Do you feel sorry for Boris?

[User133847]

Seeing the headlines in the papers today and there seems a lot of sympathy for him. The front pages see him looking really forlorn and sorrow regarding the death toll.

When you think a year ago he was planning on ushering in what he deemed as a golden age of Britain. Now 12 months later it's in tatters.

I can understand the sympathy, but wonder whether a Labour PM would be offered the same.

Why do some people think they aren't meant to criticise the party they voted for, preferring to blindly support them, even if it's obvious mistakes have been made?

It's OK to think your chosen party isn't performing as well as it could do!

My mother voted this lot in. She's really pissed off at the incompetence and has written to her MP calling for BoZo to resign.

It smacks of a total lack of critical thinking to blindly support this lot.

'It's OK to think your chosen party isn't performing as well as it could do!'

Of course it is. The mistake they've made, imo, was not clamping down on rule breaking. We have a nation full of many entitled whiners as demonstrated by the 'I'll do what I want' threads on here. On mn if we noticed neighbours having parties we were told to 'myob', people more bothered by their 'civil liberties' than controlling the spread.

They have done a lot right though. Massive financial support for the NHS to manage surges, furlough, funding extensive scientific research including our world leading genomic sequencing, domestic production of ppe, the massive capacity for testing.

The thing is people blindly wang on about Johnson yet conveniently ignore Scotland, Wales and NI. Separate administrations making their own rules, often with far worse results. Scotland only has 5m people yet compare that to other small countries and their death rate is catastrophically higher.

So yes of course we all want accountability but the constant 'Johnson is rubbish' while ignoring the rest of the UK, the rest of Europe in the same boat and also our fast spreading variant and the very relevant poor compliance is very tedious.

Nope. The only people they have been looking out for during all this is his big business friends and the rest of us are fodder

It doesn't matter what he does, there will be people feeling sorry for him and making excuses for him, like the people on here who insist he's not to blame without articulating why, other than that its 'nasty' to blame him.
This is his brand, lovable affable blundering buffoon. A bit posh, but just normal like the rest of us really. A good laugh, not like that boring Keir Starmer.
People voted for him in on the basis of these traits, so their expectations will be lower than the expectations of those of us who wanted a leader.

Boris doesn’t need your sympathy. Him and his party certainly don’t feel sorry for you.

Jacob Rees Mogs was never pulled up for standing up in parliament in September sneering at the population for whining about lack of testing availability.

The whole cabinet have no emotions about us, don’t wasted yours on them.

The government has been surprised by the high level of compliance @GetOffYourHighHorse. If they were serious about lockdown, they’d have closed down all but essential workplaces. They didn’t.

@GRAK

Nope. The only people they have been looking out for during all this is his big business friends and the rest of us are fodder

In what way has big business been supported, to your detriment? Who have you been fodder for?

Have you been furloughed, or enabled to work from home? Additional school meal vouchers/food parcels (in holiday times, for example)? If receiving benefits, have they been delayed, or reduced, or withdrawn?

Hyperbolic speech like this adds nothing to the discussion.

(Nope, not a Tory voter, I wasted mine on the LDs)

@User2921 absolutely - they voted for a clown and that's exactly what they got. Says so much about the priorities of countless voters in this country. And media indications are they'd do it all again

'like the people on here who insist he's not to blame without articulating why, other than that its 'nasty' to blame him.'

Well I've just posted about what they've done right. It's funny, mn has so many Scottish people who think the sun shines out of Sturgeon's arse. A minister who runs a small country with a 5m population yet has had far more deaths than other similarly sized small countries. Where's the calls for her resignation or halfwit Blakemore in Wales slowing down vaccine roll out because they'll have nothing to do if they use them up .

I mean come on, try a teeny bit of critical thinking. I know it's only mn but still.

@GetOffYourHighHorse whataboutery, much?

@GetOffYourHighHorse

'like the people on here who insist he's not to blame without articulating why, other than that its 'nasty' to blame him.'

Well I've just posted about what they've done right. It's funny, mn has so many Scottish people who think the sun shines out of Sturgeon's arse. A minister who runs a small country with a 5m population yet has had far more deaths than other similarly sized small countries. Where's the calls for her resignation or halfwit Blakemore in Wales slowing down vaccine roll out because they'll have nothing to do if they use them up .

I mean come on, try a teeny bit of critical thinking. I know it's only mn but still.

The thread is quite clearly about Boris Johnson and people are talking about Boris Johnson.

In what way has big business been supported, to your detriment?

Millions of £s of taxpayers’ money has been thrown at Tory cronies for very little return. That’s to the detriment of everyone who pays tax. Not to mention the future tax payers who will be repaying the debt for decades.

@Jellybaby4

And you'd all do a much better job I'm assuming

Actually, yes, I think I would have done a better job than Johnson based on what I've done for my own family.

We all saw what was happening in China in January and in Italy in February, it was on TV every fucking night, it's nothing to do with hindsight, we had foresight. Johnson has no excuse for not acting.

