Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Do you feel sorry for Boris?

999 replies

User133847 · 27/01/2021 12:56

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.

OP posts:
frozendaisy · 27/01/2021 14:57

No if you clamour for power you need to be prepared to step up, lead and take responsibility for your citizens regardless of what is thrown at you in your political or personal life.

VinylDetective · 27/01/2021 14:57

I think it's unfair to hold him personally accountable

He’s the prime minister. It’s his job to be accountable.

ThelmaNotLouise · 27/01/2021 14:58

God no, OP. He has systematically ballsed up our response to this pandemic. He's reaping what he sowed.

goldenlilliesdaffodillies · 27/01/2021 15:00

Yes I do feel sorry for him. I am not a Conservative voter, but would feel sorry for anyone having to deal with a pandemic. I am in various online groups with people from all over Europe- they are just as angry with their own governments- it isn't just the UK struggling.
So many people play the blame game, but don't take responsibility for their own actions.
Unless you had a crystal ball, it would be impossible to have predicted just how bad things would get with the new variant of Covid-19.

Sandybanana7 · 27/01/2021 15:00

Yes I do feel sorry for him.
He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

MN is a 99% Labour leaning site so naturally everyone on here is going to hate him.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 27/01/2021 15:00

No.

ThelmaNotLouise · 27/01/2021 15:01

@Remmy123

Yes I do - he is human after all.
I think that's a matter for debate.
MrsMauryBallstein · 27/01/2021 15:01

God no

safariboot · 27/01/2021 15:02

No. He applied for the most powerful and most responsible job in the country.

ilovesooty · 27/01/2021 15:02

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@ilovesooty why reply then ?
If a subsequent report finds him negligent then yes but not trial by public or media ? Can you not see how wrong that is ? [/quote]
I judge him for being the person and politician he showed himself to be over many years, well before Covid-19 was ever thought of. Subsequent events have merely confirmed what he is.

And each and every member of the Conservative party who cast their vote for him as leader shares responsibility for his even being in a role he was always demonstrably completely incompetent to fulfill.

pinbinpin · 27/01/2021 15:02

No. As others have said, if you have such an inflated sense of self and are so clearly driven by ego and career aspiration, you have to take the rough with the smooth. He expected to be able to coast in for a few years on a post-I delivered-brexit high, talk waffle for a few years and then segue into the extremely lucrative after dinner speech market to top up his coffers. He couldn't have predicted he would have to actually step up to the plate and manage a crisis. His failings in doing so have revealed that he is a pretty incompetent chancer who has relied on Eton waffle and bluster up to now and I think the reality check both him and the electorate are receiving can only be a good thing in the long run.

BIWI · 27/01/2021 15:03

@Sandybanana7

Yes I do feel sorry for him. He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

MN is a 99% Labour leaning site so naturally everyone on here is going to hate him.

I think you'll find even the Tories on MN are finding it hard to be sorry for Boris!

(And your stats are very definitely wrong)

Arobase · 27/01/2021 15:04

No. You only have to look at his performance against those of most other leaders of western countries to see what a total pigs' ear he's made of it. And an awful lot of deaths have happened as a result.

DareIask · 27/01/2021 15:07

@WanderingMilly

Yes, I do feel sorry for Boris actually. I'm not expecting anyone to agree with me but I genuinely think he has tried to listen to the people from the outset, and had nothing but hatred for it.

As far as he was concerned, the people had voted for BREXIT, he promised to make it happen...and then the pandemic came along. He has had to juggle BREXIT talks alongside the changing pandemic, often being blamed for not being around...he was still having to be at BREXIT negotiation meetings as well.

On top of that, he can't do right for wrong. He has tried to steer a path between the opposing demands of the citizens, scientists, economists and back-benchers, to name but a few.

At the start of the pandemic, everyone round my home area was saying "it's nothing, just a flu" and wouldn't have stuck with a lockdown if we'd locked down sooner. At the school I worked at, staff were openly saying it was rubbish and were cross about the closures. Now of course, everyone says we should have locked down sooner.

