‘Is Boris off his head’ asks Europe

[Zandathepanda]

From the BBC news website:
^Today, Europe is hosting a virtual conference for world leaders and philanthropists in an effort to raise €7.5bn (£6.6bn; $8.3bn) to drive vaccine research.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is co-hosting the event, is expected to ask countries to pull together.^

So Boris is asking European countries to pull together. Whilst negotiating Brexit. Or not. Oh the irony.

[Noextremes2017]

The Government can get away with way too much at the moment all in the name of Covid-19. They are responsible for massively overstating risk and frightening a huge part of the population - the 'I am sure they are doing the right thing' brigade.

I am not so sure that people are going to be so supportive in a few months time when they are invited to apply for Universal Credit because their job no longer exists.

Of course that does not make our Government uniquely incompetent. All European governments have handled this badly but some better than others. The Germans - for example - were much better prepared with a better health service. They embraced testing early when our 'scientific experts' saw no great need. They locked down earlier (and even a few days has been shown to have made a massive difference).

But is it any wonder? Johnson was treating it all like it was a bit of a non-event until somebody sat him down and explained it wasn't. And as for our Health Minister, Hancock, well in the real world he'd be an unsuccessful applicant for pushing a tea trolley round a ward!!!

And don't get me started on the Nightingale 'Hospitals'. At least they are going to provide some storage space for all the Ventilators that were ordered in a blind panic.

And just for transparency I voted Conservative before Johnson.

[DoubleTweenQueen]

@lasttraineast Dismissal is a poor way to deflect. I don't use YouTube for sourcing information, or SM, certainly not MN, & I got my heads up from the WHO emerging diseases alerts

[GhostofFrankGrimes]

Not wanting to abandon sovereignty and abide by a whole set of rules and ever closer integration with the EU

Sovereignty was never lost. Some EU member states closed their borders during the pandemic. The UK has not.

does not exclude a desire to co-operate on activities which are clearly for the common good.

What like the EU's ventilator scheme and repatration flights? So the UK will be having its cake and eating it?

[DoubleTweenQueen]

@noextrmes2017 I know a number of previously staunch Conservative voters who did not vote for this lot. Odd that anyone questioning them is automatically branded a leftist loony

[RainMustFall]

The actions taken by the Government with respect to the virus are based on advice from the scientific and medical experts. If anyone thinks they can do better I suggest they volunteer.

[mateysmum]

Ghost
I was not thinking of closing borders in the context of sovereignty, more the many ways in which membership of the EU necessarily constrains the ability of member countries to act independently.

The whole point about being an independent country is that you can pick and choose, but equally have to accept you can now no longer have all the benefits or membership. Not all choices to participate in any particular scheme will be the right ones, but equally we should not assume that joining in EU schemes will always be the best option.

Remainers want to have their cake and eat it when they describe every UK opt out as a failure and every opt in as "having cake and eating it".

[GhostofFrankGrimes]

If anyone thinks they can do better I suggest they volunteer.

You don't need to be a scientist to understand that allowing events like Cheltenham to go ahead was a really, really bad idea. That and keeping your borders open (somewhat ironic given this country's obsession over controlling them).

[chomalungma]

I am surprised it took us so long to get the track and trace app ready. South Korea were talking about it a long time ago.
I am surprised it took us so long to get to a testing capacity. It's not like we haven't got a decent scientific industry in the UK.

We knew that 'test, test and test' as well as track and trace would be important.

It seems we took a long time to get to this stage of track, trace and test.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

I am surprised it took us so long to get the track and trace app ready. South Korea were talking about it a long time ago. It was a numbers thing. Though they should have started develpment ages ago.

Sth Korea has a very different take on flu epidemics, and individual freedoms. They really a too different from the UK to be a good comparitor.

[GhostofFrankGrimes]

I was not thinking of closing borders in the context of sovereignty, more the many ways in which membership of the EU necessarily constrains the ability of member countries to act independently.

