Things go wrong in other countries, too

[avenueq]

I don't think it's helpful how irate people get about the UK government's failings. Yes there are plenty but this is a whole new situation and there are plenty of other countries making mistakes.
Before you ask - I'm not from the UK, but that means I have insight what happens elsewhere,
So to start -
The Eu has been slow in vaccine acquisition

In Austria, vaccinations could not start yet in some areas as not enogh needles (!) had been ordered

Countries with the most severe lockdown did not necessarily solve the Problem (Spain)

Countries who had supposedly excellent track and trace also had a second wave (Germany)

Anyone got other examples?

@wowfudge

The Swedes have said they mishandled their response.

Honestly I think having to deal with this pandemic is a poisoned chalice. If the govt doesn't act strongly enough for some people they get criticised. If they take strong action they get criticised by others for overreacting, crippling the economy, etc. It's a massive balancing act. I'm not a fan of the Tory govt, but do I think anyone else would do a better job of handling this? No - I think the reactions would be the same whoever was in charge.

I agree with this, i am not a conservative, i didnt want them to win last election but im not naive to think anyone in power right now will not have it perfect, u restrict too much peoples lively hoods suffer , u restrict to little and too many people get the virus and die. Its not a win win either way, and u will have people on either side demanding their way is right. Im not surpried the government has gone back and u turned a few times

For all those saying we're not a laughing stock, try looking at the foreign press. I have friends & family in Australia, US, South Africa, France, Spain, Portugal, Malta... sure all governments have made mistakes but most of them aren't as corrupt & morally bankrupt as ours.

The only thing I find to be a laughing stock are the MNers who think people from other countries sit around eagerly watching what’s happening in the UK and laughing at us, like the whole world revolves around Great Britain. Earth to you - they don’t give a shiny shit what’s happening here. We’re not that important!

I completely agree but there’s tons of mn who love trashing the uk at every opportunity. It’s the same on Twitter, I find it a really odd mentality. We have family in other countries who think the UK is totally great, as in their words we do things better and don’t have so much political corruption.

I actually think we’re doing pretty well, first country to roll out mass vaccination program, produced a fridge temperature vaccine and selling it at cost. Already vaccinated 1m people, more than the entire EU put together.

Fgs. Yes, every country is doing fine and dandy and it’s only us who’re in a mess. Look at all those lucky Europeans! They’re all whizzing about, loving life, full employment, no crime, wonderful education systems - no racism!

The only other bad place is the US. Everyone voted for Trump, carries a gun, goes to church, marries their 14-year-old cousin and eats nothing but burgers and Hershey bars. Except Meghan and Harry.

There are a lot of very insular people and a surprisingly large number on Mumsnet.

@ILoveAllRainbowsx

Also, are death rates are higher than other European countries as we have the unhealthiest people and diet in Europe.

This is not true, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Balkans, Eastern Europe have now all caught up. Yes, we are fat and unhealthy, we also have one of the most diverse populations in Europe, particularly Asian, who we know have been disproportionately affected by Covid for many different reasons. Northern and Eastern EU countries in particular are very homogenous societies.

I’m Australian, and live in Melbourne. Lived in London for a number of years. I get hard lockdowns, having endured one of the worlds longest and severest...

From an international perspective and mine specifically, its like the issues of Brexit and Covid have coincided in some weird way.

You guys should have shut the borders down HARD like we did here. But you have this major preoccupation with being open to all and sundry and it appears it wasn’t even a consideration to close them. Then the new mutated version found its way in to the UK and because of your movement in and out of the country, it will most likely spread. We have already had one case here, of it...

The issue is bigger than the UK. We need to address western neoliberalism and the rise of China.

@IrmaFayLear

Fgs. Yes, every country is doing fine and dandy and it’s only us who’re in a mess. Look at all those lucky Europeans! They’re all whizzing about, loving life, full employment, no crime, wonderful education systems - no racism!

The only other bad place is the US. Everyone voted for Trump, carries a gun, goes to church, marries their 14-year-old cousin and eats nothing but burgers and Hershey bars. Except Meghan and Harry.

There are a lot of very insular people and a surprisingly large number on Mumsnet.

I would argue that it's very very insular to think every other country has made as many ridiculous mistakes as the UK has. Also needlessly lets your government off the hook rather than holding them to account.

Come on... I usually state where I'm from if needed, but it's met with a 'meh... let's talk about ourself, it doesn't count' attitude. That you want to know which country we are from is not to compare but to discard others.

@Dongdingdong

For all those saying we're not a laughing stock, try looking at the foreign press. I have friends & family in Australia, US, South Africa, France, Spain, Portugal, Malta... sure all governments have made mistakes but most of them aren't as corrupt & morally bankrupt as ours.

The only thing I find to be a laughing stock are the MNers who think people from other countries sit around eagerly watching what’s happening in the UK and laughing at us, like the whole world revolves around Great Britain. Earth to you - they don’t give a shiny shit what’s happening here. We’re not that important!

I’m pretty sure I could come up with things all those countries have cocked up ( with the exception of Malta as I know nothing about their Covid response at all. The US doesn’t surely need much explanation, Australia locked people into a tower block, their police battered people into comas in the streets, South Africa also had quite an oppressive lockdown, and a mutant strain ( worse than ours apparently!) , Spain had care homes where the staff actually abandoned the residents and didn’t allow kids out of their homes for weeks, France had vaccinated about 500 people so far and Macron vetoed the EU buying more Pfizer vaccine as it would be unfair to the french vaccine Sanofi. But I’m not laughing at any of those countries.

