Our government has dealt with the Coronacrisis so badly.

[pontypridd]

Did we even need to lockdown?

Newsnight suggests that it wasn't necessary.

Perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad had the lockdown been managed well. But now millions of people in this country will have their lives ruined. Millions will lose their lives as a result of this mismanaged lockdown.

We are coming out of this now with more mixed messages and confusion. People are taking it upon themselves to decide to end lockdown - as the government, once again, fails to take the lead.

I feels afraid and scared to live here. I don't trust that our government will ever know what they are doing or be able to protect us.

Lies, damn lies and statistics...

The U.K. has the highest absolute number of deaths but not the highest death toll per capita. Italy, Spain and Belgium have more deaths per million of the population than the U.K.

But Boris said other countries are envious of us with how we handled it, and people believe him

Trump tactics.

Italy, Spain and Belgium have more deaths per million of the population than the U.K

For now.

The government could see what was happening in Europe and chose to do nothing. We are an Island and so could have prevented people coming in to the country. Lock down was too late and the closure of schools a farce. Remember when Boris said we would lose loved ones? Over 30,000 !

I'm not surprised really. The myth that the Tories are competent is baffling.

Interesting when people say we have a much larger population than Italy. It’s about 60 million v 66 million - hardly a vast difference.

I think people get blind to the numbers. You can have times when a single death caused by negligence dominates front pages for days and leads to resignations. You have the 7/7 bombings where 56 people died (including 4 terrorists) and there are inquests into intelligence failures, cries to change laws...those deaths still resonate.

But here we have tens of thousands of deaths - how many caused by incompetence, how many of those people should still be here...but people say oh well, we shouldn’t really judge, they’re trying (sort of) and that Boris was always a good laugh on Have I Got News for You so there’s always that...

A global pandemic has long been known as one of the most likely high level risks we face and we even had the luxury of far more time to prepare than a lot of countries had.

What we’ve shown is that along with the US we can lead the world at ineptitude and wasted lives.

The government is advised by so called medical experts - blame them for the advice they gave not. The government which acted on it
Are the 'so called medical experts' running the country? Do you not think that the 'so called medical experts' set out different scenarios/options and then the government chose a course of action?
Why isn't that advice being published without redactions?
Why wouldn't our government reveal the members of the advice panel who, by the way, aren't just 'so called medical experts'?
Do you not wonder why some of the 'so called medical experts' are breaking ranks and making noises about mistakes that have been made?
Do you not think that is because they know they are being set up as the fall guys.
'So called medical experts' do not run this country. Unfortunately, lying, mendacious, career obsessed excuses for human beings do.

There would have been different opinions around what course of action to take and the Great Survivor chose the herd immunity one - he would have been warned of the repercussions of this but chose it anyway. Then backed down after an outcry with a lockdown in name only.
No, the blame rests entirely with our Great Survivor and his craven cabinet.

If you knew a week before lockdown that we should be staying at home then, it being worth the loss of earnings and job security and education, etc to save lives, then I hope you stood by your knowledge and stayed in when you judged it to be right.

Easier to blame other people and justify your own lack of determination in some way than stand by your own judgement, regardless of what other people were doing.

And if you think that the people who were prepared to stand for election and risk the wrath of the public when their judgements turned out wrong are so dreadful, I hope you'll put yourself forward as a parliamentary candidate next time.

PPE (or lack of) is down to incompetent hospital managers, these are civil servants on very good salaries (chief exec of hosp generally on 120k or over and in some hospital trust salaries are over 200K) these are the people ire should be aimed at. Hopefully all higher hospital managers (those on band 8c (earn 60k+) and over) will now come under scrutiny. They are well paid, and clearly not deserving, whilst they sit dictating impossible targets to clinical staff...

@EdwynCollins you're correct in my knowledge that the task force was disbanded due to austerity, maybe this is also the reason why the medical and PPE stocks weren't as high. Are we really blaming the conservatives for that? From my understanding the conservatives implemented austerity in the aftermath of the global financial panic, the biggest since the great depression. How would labour have dealt with that panic? If we're going to point fingers at what went wrong in recent history, history maybe we could start with what I deem as one of the biggest financial wastes of money in our recent history. Estimated to be in the billions spent by the MOD during 2003 to 2009 (not forgetting those who lost their lives). This estimated billions could have gone a long way with assisting with austerity and maybe the pandemic taskforce would still be in place today.

@Ahardknocklife blaming labour for this is a bit of a stretch don't you think?

@Chocolatedeficitdisorder

Me:
"I think it's bloody easy to criticise govts. It's a unimaginable situation. They are pulling out all the stops now and that is what matters."

"Really? Do the tens of thousands of people who have already died not matter?"
I didn't say that is all that matters but that is what matters now. I feel very deeply for those that have lost their lives to this virus and for their heartbroken families and friends. I feel very upset for the family of the man in my road who has died from it.

"Don't they deserve some justice for dying from something which could have been stopped by a better government?"
What do you mean by justice? Acknowledgement by the Govt that they should have locked down earlier? There have been complaints about most countries govt's handling of the crisis. There is time enough for analysis of the handling of this when the crisis is over. The govt need to direct all it's energies right now to doing the best they can to minimise infection rates and consequent deaths.

@daisypond

"It wasn’t unimaginable. We could see what was happening in other countries, and we knew what was going to happen in January. The Italians, Spanish, Australians, etc, also enjoy their freedom and didn’t want to relinquish it, but they did."
We did not know what was going to happen in January. Yes, on 31st January it had spread to Spain, Italy and UK. It spread to France on 24 January (later discovered to have been 27 Dec).

