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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Manchester- screw you Boris

507 replies

Napqueen1234 · 20/10/2020 16:53

F you Boris

There will be civil unrest in Manchester following this and I don’t blame them.

People won’t follow the rules as they have no respect for the government any more. Does anyone? Incompetence bullshit and lies.

OP posts:
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HeIenaDove · 21/10/2020 15:57

And I have said before my criticism lies with the govt who rather than use the NHS and local govts to operate a test and trace system who have the expertise they handed out £12 billion to private corporates to do most of the test and trace. It hasn’t worked and cases have risen. There is a good chance if they had kept it within nhs and local authorities the system would have worked much better in the summer and we wouldn’t be seeing the high rise cases we are now

The public are being expected to pay the price with more lockdowns for their profit and so they can continue to profit.

Flaxmeadow · 21/10/2020 16:02

As I have said before, I applaud Burnham for trying to get sufficient funds and which he said he hoped would be a blue print for all

It's not the "more funds" that people, other areas, northern councils/mayors disagree with, it's the way Burnham has gone about trying to get them.

No other mayor/council in the north has done what Burnham did

And also Burnham does not speak for other (Labour) areas in the north re blocking 3 tier because none of the other counties have blocked it. Infact most people in GM didnt even vote for him or for a mayor in the first place. What gives him the right to the title "King of the North".

HeIenaDove · 21/10/2020 16:04

Private Eye Magazine
@PrivateEyeNews
·
5h
Open-ended PPE contract awarded to Tory donor's firm in a phone call with no formal written record - and this one isn't even on the Crown Commercial Service list they've used as an excuse before. Full story in the new Private Eye, out today.

IloveJKRowling · 21/10/2020 17:17

The public are being expected to pay the price with more lockdowns for their profit and so they can continue to profit.

This.

The government isn't really trying to bring cases down. Ever more punitive measures on hospitality and people meeting relatives will achieve bugger all with schools open as they are.

If they wanted to bring rates of infection down, the best thing to do would be to hand test and trace (and the money to make it work) over to NHS/ public health, enact laws to make profiting from this crisis illegal (so test and trace and sourcing PPE has to be non-profit) and put the money they saved into funding safer schools and into the NHS - pay rises for staff for a start.

HeIenaDove · 21/10/2020 17:22

YY @IloveJKRowling but they wont. 1963 film 80,000 Suspects was fiction (about a smallpox outbreak) But research would have been done to make it plausible. And it shows how it is done at a local level.

HeIenaDove · 21/10/2020 18:56

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-test-and-trace-serco-untrained-tracing-b1204648.html

Coronavirus: Test and trace forced to bring in untrained workers as system is overwhelmed by second wave, leaked email reveals
Exclusive: Test and trace staff warn of risks to using untrained staff to assess Covid positive patients

Weirdwonders · 21/10/2020 19:52

Tier 2 to tier 3 will make little difference in reducing transmission rates in Manchester so all this fretting about him costing lives is nonsense. They’ve effectively been in tier 2 since July and rates have been going up. I don’t blame him for trying to get as much as he can because the only difference is that in tier 3 more people will suffer financially. Manchester has been criminally underfunded by the Tories for years taking a far heavier battering during austerity than many other regions because it had the temerity to have a Labour Council. And oh look, it’s happened again.
Mumsnet has asked people to be nice so I’ll stop there.

Guylan · 21/10/2020 19:53

@Flaxmeadow

As I have said before, I applaud Burnham for trying to get sufficient funds and which he said he hoped would be a blue print for all

It's not the "more funds" that people, other areas, northern councils/mayors disagree with, it's the way Burnham has gone about trying to get them.

No other mayor/council in the north has done what Burnham did

And also Burnham does not speak for other (Labour) areas in the north re blocking 3 tier because none of the other counties have blocked it. Infact most people in GM didnt even vote for him or for a mayor in the first place. What gives him the right to the title "King of the North".

We obviously disagree on Burnham’s approach and will just go round in circles. I support him trying to stand up to this wretched government. And as said there are many other Northern leaders who support him too.
Guylan · 21/10/2020 19:55

And to add to the above, it’s people who have given him the title King of the North as they see him trying to get sufficient financial support for Greater Manchester. He has a lot of support.