I also think the majority of our media is awful. Misinformation, misdirection, lack of any scientific knowledge from science editors, sensationalised, and actually just downright crap. Bad news sells, and many UK residents love it, and thrive on the drama of it all.

You hold your gov to account at elections and judging by k starmers efforts it will be Boris or his successor again.

But also, where apart from possibly Japan has a climate similar to ours in the much touted Asian nations? We all know that coronaviruses circulate most in the winter months in temperate climates, so what does that mean for the way the virus spreads virus in tropical or equatorial climates?

@giantangryrooster

Come on... I usually state where I'm from if needed, but it's met with a 'meh... let's talk about ourself, it doesn't count' attitude. That you want to know which country we are from is not to compare but to discard others.

If it's irrelevant then why even would a poster even mention that they're from somewhere 'better' and that their politicians would never behave as terribly as the UK ones? That's inherently a comparison, so it's just weird to insist that it be a comparison with an unknown so that no one else can actually judge how reasonable it is.

I have family in Australia and they do seem to have news about the U.K. sometimes - at the mo theresis no news apart from covid so it might be mentioned more than usual.
Someone said China is back to normal - how can that be when we aren't buying their stuff - all those Chinese factories NOT making and selling crap to us, that's a big problem.

A really interesting perspective from New Zealand Shedbuilder.

I think what is really interesting is Germany, Taiwan, maybe Japan - how have they done much better (so far!) than UK, France, Italy, Spain (possibly Belgium although I did see somewhere that they have a very broad definition of deaths caused by corona which may overstate them by comparison with other countries).

Certainly UK seems broadly equal with Italy and Spain in terms of death per million. Germany's success is attributed to test and trace - if so, why was it so much more successful than ours and could we still emulate it?

Germany had a huge manufacturer of Protective clothing/ plastic etc so kept it for themselves, understandably, and clothed their frontline staff straight away. That was a big prob here , we had to queue up with everyone else in the world.

@Hardbackwriter but a lot of foreign posters don't say their countries do better, just that it's what interests them and they are not that concerned about you. I'm Danish and I certainly don't think we have handled things well, a lot of pleas and guidelines but not many 'you must follow' laws. Leaving people to do whatever they saw fit for their own purpose.

People who say that the UK is a laughing stock are usually severely overestimating how much people in other countries are following UK current affairs. I live in Iceland and people generally think Brexit is a bit stupid but wouldn't even know who Dominic Cummings is, for example. They are more concerned with nitpicking how things are going in their own country (unsurprisingly).

very true OP, but people are concerned about the country they live in! I don't care what Austria is doing, or Greece, or France or anywhere. I just see an abysmal government handling it very bad where I live, in England. The Government has been spectacularly bad at communicating, I think that's been the main issue. Lots of drip feed, misinformation and back tracking.

I do hate people saying "I live in Australia and am watching in horror at how the Brits are conducting themselves" - that is so patronising.

Germany's success is attributed to test and trace - if so, why was it so much more successful than ours and could we still emulate it?

Germany did really well initially as they had a fully functional Public Health system, with test and trace capabilities who got going really quickly and suppressed their first wave, with excellent contact tracing. What they have found with the current wave, is that the numbers very quickly exceeded their capabilities. When you get to a certain numbers of cases, the battle is lost, you just cannot keep up with the contacts.

We now, despite all comments to the contrary, have a very good testing system. Our contact tracing is also having difficulty in keeping up, but considering the amount of testing we are doing, we are now doing a much, much, better job than at the beginning.

The track app was a disaster, but it was one of those things that all countries jumped on, had to have, were forced by the court of public opinion to have, and was never going to be of any use at all without personal data being available.

I do hate people saying "I live in Australia and am watching in horror at how the Brits are conducting themselves" - that is so patronising.

Maybe... but at least they aren't laughing at us.

Fgs. Yes, every country is doing fine and dandy and it’s only us who’re in a mess. Look at all those lucky Europeans! They’re all whizzing about, loving life, full employment, no crime, wonderful education systems - no racism!

The only other bad place is the US. Everyone voted for Trump, carries a gun, goes to church, marries their 14-year-old cousin and eats nothing but burgers and Hershey bars. Except Meghan and Harry.

People who say that the UK is a laughing stock are usually severely overestimating how much people in other countries are following UK current affairs.

This. The sense of self importance is staggering!

USA... need I say anymore!

I agree there is constant government bashing no matter what is done. My beliefs is that they have acted too slowly at various points, but other people are furious and devastated there were lockdowns at all. They are constantly having to look reasses and balance. What I find more frustrating is when they lie and give false hope. Just say "we don't know" about certain things and none of this "it'll be perfect by spring" bs they kept saying before Christmas.

And I know it is more complex than I can understand but the boarders staying open for so long in March. Still can't get over that.

@Ontopofthesunset

But also, where apart from possibly Japan has a climate similar to ours in the much touted Asian nations? We all know that coronaviruses circulate most in the winter months in temperate climates, so what does that mean for the way the virus spreads virus in tropical or equatorial climates?

South Korea has a similar climate - cold snowy winters. They were quick to isolate positive cases into quarantine hotels to reduce community spread and are doing so again with the current wave.

I’m an expat and actually I experience the opposite, British expats have complained they the government here (Asian country) has been so oppressive and how they’d rather be home so they could have had summer holidays in Spain etc.