Boris has more waffle than Bird's Eye...

[Smithtylater]

Why can't he just answer a question straight?
And also if you have children did he just suggest you tell your employer and stay home? That is not going to go down well!

It was funny, a friend sent it to me on WhatsApp last night

I thought most child minders were closed.
If you said family could mind a child, there would be some idiot who used a different family member every day of the week because hey it's allowed.
No one said you couldn't move a family member into your home to live there to provide childcare, I know lots that have done this.

mummy2017 You are doing a sterling job of defending Johnson but you know sometimes, much like many of us had to do with Corbyn, we have to accept we backed the wrong horse?

The once great tory party have many better politicians than him in their ranks.... (no names spring to mind but i'm sure there must be somewhere?)

Johnson has a very weak character, any parent on here would recoil in horror if their adult daughter bought back a man twice her age with his relationship record.

That character is now shinning through for all to see.

The press transcript is here

www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/united-kingdom-boris-johnson-coronavirus-briefing-transcript-may-11

Decide for yourself if he waffles

Simon: (11:31)
Where schools have remained accessible to children of key workers, are they now expected to allow children to return where their parents are from industries that are being actively encouraged to return to work such as construction, manufacturing, et cetera? If not, how’d you propose these people return to work if there’s no childcare available?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson: (11:53)
Well, thanks very much Simon. And first of all, I want to pay tribute to the teachers and the schools who have been going throughout this crisis, looking after at least some kids of, some vulnerable children’s or vulnerable pupils, and some kids, some pupils of essential workers.

What we’re saying now is that if we continue in the same way, then we’re hoping to begin to open primary schools at the earliest by June the first. And so reception year one and year six will come back in for primary school. We’ll hope by the end of July for all primary school pupils to have at least one month of education.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson: (12:42)
And we hope that we’ll be able to, as I say, to get those children back into school. And yes, what we do want is people who, from now, people who cannot work from home, whose jobs do require them to go to work, to talk to their employers about doing that.

And again, I would just remind you that throughout the crisis, construction, lots of businesses actually have kept going, and they’ve done so in a way that is safe and secure for their workers, whether in construction or manufacturing, lots of offices have kept going, but as we go forward now, as we encourage people who can’t work from home to think of going to work, to get in touch with their employers about going to work, the key thing is that those places of employment should be safe.

And there’s guidance that we’re publishing today and tomorrow about how to make places of work COVID secure, how do we transport COVID secure. And it’s only on that basis, Simon, that we’ll be encouraging people to go back to work when they can’t work from home and people to go back to work when they can’t work from home.

And your point about not having access to childcare is a crucial one. Obviously, if people don’t have access to childcare and they’ve got a child who isn’t back in school for one reason or another yet. Can’t get them back until the 1st of June or even then they don’t fall into the years we’re getting back immediately. Then I think it’s only fair to regard that as an obvious barrier to their ability to go back to work. And I’m sure that employers will agree with that. So stay at home if you can. But go to work now if you have no alternative. Anything to add to that? Thank you very much.

"Sometimes it's not the answers he is trying to give, it is the way he is saying it. For instance, Sunday... I listened very very carefully to his address to the Nation. I'm an intelligent person, and I had no idea what he was saying. It was just sound bites and him banging the table."

The banging on the table reminded me very much of Derren Brown's mind control tricks.

Oh, and they've confirmed that childminders can't open to everyone until 1st June at the earliest. That's from the DfE.

We have been given guidance that Early Years settings may not be able to open to all, even then. It talks about restricting numbers, but doesn't give any further detail than that at this stage.

@chomalungma thanks for that...even written down it doesnt make sense! He couldve just said the last paragraph, even though it is nonsense it is the answer to that man's question!

How funny that all of you understand what was said.
That your all staying home if you can't go to work, or have no childcare.
Working from home if possible, or on furlough.
But your pretending you don't understand, as it makes for a better argument.

@mummmy2017

Go on - read that bit from the transcript I quoted.

I wonder what he was like at job interviews when he was younger.

"Boris, can you give me an example of when you had to make change in an organisation""

I did .
So if it is so unclear why are you not out at primarks shopping?
Oh it's closed, so the employees know not to go to work.
While Tesco employees are working if they can, the ones that can't are staying home.

So if it is so unclear why are you not out at primarks shopping

I said read the bit from the transcript about childcare.

Word salad. Not clear answers. Not direct answers. He should know how people listen - and that people need relatively short and direct answers. Or they tune out. That's how the human mind works.

I don't know about anyone else but the only reason I understand what to do is by following the dissection by the news channesl following each briefing and announcement.

If I only listened to Boris I wouldn't have a clue what was expected of me. He contradicts himself so often that I doubt anyone would know what the correct advice was.

"That your all staying home if you can't go to work, or have no childcare.
Working from home if possible, or on furlough."

