Did Boris actually just do that?

[kurtrussellsbeard]

So did Boris emphasise on TV at the weekend that's schools were safe, then pressure parents and staff to attend school today only to lock everyone down from tonight abs shut schools as part of it? Send everyone in to mingle for a pointless day. Wtaf.

Is this leadership? I am struggling to think of how he could be more indecisive and incompetent.

Is there a means through which a PM can be removed?

@Snowpatrolling

Like a pp I’m a key worker and single parent. How the hell am I supposed to magic up childcare less than 12 hours before school!? I had to reduce my hours last time which put me in rent arrears. I’m still fighting to get out of it. I can’t do it again. So pissed off right now.

@Snowpatrolling I agree it’s ridiculous, my DD is the same, she has messaged school and wraparound care and has had no reply, she is due to drop her DD off at 7.45am tomorrow. The wraparound care closed last time.

She knows she can have a school place but works a longer day than 9 - 3.

I think secondary school is a very important part in a child's development and education etc

I wish they could open as planned with mass testing. They do not need parents to take them to and from school.

All children in a mask.

Think it's a real shame.

@MrsPernicious

DfE told schools earlier today. DH got new critical worker letter. Hge rush, DfE email attached saying may be needed to show to police tomorrow.

I am SLT in a school and I've checked with my executive head and he didn't get anything. Neither did I...

Boris closed due to pressure of what everyone else was saying. He didnt want to do it.

He was advised by SAGE not to open schools. He could have bowed to the ‘pressure of what everyone was saying’ the day before sending lots of kids and teachers to spread an incredibly virulent virus around a bit more. I think he’s completely lost the plot. I actually feel a bit sorry for him.

We had a chance to keep schools shut after the holidays and reduce the transmission chain.

Allowing schools to return for one day undoes so much of this gain and will likely increase the number of weeks we’ll be locked down overall.

I’m so tired of having such an incompetent leadership. We deserve better.

I think he opened the schools on Monday, hoping that loads of teachers stayed off due to NEU action. Then, he could have blamed the closures on the unions.

Unfortunately for him, not that many schools closed due to teachers handing their letters in, so he couldn't make them the reason schools had to shut, and had to do it himself.

no, figures were discussed earlier amongst health agencies and the new variant isn't as expected with previous modelling ..

He always looks haggard but he really shamed himself this time

He looks spritely compared to how parents are going to look by the time kids ever go back to school

@cyclingmad

75,431 people have died. Please take a moment to think about that. They died before the alert was raised to level 5 and the imminent risk of the health service being overwhelmed. Nearly 55,000 more positive cases today. I don't think being horrified by those figures is "being dramatic".

@MrsPernicious

Not only did he do it, he did it at 12-40

@BertNErnie sorry you didn't get it.
DH works at very non regular SEN school.
In effort to get message out management managed to forward DfE password protected message, password and critical worker letter. Inset day so kept staff assumed.
Guess they work off list and lists take 24 hours or so to run through.

I wonder how many people throughout the country will get Covid as a result of schoolchildren being back for one day?

@lexi873

The time on his watch was just after 8pm which is the time it was broadcast cos it was a live speech

@Whatamesssss - But she was a competent Evil Bastard. She got the job done. (I am no fan of hers either).

Exactly.

Also she did her evil bastardry out of a sense of conviction. However awful it was, she believed she was doing the right thing. This fucking Death Clown can't even make that claim. He only cares about applause and profit for his mates.

I have hated Thatcher since I was about 14. I never thought I would hate anybody worse but I do. I first came to this conclusion on 12 March. Over the ensuing almost 10 months I've had plenty of time to consider whether I'm being fair or whether Thatcher was actually worse.

I still hate him worse than Thatcher.

@HollowTalk Fecking awful isn't it.
Luckily for us most local schools had an inset day.

@justanotherneighinparadise

he said schools themselves are safe, the issue is the people mixing within. I mean fuck me backwards with a donkey dildo, you don’t say Boris!!! You mean the walls and doors and roof are perfectly harmless until it’s full of people transferring germs? Well I never

Your imagery is better than mine, but the sentiment was the same!!

I'm curious how any Tory voters can actually defend this gaggle of idiots. Without saying "As if Labour would've done any better"... What is the defence? Really?

I live in a different European country with a husband from a third country so we keep up to date with news from all over, and from an outside perspective the Tories appear tohave handled this whole pandemic like absolute clowns. The complex rules, constantly changing, stupid mottos, back peddling, etc. is so ridiculous. Anyone thinking "they're doing as well as anyone could given the circumstances", let me tell you: they're really really not.

I hope the "hatred" extends equally across the spectrum - and Blair is "hated" too?

People in Iraq can't understand whey he isn't imprisoned or worse for war crimes against their country.

How are things in your country?

@CarrotPuff

KW do get spaces but I don't think school can magic that all up at 9pm the night before.

Yes they can & are. Maybe not all, but the vast majority will have it in place for tomorrow

Its been said by the scientists time n time ago this strain is more infectious but not necessarily as deadly.

But it doesn’t have to be more deadly in order to cause more deaths. Just being more infectious will do that. More people infected = more deaths. The Daily Mail (not normally my paper of choice) explains it well:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9085195/Mutated-Kent-coronavirus-cause-deaths-England-wave.html

@Fizzydrinks123 yes that is what happened - this morning's meetings amongst healthcare agencies etc - it has been found that the expected figures have been overshot and doesn't align with prior modelling Maybe he should have had a look at yesterdays figures which were very similar to todays. At the very least this morning he could have said it was being looked at today. Plus SAGE said before Christmas that schools needed to close and again said it after Christmas when they said a harder lockdown than November was needed and if schools stayed closed the R rate might be kept below 1.

So no I don't accept he didn't know what was going to happen.

I am incredulous that anyone seriously believes that BJ is actually the PM, that he has any input whatsoever into decision making.

Its perfectly obvious that he is the mouthpiece for whichever policy makers are behind the scenes. He has no idea what will happen more than we do. He gets told, he tells us, end of.

I hope the "hatred" extends equally across the spectrum - and Blair is "hated" too? Plenty of people hate him but not because of how he has handled the pandemic, that is all on Johnson because you know, he's the PM. It isn't Thatcher, Major, Cameron or May because they aren't PM now either or Chamberlain or Churchill, Wilson, Heath or any other previous PM.

@Fizzydrinks123

I hope the "hatred" extends equally across the spectrum - and Blair is "hated" too?

People in Iraq can't understand whey he isn't imprisoned or worse for war crimes against their country.

The whole Blair WMD thing was atrocious and I went out marching, wrote letters bla bla bla and it did fuck all good.

I don't give a shit about left/right party politics so don't waste your breath any further.