To think the Government have done a reasonable job of handling this pandemic?

[EmbarrassedButIAdmitIt]

I’ve actually just voted Conservative in my local elections because of it . Not for Boris I might add who I cannot stand but the people actually doing the work behind him.

Considering we have not had a worldwide pandemic in over a hundred years, and the world has changed beyond recognition in terms of people movement since then, obviously it has been a massive learning curve, but I think on the whole we have been pretty well looked after with furlough, self employed support. top up benefits, vaccine production and rollout, etc.

I know there’s been ‘jobs for the boys’ but I don’t think any other political party would have been any different sadly.

We have had a higher death rate than other European countries but TBF we are a small overcrowded island populated by people who don’t like following rules and are stupid enough to believe hysterical conspiracy theories.

I am so grateful that I live in the UK and not somewhere like India, Brazil or even the US.

So AIBU?

@JaniieJones

Oh god not the NZ comparisons, a tiny country with 5m pop and a population density of 18per sq mile.

Compare us to France, Spain, Italy and Scotland and I think you'll find we have a similar infection rate and similar death per million rate.

The NZ comparisons never stop people don’t get the differences. Still now after a year

To me the absolute epitome of the government was when after the crazy Christmas plan amidst the new variant, he allowed schools back for one day. Not long enough for children to benefit in any way, and long enough to spread Covid.

Imagine if Jeremy Corbyn had been in power and announced that people would be paid 80% of their wages to stay at home for a year.....

Imagine the uproar from the Tory voters then.

@SecretSpAD

Imagine if Jeremy Corbyn had been in power and announced that people would be paid 80% of their wages to stay at home for a year.....

Imagine the uproar from the Tory voters then.

Even now with this funding the left say the Cons didn’t do enough to support people.

No they didn't. Three million self employed people have been left with no income for a year.
Many small businesses who were ok when staff were on furlough will not be able to continue trading so will make those staff redundant.

Imagine if we'd had a competent govt who could manage things properly so that we could have opened up sooner, safer, not had so many needless deaths, not had so many people loose their livelihoods.

There's no point comparing us to different countries either to say we were better or worse. Look at what has happened in our own country now. Look at the failings of our govt and stop making the excuse that it was unforeseen - it wasn't.

Stop the "oh well, labour would have done it worse" because they weren't in power in the last year. The Tories were and they are the ones who should be judged and held to account for the mishandling of this. Stop making excuses for them. Open your eyes and see what you have voted in.

@SecretSpAD

No they didn't. Three million self employed people have been left with no income for a year. Many small businesses who were ok when staff were on furlough will not be able to continue trading so will make those staff redundant.

Imagine if we'd had a competent govt who could manage things properly so that we could have opened up sooner, safer, not had so many needless deaths, not had so many people loose their livelihoods.

There's no point comparing us to different countries either to say we were better or worse. Look at what has happened in our own country now. Look at the failings of our govt and stop making the excuse that it was unforeseen - it wasn't.

Stop the "oh well, labour would have done it worse" because they weren't in power in the last year. The Tories were and they are the ones who should be judged and held to account for the mishandling of this. Stop making excuses for them. Open your eyes and see what you have voted in.

Ha you just brought up what if Labour had announced 80% support.

If they had you claim people would say it’s too much.

But yet Cons do and you say they’ve failed people.

People are so entrenched in their views.

The trouble with the negative post after post is that people don’t want leftist criticism they want a positive way forward.

And the left can’t do that, nor even talk about it, and it’s losing them votes.

Imagine if we had closed down faster and then did vaccine on top.
We should have immediately looked to countries who do a better job of pandemics, why not South Korea, Singapore and so on!

Aside from that, the vaccines have been brilliant and bringing it all into the UK for the future is a great idea.

I'm not sure I can personally and entirely blame Boris for this, I'd need to know what the top medics initially said and did, the famous race meet and football match?

• yes the school horror show! Appalling, they should reassure us now, in furture eg this coming winter if transmission hits x, schools will shut.

I can't trust them anymore on this.

Putting out - it’s been proven Boris went against official sage advice at the start of the pandemic...

He didn’t even attend the first 3 cobra meetings and thought it would all go away

@MarshaBradyo yes, I did. So what? You are just pathetically supporting a govt that has presided over the fuck up of all fucks and you ignore the many criticisms of what went wrong and highlight one sarcastic comment I made to prove your case. Seriously?

He didn’t even attend the first 3 cobra meetings and thought it would all go away

The first 5 actually. He was on holiday.

[quote SecretSpAD]@MarshaBradyo yes, I did. So what? You are just pathetically supporting a govt that has presided over the fuck up of all fucks and you ignore the many criticisms of what went wrong and highlight one sarcastic comment I made to prove your case. Seriously? [/quote]
I get you’re angry about pretty much everything they did and do but most will be appreciating economy opening up and will get back to a more normal life.

