To be very concerned that Boris Johnson said this

[Worriedmum54321]

From the Guardian:
Responding to the argument that a more stringent lockdown should have been imposed sooner, he said: “Don’t forget, it’s a very very demanding thing to ask a population to do – very tough – and so I think it was completely right to make our period of lockdown coincide as far as possible with the peak of the epidemic.”

Leafyhouse, sorry I forgot to attach the two tables and the link to where I got them from

www.politico.eu/article/europes-coronavirus-lockdown-measures-compared/

For those mentioning the magic money tree there isn't one it's called borrowing which needs to be paid back something they were trying to get the levels down at obviously in this case with the virus we have to borrow to even attempt to get through it
But the money wasn't just sitting in 10 Downing Street

They relied on scientific advice...🤣 from Dominic Cummings...with his degree in Ancient and Modern History...🤣

You have to laugh. To keep from weeping.

I think on balance they got it about right. The problems with the great brit public is that they arent as compliant as other countries. No direct comparsion to NZ either totally differnt thing there.

So we're almost 7 weeks into lockdown and a lot are getting rather awkward complying with that. I've noticed a large increase in traffic of late and a lot more people out and about.

Don't know if they could enforce it any better wirthout something like martial law. In theory by now the infection should have disappered seeing its 28 days from infection to either recovery or death;!

So at 7 weeks on thats neigh on 50 days its still being transmitted so people arent social distancing or it easier spread than at first thought. Round our way the supermarkets are now much easier to use hardley any queues over most times of the day and the ones that are are being well enforced so where are the new cases coming from?

Still the mostly overlooked good news is that the anti-viral drug Remdesiver is working to reduce illness duratoin. It just needs approval for use then get on with manafacturing on a huge scale its not the golden drug but it is effective it stops the virus replicating in the body by blocking an enzyme so as soon as its given the greater effect it can have:)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52478783

I think if they had tried to lock down earlier, people would have either not taken it seriously, or would have indignantly refused to co-operate. They were taking the psyche of the general British public into account when they decided on the timing.

Yes. Exactly.

There are already those saying we shouldn't have locked down at all because it wasnt "bad enough". If he'd gone early it wouldnt have stuck.

Justaboy lockdown started on 23rd March, that’s not even five full weeks...

No wait, six! 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

It's like being in an abusive relationship. He consistently gaslights.

While locking down a week earlier might have saved lives, I think it wouldn't have got the same level of support. People were ready for lockdown by then. Personally, I think the biggest mistake was not banning mass gatherings earlier eg Cheltenham.

Covert20

Yes your right, i put it doewn to not enough fingers to count with;!.

Nope. Completed agree with him as do many others..

Obviously not on mumsnet though- the notoriously left wing site who hate the Tories...

It may be that they decided on a later lockdown thinking that people would cooperate more. That wouldn't make Boris's comment correct though, or would it? He still seemed to be implying that the timing of lockdown had to follow the peak and not vice versa. I know he has been ill, and had a lot going on, but it is concerning. Particularly with him being the prime minister.

If it is true that people wouldn't have complied earlier, we need to take a look at ourselves. If so, we,d need to ask why so many people in this country are immune....to logic. I am not sure it is true though, I think the general public may have understood and may have felt rewarded for their efforts by seeing a much lower death toll than other countries. They also would not have needed such a long lockdown to get R and case numbers down to a level where we can start to emerge. I don't know though, it is an interesting question.

You agree with Boris's point about the timing of the peak @DodgyTrousers? Or something else, sorry I may have missed a post?

I think the concern should be that he's said THE peak, not the FIRST peak.

Because, well - science.

There is no comparison whatsoever between the U.K. & New Zealand

Both are island nations with easily lockable borders. Stop the flights and ferries (in the UK) and job done.

I think if they had tried to lock down earlier, people would have either not taken it seriously, or would have indignantly refused to co-operate. They were taking the psyche of the general British public into account when they decided on the timing.

