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?

I found the way they carried on in the run up to Christmas abusive. Ditto the bloody poster campaign

Quite abysmal at the start. Vaccine rollout has been handled better.

May I jog your memory OP? January 3rd Johnson on TV telling people schools were safe (after his Gov threatened areas that wanted to close due to high case rates with legal action) there were 57,000 new positive cases reported that day alone. Duly on Jan 4th primary schools, including those in worst hit Tier 4 areas (other than London weirdly?), reopen. Only for Johnson to call lockdown that night.

The cost of the Test and Farce system has been 22 BILLION - read what the National Audit Office have to say about it's value vs cost www.nao.org.uk/press-release/the-governments-approach-to-test-and-trace-in-england-interim-report/

Then even more dubious personal dealings like Johnson asking work related contacts to pay for his ridiculously expensive decor (& alledgedly for his childcare) like some kind of dodgy football manager open to bungs.

Really, you want more of this?

This is the Government and Prime minister who allowed schools to go back for ONE day before locking down. Madness.

Think about it in the context of your own job. Would - and should - you get away with it?

"Oh it was an emergency so I ignored due process and just asked my mates (and overpaid them)".
"Oh sorry it turns out that I was told ten years ago that this would happen if we didn't make adequate preparations but I chose to ignore the report".
"Oh I know this was a critical appointment it's just that the wife of one of the directors had a bit of relevant experience and I thought, well, better to fill the role quickly".

We pay for these people and these services through our taxes. Why wouldn't you demand excellence? God even just competency would be fine at this point.

Please, please: always assume that there are people who will care more and will do better. The tories are banking on you thinking that they are your best option. They are not.

Before the pandemic actually hit, the UK was considered to have one of the best pandemic preparation plans in the world. For us to have had over 120,000 deaths they had to fuck that up spectacularly.
They are incredibly lucky that the NHS is doing such a good job with the jab roll out and that's helping people to forget some of the worst of the last year.

I am truly shocked that anyone could think this.
The NHS has done an excellent job, including handling the vaccination programme.
The government on the other hand . . . Missed Cobra meetings. Lockdowned too late not once, not twice, but THREE times. And siphoned off billions to companies that never produced the goods such as Dyson, while other companies, that had been producing ventilators for years had offered to provide them at cost and didn’t get the courtesy of a reply.
And why do they keep getting away with this? Because people don’t really give a shit and keep voting them back in.

[quote Thedogscollar]@EmbarrassedButIAdmitIt
Your changed username says it all. Why not be loud and proud to put your real username to the glowing report you have given this bunch of incompetent arses.

You have glossed over their failings, which have been many and laid out in detail in previous posts.

I cannot fathom what appeal this government has for the ordinary person in the street.

The only part of your post that makes any sense is your changed username. You are right to be embarrassed.[/quote]
Absolutely agree with this. You are right to be embarrassed.

YABU. It's telling that the countries that you've compared us to - USA, Brazil, India - are (or were) all governed by right wing, populist leaders who failed to act quickly enough to slow the spread of the disease. A bit like Boris, basically.

The vaccine rollout has gone well, I'll grant you that. But the rest of it has been shit. So many other countries have done a much better job. Our death rate is still one of the worst in the world, despite all of the lockdowns. Poor leadership is definitely to blame for this.

They've made mistakes - but any government would have made numerous mistakes. The Pandemic was something we have never seen in our lifetime (and hopefully never again!) However overall they did a decent job.

Hindsight is 20/20 and there are far too many armchair or SJW's who think they could have done better. Absolute rubbish.

From the papers today The Indian strain of Covid is likely to be declared a 'variant of concern' after more than 40 clusters were reportedly found across England.

Hmm could that be anything to do with the fact people were given a period to return to the UK before the Government introduced quarantine measures for passengers arriving from Covid stricken India??

