Is the new government narrative to blame the public/put pressure on the public with rules a deflection tactic?

[User158340]

Now, we're in a really bad place with Covid this month and it's serious. The government are largely responsible given the decisions they've made and Boris's cowardice in making the decisions that need making until it's too late.

Now they seem intent on blaming the public for this. Is a lot of this smoke and mirrors to turn people against each other, rather than blame the government?

I’ve read on here several times that compliance is above 90%. Yes. Smoke and mirrors. We seem to have forgotten that the policy was to discharge people from hospital into care homes. This resulted in people dying in droves in care homes and left to die with no medical assistance. We seem to have forgotten that people were told they would be refused ambulances if they could string a sentence together and some died. We seem to have forgotten eat out to help out was the start of this current wave. These are just some of the highlights of governmental policies and there are many many more.

Now it is all about the older generation but not wanting to trash the economy.... the freedom of the individual promoted at all times. To many, it makes the government look good, doesn’t it? The smoke and mirrors turning into a propaganda machine rather like Brexit and the bendy bananas before, because even borrowing money has got to stop at some stage. If we are blaming ourselves and grassing on our neighbours, our focus is elsewhere. Classic look over there tactics.

@HariboBrenshnio

It's perfect for the government to blame the public, and in turn have us all blame each other. It's how they'll probably win the next election. When actually, they never shut the boarders during the first lockdown which countries who contained the virus did.

They spent billions on a shite track and trace, they pushed eat out to help out, they moved people off hospital wards into care homes without testing, they had to be lobbied to provide school meals in holidays while paying their mates millions to provide laptops to households that never turned up.

They put London in tier 2 when rates were rising while keeping the north essentially locked down all year with no extra financial help. They didn't extend the furlough scheme in October until AFTER companies had made redundancies due to the scheme ending.

They literally told us schools were safe and the NEXT DAY shut them.

All this time the boarders have still been open with no restrictions other than quarantine guidance that they don't follow up.

They put us through years of austerity while they got richer, so when hit by a pandemic we don't have the beds nor staff to handle it.

They stood up and told us all what Cummings did was fine AND let him hold his own bloody press conference while giving him a pay rise.

The list is utterly endless but yes, it's those minor rule breaks that caused the situation we're in..

i know and its really shocking when its all laid out , yet the general public are still being blamed , personally i think people are so fed up of it and fatigued with it now a lot of them really are just doing what they want and ignoring the rules , read any of the comments under a covid article in the daily fail and it would seem vast swathes dont even believe the goverment figures for deaths and test results , they think its all lies , no wonder people arent complying anymore

I think it’s both.
Boris should have said no Christmas mixing back in sept, London shouldn’t have been in tier 2.

Lots of people are fed up and not complying now

Hmm - Yes and no.

Obviously overall responsibility lies very clearly with the government and they have fucked up, repeatedly, missing chance after chance to act early and the current disaster is a combination of bad luck (new variant) and incompetence.

But in terms of where we are now and how we get out of it - then yes, it’s right that there’s a focus on public behaviour as part of the answer. Which we’re hearing about because...guess what, we are the public!

It’s incredibly obvious from any observation of public behaviour that people are being looser in their interpretation of the rules than they were back in March.

Personally, I don’t think this is going to get under control without more workplaces etc shutting as happened in the first lockdown.

But I don’t believe the likes of Chris Whitty would be imploring the public to follow the rules to deflect blame from the government- he’s doing it because he believes public behaviour is an important part of trying to get the spread of the virus back under control.

@Dee1975

But part of it is the public’s fault for spreading it by not following the rules ...

Exactly.

Even when following the rules it can spread so it may be legal to have a bubble, shop for plants or cushions or meet a friend fir exercise but the message has been very clear re staying home unless absolutely necessary but many want their social activities to continue it would seem.

The worst of it is, I honestly think Boris thinks he's doing a splendid job. He's such a narcissist and completely detached from the reality of living in the U.K. under Tory austerity, he thinks it's the stupid little people not being good. He's so desperate to be like and popular and help his mates that his decisions are scattered and chaotic. The pure amount of government guidelines that have been released over the last 9 months is just ridiculous.

If we look at aus and NZ, they have numbers so low because of decisive leadership. I'm sure they weren't loved for it in March, especially not in aus, but they have zero covid and lives back!

