Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

If you don't live in the UK.....

43 replies

Headlesschic · 27/05/2020 01:49

How much coverage is our current political scandal getting where you are? Is there much in your media about Dominic Cummings etc.? How is being reported? Is the UK a laughing stock? Genuinely interested.

OP posts:

Mrstwiddle · 27/05/2020 07:00

Canada here, only U.K. news is about the figures. Don’t agree with the previous poster that U.K. is seen as a laughing stock since Brexit, I suspect if as a Brit you have that opinion, people here will be polite enough to go along with it.

LaurieMarlow · 27/05/2020 07:09

Ireland here and yes it’s getting coverage. Anyone I know is shocked that the British public are being played for fools and lied to. We feel so sorry for those people who made sacrifices to obey the rules themselves.

The elite clearly has such contempt for the little people. The bizarre thing is that not all Brits seem to realise this.

It all looks terribly dysfunctional from the outside

GalesThisMorning · 27/05/2020 07:10

US. We don't hear much about the UK. Everyone's governments seem to have handled it badly

I think that's untrue and its really important not to buy into this idea that a horrific death rate couldn't be helped and no one is to blame. Especially when we are being spun that narrative by two of the wealthiest nations on earth.

Clearly some nations made better choices and saved lives and their economy far better than the UK and US. This matters. We should have been able to cope with this better. Our governments (I am American and British) made arrogant, I'll informed, dangerous choices every step of the way that. If we let them convince us now that its because of population density, our obesity, or our own poor health than they get to avoid being held to account and nothing changes.

Fuck that. Cummings is a distraction from the real failings but that level of arrogance and callous superiority runs through our government and that's what got us here.

SantiagoSky · 27/05/2020 08:04

Well said, GalesThisMorning. They really shouldn’t get away with this.

Here in Switzerland the situation in the UK is in the news but not as the main headline. I found the link to the Euromomo numbers that show the high excess mortality for the 15-64 age group in England in the Swiss news instead of the UK news.

Goodiewhemper · 27/05/2020 08:13

The Italian paper La Repubblica reported on the Cummings scandal and compared him to Rasputin. Not positive at all.

SachaStark · 27/05/2020 09:04

My Norwegian friends tell me that our high death rate is being reported a lot in their news, and they’ve heard about ministers resigning, but not so much about CumGate specifically.

They’ve said that the attitude towards the situation in the UK is one of shock, and lots of comparisons to the US.

Maduixa · 27/05/2020 09:07

I'm in Poland.

The Cummings situation was/is reported here, but not as major news. The take has generally been: Cummings broke the rules, the UK press and the public are angry, Cummings excused himself, Johnson has defended Cummings and refuses to fire him/call for his resignation even though that is what is usual in such cases, "even" MPs in Johnson's own party are critical, and it appears that there is more information to emerge. There's an implication that Johnson is dependent on Cummings and/or that he is driven by personal loyalty.

It is suggested that there are likely to be public protests in the UK about this as there have been here - keeping 2m distance and wearing masks, of course! - over roughly comparable criticisms of the Polish government.

The main "news" here re the UK throughout the pandemic has been (1) the PM (and Prince Charles) having CV, (2) the fact that the UK has the highest death rate in Europe and the government keep switching tactics to combat it and (3) the fact that the UK alone in Europe has kept itself completely open to international arrivals throughout the pandemic (although apparently Serbia is now also accepting international flights unrestricted, from Friday).

Lweji · 27/05/2020 09:22

US. We don't hear much about the UK. Everyone's governments seem to have handled it badly.

I'd advise you to look at Worldometer.

Check deaths per million and number of tests per million on the main table. Then look at individual countries and notice when the first cases started and what the curves look like.

Only countries doing badly will make the news, really, but you should be able to find enough comparisons with countries who've done fairly well.

Even China, after the initial outbreak period managed to get it very much under control.

EveryoneLoves09876 · 27/05/2020 09:27

Australian family think death rate is awful and are really worried about us. They also think Boris and Brexit are a massive Trump-like joke, whilst acknowledging that they have their own issues.

EveryoneLoves09876 · 27/05/2020 09:28

New Zealand family won't stop going on about how much better they handled it.

ToffeeYoghurt · 27/05/2020 12:12

the fact that the UK alone in Europe has kept itself completely open to international arrivals throughout the pandemic
This is why I believe the Cummings issue is political. How can it possibly be a big deal what he did when the UK has received hundreds of thousands of international travellers. With no checks or quarantine. These people have been leaving the airports on public transport.

I also agree with a pp.
Cummings is a distraction. Massive outrage about it conveniently coinciding with news on the UK having the highest death rate in the world. The government wants to open up - but hasn't taken the same measures other countries have that would make it possible to do more safely.

itstrue · 27/05/2020 12:15

NZ - very little about UK politics

Death toll - shocked and sad about that.

Lweji · 27/05/2020 12:19

Of course it's political. A member of the government breaking the government rules.
He should have resigned immediately or at least apologised.

Like the old saying about Caesar's wife having to be above suspicion. But I suppose that is not a problem for this PM.

metalkprettyoneday · 27/05/2020 12:27

In NZ. No one I know is laughing about it as most have family and friends in UK so it’s quite worrying. Feeling fortunate we have a good leader at the moment so people were happy to do a strict lockdown to get it over with. Boris doesn’t seem to be taking things seriously .

Durgasarrow · 27/05/2020 12:31

U.S. Mostly about the high death rate and about how badly the crisis was handled in the UK--starting late, confusing messages about what to do, "herd immunity," etc.

Eggybreadleg · 27/05/2020 12:59

All my US colleagues have mentioned coverage of the uks misahndling of the pandemic. I think the uks handling of it has been seen as ruthless and it's shocked quite a few Americans who think of Brits as gentle socialists.

Selmaselma · 27/05/2020 13:06

ToffeeYoghurt, it is clearly a big deal if he can't adhere to the rules that he made and everyone else has to follow. As for not restricting arrivals, that is independently from CumGate a massive issue.

ToffeeYoghurt · 27/05/2020 13:18

But everybody else doesn't have to follow the rules. Not the hundreds of thousands of international travellers. Heading off across the UK often on public transport.

The rules are pointless and a farce whilst we have wide open borders with no proper quarantine.

The rules were apparently there to stop the spread of infection. Not because the government fancied making some rules for the sake us having some rules to follow just because rules. The lack of border restriction is far more concerning in terms of potential infection spread.

Whilst there going on, what Dominic does is irrelevant.

Flip

1 2