Prime Minister to make an announcement tonight at 5 p.m.

[Calmandmeasured1]

The Express reports:
"No indication has been given as to why the briefing has suddenly been called, however, it comes less than 24 hours after false reports in the German media caused alarm by claiming the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was ineffective among over-65s."

It could also be to make the announcement about hotel quarantining for those entering the country. I would imagine both subjects.

How silly, of course I won't be PM any time soon. Can anybody tell me what they they he or his government have done well? Anything, anything at all?

'I could have done a better job than him because I am would have had the humility to say "this is massive, I am not equipped to deal with this, I am going to use my intelligence to rethink government and form a small team"

Randomer what about Wales, Scotland and NI? Small countries that compared to other small countries have had terrible infection and death rates, that and the incompetent vaccine roll out in Scotland. Should Drakeford, Sturgeon and Foster admit they weren't 'equipped to deal with it' too? I mean yes sturgeon should resign for the salmon debacle if nothing else, as well her incompetence with the vaccine roll out. These are devolved administrations that have made their own rules regarding restrictions.

When will people realise this has so many factors. Location, demographics, obesity, culture, compliance of which we know has been piss poor here and the all important variant.

Yes they've made mistakes, the borders should have been closed and we should have been much harder with enforcement of quarantine and isolation. However you only have to see how people couldn't cope with the fairly lenient lockdown we had to understand they wouldn't have tolerated a China communist party style enforcement.

Are the UK population more likely to break Government rules than the populations of all the other countries with death rates lower than the UK

@trulydelicious Which are these countries where people break the rules and have low death rates?

People will break rules, and there will be Covid deniers, in each and every country worldwide - that is human nature. That’s why SAGE have members that are behavioural scientists. In fact they were actually surprised how much compliance there was in the UK as a consequence of the first wave hence the drive from Government to get people back into offices in Aug/Sept & the eat out to help out scheme.

You already have to look at the quarantine hotel threads to see people trying to work out ways to avoid having to quarantine.

I think we were in a Perfect Storm scenario, Government not reacting as quickly as they could, an imperfect test and trace system, people unwilling to embrace a test and trace system system (giving false names), people refusing to listen to the 'roolz', refusing to wear 'muzzles', doing things because they can even though best that they shouldn't, an elderly population and a high rate of obesity and health related issues (and I hold my hand up here as I have piled on lockdown weight), new contagious variant, open borders and being a transport hub

'Can anybody tell me what they they he or his government have done well? Anything, anything at all?'

Thrown massive resources at the NHS to cope with the surge. I know many who work in the NHS, critical care was practically given a blank cheque regarding equipment and planning.

Building a massive diagnostic industry practically from a standing start. Developing domestic production of ppe. The msm and labour activists will tell you the NHS didn't have enough ppe, while supply was low at the start there was PPe for every Trust.

Funding all the scientific research including our world leading genomic sequencing.

Financial support, furlough.

Procuring the vaccine and vaccinating more then the whole of Europe out together.

As I said flights should have possibly been stopped last Mar but PHE state the virus was already spreading in the community by then so it would not have been effective anyway.

Cummings should have fallen on his sword, not because he did anything wrong but because many used it as an excuse to break rules.

China should have been transparent about this in Dec. I blame China.

Testing is also pretty good now, half a million a day and speedy turn around too.
I spent yesterday testing kids at my children’s school, all very good and efficient.
Tracing not so good but that is an issue of the case numbers I think , too many to successfully trace people

@GetOffYourHighHorse, you make some interesting points, thank you.

I think a certain section of MN will never admit that the government have done even one single thing right. It is so tedious and I tend to just hide those threads now when it becomes obvious that it's just another Tory bashing frenzy. Maybe having a focus for their anger gets them through the day but I just find it draining.

I see the statement to the HoC on Covid has now been 'upgraded' to be made by the PM rather than Hancock, (reported on Sky News and by Laura K on Twitter) any idea what he's going to say?

And they are still trying to blame the general public for not complying with the rules, nothing to do with failure of government

@Graciebobcat what are you talking about? Boris said he took full responsibility for everything the government has done at the press conference. If lockdown is implemented and certain members of the public choose to break the rules, there's not much more the government can do.

I think a certain section of MN will never admit that the government have done even one single thing right.

I agree, it's pathetic.

@ineedaholidaynow

I think we were in a Perfect Storm scenario

^This

@GetOffYourHighHorse Cummings should have fallen on his sword, not because he did anything wrong but because many used it as an excuse to break rules

Cummings should have gone. Johnson lost a massive amount of public goodwill at that point, mine included. My Mum had been quite recently widowed and was entirely on her own (no support bubbles allowed at that point) and his Government approved escapades were a real kick in the teeth for people making great sacrifices to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Flights and holidays have been a real problem in seeding new cases in the UK (Feb half term ski-ing, foreign summer holidays just before the schools fully re-opened and jetsetting celebrities seemingly unaffected by the pandemic). I feel incredibly sorry for people in that industry and hope help is put in place for them, but it's a relief that it looks like the Government are finally going to take a firmer line on international travel/ quarantine.