Tg we have working vaccines and a mass produced one that allowed it.

These threads will come up every so often but vast majority are in a better mindset and voting reflects that.

Labour and left need a way to show a positive path forward, at the very least, if they want a chance.

@MercyBooth

Last Christmas you promised five days but the very next day you took that away This year to save me from tears I will not take any notice.......notice. (repeat)

Another promise.........more lies.
We keep our distance but still the Covid spies.
Tell me now do you still like to fine us.
Another lockdown it wouldnt surprise us.
Merry Christmas, the rich still went on their trips
Got their haircut while pissing on our chips.
We know you see us as plebs
If you locked down now, public be abused again.

November lockdown gave us hope in our hearts.
Another promise broken, removing the Christmas spark
Ooh Ooh But if you locked down now we"d have to do it AGAIN!

Last Christmas you promised five days. But the very next day you took that away
This year to save me from tears.
I will not take any notice.......notice (repeat)

Its not great but ive got seven months.....

You posted this on another thread. How many more have you copied and pasted this into?

AND they hid the severity of the indian covid strain until AFTER the ballot had closed......wonder what else they've hidden......

I think they’ve done fine. They’ve changed tack when something hasn’t been working - rather than ploughing on.
I shudder to think what it would have been like if Jeremy Corbin had been in charge.

They handled the start of the pandemic appallingly. Track and trace was an expensive joke. The furlough scheme and vaccine rollout however, were very good.
It's a mixed bag ... but I would find it very hard to vote for a party that divided a nation with its awful Brexit and who have been in charge during a period of time where food banks have increased from a handful ... to over 2000. That's before we get onto the corruption.

Yes I'm angry. I'm very angry but not at the govt, they are just doing what this incompetent bunch of morally corrupt arseholes have always done. I'm angry at the people who believe the lies and voted for them.

I worked in Westminster up until 2019. Believe me you don't know half of it. But the half you do know should make you angry too. But it doesn't. Don't blame labour they were the target of the right wing media. Blame the people who believe the bullshit.

Can’t identify, OP.

@SecretSpAD

Yes I'm angry. I'm very angry but not at the govt, they are just doing what this incompetent bunch of morally corrupt arseholes have always done. I'm angry at the people who believe the lies and voted for them.

I worked in Westminster up until 2019. Believe me you don't know half of it. But the half you do know should make you angry too. But it doesn't. Don't blame labour they were the target of the right wing media. Blame the people who believe the bullshit.

Poor old Labour they need to get better at media relations. How did Blair do that?

No I’m not angry, pointless unless you channel it somewhere useful anyway, but mostly I’m relieved and optimistic.

People don’t get how bad it would have been without fast working vaccines.

That’s the biggest deal here and all the critical left can do is snipe and blame. Instead I do look at how much better it is to how it would have been.

Also a lot of this stuff isn’t thought through - be like NZ, lockdown early like EE, people need a better epidemiological foundation and understanding as some doesn’t stand up.

I’m a floating voter anyway so I do want a stronger Labour opposition. Their current state is irritating.

My jaw has genuinely dropped at this but it's very interesting to see how others think it has been handled. No. I think they have done an appalling job. I think NOW they are doing a good job. I am not confident it will last but still think they are now following the science more. But the fuck ups along the way were predictable, and unforgivable.

Generally I think the tories are a shower of gobshites, and there were huge clangers in the past year or so (the initial 'it's all fiiiiiiiine', Dominic Cummings, the fuck up at Christmas and particularly the schools opening for a day in January).

However, it has been, as others have always said a global pandemic and I'm not really sure that any other party would have done better overall. Yes Labour probably would have locked down a lot more for virtue signalling purposes, but at what cost? As for comparisons to Australia and NZ, well its been done to death that they are not comparable situations anyway, and that time will still tell if their strategies are actually any better long term.

The other thing I don't get is people crowing on about last summer and Eat Out to Help Out. The numbers were tiny last summer, and it was imperative that some of the economic losses were reclaimed to some extent, to 'make hay whilst the sun shone'. The numbers started going back up when the kids went back to school in September and when we went into Autumn/Winter which is always a terrible time for illnesses and death anyway. Staying locked down over the summer would not have changed what happened over winter?

I'm not a card carrying Tory but I can't speak highly enough of them at the moment. They deserve every seat they're winning.

All governments of all leanings have made good and bad decisions. Those that locked down early had a better Spring and Summer, almost universally followed by horrendous Winters, Germany and Eastern Europe. Others have followed a similar path to us, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands. Even within these Isles, Scotland and Wales, both with their own governments and decisions, have had the same deaths and healthcare issues as England.

Each and every country followed their science, but then the science, as we know, was never conclusive, and as a moving and evolving pandemic, things changed over time, of course they did. WHO changed their minds regularly, as did most countries scientific community.