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.

Would the scientists been replaced by Milne and McClusky?

Don't be a muppet.

I thought acknowledging the sad 100000 deaths was the right thing to do and very genuine.

Chris Whitty and Sir Simon excellent as always.

I do think Johnson should have some public speaking training, his errs and erms irritate me and I like him.

'These vile creatures chould have had the backbone to call together a cross party group of the best brains, the experienced brains, the forces and fucking deal with it'

Cross party! Oh yes Annalise Dodds, Ashford and Whiny Starmer. What use would any of them be . Maybe they could ask Blackford for advice if they had a spare 3 days to listen to one of his monologues..

I don't care how he looks.
He could have been coherent though.

And I'd take his condolences more seriously if he'd taken the virus more seriously - 'Operation Last Gasp' indeed - some sort of joke for him?

@Yohoheaveho

Who should take over? Serious question. Who is there? that's the real reason he's not resigning, no one else wants to fill his shoes, which gives him carte blanche.....

Sure. So he resigns. There's no one at the helm. What happens then?

However someone would step up, there's always a power hungry person to fill the void. What should the incumbent be doing differently? What would make a difference now? These are serious questions because I am seeing calls for riots on other threads despite the fact that we leading in rolling out the vaccine programme and it seems clear that we need to wait for enough people to be vaccinated and protected before we open everything up again. I genuinely want to know what could now be done differently to alleviate the grind of lockdown and being in a pandemic in general.

@StealthPolarBear @GabsAlot the reviews happen (legally) every two weeks still I think - but unless there is any change there is just a written ministerial statement - there was a tweet about the last one last week I think (not from a minister, but a journo who shared a link to the review)

Found the tweet
twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1352242639769317377?s=20

@austenwildfell

Those of you who use every opportunity to vent personal opinions against The Prime Minister. If we had voted Labour. We would have Corbyn and his Momentum gang organising vaccine delivery. Would it have had to been handled by members of an approved Trade Union at every step? Would the scientists been replaced by Milne and McClusky?

Surmising over who would have been in charge if it wasn’t Boris is not really a defence for his complete incompetence,poor communication,arrogance and so I could go on !He wasn’t forced to be PM ! He is totally out of his depth and actually makes me cringe to watch ...I am actually embarrassed for him !

'Those of you who use every opportunity to vent personal opinions against The Prime Minister. If we had voted Labour'

Thing is some on mn conveniently ignore Wales' high death rate with Labour running the show, Scotland's abysmal situation considering it is a small country with a relatively teeny population. If you compare their death rate to other countries with a 5m population then they've done terribly, but #ThankyouNicola has some folk brainwashed. It's all Johnson's fault! even in devolved administrations..

@austenwildfell

Those of you who use every opportunity to vent personal opinions against The Prime Minister. If we had voted Labour. We would have Corbyn and his Momentum gang organising vaccine delivery. Would it have had to been handled by members of an approved Trade Union at every step? Would the scientists been replaced by Milne and McClusky?

I don't know, would it?

Do you seriously think it could've been any worse? I was no corbynista - i never felt he had the skills or gravitas to be PM - but at least he gave the impression of having principles, and of vaguely caring about other human beings.

And the fact that someone else may (or may not) have done badly does not excuse Boris et al from presiding over a total shitshow.

@chomalungma

Captain Hindsight will be on form

Funny, how when he calls for things in advance of the changes the PM makes, the PM calls him this nickname.

I don't think you or the PM understand that hindsight is when you say something should have happened after the event has happened.

Bless

I think even with my limited education I can manage to understand the word hindsight I actually think he’s a sarcastic prat who hasn’t actually had to do anything

@austenwildfell

Those of you who use every opportunity to vent personal opinions against The Prime Minister. If we had voted Labour. We would have Corbyn and his Momentum gang organising vaccine delivery. Would it have had to been handled by members of an approved Trade Union at every step? Would the scientists been replaced by Milne and McClusky?

Oh FFS are people really still trotting out this tired anti-Labour claptrap?

Pleased to see Sir Simon getting a couple of digs in about future investment in the NHS.

@Babyroobs

Boris seems to have gone grey overnight ?

I surprised he didn't go grey earlier.

It's been a shit year and everything falls on his shoulders. Yeah he made catastrophic mistakes but as much as I don't agree with what he's done in many situations I wouldn't have wanted to do it.

And yeah he signed up for PM. But I doubt any PM wants a war or pandemic during their tenure.

I don’t vote Tory but honestly not sure what having someone else at the helm would achieve ? What would be people do differently ? Genuine question because I really don’t know

Rock and hard place springs to mind

Hilarious that weve had Boris as PM for over a year and people are still trotting out Corbyn would have been worse tbh i think he'd have struggled to do worse than this shitshow

@Travelledtheworld
I am increasingly concerned about the lack of planning beyond Covid. How the hell are we going to rebuild our economy, bridge the inequalities in our society, help all those kids who have lost a year of education to catch up, create jobs for two years of unemployed graduates, train new doctirs and nurses, address the Social Care issue?
You're right. The government's complete silence on this absolutely deafening. So far all Saint Boris has said is generic shit like "2021 will be a much better year".

