To think that Matt Hancock is not looking very well

[insomniasucks]

Just that really. It must be so hard being the Health Secretary during this difficult time. I feel so sorry for him.

Oh yes, the Labour lot would do better! What with their posh, Oxford educated, barrister, Surrey born leader!

You mean the Southwark born state-educated child of a nurse and a toolmaker whose first degree was from the University of Leeds, and who managed to gain a place for a postgraduate Oxford degree by dint of working his socks off and getting a first? That posho?

And he utterly gamed the system to get to 120,000 tests

How many of them have been returned?

We'll never know, but definitely not all of them. Apparently (R4, 'More or Less' today) a significant number of the tests which Matt popped in the box to catch the last post didn't have any returns labels enclosed. More haste, less speed, Matt.

Starmer is the Southwark born child of solidly working/lower middle class parents. I don’t know which leader of the Labour Party you’re thinking of Sertchgi? Or why you think that excelling at school and in your undergraduate degree so that you can go on to post-graduate study at Oxford makes you somehow unfit for high office?

Calling Keir Starmer posh is one of the stupider things I've read on MN (and there is stiff competition).

i did ask a week ago, what is the deal with testing? if you can only be tested with symptoms?
but i very little response

Come off it, Sir Keir Starmer, lives in Surrey, Oxford educated, a barrister. I don’t know why he’s leader of the Labour Party as he embodies precisely the kind of metropolitan elite image Labour needs to shake off.

it's a tough job and he looks like a nervous boy who has been thrown to do a speech.
i can imagine they are totally regretting these daily press briefings.
but where is our Prof Chris disappeared to?

but Hunt is a smarmy self satisfied buffoon, so be glad he is not taking centre stage

I thought Keir lived in Kentish Town in London?

Has he recently moved?

Hancock is also getting all the blame for what was largely caused by those before him. The Blair and Brown government's crippling NHS PFI debt and Jeremy Hunt's many cock ups.

When you sign up to a Cabinet job in an ongoing government, you take on responsibilities for messes made by predecessors in your own party.

And when the government of which you are a member has been in power for ten years, you have to own the fact that, if you think that what the previous government put in place was wrong, you've had ten years to sort it out. If you and your predecessors haven't bothered, you have to accept that that is your responsibility, too.

Yes Keir Starter who worked his way up to the top of his profession and his party (and to his Surrey house and Oxford education) from his working-class roots by dint of hard work and determination should be derided for his "poshness".

Unlike poor humble Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson who was born into money and had the best education his parents' money could provide at a top Public School and was then able to use the many connections that his money could provide to slither his way to the top.

Hancock is rather inexperienced and quite young,agree that Boris got rid of any experienced folk and surrounded himself by Yes men

@Sertchgi123: by your reckoning, are these people also posh - if not, why not?

John Major
John Prescott
Philip Green
Arron Banks
Ruby Wax
Tim Martin (of Wetherspoons)
Nick Griffin
Naomie Harris
Andy Hamilton
Dr. Seuss ( Theodore Seuss Geisel )
Rupert Murdoch

Judy to a large extent I agree with you. Certainly Right to Buy is not only Thatcher's policy. It's been the policy of both Labour and Conservative (and Coalition) ever since.

However, a global pandemic is an extraordinary circumstance. We went into it with the NHS suffering from decades of underinvestment and mismanagement by all parties. It's a giant organisation and fixing years and years of damage can't be done overnight.

That's not to say I'm defending the appalling negligence that's occured since the start of the pandemic. Our government has blood on its hands. It's just that so do many from previous governments.

I’d just love to see some of you pompous, opinionated, posters managing this crisis.

I'd start by not lying through my teeth at every available opportunity, and throwing tantrums every time someone said something mildly challenging.

GIve it up, @Sertchgi123 you're just making unsupported personal attacks on KS. You've got nothing.

Sir Keir Starmer, lives in Surrey, Oxford educated, a barrister.

Doesn't live in Surrey. State educated, redbrick university for undergraduate degree.

Nothing at Oxford banning lower middle class people from becoming students, nor preventing Oxford graduates from becoming Labour leaders. Seven Labour leaders since 1945 have been to Oxford; one got a place, but opted for the Civil Service instead.

Nothing intrinsically elite about barristers, either. Many earn less than the living wage.

ToffeeYoghurt, I don't think ten years is exactly overnight. Whilst the current government might not have been able to put everything right, the reality is that it hasn't made any realistic attempt to begin to do so. This is the government which, only a few months ago, was telling absolutely blatant lies about its proposals for recruiting new nurses. It is also the government which has been doing its best to get into a position which will make it much more difficult to recruit HCPs from abroad despite the fact that it is absolutely dependent on those sources now.

We've had the current government for less than a year.

The current government have been utterly negligent and incompetent in their handling of the pandemic so far.

But, that does not excuse those who came before them.

If and when there's an enquiry I hope we remember ALL those responsible.

Quite literally couldn't give a flying fuck about Twat Handcock if I tried.
He is an up himself arsehole, and I cannot figure out whether hes intentionally failing us all, or whether he just has no idea.

Sertchgi123 you really don't know anything about Starmer do you?

Every single thing you said was wrong.

Hancock is rather inexperienced and quite young

Relatively inexperienced, yes. He wouldn't be in the Cabinet if the decent MPs hadn't stood down or been booted out at the last election.

However, I don't think 41 is "quite young"

This thread really has it all, vile insults and death wishes. I present to you all, the Tolerant Left!

#BeKind really lasted long didn’t it?

Yes it’s hilarious 😂

It’s fine to bash a conservative but mention a Labour leader might be posh and it’s an unsupported attack. 😂

He’s stressed because he’s told so many lies he can’t remember what they are anymore and knows he’s being found out.

He’s also realised he’s being set up as a patsy by Johnson.