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.

@Stellaris22

I'm still waiting to find out who was racist against Johnson too .....

Was it when somebody said he was biased against Britain because of his foreign ancestry?

No, that was Boris about Obama.

Was it when somebody called him a picaninny?
No, that was Boris about African children.

The sheer hate that posters seem to be feeling for Johnson personally on this thread is puzzling

I know, I just can't ^think" why anyone would hate someone who consistently lies to them, is lazy, is racist and sexist, does his incredibly important job with near-total incompetence, is presiding over staggering levels of corruption in the awarding of government contracts, and has produced a situation where we have the highest rate of deaths in the world. It's inexplicable, isn't it?

They followed scientific advice, that it was already endemic so closing borders futile.

That is really not what the scientific advice was saying at an early stage.

@trulydelicious

He doesn't have the easiest of jobs, does he?

It's no harder than it is for the leaders of every other western country, the great majority of which have managed to produce better covid management outcomes.

Do you think the british public would have supported completely closing the borders for almost a year NZ-style? It's not 2 weeks. I don't think they would have been able to sustain it here.

Again, with the ‘but the UK is special’ rhetoric.

Why?

Why can’t you support your borders being closed, when other countries can - and are?

I think borders closed and a relatively normal life, like NZ, would be much more acceptable than the year we've had to ensure.

@GetOffYourHighHorse

Why are you repeating your little list vinyl, you've sneered at me posting the same stuff. Bit hypocritical, no?

1. They followed scientific advice, that it was already endemic so closing borders futile. They instructed travellers to quarantine when returning from hotspots. I mean if the scientific advice was incorrect fine hold phe etc to account but we can't blame Government for following expert advice.
2. Agree with you there. Mass events should have been cancelled. Also, why tf did people still go?! Such a lack of responsibility. Bit like those going on holiday then doing a daily mail sad face on the news that boo hoo they had to isolate on return.

3.We locked down 23rd Mar, told to restrict activities from 16th which was a week after Italy locked down on Mar 9th and we knew we were a couple of weeks behind them. 4.Sadly no magic wand to immediately produce PPE, the whole world in the same position. 80% now produced domestically and no Trust ever actually ran out. Some were reported to be accidentally misusing ppe, so for example discarding gowns after a single use.

1. Patients were discharged when clinically ready. Hospitals were high risk areas, care homes had to implement strict IPC procedures. We've discussed this.
2. Hmm not sure.

7.Track and trace is effective and we test more than anywhere else (please refer to my worldometer link)

1. As I said up thread, eat out to help out had no effect on stats. The areas with high uptake had low rates.
2. Yes a last minute balls up I agree. Still one day at school then off is hardly a hand wringing disaster really. It's a pandemic vinyl, rapidly changing situation.

HTH.

NHS didn't run out of PPE, if that is even true, because suppliers were told not to let care homes have it.

@ancientgran

I think borders closed and a relatively normal life, like NZ, would be much more acceptable than the year we've had to ensure.

I totally agree.

DH's brother is in NZ, and it's quite odd knowing they're living a normal life.

@ancientgran

I think borders closed and a relatively normal life, like NZ, would be much more acceptable than the year we've had to ensure.

And the years to come - still largely unknown despite the vaccination programme. The financial impact of business crashes and job losses, the emotional impact on so many people of so many deaths and the change to the structure of their lives, the damage to education, the loss of confidence in the Government (for those that had some) - these are things that will continue to have an impact for a very long time.

My family is in Aus and the difference is huge, esp as they are in one of the Covid free states (ie not Melb)

I’ve thought about whether we could have done it and my main query is around timing. Eg would we have had to lockdown in Jan to get same result as NZ etc

It does sound nice and getting to point I find it strange to be at such different stages.

But I hope vaccine starts getting us out of this soon and restrictions relax

How is it hindsight? I remember people demanding they stop the Cheltenham Festival, stop all big sporting events, urging lockdown in September, saying the easing of restrictions in December was going to cause exactly what happened in January. Were they all time travellers or something?

Yes exactly. Am sure to some people this feels like hindsight because they weren't aware what was going on at the time - yes I am including you, Prime Minister - but I was shouting at the telly about quarantine for Italy, cancelling Cheltenham, wearing of masks, circuit breaker and as for that rubbish Eat Out To Help Out... etc etc.