@CuriousaboutSamphire

Oh stop. He hasn't killed anyone, a fucking virus has.

And no... I didn't vote for him and I don't think our government has done any better or any worse than any comparable country.

An unbiased read of world news tells you that!

And, again, the real numbers won't be known anywhere for a few years, and even then it will remain a best guess, given how many different recording procedures are being used.

It's depressing enough without politically based finger pointing.

Stand up and do the job if you think you could have done better, in real time, no hindsight.

Agree about deaths.

We can't rely on what countries say are covid deaths etc.

We need the yearly death information compared to their usual and 5 year average death rate.

That's your comparison. Not only if what may or may not have been covid deaths but of the countries handling of healthcare and the pandemic as a whole.

@HmmSureJan

there's always a power hungry person to fill the void

Exactly, and going by experience, these are just the type of leaders you would not want to take over in times like these. It can backlash massively. It's dangerous

^I surprised he didn't go grey earlier.

It's been a shit year and everything falls on his shoulders. Yeah he made catastrophic mistakes but as much as I don't agree with what he's done in many situations I wouldn't have wanted to do it.

And yeah he signed up for PM. But I doubt any PM wants a war or pandemic during their tenure.^

Are you kidding? Boris would've fucking loved 'Falklands II - this Time its Personal'. It would tickle his Churchill fetish, and would've give him a little stiffy.

Pandemic? Not so much, but unless he really is as thick as he looks, he'd have realised it was a real possibility. Anyone with any grasp of history knew we were overdue.

@austenwildfell

Those of you who use every opportunity to vent personal opinions against The Prime Minister. If we had voted Labour. We would have Corbyn and his Momentum gang organising vaccine delivery. Would it have had to been handled by members of an approved Trade Union at every step? Would the scientists been replaced by Milne and McClusky?

But you are obviously aware that is completely irrelevant. Labour are not running this country, Lib Dem are not (other parties are available ) running this country. The current government is a Tory one, headed up by Boris Johnson, so yes, it's him that is talked about

We need to hold the current government to account. They are the ones running this country, they are the ones making these ever important decisions, these are the ones ultimately accountable for their actions.

This government are the ones responsible and accountable for the systematic failing of the handling of this pandemic.

@BonnieDundee

Hilarious that weve had Boris as PM for over a year and people are still trotting out Corbyn would have been worse tbh i think he'd have struggled to do worse than this shitshow

Yep.

waves at Tory central office

Hi over there guys! You do realise you're responsible for tens of thousands of deaths?

No one knows who could of done better , Corbyn would of had a difficult job too as he has a brother who is very anti lockdown and the press would of had a field day with that. Age would of also put him in a more at risk group.
Also we don't have all the facts and figures and are not trying to balance against an economy , yes mistakes have been made but there is no way anyone can say who could of done better or worse.
Opposition leaders haven't come out of this too well either , they have a chance to really challenge and they have fell short too, and like others have said scotland under snp and wales under labour are not doing well.
Ns is a good speaker so comes out looking better though than they actually are.
We will learn so much over next few years, some which will show failings others which will show good insight and other things that just are simply out of anyone's control.

i never felt he had the skills or gravitas to be PM - but at least he gave the impression of having principles, and of vaguely caring about other human beings

That's the thing though: it's one thing putting on a show with decent PR and a few faux sincere appearances, and quite another producing the goods when under pressure ... and yes, that goes for all of them

@thedancingbear no one going for pm would of dreamed of a pandemic because history shows we were overdue ffs ,

I care about what he looks like.This fool in his ill fitting suit,slouching, with his crazed hair is our leader.Think on that, one who leads. One who represents us on the world stage.

What should the incumbent be doing differently? What would make a difference now?

Borders properly closed. Hotel for 14 days for all arrivals. Guarded.

Those who need to self-isolate offered a hotel (so they don't pass the virus to their family) or given an app that monitors their whereabouts.

NMW payment to those self-isolating x 2 weeks. Same to parents of kids forced to be off when schools go back.

New law to stop employers forcing employees back into work places if they can WFH.

£100 on the spot fine for those idiots who can't wear a face mask properly.

Track & trace urgently got running properly. It's been said repeatedly that without T&T we will not keep cases down.

Everything to stay shut down until all 50s+ are vaccinated.

Proper PPE for all healthcare staff. UK manufacturers set up now to produce FP3 masks for NHS.

The economy will not recover until cases are low and pps are confident enough to come out of their houses. Stopping lockdown too early is BAD for the economy.