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.

Oh Hello there Carrie - How is Dylan?

Could the government’s critics kindly explain why France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA, and many countries around the world are also being absolutely pummelled by this virus, even though none of them is being run by Boris Johnson or the Conservative Party? Several of those countries are model high-spending social democracies, to boot.

It’s almost as if a tidal wave will breach your defences no matter what steps you take to prepare for it...

The Tory party has hollowed out the NHS. They have left it on its knees. This is the result. Their lack of prioritizing and funding healthcare for all is what we're seeing now.

They have been in power for 10 years. We have the fragile, dismantled Tory NHS trying to cope with a pandemic.

The people who voted for brutal Tory cuts never thought they'd be at the sharp end of those cuts.

That is why I am grateful that we have politicians with at least a passing understanding of reality in charge just now.

That would be the politicians who represented 30 ventilators as 3000? Who said they would be doing hundreds of thousands of tests and just aren't? Who did nothing about PPE all through February when it was obvious it was going to be needed? Who said there was a shortage of reagents when the companies producing it were clear that there wasn't one? Who told at least three different and inherently non-credible stories about why they didn't join the EU ventilator system?

If that is their acquaintance with reality, it's not a reality anyone else recognises.

This government has been way too slow to act. Thousands are going to die because of their incompetence. The way out of this situation is test, isolate and trace contacts.Their current theory is to let people die but not too quickly so it doesn’t look as bad. People wake up use your brains look at South Korea, Singapore, Japan and China. There is a better way than killing off between 0.5 % of your population. Yes I do have a science degree and experience in viral epidemics.

"Right wing ideology" is pretty funny given the financial response by this government which has proven that this is very much a centrist government

Yes I have been pleased by this. I have long wanted a return to a party prepared to occupy the Centrist ground. But I voted for Blair several times which, apparently, makes me 'Tory scum'.

Vincent - look at China? Seriously?

Let’s keep this topic on the shocking incompetence of this elected government.

Because assessing the incompetence of someone, especially in a unique situation, is meaningless unless there is some kind of frame of reference.

Are they doing badly, or are they actually doing well compared to how others have done, or would do. We can’t use the outcomes as a good indicator of proficiency because nobody can say whether what we have is a good outcome or a bad one. Maybe no matter what is done, the numbers we are seeing are as good as they could be. Or maybe there could be less if we do more. Nobody can possible know.

I’m no fan of Boris, far from it, but his government was quick to set up a pretty good package to support people financially. When issue were raised that some were left uncovered, they have been largely ironed out.

I won’t compare to any other politician as I’m not sure we have anyone who would have done better or indeed who would have been any worse,
but I’m certain we are in a better position than we would be with Trump.

When your only defence to a charge of utter incompetence is to argue that someone else might have done worse, you're exposing the extreme weakness of your position. I'm not sure that some of the government's defenders on here and elsewhere are able to understand that.

I love these threads.
They keep all the tinfoil hatters, armchair experts and keyboard warriors in one place, leaving the rest of the internet that tiny bit freer for the rest of us.

Crack on, OP. You’re providing an important public service.

@Blossomad

Exactly. The government have the heads up about these things way before Joe public gets wind of anything.

MintyMabel, the frame of reference therefore needs to be what is actually happening under other governments, not what some hypothetical alternative government here might do - particularly bearing in mind that the current government has been in power for a long time and is therefore fully responsible for the infrastructure we had in place before this crisis even started. And what is happening in Germany is probably one of the best starting points, given their death rate.

But may people disagree with your premise of 'utter incompetence' don't they?

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.

Are you lying or just badly informed? No, they don't have 4000 ventilators at Nightingale. The best claims are that they will have 500 there. There is a massive shortage of ventilators due to:
a. The Govt ignoring all pandemic reports.
b. Not opting in to EU procurement scheme.
c. Failing to respond to an existing manufacturers supply messages.

Plus we have a shortage of people to operate them, you know 40,000 nurses. Plus the front life staff are dropping like flies - at my local trust 1/4 is off sick now.

People think that's good?

But I voted for Blair several times which, apparently, makes me 'Tory scum'

Voting for the most right wing Labour leader ever nearly 20 years ago isn’t the best indication of not being Tory now. I find your views incomprehensible but I’d never call anyone “scum”, I don’t think anyone else has done either.

many , sorry

Some glaring mishandling of PPE and tests but out of everyone bar Germany, maybe Japan, not too bad.

The lack of adequate PPE and the appallingly low level of testing are two massive failures by the government. As is their inability to procure enough ventilators despite the fact that we had time enough to do so. Let’s hope for all our sakes that they rectify their errors ASAP. Gove’s line about having trouble getting the ‘reagents’ required to do testing was apparently false - see Peston’s article on that. There are UK companies ready and able to supply the required chemicals - all Gove needs to do is pick up the phone. Oh ... and we went into lockdown two weeks too late - even a week sooner would have saved countless lives. The ‘herd immunity’ argument they were spouting was throwing the elderly and vulnerable under a bus. The next couple of weeks are going to be pretty grim for the UK I fear.

I do love the way that every individual with an O level in textile studies or home economics now thinks that they’re an expert in epidemiology.

While no response to this type of situation is ever perfect, so far as I can see, the government has been following the advice of eminent scientists and clinicians, rather than the readers of mumsnet. Funnily enough, I’m okay with that.

I find your views incomprehensible but I’d never call anyone “scum”, I don’t think anyone else has done either

Also - how on earth would you know this? Momentum regularly refer to Blair voters as exactly this! Sadly I have a family member who is quite high up the ranks of Momentum and this has destroyed our relationship.

So please do not presume to tell me what I have or have not been labelled by the ludicrous hard left. Because you clearly have no idea.

But actually no other country is doing any better than the UK.

It would seem more accurate to say that a lot of countries are doing around the same as the UK. Some are worse and several are doing a lot better.

Voting for the most right wing Labour leader ever nearly 20 years ago isn’t the best indication of not being Tory now.

Also the only Labour leader to win a majority since 1974. Which would seem to indicate that the electorate considers what you mislabel as “right wing” to be in fact the political centre of the country.

Also the only Labour leader to win a majority since 1974. Which would seem to indicate that the electorate considers what you mislabel as “right wing” to be in fact the political centre of the country

Quite.

Alsohuman

I just wish to God the government and their PR spin doctors would stop lying and I wish the journalists would stop enabling them

The media is no longer enabling them. The Daily Telegraph, of all things, is openly critical today. I can see a huge wave of media criticism about to engulf them.

^THIS. Every single lie is being debunked almost immediately. It is somewhat gratifying to see actual journalism and investigation of facts. Cummings relies on blatant lies, managing expectations and image control which is not cutting it in this environment.

Personally, I think they have done very well

hahahah

The UK were already the laughing stock of Europe and now even more so. Only British people think the UK is a special place to live. It's quite obvious that it's now quite a poor country (with pockets of extreme wealth) with a horrendous government and failing infrastructure (sorry NHS). Don't get my started on the social problems.