To think being over two hours late for a press conference...

[Champagneforeveryone]

is a bit of a cunty thing to do?

I completely understand that this is not an everyday occurrence, and it would be nice if things were absolutely in place before our glorious leader addressed the nation.

However, if I rocked up two and a half hours late to work it would not go unremarked on. I cannot simply choose to arrive two and a half hours late to a hairdressers appointment or to catch a flight.

Why say you will hold a briefing (which incidentally we weren't even expecting) at 4pm, then 5pm and then ever increasingly later? It seems really disrespectful to the public who are left waiting to know what will happen. Say it will be at 8pm and be done with it.

[Purpledaisychain]

@BoingBoingyBoing

While I have no doubt that some things are deliberately leaked, given what a shit show this turned into, and the fact that they don't normally launch investigations into stuff that they deliberately leak, I think this was genuine.

[lyralalala]

@MintyMabel

Ffs @minymabel are you dense?! This came from the government (or more specifically number 10 SPADs)

Not so dense I lack basic comprehension, unlike others here it seems.

They probably should have made clear to everyone then that their strategy for leaking things to the press was different on this one

Oh dear. The ridiculousness continues.

So you're completely ignoring that the government have repeatedly and consistently used leaks as a way to drip feed their plans throughout this whole thing?

[Tistheseason17]

Doesn't Gove's missus work st the Daily Fail where oneb of the leaks was...
Planned leak to float the idea first to gauge public reaction...

[Mochudubh]

History will prove me right or wrong but I turned to DH and said that 1857 on 31 October 2020 will prove to be the moment Scotland effectively became independent as Westminster proved how truly shit they are.

[Combustablecustard]

Yanbu

Its not like the whole population invited him to a party, it was a bit of an awkward time but he made the effort to get there (albeit a bit late). HE SET THE BLOODY TIME!!
Set the conference for a time that you can make/do ffs.

[HollowTalk]

@Ihatefish

Well their hand has been forced to do today not Monday because of a leak that is under investigation- they are possibly fielding questions from Labour trying to kill time whilst Andy Burnham goes underground with his £60 mill

Do you really think he's going to spend that on himself?

[GladAllOver]

He's too ashamed to admit that Starmer was right to want a full lockdown for two weeks at half term with everyone at home.
Now with the covid out of control he wants a half lockdown with the schools still open, for twice as long. He's just lost control and given up. Bastard.

[Brighterthansunflowers]

It represents the governments whole approach to the pandemic to be fair, too little too late

[Henners7]

I don't think being two hours late to make sure a speech is right before putting an entire nation into lockdown is a big deal.

And they were intending to do it later in the week, before ot was leaked.

[Ihatefish]

@HollowTalk omfg I despair!

[OldButNitEntirelyWornOut]

Why, does any single person in this country, expect or anticipate Boris Johnson and his Governement will ever DO THE RIGHT THING with regard to Covid ?

Boris Johnson had the example of disease spread in Italy, and Spain.
Both countries experiencesd absolutely awful situations in terms of deaths
He had advance notice of Covid ,

He didn't lock down fast on evidence .



Why do you think that this is going to be different?

Boris Johnson has had meetings with the Telegraph in this Parliament,.

Boris earned 275K with Telegraph. He's having meetings. so he can get back to hisroots

[Champagneforeveryone]

@Devilesko

I think there have and will be many cunty things done.

My point exactly

And as I said in my OP, fine to give a press conference at 6pm, 10pm, 3am or whatever is deemed appropriate and manageable. But I truly believe there's very few of us that could deliver something two and a half hours later than promised with no ramifications. Particularly something as important as "will I be at work next week and if not, will I still get paid"

[safariboot]

However, if I rocked up two and a half hours late to work it would not go unremarked on.

Except that's not what Bozo did. We can presume his meetings with the cabinet and others overran, resulting in the delay of the briefing. Similar delays could happen in any job.

