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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why people aren’t more angry?

520 replies

Rainbowb · 29/04/2020 23:09

Throughout this whole crisis I have really been surprised by the level of acceptance from everyone in this country of the whole situation. I know we haven’t had much choice in the decisions made and we’re probably a very polite nation as a whole but we have been so quick to accept the arrival of a deadly virus and drastic changes to our lives, seemingly without complaint. Is no-one out there demanding to know how on earth this was all able to happen? We’ve faced the huge loss of human life worldwide and it is continuing, surely we are all entitled to get angry and demand answers? I see grieving families, children missing out on being with other children and not having an education, families being separated indefinitely, people’s mental health suffering and vulnerable people potentially at risk and I feel so frustrated and angry. If we got fired up about climate change, why not this??

OP posts:
JackChaffinch · 30/04/2020 16:15

Oh I'm fucking furious. "Success" our Prime Minister says. What fucking "success"??? Thousands of us are dead and hundreds of us are dying every day. What "success" is he on about? Has nobody shown him the real figures? We'll be at 50,000 dead by the end of the month and he calls that a success?!

Justanotherlurker · 30/04/2020 16:42

What "success" is he on about? Has nobody shown him the real figures?

Do you think you are seeing the real figures and Sage and The Government are not...

Here is some background reading for you, it might be able to keep calm during these unprecedented times.

Coronavirus deaths: how does Britain compare with other countries?

JackChaffinch · 30/04/2020 17:13

*Do you think you are seeing the real figures and Sage and The Government are not...

Here is some background reading for you, it might be able to keep calm during these unprecedented times.

Coronavirus deaths: how does Britain compare with other countries?*

Thank you @Justanotherlurker I missed the part where you told me what "success" the Prime Minister is referring to? You could throw in why thousands of us dying doesn't make you angry if you like.

Justanotherlurker · 30/04/2020 17:31

So you think there would be no deaths if they followed a plan that you now like with the benefit of hindsight?

If you take off your partisan glasses it might help.

JackChaffinch · 30/04/2020 17:40

@Justanotherlurker

So you think there would be no deaths if they followed a plan that you now like with the benefit of hindsight?
*
If you take off your partisan glasses it might help.*

So.. again. What was that "success" the Prime Minister is referring to?

Your whataboutery doesn't really seem appropriate when we're talking about so many British people losing their lives, does it?

chugmonkey · 30/04/2020 17:52

Anger is pointless. Holding the government to account for their culpability in the sheer amount of deaths is a better place to channel the energy.

TheMagiciansMewTwo · 30/04/2020 17:54

@chainsawBear I have worked in different organisations where disaster planning was integral. You may think it's like someone not losing weight. It isn't. It's bedded in to strategic planning. It's discussed in every budget. It involves cross-department co-operation and funding. The government not implementing their plan not funding it appropriately and ignoring all the feedback on their pandemic planning, wasn't a case of someone accidentally eating another cake. It was willful negligence. And everyone should be furious about it.

@chazsbrilliantattitude great idea about channeling anger into action. Is there a petition calling for a public enquiry? Is there a pressure group co-ordinating campaign actions? I'd be keen to get involved.

Humphriescushion · 30/04/2020 18:15

Some figures to compare since the goverment is so keen on comparing
FRance hospital deaths 14,000
UK hosptial deaths 22,000
( sorry to use approx )

French hospitals are fuller though and rate of death is less.

Anniegetyourgun · 30/04/2020 19:06

It was actually Cummings who wanted to initiate a lock down and the scientists who where pushing for the herd immunity, it still is pretty much what every country is going for anyway.

Eh what? OK, my memory isn't what it was, but I think it was the other way round. DSis has a fairly clear recollection of him saying, or it may have been tweeting, that it was not so bad because it was only old people who would be going to die anyway... but we could both be wrong. Or you could.

Theflushedzebra · 30/04/2020 19:32

Annie - Cummings had a "Domoscene" revelation during a meeting with the Imperial College guy, who laid out his model of 200,000 deaths and and the collapse of the NHS. Before that meeting, he had been all "protect the economy at all costs".

