Poor Boris

[Namechangervaver]

He looks like he hasn't slept for a week. I never thought the day would come when I'd feel sorry for Boris and think that Trump sounded professional (in his press conference today). Everything is upside down. We're fucked, aren't we?

The thought of Corbyn doing what Johnson is doing makes me feel even worse than I already do

Weird that Labour have practically dissolved where is the new leader it’s ridiculous

Hasn’t been elected yet. Why is the Tory response to every criticism of the government what about Labour?. This is fuck all to do with Labour.

MarshaBradyo
People trying to deflect from the utter uselessness of Johnson by talking about Labour, now that's pathetic.

I don’t fucking care it has taken them months

I also shudder to think of the alternatives we might have had.The country would already be bankrupt if Corbyn was in pm.Boris is not to blame. China is.

"other European countries are offering wage protection direct to workers not loans to business."

yes this is definitely needed urgently - businesses are important but humans are also important - something Mr Johnson seems to forget

Poor boris, year right.

Johnson's stupid 'strategy' of letting the virus run wild to see if we'd develop herd immunity will probably end up costing thousands of lives.

He's been pushed into taking a bit of action now. But the UK is still ignoring the World Health Organisation's plea for widespread testing. Even the frontline workers in the NHS aren't getting tested. Complete insanity.

So no, no pity from me. Not for him.

I think he's actually doing OK.

• deferring to experts
• regular communication - yes, there is never enough information, but the plans are outlined and the rest follows
• committing to some VERY un-Tory levels of spending.

One thing he has in his favour is that he is a historian. He wrote a book about Churchill (his idol). History can be helpful for making decisions about the future.

Despite his shambolic appearance he does actually have the capacity to get people on board. If he then leaves the grunt work to the people who work for him, then good, that's what leaders are meant to do.

I think he's doing better than Corbyn would have done.
Nicola Sturgeon is also strong and her current power dressing is superb!

Of course Boris isn’t to blame for the virus. Jesus.
He is to blame for his complete inepitude.

I can put my hand on my heart and say I have never voted conservative in all my 30+ years of voting. I am vehemently pro European and thus about as anti Brexit as you can find. However even I am prepared to say I think he is doing ok in a pretty thankless and difficult task.

Certainly never thought we'd be looking back on that as the good old days 😂

Its ironic that Boris manages to duck out of the hard work of Brexit, and slides in at the end to deliver sweet FA. And then has this shit storm land in his lap.

If I was in charge of trying to save thousands of lives and that my every word or decision might save or kill another person I would be permanently crying.

So they are all doing better than me!

He wanted the job...I expect he thought it was all about the glory and taking tea with the Queen.

I am sorry, but I feel absolutely zero sympathy for Boris. He finagled his way into the top job and was prepared to compromise his principles in order to get the job.
He is clearly out of his depth and is simply not cut out to be PM. He is a lazy politician and as a result comes across as confused.
This became even more evident when Macron spoke the other day. He came across as confident and statesman like as compared to Boris Johnson who looked like a deer caught in headlights
As another poster pointed out, he thought it would be all fun and games being prime minister. He should have stuck to writing articles for newspapers and quoting Latin phrases.

Really???????

The bloke's a knacker but I think he's handled this quite well.
He's stuck between a rock and a hard place.

He made a massive mistake last week with the herd immunity theory. It will cost lives so that is unforgivable. Thank god they are taking tougher measures now.

I did have sympathy, but now have increasingly bad symptoms (really tight chest and know I am at the start of this) and quite honestly feel angry. I know it is not his personal fault, but Italy said isolate earlier based on their experience and the UK did not listen!

This crisis is revealing the poor foundations this society is buiilt on.

A country racked by austerity.
Many people in self employment. Living from pay cheque to pay cheque.
Insecure employment
Many people renters.
A reliance on debt.
An under funded and poorly resourced care sector.

So many issues - and so many that have been dismissed by the current PM and the last one.

Well, we can see the effects of all that now. Johnson has had to be reminded of these people and has had it dragged out of him so at the next press conference, he has to reply to the issues from the comments he made before.

And talking about Brexit today. He made a joke. He laughed. Said it was all done.

He has no fucking idea of the harm that will be done if we fuck up the trade deals now.

He is making a right mess of this. They should have started acting on this in January when it was obvious what was coming, but they didn't. Even I spoke to my boss at the time to warn him - I work in Healthcare comms. They took completely the wrong tack with their 'herd immunity' strategy and then back tracked when some actual experts stepped in to point out that this would cost upwards of 250k lives.

They are now on the back foot and still not doing everything they need to. The NHS is on its knees and they know that as a result of their policies a lot of people will now die in the UK who might have lived had they made other choices. A lot of people will also lose their jobs, businesses and homes due to the fall out and we are not doing enough to protect

I don't feel sorry for him. I feel incredibly angry that the Tories care so little about the people of this country that they are making a bad situation much, much worse.

I work in the NHS. All that matters at this stage is:

1. Increase bed capacity
2. Increase oxygen supply/mechanical ventilation capacity.
3. Maximise staff availability. For example, even though I work in finance I’ve volunteered to directly support clinical staff. All admin staff with prior clinical experience are being combed out and reassigned to directly clinical roles.
4. Reduce unnecessary social contact to zero to minimise transmission of the virus. This means staying at home unless there’s something that you have to do that can’t be done any other way other than by leaving the house.

The political debate can take place after all the victims have been buried.

Even if Boris developed the perfect COVID19 vaccine, people would still whinge about him.

I actually agree. I have never and will never vote conservative I don’t agree with their politics however this isn’t about politics and I think Boris is trying his absolute best in extremely difficult circumstances and that’s all that can be asked of him.

Go Boris!