Boris didn't even shut the boarders in March - it's this part in particular that makes me so angry because we're all sitting in our houses like good little citizen when people have been able to fly in and out as they please since March. Friday some rules will come in finally but it's far too little too late.

Yes, the government want you to discuss the vaccine and the fact your neighbour met someone for a coffee.

Please do not discuss test and trace total failure (government's fault), empty nightingales (government's fault), lack of nurses/doctors (government's fault), widely circulating virus leading to rapid mutation (government's fault), breakdown of respect since Cummings affair (government's fault), deaths directly linked to Christmas day (government's fault)....

This government is absolutely shit. We must have been cursed to end up with liar Johnson just when we needed a decent leader.

Poor Britain, poor British people

Just wondering; do people here have family and friends who are breaking the rules regularly? I don't. And I'm not. But there's not much sense of lock down when we go anywhere. Roads are busy, parks are busy. People walking around the streets

Lots of places remain open now like garden centres, national trust, take away coffee, outdoor markets

If these places stay open, people will go there and they're still acting well within the rules.

@EreLongDoneDoDoesDid

I 100% agree with you *@User158340*. Everything happening now is as a result of this governments very poor decision making since the end of the summer.... it’s been a catalogue of errors.

First it was Eat Out to Help Out, which encouraged large groups to get together indoors. Absolutely understandable that the public would embrace this after the spring lockdown, we all needed some fun, so I don’t blame anyone but the government for encouraging it with the scheme. Then Boris pushed that campaign to get everyone back into their offices, then it was pack kids into schools with no distancing or masks. Then when CW and PV said at the start of October that everything was picking back up again the government dithered and didn’t use half term sensibly to try and get numbers back down. That lead to that absolute joke of a press conference on Halloween, where Boris announced the lockdown that wasn’t, and aside from “non essential retail” closing (which seemed to be a much smaller amount of businesses than back in the spring) not much changed. Then, we came out of lockdown in the first week of December and people, understandably, panicked about their Christmas shopping and we had a week of all being crammed back in the shops and Boris announced that Christmas was going to be a five day free for all. Presumably not long after announcing this, Whitty, Valance and JVT sat him down and explained in words of one syllable why this wasn’t going to work, so five days before Christmas Boris gravely went on telly to tell us that Christmas was cancelled as the numbers climbed.

Ever since then the numbers have gone from bad to appalling to terrifying and Boris and co. look increasingly haunted and inept. Clearly at some point in the past week one of them had the bright idea to blame the public, so now the narrative has changed and it’s not the huge catalogue of errors that Boris has lead for literally six months that’s gotten us here but friends meeting for a stroll and a sit on a bench and kids playing on climbing frames and roundabouts.

It’s all absolute bollocks, the numbers are where they are because until three weeks ago our schools were packed with superspreading kids sat centimetres from one another in overcrowded and undistanced schools and two weeks ago families were mixing with one another to celebrate Christmas at the PMs behest. Our churches and mosques and temples and synagogues are still open. So are estate agents and branches of B and M.

This government are clown car-crash and absolutely everything about where we are now is because they haven’t got a clue of where to even begin in sorting any of this out. It’s not the public not following rules, it’s the government reacting to events as they happen and not having in the foresight to look two weeks ahead.

A catalogue of errors, fatefully poor decision making and crisis management.

Everyone needs to do their bit and be sensible, but this is on the government.

The virus isn't just spreading because people are breaking rules. Its spreading because its a virus and there is no way we could function as a society with absolutely no human to human contact.

If following the rules was safe and didnt spread the virus, then why are less things allowed as the tiers go up? Going out for dinner is allowed in tier 1 but not tier 3, so meeting a friend at a restaurant does spread the virus then otherwise why stop it. But it was allowed in some areas so the virus is spreading.

The idea that if everyone followed the rules we wouldn't be in this mess is ridiculous.

@Ginfordinner

It is the fault of the government and the public IMO.

I wouldn't disagree, some people are completely irresponsible, but the question of the thread remains. The government have realised by passing the blame onto the public they can divide and rule when they've caused this.

A You Gov poll by a high majority blames the public rather than the government. It's cutting through.

Yes. And I’m absolutely sick of it.