We had all the rubbish about it not being able to be transferred from person to person by China.

Australia, despite being much closer to China and having many Chinese tourists, didn't lock down until 23rd March, the same date as the UK.

Italy did the right thing in locking down Lombardy early and then the nation on 9th March despite the WHO not declaring a pandemic until 11th March.

I do think we should have locked down earlier, shortly after it was declared a pandemic. Maybe people didn't think they could trust the WHO who seemed to be supporting whatever information they were fed by the Chinese?

Ahardknocklife
Austerity was ideological. There is no proof that without austerity we would have fared worse and it didn't work anyway. National debt increased despite austerity
The government, despite austerity, can find money for vanity projects, projects that benefit their donors or themselves
See all Boris failed plans. HS2. Free schools

@Boireannachlaidir
What are you talking about? Of course we had foresight. We could see what was happening across various countries before it hit the U.K. We had time. We did pandemic planning four years ago as well.

@gingganggooleywotsit blaming conservatives for a shortage of PPE is justified? Sorry I forgot its them that are responsible for stocktakes

If we would do a worldwide Wuhan style lockdown it would be over in two months. That would be best for the economy and the quickest way out of this. But noooooo we don't want to give up our rights to do shit, even though it means deaths and recession for the forseeable future.

Locking down properly and earlier

Oh yes, I can just see it. So Boris decides to go into lockdown in January. Everyone going mad by March, complaining about their heating costs, going mental with therein, kids not able to play in the garden or even enjoy a daily walk because of the crap weather.

I can just gear the criticism: only 3000 deaths, Sweden has no more and they didn't go into lockdown. There was no need for such extreme measures, stupid Boris to make that decision and ruining the economy when there was no need. Spain and Italy are not like us, it would never have happened here.

End of lockdown in April, everyone is excited with the nice weather finally upon us, everyone out in parks, shopping, beaches. Nobody really distancing because really, the whole thing is not real, 3000 deaths is much less than the flu, total over reaction by the stupid gov.

Before we know it, the pandemic starts, death numbers go up massively, the hospitals are struggling. It's all the fault of the government, they shouldn't have gone ahead with the lockdown so early, people didn't take it seriously, it would have been better to wait until March. It's all the fault of the government.

As said, some people get a kick criticising others. It doesn't matter what the decision us, there's always room to go for it. It makes people feel intelligent and important.

Without worrying about what ‘should’ have been done. And just looking at what is happening now.

Do people think the government is managing our current situation well?

Yes I agree. The British response was a joke from the start and having lost a family friend working for the NHS- I'm angry.

I'm british but live in the CZ which has been praised for it's handling.

We closed schools and universities down at 40 cases.
Restaurants+ shopping centers and gyms within 10 days of a state of emergency being declared.
We had masks made mandatory if you're outside.
fight ban from 15 countries including the UK.
Border controls with Germany.
The option of paying privately to be tested as we have 18 labs across the country.

We have less than 300 deaths as of today.

*flight

@pontypridd yes I personally feel continuing the lock down extension is the right thing to do.

I hope the 80%furlough payment continues to support those in need. I hope the conservatives begin to value the importance of our beloved national health service, as a higher tax payer would be willing and content to have an additional 10% taxed if it helped our economy recover quicker. Im currently living in hope that after this crisis the world will change for the better, less consumerism, higher quality products, more community spirit and less self centred ness. There will be global economic impact that's for certain. but I think we are in a rather good position when I compare our situation with that of a india.

@EdwynCollins national debt did increase despite austeritmeasure but I believe the increase wasnt as significant as it would have been if the measures weren't taken.

I completely agree...HS2 is a waste of money, it's not bringing anything to better my life but apparently it will for many others, isnt that the arguement?

I'm not blaming labour, but you cannot raise a valid arguement without a counterpart. Who should I blame? Another conservative?

Wouldn't it be a damn sight better if party politics were put to one side at a time like this, with both sides working together both parties and supporters to make the best of the bad situation

Much more could have been done much earlier.

But this is a thoroughly chaotic government. Since the Brexit referendum there has been no organisation or direction. If you showed this government to almost any government in UK history (no matter their colour or creed) they'd be looking on in horror at how our political system has devolved.

We've had four and a half years of absolute madness. Self-interest and power-mongering reigns supreme. The coronavirus crisis has thrown this into very very sharp relief.

In an alternative universe, today we would have woken up to the outcome of a general election following Cameron's full 5 year term.

It says a lot that I wish that was what we were walking up to.

But hey, at least we didn't vote for Ed Miliband and 5 years of chaos in 2015

We can't put politics aside because self interest and cronyism continue
We didn't buy ventilators that were approved and ready in favour of James Dyson who was only at the inventing stage. He doesn't pay tax but is a funder of the Tory party
Cummings pal has got the contract for the tracking and tracing app instead of going with the rest of the EU

The government whoever they are Conservative, Labour or the Lib Dem's would be criticised. No one can please everyone. Yes they've made mistakes, as would they all, who could say Labour would have faired better? This is a world wide epidemic, blame the conservatives and those that voted for them, it doesn't help. Supporting them and the scientific advice by working together is the best way forward with some positivity.
We have no hope on here do we

In an alternative universe, today we would have woken up to the outcome of a general election following Cameron's full 5 year term.

It says a lot that I wish that was what we were walking up to.

And what? Would Corbyn have won in that alternate universe?