Guylan · 21/10/2020 20:04

@HeIenaDove

And I have said before my criticism lies with the govt who rather than use the NHS and local govts to operate a test and trace system who have the expertise they handed out £12 billion to private corporates to do most of the test and trace. It hasn’t worked and cases have risen. There is a good chance if they had kept it within nhs and local authorities the system would have worked much better in the summer and we wouldn’t be seeing the high rise cases we are now

The public are being expected to pay the price with more lockdowns for their profit and so they can continue to profit.

A full lockdown can help get cases down significantly, but it’s wasted if there is not a a good test and trace system to take over and keep cases down. And as lockdown causes a lot of hardship it’s terrible that the govt gave most of the contracts to private corporations that have failed miserably with test and trace in the summer when cases were lower after a lockdown and continue to fail. Many believe the NHS and local authorities would have done a better job.

It’s illuminating that govt are now using local test and trace teams more in some areas, though they won’t budge in not moving over entirely to local. Perhaps they have financial penalty clauses in their billon pound contracts to private companies if they ceased the contracts, speculating here.

Also as you have shown millions have been given in contracts to firms hastily set up to provide PPE which in some cases was not sufficient quality to be used. The govt were happy to spend millions then.

MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes · 21/10/2020 22:40

I may be a bit slow here... but why are all these places having to do “deals” for funding?? Are they all different? Why not work out a per capita rate, maybe adjusted for average rental prices? Or have they?

SheepandCow · 21/10/2020 23:05

@MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes

I may be a bit slow here... but why are all these places having to do “deals” for funding?? Are they all different? Why not work out a per capita rate, maybe adjusted for average rental prices? Or have they?
I thought the same thing. Seems fairer and less divisive. Got jumped on for suggesting it. If it's going to be based on deals, I worry for more deprived areas. Much of the media is now based in Manchester (Salford's Media City). It's going to get more attention (and more influential people fighting for it) than places like Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Hull, Sunderland. The NE is all too frequently overlooked when there's talk of The North.
MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes · 22/10/2020 14:16

I remember Blair changing council funding substantially and it was in his time that more importance was put on individual areas negotiating. About the same time the culture shifted more towards murky wage structures and individual negotiation in employment.

It is divisive, and murky for a reason. It does favour those who can and will play the system: the very people and places that are the most advantaged anyway, and have no scruples about manipulating systems and funding for their own gain.

JamieLeeCurtains · 22/10/2020 15:25

Well, the Tories are doling out the money today, and quite right too.

They just didn't want to credit 'Andy'.

They'll backtrack on FSM holiday vouchers too. BJ can't bear not being liked by Marcus Rashford. Fragile ego.

userxx · 22/10/2020 15:28

They just didn't want to credit 'Andy'.

I don’t think it’s even that, now the South are facing tighter restrictions it’s time to throw the money around. Unbelievable.

CrappleUmble · 22/10/2020 16:53

@JamieLeeCurtains

Well, the Tories are doling out the money today, and quite right too.

They just didn't want to credit 'Andy'.

They'll backtrack on FSM holiday vouchers too. BJ can't bear not being liked by Marcus Rashford. Fragile ego.

Yup. If it wasn't phenomenally obvious already, today has made it incredibly clear that Johnson used the whole thing as a politicking opportunity. Wanted to try and dissuade any of the other serfs from giving lip. I hope you're right about Rashford!
SheepandCow · 22/10/2020 22:38

@userxx

They just didn't want to credit 'Andy'.

I don’t think it’s even that, now the South are facing tighter restrictions it’s time to throw the money around. Unbelievable.

Confused Coventry and Stoke aren't the south. Have you not heard of the Midlands?

Or do you mean South Yorkshire?

You resent those areas getting support?

And double Confused. The south (further south than the midlands) was first affected months ago economically. London's footfall has seen the largest drop. Devastating for the hundreds of thousands of people on minimum wage who rely on the entertainment and office work industries. As the ONS figures showed during the first wave, most of the top ten most deprived areas who suffered the most from Covid deaths were London boroughs.

