He was damned if he did and damned if he didnt

[Trekkerbabe]

That is all I have to say.

Everything here said. And it’s not hindsight. I’m a not particularly well-informed member of the public who went, “Eh, really? Cheltenham and a football match with thousands of Spanish visitors?” at the time. See all: students in Sept, travel abroad, ffs we’re an island and, yes, xmas.

*also

@EssentialHummus

Everything here said. And it’s not hindsight. I’m a not particularly well-informed member of the public who went, “Eh, really? Cheltenham and a football match with thousands of Spanish visitors?” at the time. See all: students in Sept, travel abroad, ffs we’re an island and, yes, xmas.

They can never be pre-emptive this government. The whole way through they've never shown an ounce of foresight and if anyone tells them what they should have done (which was obvious to anyone with a working brain at the time) they call it hindsight.

At least children requiring free school meals have provision to eat over the holidays, let's not forget Johnson and the Tory party voted AGAINST extending FSM through the holidays.

votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/896

Allowing children to go hungry during a pandemic at Christmas is pretty Grinch like behaviour from the Conservatives.

Thank goodness we had a Premiership footballer from humble origins that was able to shame them into changing their policy.

Bet Dominic Cummings shot back up the M1 last night.

YABU. Hes an idiot and should not be in charge of running the country

@GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly

Bet Dominic Cummings shot back up the M1 last night.

Didn't see his bum for dust I bet!

If it was a no win situation, he put himself squarely in it by his own actions. Hoist by his own petard.

He shouldn't have given people false hope and let them plan family xmas. It wouldn't have been nearly so bad if he had said we need strict xmas rules last month.

He left it too late. He could have done this earlier but he left it for people to spend out on food, travel and get their hopes up that it was really happening. His problem is that he wants to be liked too much. The more cynical side of me wonders whether he let people boost the economy with their Christmas purchases knowing it's all for nothing. Either way he's an arse. I did vaguely have some faith that the government would do their best despite me not voting them in. Any goodwill I had has gone. The man is a complete and utter arse. I don't think anyone else would have done it any better. But that's because they're all shit. This is not a good thing.

He said we could all have 5 days of Xmas on 24th Nov, that was a totally irresponsible thing to do.

He had no fucking idea what the situation would be like a month later.

As usual he leaves everything to the last minute but i bet he and his ministers/MPs will go to their 2nd homes because they have reclassified them as Main Residences, Jenrick did this during the last lockdown :(

@Kaliorphic

He left it too late. He could have done this earlier but he left it for people to spend out on food, travel and get their hopes up that it was really happening. His problem is that he wants to be liked too much. The more cynical side of me wonders whether he let people boost the economy with their Christmas purchases knowing it's all for nothing. Either way he's an arse. I did vaguely have some faith that the government would do their best despite me not voting them in. Any goodwill I had has gone. The man is a complete and utter arse. I don't think anyone else would have done it any better. But that's because they're all shit. This is not a good thing.

I think it's a bit of both combining.

He's a coward and doesn't like delivering bad news. He doesn't like bad headlines in the Tory newspapers, so tries to keep them on side.

He put London into tier 2 for the sake of the economy, but that decision pretty much finished off Christmas there, as it would have been difficult enough anyway with the numbers.

No, he should've acted sooner – he should've instructed schools to switch to online learning in the last week of term when it was clear even the old strain of Covid was ripping through classrooms instead of letting Gavin Williamson threaten to take them to court.

He needs to go. And a leader put in place. He’s consistently left decisions to late and is playing a highly political game when the country really doesn’t need games.

Didn’t he do the exact same thing with Eid? Wait for everyone who would be celebrating it to make arrangements, spend money and then suddenly ban it

It’s just complete incompetence. Anybody can see that saying people could mix at Xmas would end with cases rising. The change in the virus was predicted a while ago & apparently the vaccine can be tweaked in-line with this. The handling of the whole pandemic has been awful. It’s hard to believe that a Government can make so many bad decisions. There doesn’t seem to have been any common sense throughout this. Can’t wait for the vaccine to roll out so we can aim for more normality.

If you were stupid enough to make plans to mix at Christmas then you live with the consequences of it being cancelled.

@Twinkie01

If you were stupid enough to make plans to mix at Christmas then you live with the consequences of it being cancelled.

There are many people who will listen and believe every word that their government say so does being told that they could celebrate Christmas make them stupid?

If it does then does that make them stupid for listening and believing everything that their government says?

@ThelmaNotLouise

No, he should've acted sooner – he should've instructed schools to switch to online learning in the last week of term when it was clear even the old strain of Covid was ripping through classrooms instead of letting Gavin Williamson threaten to take them to court.

I agree totally.

Can’t wait for the vaccine to roll out so we can aim for more normality.

Don’t want to be unnecessarily depressing, but the same people are handling Brexit...

@Twinkie01

If you were stupid enough to make plans to mix at Christmas then you live with the consequences of it being cancelled.

Did you mean to be so rude?

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

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing.[/quote]
It's not hindsight.

Things were obvious before he acted every time, to the layperson who followed the news.

In our area the Covid-support network was being set up from the end of February, before they'd admitted any problem.

At the end of August anyone looking at the statistics could see cases were rising into a second wave-it took him till the 19th September to admit that, and he didn't really act.

On the 10th December there was a jump in statistics that should have raised alarm bells. It didn't go down. By Monday at the latest it was clear we were going into a second peak that was rising quickly. By Wednesday it should have been slapping him in the face, but he still was "oh no, Christmas is happening."

And if you're wondering, I'm not looking at these with hindsight. I've kept a diary of statistics, actions and thoughts. This is what I have down for those dates.

If it's obvious to me, I'm certain it was obvious to his scientific advisors, and I'm certain they will have told him.
Unfortunately BJ is an ostrich, who likes to bury his head in the sands of popularity when times get tough.

@merrymouse valid point.

And yet for all you critics he said part of the reason for not cancelling was considering people’s mental health . And also the fact that schools were closed would counteract the mixing .

Also in the week they pleaded with everyone to minimise contact and consider their individual circumstances.

Then the new information about the mutation arrived and they did the U turn in 24 hours.

I totally agree damned if he did and damned if he didn’t .

Same as if they have to close schools again .

Then the new information about the mutation arrived and they did the U turn in 24 hours.

The information didn't suddenly arrive on Friday. Scientists have been saying for weeks that the Christmas lockdown was a bad idea, and it never made sense to put London into tier 3 but with a 5 day break for Christmas so everyone could leave London for Christmas (because most people who live in London have moved there from elsewhere).