To think that a personality cult has developed around Boris Johnson?

[Applejaxx]

I know this sounds completley ridiculous but have a quick look around social media and in particular Twitter, and you will see a disturbing number of people with lots of union flags in their twitter handle name who effectively think that the sun shines out of his arse, that he can do no wrong and that any justifiable criticism of his or his governments handling of the current crisis is part of a massive 'leftie' conspiracy against him.

They are terrified of 'lefties's and 'liberals' and think all of the media are out to get Boris and his government, it is just bat shit. Its not just Twitter either, I had to unfriend someone on Facebook after they told me that I should 'show Boris some fucking respect' a few weeks ago. This was after I'd shared something criticising his handling of the pandemic. Thankfully it was somone I don't really know that well and never have to see again, but still!

If im honest it all a bit disturbing. Its reminscent of a personality cult IMO, 'how dare you disrespect our glorious leader'.

Sure afterwards , but right now, no

Yes. Right now.

In wars, Generals have to step down and be replaced if they aren't up to the job.

Because victories matter. Losing matters. If you over promise and don't deliver, you are replaced.

I just think like the article I link earlier this morning.
The Newspapers need stories.
So they stir up hate for how badly this is being handled, when in reality everything possible is being done.
Boris bashing helps no one.
There is no organised oppersition right now, because Labour know the truth, all we can do is react to each event, and go on advice given by Medical bodies, correcting things as they are revealed. Again hindsight is about what happened that you can't change.

I think it shows that some people take comfort in having full unquestioning faith in the Gov - that gets them through. But other people need to question and prod - they are not able to trust the Gov...and experience has taught them not to.
I get that people in the former category find the questioning approach stressful, their beliefs might get shattered but you can't shut down the debate just because you can't cope with it. Maybe best to stay away from threads that question our supreme leader.

What it does show is that some people use hindsight, to score points

What i expect from people who think themselves good enough to run the country is Foresight and Planning.

Johnson and Hancock told us all in Jan feb that the UK was admired worldwide for our Pandemic preparedness and that the NHS was prepared, turns out being "political" was more important as neither was true.

Accountability? when and how? this country doesn't have the means for either, look at any enquiry in the last 50 years? At most in 2037 Sir Matthew Hancock would be found to not have been clear enough in some of his statements.

Afterwards is no bloody good. You can’t resurrect people afterwards. The time for holding to account is now, to force improvement.

If you think 'everything possible' was done you haven't been paying attention.

I dont know why people can shrug and go oh that's just Boris.
The man stood on national television and basically shrugged and told us a bunch of us were going to die for his herd immunity plan. Have we forgotten about that?

MegUffin

This is all bullshit. A bitter labour point scoring thread on a left wing site.

Because Boris is now the British Kim Jong where any questioning of his actions and failings makes you a traitor.

Never mind that this virus is affecting everyone in this country left and right and everything inbetween.
How dare we advocate for our doctors, nurses and dying relatives!
It’s simply unpatriotic!

If you think everything possible is being done @mummmy2017, you need to update yourself on the art of the possible.

At most in 2037 Sir Matthew Hancock would be found to not have been clear enough in some of his statements.

He lied, multiple times, it’s on film.

That toddler eating a packet of crisps in the park is not responsible for the rapid spread of this Virus. Boris is. Oh FFS

Maybe watch this video.

This is all bullshit. A bitter labour point scoring thread on a left wing site

Gosh. Some people really are angry this morning.

If only it wasn't so easy to score points at the moment...

How come this pandemic is worldwide, if your trying to imply only Boris was wrong.
Every country got things wrong.

Ah dear, hope you're ok Op. oooohh Boris Johnson sung by the unwashed that's turned out for Jezza has a ring to it doesn't it

chomalungma

Nope. From the brilliant article mummmy2017 quoted:

If we had had the modern journalist profession in 1940, we would have lost the war. They would have complained about the Governments disastrous mistakes at Narvik. It should have known that the Maginot line wouldn’t work. Journalists would have demanded that Churchill should have been immediately sacked for the defeat at Dunkirk. They would have described our situation as hopeless and would have ridiculed our ability to fight them on the beaches and would have said it was mere arrogance to suppose that our pathetic little country could have a finest hour. After all the Germans do everything so much more efficiently than we do. They would have listed all the mistakes our country had made and called it insight. The British people however would not have listened to them then, just as we don’t read them now. Newspapers are going out of business. They deserve to.

Every country got things wrong.

I think NZ did okay.

Yes, almost everyone struggled.

However the U.K. did very badly compared to almost everyone else. Their death toll makes that very clear. If you’re trying to deny that you’re a muppet.

A death rate trajectory that will see us up there with the USA ?

A testing rate of 18k per day instead of the 100k we were promised, people being kept at home instead of going to hospital, just to avoid the bad media coverage we witnessed in Italy and Spain.

The day after Italy locked down 16m people, our govt recommended 250k go to Cheltenham races, as Spain banned football, we welcomed 3000 spanish footie fans..... that's not following the science, thats incompetence.

Right now Hancock knows 1000s of cancer screenings are not happening, he is doing fuck all about that..... thats NOW not with Hindsight!!!!

Hey people vote with their feet.
Newspapers need stories to sell adverts, to make a profit.
It's about column inches.
Look at MN asking for money.

metro.co.uk/2020/04/21/top-civil-servant-backtracks-claim-uk-chose-not-join-eu-ventilator-ppe-scheme-12590910/

The civil servant seems to have backtracked. The problem is the news is so contradictory it’s difficult to know what to believe.

However the U.K. did very badly compared to almost everyone else. Their death toll makes that very clear. If you’re trying to deny that you’re a muppet.

Nope. Most of our large European neighbours - Germany is the exception - have much higher death rates per capita than we do: France, Italy, Spain, and Belgium too. The US is also rocketing up at the moment.

Every country got things wrong

Germany and New Zealand seem to be all right. Singapore’s fine. Meanwhile the death rate here looks like being the highest in Europe.

Narvik - was a disaster. You do know what happened there?

Woefully unprepared troops sent in by Churchill (the architect of the diasstrous Gallipoli campaign)

Dunkirk - took time to finally realise what was going on - but we did pluck a plucky retreat out of what was a disastrous way of fighting the last war against a modern army with modern tactics.

Nope. Most of our large European neighbours - Germany is the exception - have much higher death rates per capita than we do: France, Italy, Spain, and Belgium too.

Well firstly they’re further along the trajectory, so duh.

Secondly they’re not just including hospital deaths in there’s. The U.K. is under reporting to the time of 50% at least.

Everyone knows the UKs actual toll is shocking.

clopper

That’s one HELL of a retraction from that civil servant!

In the letter, published by the foreign affairs select committee, Sir Simon said: ‘Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, I inadvertently and wrongly told the committee, that ministers were briefed by UKMIS on the EU’s joint procurement scheme and took a political decision not to participate in it. ‘This is incorrect. Ministers were not briefed by our mission in Brussels about the scheme and a political decision was not taken on whether or not to participate,’ he added.

The lefty smear merchants will need a new attack line now!

chomalungma

And do you know what happened after that?

We won the fucking war!

How many of the 100,000 tests per day - which by the way is not 100,000 people per day as people may need more than 1 test a day have been delivered?

We were promised that. It hasn't happened. The Government are being asked about that.

I guess some people don't want journalists to question the Government on that.