To feel awful for Boris

[YouDoYou18]

A few people I know have said some awful things like ‘it serves him right’

I didn’t vote conservative, and to be honest I’ve never been a big fan of BJ himself.. but Christ do I feel awful for the poor man.

He must have thought it was going to be relatively easy, brexit was almost over and we just had to get through the last little bit and then the world fell into one of the biggest disasters in recent history...

He’s got to balance trying to save a big percentage of the population with making sure they have an economy to return to when this is over, he’s got to pull unprecedented amounts of money from thin air to support everyone through this time, everyone thinks they can do a better job and then to top it off he catches the virus himself and ends up hospitalised!

He just can’t catch a break! Whether you like him or not surely I’m not being unreasonable in feeling pretty bad for the guy?

countrygirl99 …… I am with you . That is where my sympathies lay too.

"I hope all the people on here who are anti Boris wont have the audacity to accept their furlough pay."

Well done for winning today's "most idiotic post of the day" award.

I more feel awful for the population, that Boris Johnson is the prime minister at such a time. Deaths could have been much much lower than they are – and BJ and his laissez-faire approach to government is ultimately responsible. Cheltenham Gold Cup, anyone?

I can only hope that when he finally gets back to work he and Cummings will have learned something from the experience and as a result will take some action to benefit the rest of the UK.

Currently, it seems to have given him the excuse for his third mini-break in a posh place since the election (after Mustique at New Year, Chevening for half-term, now Chequers for convalescence). Am expecting him to get back to it as early as he possibly can. This is no time for a part-time PM.

I don't feel bad for the guy, because I don't think he underestimated the task, I don't think he's lazy, and I think he knows better than most others exactly what he needs to deliver. I am very glad that he is better.

If he’d locked down when there were only a handful of CV cases in the UK people would be screaming about the overreaction putting people out of jobs and business for something the UK was largely unaffected by

Initially, maybe. But as the virus made it’s way through world populations, do to you think we would have then worked out that the so-called overreaction was anything but? This is not something that is only affecting ‘other’. Look at New York - people who look like us and live like us.

Sadly, the worst of this virus is yet to be seen - it doesn’t get have a hold in the developing world and god only knows the state some parts of Asia and Africa are going to left.

A different response may have angered the average UK Joe in the first instance but in 6 months time, this Government would have been facing a very different electorate. That any health professional in this country has died is beyond a disgrace and needs careful consideration the next time we are asked to vote. And that’s just for starters.

You are brave starting this on a mainly left site. I agree with you by the way. The left never will because of their polarised views. It’s what makes them sheep
@Seriouslyastounded What is more sheepish than thinking the Government is doing at all well on this? It's a disaster that BJ and the team are making worse by the day.

What would I do? 1. Testing - including taking up the small labs on their offers so that we know who has it and who hasn't – and, once an antibody test is in place, who has had it –and can proceed accordingly.

1. Money - make sure that all those big promises result in actual cash, saving actual businesses and actual people. This sounds expensive but is cheaper than crashing the economy altogether.

1. From there, we can get out of the lockdown without just assuming, as we seem to be, that once the pressure's gone off the it's the turn of the next lot of people to get it and perhaps die. Waiting for something (such as a vaccine) to turn up is no strategy at all.

Spot on @ TantieTowie!

There were a lot of lefties saying they didn't care if he died. I'm left wing but that's disgusting.

@HarrySnotter tbh no I can’t - everyone is yet again being wise after the event ( what should have been done sooner etc this is a long way from over obviously) everyone knows best.
Boris was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Having worked for the NHS for 21 years and then in private practice for the last 6 years, I’m now back on the frontline in a very large general hospital ( albeit only short term whilst we have this crisis) working very long days / nights but this is what I signed up for when I chose to be a medic but not when I chose my specialty ( Ophthalmology) Myself and my colleagues have every respect for the guy who is trying is best. The NHS isn’t perfect but that’s historical not the fault of one person who has been in office a short time. They are being guided by the science and I for one can see that.
So no I’m not furloughed but totally agree with the op that BJ deserves a break.

Ha. I became chair of the school my kids are at. It was sold to me as. It's all done. You've just got to oversee it

It turned out to be the hardest job I've ever had to do!!!!!

