If you are outside the UK, what's your opinion on our governments handling of corona virus?

[ssd]

How do you think we've done so far?
Do you look at the UK and think we've done well, or badly?
We don't hear much about how we look to other countries, hence me asking here.
Can you also state where you live?

Yuk was meant to be are!

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

I'm in Wales, so UK but different lockdown laws. Looking over the fence at you makes me think of this:

Love that video!!

An absolute clusterfuck from my POV. I'm completely baffled by the failure to take strong measures after the epidemic took off in Italy. I have family in the UK who report that hardly anyone is wearing masks or practising social distancing. This seems nuts to me.

In South Africa and our govt shut down hard shortly after the first positive test. I'm not usually a fan of the current govt but they've done a decent job of responding to the CV.

Wowlucky, I live in Australia and reach BBC News and Times every day. That's very odd that you would think UK news source might be the opinions and musings of Mumsnet.

@JudithGrimes incredibly apt, isn't it

I think more to the point for everyone is not how the UK has dealt with it

But how CHINA has dealt with it

only when the crisis has concluded and much more research worldwide has been completed will we have a clearer picture of what lessons we will have to learn.

A sports coach doesn't wait til the end of a game to change tactics if they are losing.

Twinklelittlestar1

Are you seriously trying to compare a worldwide pandemic of a new disease not yet fully researched to a sports game?

Interestingly friends parents in Brussels regularly share scathing articles about the UK handling (fair enough) but what on earths going on in Belgium? Their deaths per million is unbelievably high!

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale

Badly. Zero leadership abilities, zero communication skills. Complete shitshow. Am in denmark.

Same on all counts.

We are fubar ☹️

I'm in Switzerland and the news here does not mention the UK very much (the Cummings fiasco did get a mention). When it was decided to reopen the border next week with the EU (and just just Germany, Austria and France, which was the original plan) there was some debate about also including the UK at this point in time - the UK seems to be a few weeks behind as there are still hundreds of new cases and deaths being reported daily.

But I do watch BBC and Channel 4 news, and have thought that compared to the messages and guidelines being given here that the UK government have been unclear and inconsistent. The daily press briefings have been clearer and more honest here - we also had a lot of issues with lack of PPE and masks, but the Swiss government were clear about what the issues where, where they had made mistakes and what exactly was being done about it.
Not just in relation to coronavirus - but British politicians generally seem to have an aversion to actually answering the question asked and instead come out with whatever statement they want to make to support a political view, and the question asked is irrelevant to them - it's very annoying.
The lack of consideration given to the situation in care homes in the UK has been really shocking - but that was the same for Spain and some other countries.

The 'lockdown entertainment' has been good in the UK - things like Charlies Brookers Coronavirus Wipout were topical and entertaining (not see much like that here) and I've really enjoyed the weekly National Theater Live at Home on YouTube.

Complete disaster tbh. Just awful. Our borders have been closed for months and will not be reopening any time soon, due to the dreadful situation in England.

I'm in an offshore dependency and we have had no new cases for weeks and our equivalent of test track and trace was in place 2 days after the first case.

Our govt is not known for its efficiency or effectiveness, and we have nowhere near the same resources as England, yet we managed it.

Boris has no excuse for his dreadful leadership.

Are you seriously trying to compare a worldwide pandemic of a new disease not yet fully researched to a sports game?

The premise is that if there are flaws in the strategy you don't just 'wait and see' you act and I don't see enough planning and action from our government. I'm really surprised that anyone would defend their incompetence. Clearly 40,000 deaths is not enough of a wake up call.

I think it's really bad that the UK is trying to open up at the same time as most of Europe but they're so much behind the other countries in terms of getting infections under control that they should wait longer.

I'm in Ireland but I'm English. I think the Uk reaction seems a bit of a shambles. There seems no clear plan, not due to developing science, but due to different opinions about what should be done. Irish reaction much more organised and proactive. Less political sniping too.

10% of worldwide deaths in the U.K. alone - scary! We're such a tiny country comparatively - I'm shocked to be honest and surprised, under the circumstances they're being so quick to stop lockdown

Ginfordinner after years of reading MN posts I can confirm that mostly the UK population do not agree.
I don’t know one person IRL that holds the views I’ve read here and I live in a Labour stronghold

Interesting. I know plenty who are critical where I live - and it's a conservative stronghold!

I have friends in various places around the world.

What's interesting is what our and their MSM media does is chose to show the best bits of other countries to make ours look worse if non Tory supporting (or abroad their own government non supporting) and vice versa.

@FunkyFantasticFudgeball - How will it work if we've got no cases bit it's still very prevalent in England, it would be extremely politically sensitive to implement any travel restrictions or quarantine for people arriving from the UK

The 14 day quarantine applies to travellers from Britain, as far as I know. It does not apply to people travelling across the border on the island of Ireland.

@Luckystar1 - FunkyFantasticFudgeball did actually say the north is doing well. I think most people in Ireland see the north as being separate to Britain in terms of their handling of covid and just in general. Once Arlene copped on and decided to co-operate with the south rather than blindly following westminster, ye got a decent enough handle on it.

Anyway sorry to single you out, it’s just not the first time I’ve read stuff like this, and I’m starting to feel very sad about the level of polarisation.

Sorry you feel that way. As far as I'm concerned, you're more than welcome down here

In response to the op - the general consensus here in Ireland seems to be that your government has made an almighty mess of the whole thing. Not quite as bad as the US, but only because Johnson isn't quite as bad as Trump. We're looking on in horror at the way it's being handled. Throw a no-deal brexit into the mix, and we reckon ye're fucked. I only know from mn that Scotland seem to be handling things a bit better than the rest of Britain.

I'm in Switzerland. My sources of info about the situation in the UK are British newspapers online, BBC AND Channel 4 news, my colleagues, friends and family in the UK.

I agree with everything that VenusinWillendorf said.

Just been chatting to my Brother who lives/works abroad, his view is we didn't test or isolate people coming into the UK in Feb/March/April /May or early June and in the keenness to prepare the NHS, put infected patients put into the care home system..... and didn't test or isolate them, which is what Germany did.

Both obvious routes of infection into the wider community, the UK didn't follow basic public health infection control.

In Italy.
Horrified.

nteresting. I know plenty who are critical where I live - and it's a conservative stronghold!

Could be that Tory voters tend to be more MC and less likely to need support. People I know have been thankful for the financial support and overall feel the only shit show has been from the Chinese government not warning Europe it had been infected for months.

Surely if you live outside UK and are a MNetter, most of what you know about how it's been handled here comes from MN, which is hardly balanced?

We can access international news online? It's not hard. I don't get my news from Mumsnet. As others have said, it is strange that you would think so.