If you look at Twitter feeds of knowledgeable people, there was a great deal of foresight - which stupid Johnson simply ignored

@inquietant another one who has spent the year mostly incredulous at the path the Government has taken. You didn't need to be a virologist or have a crystal ball to see what was coming in Feb (as we watched hospitals become over run in Italy and people returning freely from their ski trips there) By March (when we know SAGE was advising him lockdown was on the horizon) we still had Johnson, his pregnant partner and 80,000 watching international rugby at Twickenham.
You would have hoped it would have been a case of once bitten twice shy but they bounced England out of Nov's lockdown without a cautious easing of restrictions (albeit trying to contain cases within the tier system) and announced at that point the multi- household indoor Christmas mixing plan.

The vaccination programme gives us all hope, I really hope they follow through with tighter controls and quarantines on international travel. This year has been like a huge game of snakes and ladders, let's hope we don't reach the top of the board only to slide right back down again.

@Arobase I know, I just can't ^think" why anyone would hate someone who consistently lies to them, is lazy, is racist and sexist, does his incredibly important job with near-total incompetence, is presiding over staggering levels of corruption in the awarding of government contracts, and has produced a situation where we have the highest rate of deaths in the world. It's inexplicable, isn't it?
I find it inexplicable that people still think Johnson is a good enough PM that they spend their time defending his piss-poor record.

I find it inexplicable that people still think Johnson is a good enough PM that they spend their time defending his piss-poor record.

I quite agree! Defence and also over inflating his “achievements”. Apparently he “sorted” the EU vaccine issue last night

People can do all the mental gymnastics they want.

But at the end of the day, the perception both within the UK and internationally, is that Boris has profoundly bungled it.

@ancientgran, PPE was incredibly tight in the NHS. It was rationed back in April even for ITU staff. I remember well that care homes couldn’t get hold of any.

YES

@CaterpillarMilkshake

People can do all the mental gymnastics they want.

But at the end of the day, the perception both within the UK and internationally, is that Boris has profoundly bungled it.

Exactly, My dh’s chinese colleagues sent us 350 masks in May last year. His former PA phones is weekly to check we are all okay.

For @IncludeWomenInTheSequel , @Stellaris22 and the rest of the lovely self-proclaimed compassionate posters that enjoy ganging up on others

See some lovely examples on this thread of personal hate and utter prejudice. Why do you think this is acceptable and should be tolerated? Why is this ok if it's directed at people with some characteristics and not others?

There are many more, but I'll leave you to it now

And I hope that in some way he suffers and pays for what he's done

will never starve and born with a silver spoon

Oh, I found another 'compassionate comment' by @PhilCornwall1

I'd have no problem unplugging his life support to charge my phone

Why should this be tolerated?

In all your searches for specific posts, @trulydelicious, did you manage to find the ones you allege are racist against Johnson?

@trulydelicious

For *@IncludeWomenInTheSequel , @Stellaris22* and the rest of the lovely self-proclaimed compassionate posters that enjoy ganging up on others

See some lovely examples on this thread of personal hate and utter prejudice. Why do you think this is acceptable and should be tolerated? Why is this ok if it's directed at people with some characteristics and not others?

There are many more, but I'll leave you to it now

And I hope that in some way he suffers and pays for what he's done

will never starve and born with a silver spoon

It is a matter of fact that Johnson has a very privileged background.

The idea that someone should pay for their actions is not one I subscribe to, I favour rehabilitative justice, but I don't think it is uncommon. I don't see why Johnson should be protected from the approach favoured by his own home secretary!!

@trulydelicious I'm not ganging up, simply asking for evidence to back up your claim that there have been racist comments against Johnson.

It's a very serious allegation.

@inquietant

It is a matter of fact that Johnson has a very privileged background

Yes, but people are prejudiced against him and think hate speach should be tolerated because of his background

Take a look at another comment from this thread below. Is my point clear yet?

He's an arrogant, privileged tosser who thinks he can impress people just because he can speak a bit of Latin.... Only cares about his wealthy chums, not civilians

@Stellaris22

It's a very serious allegation

True. It's even more seriuos to be racist

@trulydelicious

Oh, I found another 'compassionate comment' by *@PhilCornwall1*

I'd have no problem unplugging his life support to charge my phone

Why should this be tolerated?

I remember seeing this comment when the thread first started. It’s awful. There has been a really dark shift in society where people on the internet feel they can post the most disgusting hateful things about people. I’m surprised that post is still standing.

The ironic thing is the culprits of these posts are supposed to be from ‘caring nice people’. It’s not limited to Boris either, it seems to be if you disagree with someone you can gleefully talk about their death - sometimes very violently. This year has really ramped up the ugliness of online abuse/trolling/attacks