He did a complete U-turn after that, and pushed strongly for an immediate lockdown. Much as I dislike the guy, I'm grateful that he was so happy to change his mind, and that he was so persuasive to Boris.

Bris was said to very much dislike the idea of curtailing people's liberties, closing the pubs etc. Cummings pushed for the lockdown.

That was reported by the Times.

JediJim · 30/04/2020 21:14

I do wonder how much influence Dominic Cummings has over Boris. Wasn’t it Cummings idea to recruit the 20 000 new police officer ( we’ll replace the 20000 that were lost over the last decade).

Theflushedzebra · 30/04/2020 21:31

Re the lockdown, I also read (I think The Times again, or possibly heard it on one of the BBC politics shows) that Ministers were saying that had Theresa May still been in power, nothing at all would have been done by the time Boris Cummings locked down.

Quoted as saying "if May and Hammond were in charge, they would have just about managed to release a statement saying wash your hands, but Hammond would have refused to pay for it." ( Grin )

I really don't think Corbyn would have have handled it any better (probably a good sight worse, actually) because I found him very dithery and indecisive.

Blair would have been better - he dealt with things at least decisively, and had the experience of the foot and mouth disease.

Piglet89 · 30/04/2020 21:35

Why the fuck are we debating the hypotheticals of how x y and z might have handled it? What, exactly, does that have to do with the price of fish?

Piglet89 · 30/04/2020 21:37

The price of fish probably having sky-rocketed because of the fucking lockdown.

LilacTree1 · 30/04/2020 21:42

angels I’m not brave enough to protest

Plus my asthma would mean constant coughing. I’ve never been on a demo, I lack the stamina.

I can only wish that certain folk get what they deserve.

Theflushedzebra · 30/04/2020 21:46

@Piglet89 because I thought it was interesting, and this is a discussion board.

Justanotherlurker · 30/04/2020 21:48

Why the fuck are we debating the hypotheticals of how x y and z might have handled it?

Because some are trying to prove that the current government have handled it wrong and should have done x,y,z instead.

Nobody is going to know what the correct approach was until we are all out the other side, on top of that some are trying to compare some kind of death league table with little understanding of statistics.

A lot need to read this and stop being trying to be armchair experts

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/30/coronavirus-deaths-how-does-britain-compare-with-other-countries

Piglet89 · 30/04/2020 21:49

Given the dire state we’re all in, it’s an utterly futile exercise and an attempt to distract from THE UTTER COWPAT OF A JOB THIS GOVERNMENT HAS DONE IN THIS CRISIS.

Piglet89 · 30/04/2020 21:53

Tell you what, @Justanotherlurker - what the correct approach was NOT was to do one thing, waste time and then decide on another. They’ve done that on numerous occasions - testing, tracking and tracing, the policy on whether to introduce a lockdown at all....I could go on.

Don’t even get me started on the PPE debacle.

Theflushedzebra · 30/04/2020 21:53

I was in favour of an earlier lockdown - but Boris Cummings did actually end up locking down decisively. It's interesting to think about how other party leaders would have handled it - and to hear the Westminster reporters on the subject.

I think it's interesting to note though, that although I have a lot to criticise on Boris's govt's handling of this - I think May and Corbyn would have handled it a lot worse. We'll never know of course - but it's ok to chat on here, still, isn't it? It is a chat board after all.

Piglet89 · 30/04/2020 21:54

I don’t want to chat. I want to rage.

Now I have to think about how best to channel my rage.

Theflushedzebra · 30/04/2020 21:56

I've been really turned off Mumsnet recently - it's like anyone putting down an opinion is shouted at like "WHY THE FUCK..." - isn't free discussion of thoughts and ideas allowed under lockdown or something?

Theflushedzebra · 30/04/2020 22:00

Go ahead and yell at me if it helps, Piglet - I doubt it will though. I'm not in charge.

Piglet89 · 30/04/2020 22:01

Sorry @Theflushedzebra - point taken.

LilacTree1 · 30/04/2020 22:03

Piglet there are a couple of threads going where it’s okay to feel how you feel.

You could join us here

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3893108-I-know-IABU-but-I-am-totally-fed-up-of-lockdown