I think the whole thing is a fuckup, but the delayed briefing is no big deal.

From my own point of view the announcement today rather than Monday is beneficial. Going on the assumption we have to close our office on Thursday, it's given me useful extra time to prepare work-from-home arrangements.

[MiniMum97]

They were having a cabinet meeting since 1pm ahead of the briefing. None of that was meant to happen. It was all rushed because of the leak to the press and discussions obviously overran.

The original plan I believe was to debate in parliament on Monday followed by a briefing Monday evening. Presumably with cabinet discussions beforehand.

[BenchHench]

@ApplePlumPie

I suspect the delay would have been because of talks with unions.

It was.

[Fancycrackers]

Cunty thing to do but what do you expect from a bunch of cunts. Just shows this government are completely useless and have utter contempt and disregard for the general population. Pisses me right off that they got the BBC to do their hard work in delivering the messages and then they turn up with their crappy powerpoint slides. This government does not know what it's doing.

[TheHighestSardine]

All this talk about "four days early" my arse.

SAGE said we needed a lockdown over a month ago. If this shower of clowns was worth anything at all they'd have taken a week to get things in line then done it.

Instead we have a massive clusterfuck as they squawk around like the trust-fund children they are, trying to remember how to write a presentation and failing dramatically.

And it's not a point scoring exercise, it's important, because tens of thousands of people will probably die from this or have long term health issues who didn't need to if they'd only listen to the fucking grownups.

[Awwlookatmybabyspider]

Yes I fully agree. Well its a hard thing to disagree with really isn't it. There's no argument.
Imagine if that was someone 2 hours late for a Job Centre interview.
Their life wouldn't be worth living. Once again rules for thee but not for me.

[Guylan]

The Secret Barrister on twitter said shame that the delay in starting meant that BBC1 had to stop its coverage the minute the difficult questions began. I know he was being sarcastic but that could be the only bit of planning this wretched govt have done!

[MostDisputesDieAndNoOneShoots]

I heard from a source- ex boyfriend turned Tory staffer- that it was so late because several members of the cabinet were refusing to sign off on this version of the lockdown. Chief amongst them apparently being Sunak, who I imagine is biding his time for a coup.

[lovelemoncurd]

I don't care I'd rather they sort the issues before telling us tbh. If that takes a little more time then so be it!

[Guylan]

@MostDisputesDieAndNoOneShoots

I heard from a source- ex boyfriend turned Tory staffer- that it was so late because several members of the cabinet were refusing to sign off on this version of the lockdown. Chief amongst them apparently being Sunak, who I imagine is biding his time for a coup.

This sounds v feasible.

[lyralalala]

@MostDisputesDieAndNoOneShoots

I heard from a source- ex boyfriend turned Tory staffer- that it was so late because several members of the cabinet were refusing to sign off on this version of the lockdown. Chief amongst them apparently being Sunak, who I imagine is biding his time for a coup.

Sunak has been against further lockdowns and was obviously against any extension to furlough so it makes me wonder what he was offered to agree

According to Twitter the Fail are pointing the finger at Matt Hancock for the leak - I've been waiting for the moment he was thrown under the bus. That has been coming for ages.

[flaviaritt]

But I truly believe there's very few of us that could deliver something two and a half hours later than promised with no ramifications.

He is the Prime Minister speaking to the nation. He is one of those very few who can be late. Stop carping.

[Bambooble]

But I truly believe there's very few of us that could deliver something two and a half hours later than promised with no ramifications

It depends what it is. If it's a choice of delivering 'on time' (no one knows where the reported time came from) but having nothing of value to say, or delaying when you have stakeholder agreement, a clear way forward and are confident that you can clearly convey what you need to, then it's the responsible thing to do. If you're in a job where they allow you to deliver crap just to meet an arbitrary deadline rather than being open to adjusting if it benefits the quality of the work and is reasonable, ie you haven't just sat doing nothing but you have had to wait for confirmation of X or Y then time for a new job.