He was damned if he did and damned if he didnt

[Trekkerbabe]

That is all I have to say.

It is not the taking away of it,

It is the promising of it in the first place.

Only a fool would promise Christmas , 6 weeks ahead of time, in the middle of a pandemic.

I agree

Can I add something to your list, here?

• Not loosening restrictions on a lockdown that was bringing case numbers down at a point where cases are still extremely high. Especially if you know you are going to be relaxing restrictions totally for 5 days.

In the other hand all our policy decisions have created the perfect decisions for virus mutation, resulting in a more transmissible virus and mutations on the spike protein the vaccine is aimed at. So well done us. Truly world beating.

Conditions

I'm not excusing Boris but I do think asking us do cancel Xmas has been genuinely hard for him and when he said earlier, it's inhumane I believe, he genuinely believes that.

But he's a pm and like pp said re Merkel, it's totally got people's hopes up and then crashed them down again.

His earlier speech should have added caution to manage expectations.

I actually can't believe that people still trust him and I worry that we are going to be under a Conservative government for longer than we should.

Can't people see that we aren't angry about the cancelled plans? We are angry that he told us 3 days earlier that Christmas plans could stay and then turns round and cancels. This goes for all 4 nations. Ridiculous. Apparently the new strain has been known since September and we were hearing how bad it was last weekend.

He is such a poor leader and I literally can't believe people are still praising him.

The mistake he made was promising a "normal" Christmas.

I'd have been fine with it all if we'd been told no mixing etc, to say we could then rip it away last minute is just cruel.

Lots of people's mental health is shot, mine included, and they'd been looking forward to this one chink of light. Then boom. Gone.

IF he had been brave enough to put London into T3 at the same time as The North then I don’t think it would have been necessary now for T4 to even be a thing

BoJo is an airhead.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

yes

and of course Dido Harding and the Track and Trace and the PPE contacts being given to cronies

and oh god the oven ready Brexit deal

and Marcus Rashford and the school meals

there is just SO MUCH incompetence and crap

It really is NOT just oops poor Boris, what a tough time you are having diddums.

Well he knew about this new strand and it’s virulence a while ago

Transmissibility. Virulence is different. There isn’t evidence that this stain causes any worse disease, only that it (appears to) spread more easily.

Boris should never have been in this situation. Classic over optimism and over promising yet again.

@snowisfallingallaroundus

He wants to be liked far too much. Weak leadership in time of a crisis.

Yes

@herecomestheSon is absolutely right in their synopsis of his handling of the situation.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing.

And what herecomesthesun said

Trekerbabe if you believe that then you’re really not very enlightened to the farce that this has been from the very start and in no position to comment.

He could have cancelled Christmas weeks ago, but also promised a couple of days off in the summer to have a belated celebration. That would have fed his need to be the 'good guy' while taking heed of the science. He would also have avoided the incredible cruelty of raising people's hopes and then crushing them.

1st time he’s acted like a leader, rather than a pleaser

[quote Changi]**@herecomestheSon is absolutely right in their synopsis of his handling of the situation.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing.[/quote]
oh no, this was all being said at the time the decisions were being made .

You can go back and look at these threads over the summer, please do.

He's done the right thing, of course. But what about his showmanship on Wednesday at PMQ's? What about the madness of announcing 5 days in the first place so he could be the hero that saved Christmas?

Damned if you do and damned if you don't is what being a leader or a PM is about. He wanted the job .

This pandemic has always given loose loose situations. That’s why a 5 day free for all should never have been a possibility in the first place.

@User158340

He's done the right thing, of course. But what about his showmanship on Wednesday at PMQ's? What about the madness of announcing 5 days in the first place so he could be the hero that saved Christmas?

Quite. Matt Hancock knew about this new strain on Monday yet it was only yesterday the new tier 4 was introduced! I know they ' had to wait and see' but to ridicule the opposition on wed then u turn on Saturday is beyond belief really. Poor man looked a bit embarrassed this morning on tv.

[quote Changi]**@herecomestheSon is absolutely right in their synopsis of his handling of the situation.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing.[/quote]
I doubt it’s hindsight. A lot of this stuff was predictable way before the decisions were made.

There are some things that obviously were out of his control and where the wrong decision might have been made based on the best information had at the time. But there have been an awful lot of decisions where the consequences were obvious at the time and then forced a u-turn.

Agree.
Takes massive balls to cancel Christmas. Big call but the right one.

@BabyLlamaZen

I'm depressed by tier 4 but more depressed by the reasons. Because it had to be done.

Very true.