To feel sorry for Boris Johnson

[LonerGirl]

I know people didn’t have a high opinion of him, tbf neither did I before this, but he’s doing his best. He’s doing what experts are advising him to do. He’s ordered temporary hospitals to be built & thousands of ventilators, asked for help through NHS volunteering.

I think he’s coping okay despite his wife being pregnant too, now he’s unwell himself.

What are your opinions?

I don’t want any fights or arguments I’m
Just curious to what others are thinking

His government refused to prepare for pandemic when warned three years ago.
His government refused to ensure adequate protection for frontline staff despite warnings in December- eye protection refused on grounds of cost alone.
Refused to join EU procurement process for ventilators. Gave a lucrative contract to a Brexit fund croney to develop ventilators rather than to a company set up already to provide machines that met international standards.
Not providing equipment to front line staff.
Not adhering to WHO expert advice re isolation and equipment.
Refusing to joint EU pandemic summit
Refusing to learn from others and minimising risk early on putting finances above life.
Dismissing imperfect, elderly or disabled life as ‘only’ the vulnerable. His only are other people’s everything.
Has failed to share accuracy of intended provision because of fear about the reality so limiting people’s ability to understand scale and apocalyptic nature of the virus. People think they’ll be three hospitals set up like the Nightingale centre. The plans are for similar in every city across England, Portsmouth, for example is increasing ITU beds from 12 to 300. The bed numbers to include a tented field hospital on a football pitch. There simply aren’t the staff to manage the capacity. Whereas the norm is 1:1 care in level three the plans are for 1 registered nurse (not necessarily ITU trained) with 2 Healthcare assistants for 8 ventilated patients.

The government knew this was coming in January and failed to respond.

No, definitely not feeling sorry for him. Can’t abide his lying, self serving attitude. Can’t believe someone who has asset stripped the NHS over years is wearing his NHS now as some sort of advocate. If the government had maintained the NHS at a level equivalent to the rest of Europe, we might be in a better position to cope with the expected surge from early next week.

Fuck me. Doing his best?? Since when was the bar set so low for a PM?

And as many PP have said, his party have starved the NHS of funding for a decade. He himself CHEERED when the nurses' pay rise bill failed. They have ignored the plight of the homeless since 2010 but hey presto, seems it's not so difficult to house them after all.

I feel sorry for him as I'd feel sorry for anyone with coronavirus.

But aside from that - he is a self-serving, utterly uncaring waste of oxygen.

Finally a politician is facing up to things their party chose to do for so many years... poor nhs and police forces has been under strain and even though they knew about it they have done nothing to fix it.. so when i watch him, I see a man who is facing up to that ....

I hope he does well ofcourse and hope that he is succesful in his choices for the sake of people of this country.... but the money he gives away is our taxs and all those nurses and police officers are coming back because they like their country not because they like him.. he has to remember that those are the people who this goverment shit on many years... the big corporations he side with always are nowhere to be seen now.. so hopefully he remembers that when this is all over...

@Beerincomechampagnetastes fourth paragraph from the bottom ’and has since signed a contract for 10,000 ventilators with Dyson.’

I feel sorry for Boris, he's been under immense pressure for weeks and now he's ill with a virus that could kill him. I am not a huge fan of him, I can see his faults, but actually I think he's doing a reasonable job under incredibly difficult circumstances.

I hope he recovers soon, he isn't perfect but he doesn't deserve some of the vitriol he's received on here, and he certainly doesn't deserve to die just because he's handled things differently than others would have done. Get well soon, Boris.

Yes but the Dyson ventilators need to be patented and will take several months.

The ventilators being built and supplied currently are being supplied at cost by all the companies involved.

I have no skin in the game btw.
I just know a few people who are working in the production and I know that staff are volunteering to isolate and working extra shifts to get it done. I think it’s important for people to know that production is happening.

I feel sorry for the healthcare workers who have suffered from decades of budget cuts and are now on the frontline with inadequate PPE and a creaking NHS.

I feel sorry for all those who will be affected because of BJ's ill-judged and unclear approach, followed by a U-turn couched in ambiguous terms. Too many people didn't apply social distancing because they weren't told to clearly enough and many will pay the price in 2 weeks' time when the peak hits and there are beds for some patients, notably at the Nightingale centre, but not for all - and certainly not enough ventilators.

I feel sorry for people who didn't realise that "getting Brexit done" meant not being part of EU efforts to access PPE and ventilators despite them inviting the UK to participate, and who believe that a functioning gvmt can just not notice emails about such matters.

I feel sorry for people who didn't vote for any of this crap.

I don't feel sorry for that "'last gasp" immoral liar whose inept actions and words have compounded the crisis.

I don’t feel sorry for Johnson in the slightest.

1. He’s an admitted liar. I rather doubt that he has coronavirus. Politically, it It would suit him very well to be able to say he’s had the virus and so is ‘one of us’. ”Hi folks” as he nauseatingly and unconvincingly likes to say, always reminds me of Jimmy Savile.

1. If he does have it, he has the celeb version - immediate access to testing (unlike NHS frontline medical professionals) and mild symptoms.

1. He hid and dodged and delayed for 11 weeks in Jan/Feb, endorsing the batshit ‘herd immunity’ theory which meant that the people of UK were unnecessarily exposed without sensible lockdown precautions for weeks.