We are being berated for rule breaking, the implication being that is what’s driving infection. It will be contributing of course but we are where we are because of the way in which we unlocked from lockdown and their misguided efforts to get people out and spending money again.

OP definitely yes

Op yes.

Compliance is very high. The government has made catastrophic mistakes and shown themselves to be rule breakers. BJ literally caught it! We should be angry at them not our neighbours who need to work or feel lonely.

I wouldn't disagree, some people are completely irresponsible, but the question of the thread remains. The government have realised by passing the blame onto the public they can divide and rule when they've caused this.

Absolutely. I am so fed up of living under a constant cycle of fear, wondering what's going to be removed yet and being encouraged to blame each other for everything. Instead of asking why it's still spreading so much in care homes, what the hell happened to bloody Moonshot, where on earth Dido Harding has gone and why the Test and Trace system she is in charge of failed etc etc, we're arguing endlessly about two women walking in Derbyshire.

But it's the way the government has been operating for years. "Don't look at our austerity programme, cutbacks to public services, the fact that some of us and our rich mates are getting richer and richer etc etc. No, look over there at that benefit claimant/migrant worker/illegal immigrant/other convenient scapegoat. They're the only reason your life is so tough. Nothing to do with us and our policies. And at least Miliband/Corbyn/Starmer aren't in charge."

And the general public fall for it every time. It's so depressing.

The majority are complying with the rules.
They have no choice.
We can’t go to a wedding or a funeral, a gig, a meal out, a play, a library, a football match. We can’t send out DC to school.
Women are birthing alone.
People are dying alone.

If folk think the spread of the virus is caused by a woman sitting solo outside on a bench then they’re swallowed Cummings.

It's not a new narrative.

They did this right at the start of the first lockdown!

It moved so fast: one moment official government advice was "nothing to worry about, Cheltenham is safe, large crowds are safe, wash your hands!" (They fucked up).

Then a week later we were supposed to be FURIOUS at people having a BBQ with 12 people (clearly a bad idea, granted, but it felt like scapegoating).

We DO need to follow the rules. But I feel like they are deflecting blame, getting the public angry at each other instead of them. Problem is that kind of division has consequences.
It's a stupid, cowardly and downright dangerous game imo.

Yup. So much easier to get everyone to get cross about people in supermarkets, then admit to levels of infection in hospitals, care homes and factories.

Apart from the death and suffering of loved ones.....the worst is that the GBP think Johnson is "doing a good job in difficult circumstances" and tories will get re-elected in 2024 by which time the public service and arena generally will be totally hollowed out.

We are so gullible and supine as a nation.

Anyone at the top would have made plenty of mistakes given this unprecedented global crisis

Still, most of the responsibility for the situation we are in now lies with those members of the public who act(ed) selfishly and irresponsibly

Of course - but not a new one.

Also lol at the poster above who doesn’t understand what a narrative is and is calling everyone else stupid.

@trulydelicious

Anyone at the top would have made plenty of mistakes given this unprecedented global crisis

Still, most of the responsibility for the situation we are in now lies with those members of the public who act(ed) selfishly and irresponsibly

I think refusing to listen to scientists, insisting that schools open for all pupils with no mitigation measures, doing nothing about travel into the country, not offering financial support to millions of people to enable them to stay at home etc falls well beyond 'plenty of mistakes' tbh.

And that's without including the fiasco of T&T, eat out to help out...
As others say, the responsibility lies fair and square with the govt.

Lockdown fatigue was the excuse for not acting earlier.

The flights in and out bug me. Dubai, Why? Is my latest catchphrase.

If the government were deliberately trying to kill off a large part of the population they couldnt have done much better. They have been incompetent from the time they failed to implement the report on pandemic planning. They've also been corrupt in giving contracts to their mates.

Have some people taken advantage of government incompetence - of course. But that shouldnt distract from the incompetence of this government.

I didnt invent this but

Tory voters - next election
Stay Home
Protect the NHS
Save Lives

Johnson doesn't like to make a decision. None of the cabinet know a thing about industry but have relied on cronyism amongst amateurs to procure equipment.

So yes o blame the government for some mismanagement.

However reducing human contact will slow a virus so I don't see Chris Whitty for example as a bad player here. Businesses who could have workers at home and don't have responsibility as each individual also needs to act responsibly.

It's not as easy as government bad, individuals powerless.