It doesn't change the fact that sovereignty was never lost (a white paper from several years ago said as much). Its an emotive word that was cleavely utilised by Brexiteers. Any future relationship with the EU or anyone else will be bound by some constraints, international agreements tend to be. Its just that English exceptionalism won't recognise this.

[Proppedupinbed]

U.K. isn't in Europe any more, did you miss the vote.

Yes it is. UK isn't in the EU any longer. Two different things.

[Zandathepanda]

mateysmum it’s interesting you voted remain when you think to have still remained would have made the UK lose it’s sovereignty. We will have to agree to be equally baffled by each other’s viewpoint . If you can find any articles that paint Brexit as a good thing for medical research in this country you are a better ‘researcher’ than me. Even the more optimistic articles paint the short term picture as gloomy and isolationist.

I have not read about any medical researchers who think the country will be better off after Brexit. Horizon funding is a worry. The university press about the subject is trying to find ways of mitigating loss of collaborative work/grants etc. My doctor friends are equally dismayed.

I will say it again. My initial post was not about the rights/wrongs of Brexit. Or anyone in the world supporting/ not supporting Brexit. Some posters seemed to have got it. It was about the perceptions the world will have of Boris, the figurehead of Brexit, telling European countries to pull together (in terms of medical research) in the BBC headline.

[Noextremes2017]

Yes I understand your post totally OP and love the irony.

Unfortunately once the subject of Johnson and his cabinet of mismanaging clowns is brought up it is bound to make people reflect on the wider picture.

Johnson is an opportunist and will make whatever political capital he can out of this pandemic and the Government response. Every fiasco will be 'spun' as a success (think Nightingales) and every negative (think unemployment) will be laid at the door of 'only following the science'.

Even his illness gave him the opportunity to become a lifelong paid up worshipper of the NHS. Clearly he thinks the standard of care he received is what we all get (2 nurses stood by his bedside for 48 hours). Not the normal situation in my experience.

So now just be grateful that his non-divisive personality will galvanise all the European leaders into action. Think of the headlines - 'Pandemic finally Beaten with the Johnson Vaccine.....'

[ZombieFan]

Haters gonna hate & Boris bashers are the hard core of that group.
Anything Boris does will be met with hatred.

Following a public vote ➡ Boris is evil
Global pandemic ➡ Boris is evil
Boris goes into intensive care ➡ Boris is evil
Carrie & Boris have a baby ➡ Boris is evil
Hancock meets target ➡ Boris is evil
Pushing countries to develop a vaccine ➡ Boris is evil

No matter what happens, a hard core minority will always believe ➡ Boris is evil.

The rest of the country however ❤❤❤❤❤ Boris

[Noextremes2017]

Yeah - there are a lot of Zombies in the country right now …….

[HannahStern]

Boris Johnson has managed to put the UK at the top of the European table for Covid19 deaths. Data show outbreak linked to 42,000 excess deaths in UK by late April. An incredible feat considering Italy had almost a fortnight head start.

Zombies just love him for it.

[ZombieFan]

Yea Boris killed all those people himself, nothing to do with a global pandemic.

[Snowjive2]

Zombies only operate in binary. Not very clever, best ignored.

[JayAlfredPrufrock]

Rude

[Snowjive2]

Nope, not rude, rueful.

[TheSandman]

@KarenBossLady So devoted to the future of the NHS and all they'd done for him he was clapping them in his boxer shorts, apparently. According to that bastion of truth-telling, the Sun....

Oh THANK YOU! the unpleasant image that has just put into my head is going to stay there for a very long time. Boris Johnson 'clapping them in his boxer shorts'. Yeuuuuuuwwww!

[TheSandman]

The point of this thread is FLYING over the heads of the Johnson lovers.

and from all accounts there have been quite a few of them - a several of them remarkably fertile (and probably extremely drunk).