Then there's Cornwall. No tier restrictions but already the most deprived part of the UK. It's economy has suffered dreadfully.

Blair would be proud of you.

SheepandCow · 22/10/2020 22:45

@MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes

I remember Blair changing council funding substantially and it was in his time that more importance was put on individual areas negotiating. About the same time the culture shifted more towards murky wage structures and individual negotiation in employment.

It is divisive, and murky for a reason. It does favour those who can and will play the system: the very people and places that are the most advantaged anyway, and have no scruples about manipulating systems and funding for their own gain.

I was thinking exactly the same the other day. Wasn't sure if I was influenced by my dislike of him (his war on the disabled).

Tony Blair's legacy.
I feel sad about the regional division.
Every area encouraged towards insularity and resentment of the Others.
Excellent divide and rule tactic, I'll give him that.

SheepandCow · 22/10/2020 23:54

The Blair led changes (enthusiastically continued by those who came after him) have brought about (or at least significantly exacerbated) the dreadful postcode lottery situation we sadly see so much nowadays. Be it NHS treatment, mental health support, social care, or housing. Terrible.

LemonTT · 23/10/2020 08:42

@SheepandCow

The Blair led changes (enthusiastically continued by those who came after him) have brought about (or at least significantly exacerbated) the dreadful postcode lottery situation we sadly see so much nowadays. Be it NHS treatment, mental health support, social care, or housing. Terrible.
Are you saying that Burnham, a member of the Blair and Brown administrations, is now carrying this on by trying to get special deals for Manchester.

Fact of the matter is both Boris and Burnham got what they wanted. Boris appeared to make a stand. Burnham got to challenge the government and didn’t have to back down.

The public got another example of disruptive behaviour in politics. I know this is Johnson’s thing but Burnham used to have the pretence of being a constructive politician.

AdoreTheBeach · 23/10/2020 09:01

So is it Boris who have all those people Covid?

Where really should the responsibility for out of control virus lay? Isn’t it, really and truly, with those spreading it? When we all know how it is spread, if everyone did their part, it shouldn’t be like it is in Manchester.

Would you rather there be no restrictions?

Would you be shouting about nhs workers dying again? Would you be happy with no medical help and dead in the streets?

PetitFours · 23/10/2020 09:20

@AdoreTheBeach

So is it Boris who have all those people Covid?

Where really should the responsibility for out of control virus lay? Isn’t it, really and truly, with those spreading it? When we all know how it is spread, if everyone did their part, it shouldn’t be like it is in Manchester.

Would you rather there be no restrictions?

Would you be shouting about nhs workers dying again? Would you be happy with no medical help and dead in the streets?

It's nice to shove the blame onto the semi-mythical mass rule breakers who are spreading it about, and no doubt rule breaking is responsible for part of the spread. However, the bulk of the spread seems to be people going about their daily business within the rules - going to school, going to work, living in a care home, living with other people.

I have a group of five close friends, three of whom have school age children all living in different areas. All three have at least one child is currently isolation due to positive cases in their bubble. My aunt has it and probably caught it at work; now passed on to my uncle. None of them have broken the rules.

CrappleUmble · 23/10/2020 12:34

It's Boris and company who did fuck all about this until it had become well and truly embedded within the population. Who didn't think at all about us in GM when imposing and lifting lockdown, even though our local leaders stated at the time that our first wave hadn't finished. Who did shit like Eat Out To Help Out and encourage people to go back into the workplace, even as we here were under greater local restrictions and many of our rates were rising. Who have failed to put into place a proper track and trace system, and to ensure that people who need to isolate are paid in full for any losses, thus meaning that some of them aren't going to be able to afford to do it, and who either don't know or don't care that this disproportionately affects areas like GM where people are less likely to be able to work remotely. On whose watch it was that the virus has become endemic in areas of Northern England according to PHE. And who are now pretending that local lockdowns are the answer to this.

GabriellaMontez · 23/10/2020 13:54

When we all know how it is spread, if everyone did their part, it shouldn’t be like it is in Manchester.

People are catching it in hospital, work, schools then taking it home.