Then lockdown hit. I was like ahhhhhhh

I can only imagine it for Boris but x 10000000000

everyone is yet again being wise after the event Were the clubs who cancelled matches on the 14th and 15th of March being wise after the event?

@Nearlyadoctor Well I guess everyone has different experiences then. My sister has been an NHS doctor for almost 22 years now, also frontline, and she and her colleagues seem to share a very different view to you. Perhaps different trusts are having different issues.

I'm just a bit flummoxed at people thinking that this has been handled well from the start in this country.

@BananaChocolateLump - he didn't actually. There were no Covid-19 patients in that hospital at that time. Don't believe his lies & spin.

@1forsorrow - no they were being sensible but if we’d locked down earlier everyone would still have slated Boris, by that point a lot of us were already observing SD, but look at the night they announced pubs etc would shut the amount of people who went out for ‘one last drink’.
There’s still many people arguing they’re not being told what to do who are still visiting family and friends.

Were the clubs who cancelled matches on the 14th and 15th of March being wise after the event?

Do you think maybe - just maybe - it’s a little more complicated to shut down a 2 trillion pound economy that to cancel a football match?

The national lockdown started only a week after that date anyway, so I’m not sure what you think it proves.

@Nearlyadoctor - what a totally ridiculous statement. What do you expect me to do? Resign from a job that I love & that I've been doing for over 14 years? That's the alternative. F right off with your entitled Tory mantra.

You are very brave OP and I for one agree with you, but on this politically unbalanced MN you will get nowhere. Any politician of any party would have this nightmare as in every country in the world, but here on MN everyone would have done a better job, knows better than any scientist, and wish all sorts of terrible fates on the man. Is a pandemic that threatens lives and are economics the fault of the Tory party, and in particular Boris? You bet your life it is. Reading Mn is a bit like reading the Daily Mail sometimes, different viewpoints but equally ranty. Lets all pull together in a Dunkirk Spirit? Well there is hand clapping

If he’d locked down when there were only a handful of CV cases in the UK people would be screaming about the overreaction putting people out of jobs and business for something the UK was largely unaffected by. The bloke literally can’t win.

Or we could have been in a situation like Greece - who did exactly this - and have had only 99 deaths in a population of 11 million.

Everyone (especially on MN) thinks they could have done a better job/made better decisions.
**
I don’t think anyone could have.

Except Jacinda Ardern and her cabinet (who have also taken a 20% pay cut), Leo Varadker, and many others mentioned above...

Genuine question to Tory / Boris supporters (all of whom have seemed to disappear after being challenged.... I notice SeriouslyAstoubded hasn't been back since the video of the MPs clapping was posted): Why is it that if you disagree with Tory policy / Boris you are automatically branded a 'leftist sheep'? Is it outside the realms of possibility that some people might have looked at evidence from a variety of sources and - shock, horror - come to a decision about who to support based on that? I mean, call me an idealist, but.......

I dont feel awful that his party has put the nhs in this mess. I dont feel awful that he has recovered from an illness that thousands have and are dying from. I dont feel awful that his party are now gaslighting the British public, saying weve all misinterpreted their guidance till now and it's our fault that the economy is in trouble.

@BudgieHammockBananaSmuggler
yes he was pretty ill and he was in ITU and a ventilator was closely considered. But hey lets not measure whether he was ill or dying, Covid isnt a competitive illness

You can read this for free, although you might need to create an account. www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/world/europe/coronavirus-uk-death-economic-toll.html It's worth doing though. Personally I find non-UK news sources to be much better at reporting the UK's situation than the Mail, Express, Telegraph et al. They're free of fawning adulation but also can't generally be accused of supporting Labour or being 'lefties' or whatever other pseudo-insult Johnson's fans want to direct at those who present facts that run counter to their argument.

Why is it that if you disagree with Tory policy / Boris you are automatically branded a 'leftist sheep'?

Because - let’s be honest - that’s what many of them are. They’d be saying the same thing if Boris could shit gold and cure Covid with a glance.

@Peapod29
Funny? really you have a warped sense of humour. I hope none of your children go into politics

I notice SeriouslyAstoubded hasn't been back since the video of the MPs clapping was posted)

But now we've got NoMorePoliticsPlease, commenting on a thread that was obviously going to be political. If I didn't know better, I'd say Dominic's stooges were tag-teaming.