work and didn’t go back to the office for two years.

Evenstar · 21/11/2025 09:52

@Spandauer friends of ours and my cousin and his wife came back from skiing with COVID 🙄

Crufts also went ahead with people travelling from all over the world, it was ridiculous

Notonthestairs · 21/11/2025 10:14

I dont think anyone expected the Government to function perfectly during a pandemic. I think we accepted then (and now) that it was unchartered waters.

But Johnson/Cummings/Hancock were all temperamentally unsuited to the task.

Its really not party political because I genuinely think Theresa May & Philip Hammond would have made a better job of it.

She certainly wouldnt have been distracted by writing a book on Shakespeare or fucked off to Chevening for half term (not sure why he needed to go there then - its not like his kids were old enough to have a half term).
And I highly doubt the party animals at No 10 would have been given free rein.
No Cummings testing his eyesight. No ABBA parties.
I'll bet Allegra Stratton read the report rolling her eyes.

PandoraSocks · 21/11/2025 10:19

I agree that May and Hammond would have done a better job. Instead we had a buffoon and a cheater.

MaybeNotBob · 21/11/2025 10:39

I read that as James May and Richard Hammond for a moment. Even Jeremy Clarkson might have done better...

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