I think sometimes people believe criticism of Government policy is because people want the Government to fail. Most don't! We all want to get on top of this so that schools can re-open, livelihoods are saved and most importantly preventable deaths are avoided.

That's not really surprising when, if you google it, there is barely one positive report in the media.

It must be hard to maintain any semblance of positivity if you read it all and believe it absolutely.

Even now there are reports about things that happened months ago, recycling the blame rhetoric and seemingly refusing to report any good news.

That's not the job of the media... though it does sell ... and shape public response.

You only have to read the threads and media articles about the EU response to not getting enough of a vaccine they prevaricated over and procured late and still haven't OKd for use to see that some are wilfully blind to any wider picture.

It is a given that the government response will be audited. But the media response should be too. That could be chilling, but some have acted utterly irresponsibly, others just ill informed and lacking the nous to understand what they were actually saying!!

The polls have been pretty steady for Johnson throughout this, level pegging with Keir or higher so I do think the general public accept its a hugely difficult situation despite the media’s best efforts.
Most people agree there have been cock up and late decisions but also things that have gone well and good early decisions ( excellent vaccine procurement and development as an example which I think came out of the 2016 pandemic plan, which was for a hypothetical flu so wrong virus)

@Dongdingdong

And they are still trying to blame the general public for not complying with the rules, nothing to do with failure of government

@Graciebobcat what are you talking about? Boris said he took full responsibility for everything the government has done at the press conference. If lockdown is implemented and certain members of the public choose to break the rules, there's not much more the government can do.

Well they could have implemented lockdown sooner each and every time...that's down to the Government, not non-compliance. The Government could have stopped positive cases being released into care homes. The Government could have introduced testing at airports and quarantine. The general public do not have the power over these major policies that each have a huge impact on cases and related deaths.

But I think some people on here (not necessarily a tiny number) DO want the government to fail at any cost - if it's a failure it's because of the government, if it's a success it's due to the NHS workers, the scientists, the civil servants. I still remember around the time of the election some posters calling people who voted Conservative 'murderous Tory cunts' and you still see that view scattered across many threads on here.

PMQs starting now

Will be interesting

'Well they could have implemented lockdown sooner each and every time...that's down to the Government, not non-compliance. The Government could have stopped positive cases being released into care homes.'

Mar 16th we were told to restrict mixing, Mar 23rd legal lockdiwn began. We were always weeks behind Italy so of course our lockdown would start after theirs.

Elderly people were discharged from hospital when clinically ready as acute hospitals were high risk areas. Care homes had to enforce strict infection and control procedures as they do with any discharge when there's an outbreak of anything. Some managed some didn't. I hope that the ones that failed will be given thr chance to explain why in any enquiry.

@CuriousaboutSamphire That's not really surprising when, if you google it, there is barely one positive report in the media

I don't think that's true when you look at the coverage of the vaccine rollout it is mostly positive and that is because its a successful policy.

100,000 deaths is going to rightly mean that questions are asked of the response that has led to us to this point (we need to learn from the positives and stop mistakes happening again)

I really dislike this UK /EU 'us and them' narrative and sparring beginning over vaccination - this is precisely one of the worries about leaving as people that were allies start to be seen as enemies.

I googled it... @GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly

There are local good news stories but no matter how you word it a general enquiry gets bad news... the general tone is negative. Like the questions after podium talks, only local journalists, niche publications ask 'real' questions or are in any way positive!

The us and them narrative is predictable, but is still being spun like crazy. Again, mainly a negative thing!

@GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly

Well they could have implemented lockdown sooner each and every time

Back in Februry it was the WHO who advised not to close the borders.

Nearly a quarter of all deaths from the pandemic have happened in the last month - something has gone amiss in the response more recently than last February/March.

@GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly

Nearly a quarter of all deaths from the pandemic have happened in the last month - something has gone amiss in the response more recently than last February/March.

Absolutlely. And the average age is 82. So once again we have the significant issue of being unable to protect our elderly

It’s care homes in the main, hospitals and at home. With family and carers visiting. People are infecting the elderly. It’s that simple.

There are people out there. And many of them, who are responsible for caring for, or who visit them and infect them and are not taking proper precautions.

God, Boris Johnson is being a vile arse at PMQs right now. Veering between pointless insults and rambling prevarication.

This is not leadership. It's embarrassing.