Why are people not more angry about the government's handling of the crisis?

[jobhunter7]

Or are the newspaper not giving an accurate picture of people's feelings?

33,186 deaths recorded so far.

Surely plenty of these people had families and friends?

I suppose they can't really march at the moment.

Because they recognise that hindsight is a wonderful thing
Nothing to do with hindsight. Dozens of other governments have got the big decisions mostly right, have protected their health professionals adequately and communicated clearly with the public. I agree it is hard to say just “how” badly the British government has done in comparison to other indecisive/incompetent governments around the world. But it is indisputably a matter of “badness”.

Really? When was that because I don't remember the government having relaxed the whole 2 m rule just for VE day? And I certainly don't recall them encouraging people to go out and get pissed just to give A and E staff something to do?

@Hercwasonaroll

It is still going on.

Another 428 announced deaths today.

Regarding shortage of ppe, I dont really see that as being a failure of the government. As people have said the main source is China, and they needed it for themselves. I think the Government made a pretty good job of turning that round.

Whilst the press were whipping up the ppe issue into a frenzy, lots of places were saying they had enough. I think that was made into something it wasnt.

“They were taking on advice from scientific experts.“
There are millions of scientific experts throughout the world. You need to pick the right ones for the job at hand - preferably ones who will tell you what you need to here, rather than those who will provide the science and strategies around roughly what you want to here.

I agree Waspnest....dont know how people think that was the Governments doing.

I am very angry that they keep dismissing mental health and the single parents who are getting absolutely no break or support.

How are they doing that stray cat and what is it you expect them to do?

@TabbyMumz
Why did the government leap into action on the PPE front in March 2020, rather than say March 2019? You know the government ran pandemic exercises in 2016 which showed that we were woefully short of PPE, right? If you put yourself forward as the best among us as fit to govern a rich country like the UK, you better do a decent job of it or you will be judged harshly. Circa 40,000-50,000 deaths and counting is not a good job.

I go between being angry and being fine. They're making mistakes, no doubt, but some of the things being complained about I'm not actually sure what the best option is as they all have poor consequences so its hard to muster up anger at times.

Hindsight is 20/20 - I'm no fan of the government but they really don't have the answers, nowhere does. Even countries like Germany which appear to have lower numbers are not 100% sure why, perhaps just were fortunate that older/vulnerable people stayed home ahead of their lockdown (which was same as ours) my friend is a dr there and admits they got lucky - Belgium however has far worse per capita numbers, what did they do differently? Our numbers are very similar per capita to Italy, France and Spain - we all had different levels of lockdown and different compliance rates.

With releasing the lockdown it's even trickier because there's collateral damage staying in lockdown to businesses, mental health, long term prosperity which could kill more than covid.

If we had a time machine we would have locked down London 2-3 ahead of the National lockdown but we couldn't know that then.

So no they haven't done brilliantly but I would not be naive enough to say others would have done better and in the long term they may have done as much as the country was willing to comply to do. Ppe is a mess but that's down to decisions made in the past, the current incumbent couldn't magic it into existence.

What is it you're angry at?
Are there a better group of doctors or scientists you know of that would've done a better job?
The country as a whole hasn't seen the rates anywhere near what the people were panicking about, agreed there are hotspots but it isn't like that across the whole country.
Yes it's sad, we have lost our most vulnerable and some sadly out side of that demographic but what more could have been done really?
There has to be a balance between all aspects of health and well being and that includes the financial aspect (economy, jobs housing etc)
Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world and when I hear complaints of how badly this has been handled it makes me think it's totally unrealistic to expect any other outcome.

i'm not angry because I doubt I could have done a better job

But you're not Prime Minister of the United Kingdom are you? You know your limitations, Boris Johnson doesn't so he went for the job and has proved he's not up to it.

Boris Johnson is the worst among probably the entire cabinet to less the country at this time with Covid and Brexit. He has no eye for detail or for strategic planning. I’m fast moving away from angry toward extremely worried. Any government would struggle with making a success of Brexit (granted few would have been stupid enough to carry out the referendum in the first place). Coming during Covid it’s going to be absolute carnage. They are simply not up to it. But I blame the electorate more than the government. I usually vote Labour, but bo matter who is elected in 2024(5?) it won’t make a blind bit of difference now. We’re screwed.

Cam77...you do know ppe has a lifespan, ie you can not use it past safe by date? So if they did do a check in 2016, or march 2029, it wouldnt matter as it would be out of date. You cant have mountains of ppe just lying round on the off chance there might be a pandemic

I wonder if the "couldnt be helped" attitude would still be prescient if the high rate of deaths in care homes were happening in childrens homes instead.

2019

They're too busy being scared and bewildered. There's a limit to how mant emotions we can process in one go. The government know this.

The country as a whole hasn't seen the rates anywhere near what the people were ...
That’s because we’ve been under lock down for 6 weeks, ffs................

"Boris Johnson doesn't so he went for the job and has proved he's not up to it."
In your opinion.

@TabbyMumz
Well no that’s actually exactly what you should do. Otherwise your healthcare professionals are up shit creek. And a six month expired medical gown that might be in 90% condition rather 100% is I’m sure preferable to a school apron.

@TabbyMumz
Boris Johnson isn’t up to it. I grant you that neither was Corbyn, though in his defense he never went chasing after the leadership, he was sort of put to it, a momentum puppet almost.

Why are you angry at the Government?

Are you not grateful they have supported millions of people in the middle of a situation that the country has never seen before?

What could they have done differently? What about other Euro countries with similar outcomes, are you also angry at them?

Why is you your anger not directed at the negligent Chinese government who covered up the outbreak until it was too late?

Political point scoring and using tragedy to do it is just appalling.