In February I stocked up on food, hand sanitizer, hygiene items, first aid kit etc.
I ordered an odometer and blood pressure cuff and a small tank of oxygen on the internet (because I thought if this gets really bad theres no way anyone will be getting near a hospital).
This is all around the time Johnson was on holiday and not attending SAGE.
In early March I finally managed to persuade my husband to work from home.
I paid for us both to go have pneumonia vaccines.
I ordered my kids a laptop each.
Mid March I got fed up waiting for schools to close and pulled my kids out.

If I had been PM I would have locked down hard as soon as we were getting near track and trace capacity and I would have taken the 35,000 civil servants who were working on Brexit and put them on track and trace instead.

'whataboutery, much?'

Typical mn response when they can't answer the question. Well done. Whataboutery is very relevant when it is regarding all the UK, Scotland Wales and NI in exactly the same boat if not worse positions. Yes Johnson is PM of the UK but the DAs have made their own rules throughout.

I can't believe you seriously said 'whataboutery much'. Jesus.

Care homes should have used strict infection prevention and control measures on anyone discharged from hospital in a pandemic. Of course there will still have been some cases but if we are going to hold the government to account then care home owners (who charge a fortune and should therefore invest in training) with lots of tragic deaths also need to be held to account for their failings. These are private companies that have accountability and responsibility too.

There are so many misconceptions in this paragraph and an utter contempt for care home staff and leaders - you aren't BJ's spokesperson are you? It is a very similar blame anyone but those accountable line, just like this government.

Care homes have very, very strict IPC measures in place. Discharges from hospital to care homes are meant to be to Designated Locations - but there aren't enough of those. People discharged to care homes are meant to have had two negative tests.

Current funding levels are very low. They have got much worse over the past decade and not kept up with inflation; its why so many care homes are closing and not being replaced. They simply are not viable businesses outside those large corporate providers who have economy of scale.

Many care home staff campaigned and resisted various pieces of government dictate, in order to protect their residents. Its why the national guidance on DNACPR orders was rescinded and reissued; people, including younger people with learning disabilities were subject to blanket orders for a very short while. Every decision not to offer transfer and resuscitation has to be an individual one based on individual circumstances. This right was removed by central government for a brief while but a backlash from care homes and GPs succeeded in having it reversed.

Many care home managers and staff moved into the homes to ensure they kept their residents safe.

There are statutory requirements for training. Skills for Care run a charity that has an income of over £28 million - someone is buying care staff training.
Meanwhile reduction in financial support for local authorities has led to a real-terms cut in spending on adult social care of 8.7 per cent
between 2010/11 and 2014/15. At the same time demographic
pressures mean that the cost of providing care for older and disabled people is increasing by 3 per cent a year.

Where exactly would you see their failings?

And yet despite all Johnsons failure, he is knee deep in bodies, loads of people still love him.
I just don't know what Johnson and the Tories would have to do before people stopped supporting them. The worse death rate in the world from a virus we could see in advance was coming down the road to us, clearly isn't enough.

Absolutely not

when he realised that he was not up for the job
I would suggest that acknowledging and admitting his own failings is not part of his repertoire?

@Yohoheaveho

when he realised that he was not up for the job I would suggest that acknowledging and admitting his own failings is not part of his repertoire?

Thank you for pointing that out. I wouldn't have noticed that he was a raging egomaniac with a sociopathic disregard for the country's well being, if you hadn't.

Thank you for pointing that out
No problem

I don’t think the love for Johnson is nearly as significant as it was @Kendodd. At the moment the success of the vaccination programme is saving his bacon but memories of that will be very short as the looming economic catastrophe lands. We’re up to nearly three million unemployed already, that will increase exponentially with the end of furlough and it will hit the red wall areas hardest.

Of course it is. The mistake they've made, imo, was not clamping down on rule breaking.

If you think that this is the extent of their failings, then you're deluded! And certainly have very little in the way of critical thinking ability. But, hey, you're only on MN, why engage your brain?

@VinylDetective

Yes, our brilliant vaccine programme. Every single day I thank fuck Johnson left this to the NHS and didn't try to hand out a lucrative contract for delivery to one of his cronies. I will give Johnson that, they have done well on vaccines. If only the NHS had been in charge of the whole thing.

@Kendodd

And yet despite all Johnsons failure, he is knee deep in bodies, loads of people still love him. I just don't know what Johnson and the Tories would have to do before people stopped supporting them. The worse death rate in the world from a virus we could see in advance was coming down the road to us, clearly isn't enough.

And all we hear is a bleated 'Labour wouldn't have done any better'.

We are to blame ...Us.
We are not sheep.
According to the know it alls on here, voluntary house arrest is the answer.
Guess what, people won't do that , you didn't.
Your teens, children who sneak out to visit friends, your the parent, why have you allowed this.
Some of You went on holiday, you should have stayed home.
You could have given up your jobs and locked down, oh yeah there's that thing called wages. So how come you didn't save enough for 2 years after all you new this would happen.
Get real , no one could have realised how bad this would be.