That's what was said before Sunday. If that's all Boris Johnson was trying to say, why did he bother making a speech at all? He's certainly not clarified anything - hence the utter confusion over childcare.

As has been said upthread, I wonder how much of it crossed his mind - or any of the advisers minds - about childcare, schools etc when talking about going back to work?

Or did he assume that 'the wives' would sort it as they usually do for people like him?

And for some good news! Look at all the countries with leadership that have fought and won against CV and cleared it completely from their country. They're highlighted in green or gray on this list and now have no cases af CV in their country. Really, really hope New Zealand is successful doing this as well, their leader isn't giving up.

www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

It was interesting that he simply could not answer the question put to him by a primary school teacher. He would have been much better off holding his hands up and saying "Yes, we know it's irrational that you can mix with the children of frontline health workers in school but can't meet up with your relatives even at a 2 metre distance in the open, but we're striking a balance between being cautious and trying to get people back to work. So sorry that puts you at risk, but those are the breaks."

That your all staying home

Your what are all staying home, @mummmy2017?

Good afternoon. Where does seeing family again fit into the roadmap out of lockdown, and how is it logical that I as a primary school teacher can mix with the many returning children, but seeing my relatives is still not allowed?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson: (34:44)
Well, Natasha, thank you very much and thank you for everything you’re doing as a teacher, and have done and will do throughout this period. I think I just have to go back to what we were saying at the beginning, that there are new flexibilities to ensure that people can see somebody who isn’t in their household, but you have to do it one-on-one outdoors and obeying social distancing. So, there is new scope to see one other member of your family, somewhere outdoors. And it may not sound like much, but given what we’ve all been saying, the senior, I hope you understand the constraints. We’re all under. We have to keep this disease at bay. We have to advance very gradually.

And Natasha, just to say on what you’re doing as a primary school teacher, and thank you for that, we will do everything we can to make sure that teachers, parents, children can have total confidence that we’re going to make those schools, your working environment, as safe as possible. And we’ll be publishing guidelines to make schools COVID secure. But Chris, is there anything you can say to answer that? Because Natasha does, on the face of it, have a legitimate question that she’s asking there.

Because Natasha does, on the face of it, have a legitimate question that she’s asking there.

Firstly is it just me or does this come across as if he is patronising her. It's a little like patting a small child on the head and saying yes of course you have a valid opinion.

And we’ll be publishing guidelines to make schools COVID secure

Secondly how the fuck can he claim to be making schools covid secure with the guidance they have published. It amounts to wash your hands and you don't need ppe even though we acknowledge there is no way for you to maintain a distance of 2 metres between you and pupils.

"Control the Virus? I can't control my dogs!"

This should be on a T-Shirt.

Word salad. Not clear answers. Not direct answers. He should know how people listen - and that people need relatively short and direct answers. Or they tune out. That's how the human mind works.

100%

He reminds me of a student trying to make up the word count on an assignment.

www.thesun.co.uk/money/11600058/boris-johnson-parents-cant-go-into-work-if-schools-not-open/

Why have you linked to a Sun report on the briefing that people saw last night?

It just says the same thing. Except more concisely.

The Sun report says PRIME minister Boris Johnson has said that if employees who can't work from home don't have childcare then they can't be expected to return to work yet.

Except he didn't say that, he said

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson: (12:42)
And we hope that we’ll be able to, as I say, to get those children back into school. And yes, what we do want is people who, from now, people who cannot work from home, whose jobs do require them to go to work, to talk to their employers about doing that.

And again, I would just remind you that throughout the crisis, construction, lots of businesses actually have kept going, and they’ve done so in a way that is safe and secure for their workers, whether in construction or manufacturing, lots of offices have kept going, but as we go forward now, as we encourage people who can’t work from home to think of going to work, to get in touch with their employers about going to work, the key thing is that those places of employment should be safe.

And there’s guidance that we’re publishing today and tomorrow about how to make places of work COVID secure, how do we transport COVID secure. And it’s only on that basis, Simon, that we’ll be encouraging people to go back to work when they can’t work from home and people to go back to work when they can’t work from home.

And your point about not having access to childcare is a crucial one. Obviously, if people don’t have access to childcare and they’ve got a child who isn’t back in school for one reason or another yet. Can’t get them back until the 1st of June or even then they don’t fall into the years we’re getting back immediately. Then I think it’s only fair to regard that as an obvious barrier to their ability to go back to work. And I’m sure that employers will agree with that. So stay at home if you can. But go to work now if you have no alternative. Anything to add to that? Thank you very much."

Which was complete unnecessary waffle.

My point, your saying The Sun have written a better version of what Boris said, meaning a Newspaper Report understood.
So it was not just waffle, there were valid points.
The reason I just posted the link was to prove just that.