1. He was an enthusiastic member of the Conservative administration which systematically ran down the NHS for 10 years, cheering in the Commons when they succeeded in blocking a pay rise for nurses, and starving the NHS of resources so that our doctors and nurses are working with a fraction of the ICU beds that other European countries have and STILL - with 260 people killed by the virus in the last 24 hours - do not have adequate PPE.

Feel sorry for Johnson, seriously? Why are there so many wet lettuces on this site?!

No I don't.

Could write a lot but most has been covered. Newsnight last night I think they said govt was ploughing money into venture capitalist groups? Uh-huh.

The hypocrisy around NHS is astounding.

Etc etc.

No, I don't.

However I think Jeremy would be shit too. So.

he certainly doesn't deserve to die just because he's handled things differently than others would have done

Has anyone said he 'deserves to die'?

He's such a liar, I don't even believe he's got CV.

Why are there so many wet lettuces on this site?!

There's probably a whole gro-bag full of 'em at No.10

@Snowjive2 👏👏👏👏 absolutely. With bells on.

Has anyone said he 'deserves to die'?

Not on this thread, but definitely some people on Twitter have alluded to this/straight up said it.

I said upthread certain people have really shown their despicable true colours

I'm thinking it can't be easy having CV and running the country. I'm sure I've got CV and I haven't got dressed in over 2 weeks. He is not one of the lucky asymptomatic ones as he had symptoms. So yes, I do feel sorry for him.

I bet Susan wouldn't put the emails about the EU ventilators into the spam folder 'accidentally'.

She might.....we'll never know

It's a new procurement scheme, aimed at bulk buying reducing costs, member states bearing 10% of associated costs. It was launched on March 17th, covering ventilators, PPE, vaccines and tests.

Leaving aside the stupidity of not taking part, the lies which followed were a joke.

These lies combined with the fact that a company in Nantwich sourced 5000 ventilators and 50 million self test kits, which the govt didn't respond to and thus they were sold elsewhere doesn't sound like a govt 'trying its best.' At the best it's incompetence and at its worst, negligent.

Now, Dyson has an order for 10000 , but doesn't know if they will pass safety regulations.

By their own forecast, they will need 30,000 ventilators, and hope to get the number up to 8000 over the coming weeks.

Why? Having see the devastating effects in Italy, why would a govt actively turn down supplies, keep their fingers crossed that over the next few weeks we will have a quarter of necessary ventilators, possibly going up to 50% if new ones pass regs?

Italy and the EU was not a good example, granted. Ironically the sane people that let Johnson off the hook because we all make mistakes, will slate the EU for this. Yes, it was a failure. This procurement plan was a response.

Not on this thread

So why bring it up on the thread as if someone had?

certain people have really shown their despicable true colours

Including Johnson and Cummings. Not that it's any surprise to those who already loathed them but Johnson has proved to be exactly as lazy and stupid as we feared he would be and Cummings is a danger to our nation.

I think there are some things he’s done well (choosing to be flanked by the CMO/CSO etc and being guided by the science). The excel centre is being equipped quickly so there is clearly a lot of prep behind the scenes.

However, there are some things they appear to have been cock-ups and it isn’t clear if that is down to him as PM or the advice he is getting which should be top-notch. Our testing strategy is just bonkers quite frankly. PPE has clearly been a problem. There are lots of dissenting public health voices.

Then, there are some odd communication things that are down to him really. One of the press conferences he suggested he didn’t want to bore people, language such as squish the sombrero is just silly etc. Nicola sturgeon sounds far more authoritative.

It’s easy to be an armchair critic. No one is handling this perfectly at a national level. And even if they were, thousand would still die, because it’s a fucking novel virus.

I think he’s doing a good job so far, and wish him soon well.

And I am pretty healthy without the stress of fighting an election, Brexit, a divorce, a new baby etc.

I do not envy him.

All with the exception of the election, for which he hid in fridges rather than actively campaign, are things he wanted.

The divorce, new baby, etc. could have been avoided if he'd troubled to keep his marriage vows. So no, he's reaping what he sowed.

My first thought was that he hasn’t got it he just wants a break from public scrutiny. He’s been having to work too hard recently and that’s not something he enjoys.

No I don’t feel sorry for him. If you want the power you have to take the responsibility too. I think he could have been worse but he certainly could have been better. His communication has been shit. Prior to Monday’s lockdown so many people who wanted to follow the guidelines or who would have done if expressed more clearly were unsure of what they were being asked to do. Eg my boss said she was going to take her kids to the playground last Friday. I said that was advised against and she had no idea. She’s not ignorant but she’s very busy and probably did a quick news catchup once that day. This information should have been front and centre.

Johnson has just got a (dubious) sick note and has delegated it all to Cummings.

We are totally fooked.

All of his cabinet are new to their posts.

Rishi Sunak is equally new, but appears to be competent. Maybe it's having a GP and a pharmacist for parents who can tell him exactly what the reality of the disease will be like.

Bloody hell aside from the political cock -up, you feel sorry for the adulterer!!!!!
Fuck me. Would you say the same to your sister if her husband had fucked around and got at least 2 other women pregnant whilst still married to her?
Would you tell your nephews and nieces to suck it up if their dad had fucked a woman young enough to be his own daughter and was having an illegitimate child with her. Seriously. He is far too old and trust biology, he really is, to be carrying on like this.
Would a female get sympathy is she behaved the same. Absolutely not.
I'm not convinced he has c v either, it's all rather convenient.
I don't feel sympathy for his pregnant girlfriend either, she knew the score, knew he was married with a family.
Then the same posters fawning over him are up in arms when married men cheat or don't care for their own children. Double standards and all that.