To despair that this government are the ones 'leading' us through this

[ChimChimminey]

It's been a total shitshow

Boris: "go to work from Monday"
Raab: "it starts on Wednesday"
Boris: "you can meet one person outside as long as you are 2m apart"
Raab: "you can meet two people, eg your parents"

Meanwhile VE Day and bank holiday drunken groups everywhere will result in a spike in a few weeks. Work starts today but without any specified jobs apart from two examples! But another gov minister says it starts on Wednesday.

The guidance document will be released this afternoon- after employees have already gone into work. 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

No mention of wearing masks on public transport. No mention of over 70's / vulnerable / pregnant women either. No mention of how the fuck these tests are going to be ramped up after their one day over 100k -coincidentally on Hancock's self-imposed deadline. Oh and unlimited exercise starts on Wednesday.

Total disregard for the other UK nations. A vague slogan which contradicts Scotland, Wales & NI's "Stay home". No guidance if you live in Wales but work in England for example.

France has a lower proportional and actual death rate and their restrictions have been incredibly clear. Macron initially admitted to the nation he'd got his approach wrong, apologised and rectified it. He treated the French people like adults. Merkel is putting us to shame. In the past UK leaders like Gordon Brown, or even dare I say it Theresa May would have made an effort for forge some global leadership. Not so for our arrogant island thinking cabinet.

This government are beyond useless. Their approach is clearly herd immunity whilst pretending it is not.

I'm fed up with the daily spin briefings where "the people" get to ask safe questions and ministers just reel off all the measures they say they're taking without actually addressing what matters- the fact that we have second worst death in the world, the worst in Europe, a fraction of the test and trace capacity compared to countries doing well, and not enough PPE.

This is not good enough for a G7 nation. Our leaders are second only in ineptitude to Trump, and I despair.

I’d rather this goverment than any other

Actually utterlydespairing I think I'd rather a government of national unity, with strong, knowledgeable people from across the political spectrum well, not the far right, obviously along with experts that are not politicians and are non-partisan to assist them.

11:02x2boys

Well.Nicola Sturgeon was,nt exactly clear either ,you must stay at home but can go out and exercise more than once a day

Of course she was clear, nothing is changing to the guidelines in Scotland apart from being allowed out to exercise more than once a day. What's not clear about that?

I don't have to justify my right to post a thread on MN @Caselgarcia. I'm entitled to post simply for a "moan" if I wish. The fact that I'm also politically active is by the by.

@Utterlydespairing see MintyChapsticks comment right before yours. Simply responding to criticism of the UK government by saying "well Labour would be a shambles" doesn't make the governments response any less inept!

Herd immunity plus protect the NHS means around 7 years of this

which means utter incompetence

because we will have virtually all the pain of a squash , track and trace approach which none of the benefits in terms of lives saved

@CSIblonde agreed, but how come other countries (except the US) stand a better chance with their leadership? I've seen marginally better responses right through to admirable responses from other countries. Our gov has dragged us to second worst in the world.

@dontdusturbmenow by saying that you're saying you're accepting that our death rate will be the highest in Europe and second worst in the world, and that that's ok. I, and many others disagree. For a supposedly advanced nation our outcomes should be better.

@ilovesooty I have to assume your post is sarcastic?!

@Phonelock that's incredibly clear!

No it wasn't sarcastic. I'm saying that the broadcast was lacking in clear guidance. It was as if he'd scribbled his speech on the back of a cig packet five minutes before he went on air.

Macron did not treat the French people like adults, he used the police to force people to comply. Every time you leave the house you have to print off a piece of paper (or now there's an app) showing the purpose of your journey. Many millions of checks have been carried out and in just a 2 week period in March, over a third of a million heavy fines were handed out. Maybe that's the way we should have gone too, but using force to get people to comply isn't my idea of treating them like adults.

Also, in terms of number of cases, France has a similar population to us and is double the size, so spread is easier to contain. This isn't a pro Boris comment by the way, I'm still not clear on what is and isn't allowed and when, after yesterday, and Raab's apparent different comments today.

@ADreamOfGood that would be the ideal wouldn’t it Unfortunately that Wasn’t an option at the last election. The thought of Corbyn and Dianne Abbott seeing is through this is terrifying so that’s a small blessing I suppose.

I was disappointed with Starmer spinning it and adding to the confusion. He had a golden opportunity to talk sense... and he too failed.

Nonetheless, I won't be making any substantive comment unt we have sight of the guidance documents.

Except, we haven't been told to go back to work today, or to do anything at all different. Just been warned although things are changing we need to remember that the virus has not disappeared. So stay alert, don't relax your social distancing

I'm very thankful I live in Scotland Just watching Nicola Sturgeon deliver our daily conference. She's be on every day and as always the information is CRYSTAL CLEAR.

We will never know how Labour would have handled it as they aren't in charge. More useful to compare to other countries' handling surely, but very telling that people are avoiding doing so and instead saying "Well someone else who isn't in government might have been even worse" A very weak defence of the government!

As some people were saying yesterday it seems inconceivable that they are actually getitng worse at this as they go along!

Effectively I think we are doing the same as Sweden, only with fewer business open - ie it's really being left up to people, as there's not really any way, other than people widely reporting one another, to police exercise, going over to houses etc.

He told people to go back to work today even though the guidelines for safe working aren't coming out until tomorrow. I don't trust this government at all and especially not their leader.

It’s disturbing how many dim people we have in this country

You’re right. The threads about not understanding a very clear statement shows this

Haha! Very well said!

@Utterlydespairing How do you know Labour would have been a shambles? You don’t. No one knows. What people do know now, is that those incompetent fools in charge have fucked this up, big time.
I honestly cannot understand how anyone, regardless of political persuasion, can say they’ve done a stellar job.
Perhaps you aren’t saying that, but plenty are and I cannot wrap my head around it. It’s been a national disgrace.

It was not a clear and concise statement at all, more holes than Swiss cheese. I despair too, it’s just been a series of monumental fuck ups.

There will be a second spike within the next fortnight thanks to selfish bastards partying over the weekend.

Oh sorry @ilovesooty I misread your original post and thought you said
"no way, that was a very clear statement!"

We are in total agreement!

@ChimChimminey no problem

Govt has been a completely useless, utterly incompetent shit show. They have blood on their hands and are about to have a whole lot more. This recent absolute bollocks is going to kill people AND trash the economy. We are going to 'waste the lockdown'

Sadly labour would have been worse (and yes you can know that, it's called history)

Agree with your full post OP

Strange timing, but I've just had an email to tell me a particular chain of French clothes shops is about to reopen. Look out for a second spike there...