Plenty of us (other governments included) had foresight. Border restrictions and real quarantine are a very obvious way to stop an infectious disease spreading. You don't have to be a SJW to know that. From what I've read some of the government, Matt Hancock, for example also knew it and wanted to do more but were overruled.

[quote Thedogscollar]@EmbarrassedButIAdmitIt
Your changed username says it all. Why not be loud and proud to put your real username to the glowing report you have given this bunch of incompetent arses.

You have glossed over their failings, which have been many and laid out in detail in previous posts.

I cannot fathom what appeal this government has for the ordinary person in the street.

The only part of your post that makes any sense is your changed username. You are right to be embarrassed.[/quote]
I don't see either why the OP had to name change if she had the courage of her convictions.

I thought the thread title was some kind of joke actually but people have a vote and any number of reasons for how they use it.

@Havenholidayhelp

From the papers today The Indian strain of Covid is likely to be declared a 'variant of concern' after more than 40 clusters were reportedly found across England.

Hmm could that be anything to do with the fact people were given a period to return to the UK before the Government introduced quarantine measures for passengers arriving from Covid stricken India??

We seem to like importing Covid. New strains included. Border restrictions and a real quarantine would've stopped this from happening.

So will they put us through Lockdown 4

Floating the idea of abandoning masks in schools at the same time as clusters of a new B16172 variant are popping up all over the country - some of them linked to schools?

Can countries get a Darwin Award?

@MercyBooth

So will they put us through Lockdown 4

They have no plans to stop the next wave and avoid it.

@Uncurtailed

They've made mistakes - but any government would have made numerous mistakes. The Pandemic was something we have never seen in our lifetime (and hopefully never again!) However overall they did a decent job.

Hindsight is 20/20 and there are far too many armchair or SJW's who think they could have done better. Absolute rubbish.

Bollocks. It wasn’t hindsight. In March 20/20 Italy was begging us to lockdown and take the virus seriously. What did Boris do? Gave a green light to the Cheltenham races (presided over by his great friend Dido Harding), and allowed concerts to go ahead that brought in plane loads of fans from Madrid, at the time a known Covid hotspot. He then chortled over his joke Operation Last Gasp, before bragging about shaking hands with Covid patients. He missed 5 cobra meetings and locked down too late three times. And gave billions to his mates for PPE that never materialised,leaving healthcare workers exposed and at risk. Hindsight my arse.

Jacinda Ardern must have a flipping time machine then if she's governing by "hindsight"!

No, I don't think they have. Confused and terrified everyone with their mixed messages and propaganda, and the public don't really trust them.

The UK government has done a reasonable job in difficult circumstances. People will always carp by the sidelines standing in all different directions but not doing anything.

However, Track & Trace is a monumental waste of money as is the process of awarding contracts - there is sleaze going on there. We won't know the scale of the fraud.

I personally do not favour an all out lockdown. I suspect those who don't think the government did a good job would have wanted earlier and tighter lockdown and closing of borders.

No - multiple repeated failures - not locking down early enough (probably causing more economic damage overall), poor PPE, poor border control (they put big effort into enforcing immigration but not on health protection), poor/confused enforcement of covid rules. Years of underfunding nhs. Not addressing social care.

Their vaccine strategy has been good. Good sequencing of variants. Furlough - good, but poor management meant longer lockdowns, which means overall it will probably cost more. Not much else that’s good.

Jesus Christ. Have you forgotten the last year? Oh and the 127,000 dead.
It’s been an absolute fucking car crash.

It has been a fucking shit show..bo jo the clown shaking hands with COVID patients..not locking down..not closing the borders..then the whole eat out to help out encouraging everyone to mingle... the fanny about over school closures at Christmas...

It's been shit!

But the scientists who discovered the AZ jab and the nhs have been fantastic!

Ps the tories have also snuck in testing 4 year olds formally as they start school.., this year..
the same 4 year olds who have missed out on so so much due to this.. so what does that tell you?!