To be flabbergasted by this Government’s incompetence.

[Cam77]

*2000 of 500,000 NHS staff tested.
*Germany performing nearly TEN TIMES the number of tests as the UK. despite the WHO saying for weeks and weeks that they key is to “test test test”
*Continuing shortages of basic PPE for health workers (who are being threatened if they speak out)
*Thousands of people still cramming on to public transport, with not one metre let alone 2 metre distance.
*The Government failing to sign up to the EU ventilator scheme.
*Being one of the last Western countries to close schools and implement any kind of lockdown.

I know it’s tough for everyone but this is a level of criminal negligence from the British government. Absolutely shocking.

@koshkatt
Even if some of the decisions were backed by Khan, I believe the PM might just have authority over the London mayor.
For example:
Khan has told James O'Brien that he argued at the COBRA meeting that construction workers should not be going to work but was over-ruled by Boris Johnson. The Mayor of London said he did not think it was right for construction sites to be open after the government announced a lockdown across the UK yesterday. James suggested that people building hotels or restaurants should be told to stay at home and Mr Khan agreed, but said that he had been overruled at the COBRA meeting. He added: "And every one of the government ministers who spoke overruled me. "I think it's important for the government to understand the scale of the challenge we are facing. "Of course I understand that bill have to be paid by the government, but they have to realise that people are dying. "In the meantime, people are making choices for reasons that I understand - they are self-employed freelancers working in the gig economy - and the government's got to step in and help them.

It shows how bad the government are if the only defence their supporters can come up with is "Well someone else might have been even worse" so not even trying to defend what they are doing at all!

To be honest, I don't think there is any problem at all with central government decision-making. The economic packages that have been amounted for the NHS, for businesses, employees and even the self-employed are amazing. I think there is a pre-existing problem with NHS administration and it appears to have taken the Army to get involved for supplies of PPE to be rolled out effectively.

We do need widespread testing for people who are self-isolating because of symptoms similar to coronavirus but with an innocuous cause so that they can get back to work and it appears there is capacity in the system for that but there are organisational constraints at a local level. Perhaps it will also take Army administration to sort out the blockages on testing because the people with that responsibility don't seem to be sufficiently well organised. That said, it is worth remembering that 85% of people being tested do not have the virus and there is no point in rolling out the current test to people we are pretty sure don't have the virus, as that won't help us at all. Even for most people with the virus, the best course of action is to stay at home because most people do not become seriously unwell and do not require hospital admission. As long as we can treat everyone who does need hospital care then we should be OK.

So many experts on here with experience of dealing with global pandemics. Wondered where they all were...

Not the time.
We can analyse the data in the future, we won’t know what and when the right thing to do was until about 5 years time when it’s all played out.

Right now we have little choice but to get on with life and keep inside.

how is not getting ventilators 'doing the best they can

Well they seem to have 4,000 of them in the Nightingale, a hospital built in a week. Come on everyone, stop being so bloody negative. I think some things have been done really well. Everyone on the "vulnerable" list also getting good packages. There are some positives too.

In actual fact, we locked down BEFORE many other countries, in terms of infection rates, we were behind the curve. No-one in the world has sufficient PPE or testing capabilities, and testing only shows if you have Covid today, you may well catch it tomorrow, so it's not that effective as a control anyway. You would have to do multiple daily tests, so these need to be rationed. The antibody test is going to be the game changer.

PPE is not being rolled out effectively? That in itself at this point is criminally negligent. The govt refused to buy adequate PPE In 2016 when they were advised to after a pandemic simulation was run for govt.

I don’t quite understand the focus on testing. Surely it’s like an MOT. You could be tested and come out clear today. Doesn’t mean you are not going to catch it tomorrow.

Obviously, it’s useful to know how many positive cases there are, and to isolate them, but surely a negative is only accurate on the day it was taken. Not a day , week, or month later.

Boris is still working from his bloody sick bed!

You believe that?

Govt incompetence cannot be excused by "Corbyn would have been worse"

Is that going to be the excuse for the next 5 years - " look, the bogeyman"

Oh and I'm one of those who think the regime in China must be held to account,

for their disgraceful coverup throughout December and beyond,
intimidating brave whistleblowers into recanting.
possibly faking even data now

I can condemn more than one shit government at a time
... and the worst that Boris could do is nothing like what the Chinese dictatorship has done to their own people overthe years - they have slaughtered millions

@koshkatt

At least we can be grateful that Corbyn is not in charge. It's some comfort to me in this awful time.

This. ^

Just imagine if he and Diane Abbott had been in charge during this awful time.

What an utter living nightmare that would be. 😱

@Cam77 YABVU. I know some people on here love to have a go at the Conservatives at every available opportunity, but they are doing everything they can.

A medical fetish site donated their PPE stock after they were approached by NHS procurers. I mean come on. This is absurd.

I would not be surprised if Tory CCHQ have a collection of accounts here to attack Labour whenever the govt is criticised

Well, we had Momentum all over the place during the last election, so I guess it's not outside the bounds of possibility

That said I don't much care personally - when someone posts for purely political motives it's generally pretty easy to spot

To have doctors working with inadequate PPE at this point is negligent

Agree. Lets get the Head of NHS Procurement and individual trust procurement managers into the daily press briefings then so they can explain what they hell they are doing and why they didnt have suitable stocks in place for a pandemic.

As another PP said its taken the Army's involvement to get a hospital built and rolling out of PPE. It suggests some managers in the NHS are not suitable to lead a crisis and questions should be asked about that. The Government doesn't manage the NHS day to day, it pays many managers alot of money to do that.

Every single post on here that you make points out a Black member of Labour for criticising in a situation that they have no power over? You are not very subtle

Here's a video for you. Tory MPs cheering after they voted down a pay rise for nurses.

"Just imagine if he and Diane Abbott had been in charge during this awful time.

What an utter living nightmare that would be."

You need an irony emoticon
Some pp might think you are serious

I wonder how many of them will be clapping at 8pm tonight?

From what I understand, the govt ordered tests from China which they have tested and found to be substandard. They're now frantically trying to find an alternative.

My understanding, based on family experiences, is that the government has tightened up the rules on PPE and obliged hospitals to take better measures to protect staff, even those not treating PPE patients. It sounds like the hospitals were the main blocker before that and they are now being forced to take the issue seriously.

I’m waiting for @koshkatt to start blaming Obama for this govts incompetence.

Love that the first post is bashing Corbyn. All the policies the govt have just announced were in his bloody manifesto.

The apoligists for this complete shit show of a govt are reprehensible.

God, it's some boast that this government is doing better than Corbyn would have done.
A bit like praising hitler for keeping living standards high in Germany.

While our government theorised over the benefits of herd immunity, our nearest neighbour, Ireland, acted much quicker and more decisively in implementing a lockdown, shutting schools etc.
Their death rate is now 2.5 times less than UKs.

If Labour were in govt and their supporters were claiming how much worse iit would have been if Boris had won,
then I would consider them equally ridiculous

We have this govt
They have made some cockups and also got some things right

It is totally unimportant what another party might have done - better or worse - in an alternative reality in which they were the govt

Why do people keep mentioning Corbyn? It's irrelevant, you lot are obsessed.
^^ This