I don’t buy this point of view at all. There is a thing called leadership and taking the people with you when difficult things have to be done. Boris didn’t bother trying to do this back in early to mid March about lockdown. We had Italy, Spain, France as examples as they were ahead of us in terms of spread yet the govt squandered it.

@NoLongerAnEasyTarget do you know what fascism is? It doesn’t mean anyone you dislike that you think is right wing. It’s most accurately defined as left wing policy driven by nationalist ideas (I’m assuming this is where you got right wing from). Typically this manifests in nationalisation in an attempt to become totally self sufficient. It’s like a miniature version of the USSR with imperialist ambitions. In general, Marxism and fascism are virtually indistinguishable in practice down to the love of red.

Ok, obviously the Tories have inherited the NHS, a large state school sector etc but they’ve done nothing to strengthen these institutions and have made no attempt to entirely nationalise any industries. They are a bit too patriotic for my liking perhaps but so long as that doesn’t translate into policy I don’t think it really matters. They certainly have no desire to cut off Britain from the world. Yes they’ve gone ahead with brexit but then again if the EU was a single state it would have a lot of soft facist characteristics starting with the emergence of the EU patriotism and then hopefully ending with more sinister economic and social interference. They tories are definitely not soft fascists by any stretch of the imagination. UKIP on the other hand were a perfect example of soft facists with their self sufficiency obsession arising from fairly hard core nationalism and their fairly left wing economic ideas (although I’m not sure these were widely known outside the party at the time).

On the compliance issue, the Greeks locked down earlier in their curve, for longer than the Brits now, through much nicer weather and through Easter, the most important religious event of the year in Greece, which traditionally sees everyone travel to their villages for huge parties. And yet they are doing it. It would be odd to suggest that it is because the Greeks are socially more compliant than the British. The compliance excuse is an easy one to trot out, and it shifts the blame from the politicians who pursued a psychopathic herd immunity strategy to the people who are suffering its effects because apparently they would not have complied with safety measures everyone else is complying with.

@Guylan i think you asked upthread about the counting of the care home deaths. The government is only counting those who have been tested ( not stated on death certifcate as per ons). This is going to be a series undercount, since little testing has been done in care homes to date. Most other countries in Europe have had deaths of around 40 percent and i cant imagine the uk being much different. This is a scandal.
France and belguim count suspected cases. The ONS figures to date for deaths in the communtih is well above what the government says.

The compliance excuse is an easy one to trot out, and it shifts the blame from the politicians
I agree. It's also ironic that the same people are often arguing that the government was right to shut down later as the British are not as compliant as other nations (we're always exceptional!) but it is our Blitz inspired fortitude that will get us through! Makes no sense whatsoever.

those of you whowishedfor an earlier lockdown, did you initiate your own lockdown?

i assumed this thread was about wishing Boris had not said We are passed the peak, dangerous words, people will relax too much.
we have the virus for a long time, we needed to flatten the curve.

I'm no troll jystanotherposter as you well know. And because as one of those who live in the realms of the poor I do know what it's like living on the brink under Tory needless austerity measures. In normal times before Covid my little family would be queuing up at the local food banks if I didn't help them from my meagre state pension even though they work as carers for minimum wage and zero contract hours and are doing 6 12 hour shifts during this pandemic looking after severely autistic young adults. It's easy to disagree with people who actually live in the real world and experience austerity first hand.

Humphriescushion is definately right Guylan! So add on at least 30% to carehome and community Covid deaths for true figures.

Italy locked down three weeks before us and their death rate currently is higher than ours

Not true. There are currently around 250-400 deaths a day in Italy, our current rate in hospitals is around 600. Italy began getting a serious infection rate at least three weeks earlier than we did. A true comparison is our death rate now compared with theirs three weeks ago. At that point they had had 18,000 deaths, we are at around 27,000 deaths - and more like 40,000 when you include non-hospital covid deaths.

those of you whowishedfor an earlier lockdown, did you initiate your own lockdown?

Pointless question. Most people didn't have the choice as they still had to go to work, the law required that their children still went to school, and no-one was social distancing in shops etc.