To think this situation shows up the divisions in the UK

[Ihatecurtaintwitchers]

England's leaders seems to have responded with early denialism and delay, closely followed by a lockdown, constant constant WW2 references and a new and slightly disturbing deification of the NHS. Johnson's illness caused even critical press to become sycophantic cheerleaders, & the political focus seems to be on constantly harping on about how magnificent the government are, how they are leading the fight, how now is not the time to let up and a total inability to acknowledge the obvious flaws that have led to increased deaths.
I don't know much about Wales, but it seems to be Scotland and Northern Ireland have taken a far more pragmatic, scientific, European approach. Obviously the Republic of Ireland is outside the UK but it seems their approach in terms of politics and communication has been far closer to Scotland than to England. I can just see the English tabloids splashing a cigar chomping Johnson and partner and new baby on the front cover wirh headlines like "Britain's baby bounce" and ubiquitous WW2 imagery. Obviously England and Scotland already differed widely on Brexit, now it seems that public policy and the general way of thinking of the people and their leaders is further apart than ever. I

Have requested my previous post to anxious be deleted, I overstepped the mark a bit and apologise. No-one is lying, we are exchanging views.

What is Scotland doing differently to England? Absolutely nothing.

Sturgeon has closed construction ensuring our economy will suffer for longer for probably no benefit.

The guidance on going out hasn’t been clarified to outline the differences people with disabilities need to follow.

She has a different way of reporting deaths which made our figures look much better until she was called out on it and our figures doubled overnight.

@MissHoskins 'wee krankie'

Well I think people can judge you appropriately.

I'm not the one resorting to nasty personal remarks about other people.

Grow up.

Fucking hell the kids are awake tonight

What is Scotland doing differently to England?

I don't think can't really compare the two tbh. Scotland's land area is around 30k sq miles, while England's is around 50k sq miles, and Scotland's population is around
10 times smaller than England.
This means we have a much lower population density (it's something like 170 people per sq mile vs 430 for England). Even the most densely populated areas of each country have a massive difference (Glasgow's around 8k per sq mile and London's 13k).

This alone will be one of the biggest factors in how far/easily the virus spreads.

Eta - England's population density should be around 1100 per sq mile not 430. Got my conversions wrong going from km to mile

There is a global pandemic and all countries are trying to buy up the PPE. Why do some people think the government are not trying as hard as they can to buy as much as they can. The NHS is used to having 4-6 weeks stock and so I can see why they get upset when they run low and only have a couple of days stock but do they really believe the government are not trying their best to secure PPE for them? Can anyone else get it quicker? First we heard there would not be enough cc beds so they had army build up and kit Nightingale hospitals, then we heard not enough ventilators so they begged 200 from America and got GTec and Dyson and racing McClarron to produce some. Now we are told 80 per cent of people who get put on them for. We have gone from 3500 to over 10000 in a month whist most of world was also trying to buy. Next we hear more testing is needed and many NHS staff have to stay home and self isolate so short staffed. Government have capacity bgor 40,000 but now very few NHS staff seem to want them and don't take up option for testing themselves. Most lately there is clamour for gowns bit whole world wants them. It is very competitive to procure them. It is not as though government is saying to NHS workers they are too expensive and we won't pay for them. There is do much for government to do. They have had to devise furlough scheme and another one for self employed. They put us in lockdown and half day it is too late and other half day that they don't want lock down. Europe lockdown is far tougher than ours. I think government are doing well to allow many to still work so less damage to economy than full lockdown. They are following science and health advise which they should do. In France they often have riots.

I am relieved we left EU in January. The not so United EU. When Italy were desperate for ventilators and PPE Germany and France who manufacture these goods refused to sell to them so their death toll was higher. They got more support from China than other EU countries. We sent PPE to China at end of January and Labour criticised Tory government for that but China have reciprocated more than 8 fold. If we leave on Dec 31st we won't be forced to pay for Europe's economy calapse. Our own will take us 10 years to recover from. Europe will be worse as UK was in relatively good shape with low unemployed before pandemic. Many parts of Europe had high youth unemployment before pandemic. It looks like Italy may vote to exit EU next. When the chips were down the EU were not all in it together. They are total hypocrites.

Now, haven't all of you cybernats got a bridge to be lurking under?

I'm a Nurse, why should I be a troll just because I support the SNP, that doesnt make sense.

so off you pop dearie. And take that wee krankie with you

What a nasty post, when you have to lower yourself to personal attacks on the First Minister then you really haven't got anything worth saying.

She has a different way of reporting deaths which made our figures look much better until she was called out on it and our figures doubled overnight

She has repeatedly said she wouldn't include care home deaths until they could be verified. The figures now include care home deaths, would you prefer figures were wrong? England as far as I'm aware don't include care homes deaths yet.

I am in Scotland and wonder how an independent Scotland would have coped on its own during this. No Westminster 2.2billion hand out to support businesses( distributed to said businesses under very different rules to in England and Wales initially, until an outcry caused a swift u-turn by Scot gov) and no support from UK armed Forces. I think it has put a suitable dent into the SNP claims that Scotland can manage on its own.

@ thegcatsmother

Errr. No. I am french and have all my family there. Good for you to be believe we have “riots” you obviously do not possess any critical thinking and believe what all the foreign media would tell you.

I hate all this sniping between different parts of the U.K. The sweeping generalisation and stereotyping is horrible and was from the off-set.

I agree @Divebar. Pitting different bits of the UK against each other in time of crisis is really unpleasant.

The whole of the UK should pull together (and fortunately most of the time it feels like we ARE pulling together).

@caringcarer regards the PPE they could have joined with EU, but ‘lost’ the email, they could have ordered it earlier, like Germany, they could have upped manufacturing it here, they could have answered the hundreds of emails from businesses able to help with PPE.

That is not a professionally run government. Boris didn’t even attend cobra in February when you know we could have ordered PPE then.

The problem is that for some of us this highlights in the worst possible way how we truly are at the mercy of a government we didn't vote for and would never vote for. It's frustrating and frightening.

I agree with the sniping though. I still think we need to hold our leadership to account as this is the long haul, with enough pressure we could insist on better leadership.

@runrunrunrunt yes but as a traditional labour supporter I doubt they would have done a great job either. There doesn’t seem to be anyone up for the job. And the Whitty etc whilst not awful, are not rigorous enough - it’s like they suck up a bit too much and I’d include everyone in that.

No strength, no challenge.

No let's just use it to call the First Minister of Scotland a stupid name, so much better. hmm

I was with you on this @Laguna until in your next post you talked of BoJo. I am not a Boris fan but if you are insisting on not using stupid names for politicians why did you then use one for Boris Johnson? Totally ruined your previous point with that.

Can I just point out that most people in England didn’t vote for this government either (thanks first past the post!) so it is a little galling to all be lumped together in the way many posters have done- many many English people are at the mercy of a government they didn’t vote for

I’m not sure that you can say that there is a European approach. You can look at specific countries like say Germany who (so far) have a miraculously low death rate or Spain where they’ve gone OTT on lockdown but there is definitely no European approach. Has the EU even given guidances to its members?

@ Reginabambina

Miraculously?
Germany has been doing mass testing nearly from day 1 and has always invested in their hospitals. It is hardly miraculous. They are harvesting the fruits of their forward planning unlike the UK and all of those who wanted the brexit to give more money to the nhs. It makes me laugh so much that the brexiters were so.... naive 😂😂😂

@stayinginsummer that EU scheme has delivered 0 pieces of PPE so showed UK was right not to bank on help from EU.