This prime minister. I despair.

[Richtea15]

I’m young. I don’t have a comprehensive understanding of the nitty gritty of politics. However, I can see broad and clear that Boris Johnson cannot lead a country. He is not transparent in anything he says. He avoided answering that journalist about the ventilator “joke”. He’s so fucking wishy washy. He just shakes his head and acts like the public’s questions are a pesky inconvenience.

Sorry. I’m absolutely despairing.

The telling thing about this for me - the massive government u-turn on strategy came after massive criticism from John Ashton on question time and Rory Stewart on Twitter. At least they’re doing SOMETHING now though

I’m young. I don’t have a comprehensive understanding of the nitty gritty of politics.

OK fair enough..

However, I can see broad and clear that Boris Johnson cannot lead a country.

Kind of contradicts your initial statement, maybe it could be that you are looking at it through narrow partisan political lines.

He is not transparent in anything he says. He avoided answering that journalist about the ventilator “joke”. He’s so fucking wishy washy. He just shakes his head and acts like the public’s questions are a pesky inconvenience.

Ah yes, here we are, reading only certain publications or following twitter trends and letting that dictate the narrative.

Remember that critical thinking and being able to see the nuance of the situation and media attacks is why Corbyn should be listened to, it's funny how some like to play partisan politics on a global black swan situation and pretend they are they are educated.

It's amazing how 'listening to experts' has now flipped a full 180 when it suits, future history buffs are going to have a field day with our timeline, and not just on the political right.

MN is becoming even more removed from the real world by the day I'm surprised no one has tried to say brexit will cause us not get a covid vaccine yet, there is a reason why peak mumsnet is a thing and why this forum is generally laughed at when it comes to politics

‘the UK is now likely in a worse position to every country in Europe save probably Italy thanks to this criminal dithering

The science says this is not accurate. We acted actually a bit earlier on the curve before other countries.’

This from @Bluntness100

None of these decisions are being made solely by the PM. I think he’s handling it exceptionally well considering the pressure he is under. Thank god it’s not Corbyn leading us through all this.

It's amazing how 'listening to experts' has now flipped a full 180 when it suits, future history buffs are going to have a field day with our timeline, and not just on the political right.

I fantasise about how Gove would be communicating this if he'd won the leadership election....

The press conference today was still far too vague.

STILL no school closures - not even colleges and unis who’s students don’t need supervision at home

STILL no clear official rules on isolation, travel, which places and jobs are to continue as normal, which MUST close

STILL no definitive info on rent, mortgages and other bills being suspended - which they have done in other countries

Minimal movement on support for businesses - big and small but especially small with sole traders barely considered

Businesses and individuals are STILL largely being left to make decisions on their own with little clear information.

Result being different things happening not just across the country but within towns/small regions and this is causing arguments and unrest!

@sluj sorry but you clearly have little experience/knowledge regarding benefits. Private renters have been really struggling covering living costs including rent on UC there’s been so many problems with it. I’m on legacy benefits and I know I’ve had problems in the past and that’s “just” been “admin errors”. The huge rise in benefits claimants this is likely to create when there’s ALREADY a huge backlog in processing claims - not just UC but because they’ve been cutting staff in dwp depts - is a disaster in the making ime.

Also mortgages ARE sometimes covered by benefits but the rules are complicated.

And yes, I did watch it in full.

I do think the journalist was out of order because there are far more important issues urgently needing addressing.

The quality of particularly press journalism in this country is woeful!

We need 2 factors imo to keep the current ruling party “honest” - a decent opposition and a thorough and investigative media.

Neither of which we have at the moment.

I actually do think corbyn would have been more decisive based on what he’s been saying on sm.

May would have dithered. Cameron would have made some unpopular decisions I think he’d have acted earlier and been criticised for it initially but later been proven right. Certainly his personality would have been more reassuring and he comes across better as a leader.

But you know who I think would’ve done the best job of recent PM’s? Brown - and I am not a new labour fan at all. But he’s a quick and logical thinker and also comes over better as a leader.

I do think the chancellor came across well but his banking background worries me.

I did have a wry smile when they said about resources and pulling together etc etc.
Who has pulled the rug on this for ten years? so true

Boris is not creating the virus response. That is being done by the CMO / CSO / SAGE.

Boris is not creating the economic response, that is the Treasury, BoE and various economic and financial experts, preparing the response packages.

Also, they are drawing up further economic measures aimed specifically at renters, and other specific groups.

I am amazed at people here. British exceptionalism rife; we know better, other countries will fail where we succeed, etc. Condescending...

Boris is not a leader here. He has wasted 7 weeks. NHS does not have PPE, there are no tests, Hancock released pleas for manufacturers to produce ventilators on Twitter (yesterday). This delay and unpreparedness as well as 10 years of NHS decimation will result in many more deaths.

The government has been entirely reactive, only changing its course because people - it turned out - could calculate and didn't want to die silently. From "contain-delay-mitigate-research" we are to in "suppress". ow is this leadership or any plan? Why PPE requirements for medics have been downgraded?

I cannot fathom how people can be reassured by this clown.

And data shows 0.2% death rate for 10-19. This will be 2 teenagers dead for around 1000-odd secondary. Are people completely blind?

And that's a dreadful statistic. Truly dreadful. But don't forget that's a global estimate. No evidence at all that the UK's teen death rate will be higher.

Titchy when the NHS is overwhelmed because there aren’t enough ICUs , after 10 years of Tory underfunding, the death rates are likely to be higher than the current rates seen globally. Certainly if he hadn’t done a uturn on strategy they would have been much higher

I was responding specifically to the teen death rate. I entirely agree that chronic underfunding of the NHS will lead to many more deaths than necessary.

I can't see why a greater proportion of our deaths would be young people though when compared to other countries.

Young people would be the highest priority - it's the elderly that sadly are more likely to die as a result of not enough ICU beds and staff.

I'm a Tory, I didn't vote for Boris to be leader but think he is doing an excellent job.

I have zero expectations of left wing supporters to put aside their hatred of him and the Tories as they will continue to be whipped into a frenzy of hatred by the Labour bots.

It may not have been reported in my Telegraph - can anyone link to the alternative comprehensive plans for dealing with the CV which surely have been put forward by Corbyn?

@istherelifeafter40
0.2% is of confirmed and tested cases. There could be 10 people flying under the radar with extremely mild symptoms for every one person who is tested in that age group. IE, it could be nearer to 0.02%.We just don’t know. Confirmed cases in China are 80,000 but it really could be 1 million. We just don’t know.

Having said that, Leo Varadkar has just stated they expect 15,000 cases in Ireland by the end of the month. So most likely 100,000- 200,000+ in the UK you’d expect. It’s going to be a rough ride.

Again, the hope is that a huge percentage of cases are flying under the radar with just very minor symptoms, that huge numbers of people don’t even bother to report (or are entirely under of in some cases), let alone go to test.

^ unaware of

@SilverySurfer
The government he leads dithered far too long at the beginning, and the policy of “mitigation” increasingly looks to have been foolhardy. They’re getting on the right track now though. Everyone is just hoping for the best outcome.