I remember as soon as the infection rates began to lower, everyone was calling for shops and pubs to be open. And summer holidays, there was a tidal wave of people saying they 'deserved' their holiday abroad. So they get it and lo and behold, everyone says it's Boris' fault that we all went to the beach and Spain...and that everything should have stayed closed.

And then there was Christmas.....short memories again. Remember everyone calling for Christmas, "we've had a shit year, no-one has seen their family, at least give us Christmas"...... so Boris listened but now everyone says, if we hadn't got together at Christmas, we wouldn't have had another lockdown. Yes we would. The current lockdown is because of the new variant which has shown a spread across the country (Christmas doesn't spread across the country, it would have been high in all areas at the same time).

Finally we got our 3rd lockdown as teachers felt unsafe in schools, the unions were calling for it and children were finally seen to be taking the virus into homes and then the community. We've barely got the infection rates falling when there's a clammer of voices calling for everything to open up again. Honestly, what is wrong with the British public? Nothing but moans and complaints, and then blame it all on the PM......

I agree with you.

Impatiens · 27/01/2021 15:07

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@Impatiens can you proove that ? Who should he of listened to ? Do you have access to all the reports ? Or access to all the decisions made and why ? [/quote]
He didn't listen to advice -
not to allow the Cheltenham Festival to go ahead
to lock down early when it was clear the virus was spreading into the UK
to shut down borders/limit flights in/ensure incoming ppl were effectively quarantined
his own advice on limiting contact with others, thereby infecting himself with the virus
to ensure healthcare staff were provided with proper PPE
to get an effective testing system in place asap
to sack Cummings for flouting the rules
not to allow ppl to mix over xmas

etc etc etc

Stop making excuses for him, he is directly responsible for our catastrophic death toll.

Arobase · 27/01/2021 15:08

Yes, he’s taken a lot of flack over decisions made at a point in time, with information available at that point in time, that’s subsequently changed, but according to lots of people he should have been a mind reader, known it was going to change and made decisions on what he didn’t know at the time

And yet the leaders of so many other countries, faced with exactly the same difficulties, did so much better. Maybe because they did actually listen to and act on the scientific advice rather than constantly dithering around till it was too late.

HelloMissus · 27/01/2021 15:08

Nope.
He’s a chancer.
He doesn’t believe in anything - I’m not convinced he ever thought Brexit was a good idea.
He looks thoroughly miserable and I suspect he knows he will never be able to move past any of this.

mummytolittledragons · 27/01/2021 15:09

No way . Don't like him at all. He hasn't a clue what he is doing and he always looks so exhausted and unwell, not to mention scruffy and unwashed. Not exactly the image Britain should project to the world.

poppyzbrite4 · 27/01/2021 15:11

@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.

That's because we don't have an independent press. No, I don't feel sorry for him I feel angry at him for letting things get this far without resigning. He's made a complete hash of this and should have handed over to someone more competent and now 100,000 people are dead. The good news is that the pigs have made a fortune at the trough, so they'll keep him in power for as long as possible. I also want to know why a footballer is doing a better job than the opposition, but that's for another thread.

I didn't vote for this shower of shite.

ThelmaNotLouise · 27/01/2021 15:11

@goldenlilliesdaffodillies

Yes I do feel sorry for him. I am not a Conservative voter, but would feel sorry for anyone having to deal with a pandemic. I am in various online groups with people from all over Europe- they are just as angry with their own governments- it isn't just the UK struggling. So many people play the blame game, but don't take responsibility for their own actions. Unless you had a crystal ball, it would be impossible to have predicted just how bad things would get with the new variant of Covid-19.
But the Govt did have a crystal ball! Especially with regards to the latest lockdown and the 50,000 deaths that have occurred in the past two months alone. All they had to do was refer back to what happened in March when we went into lockdown too late and the deaths that happened subsequently, and then they could have looked into their crystal ball after being warned about the new variant spreading on December 18 and seen what was going to happen in the new year. Carnage, in other words. But no. Instead of locking down early again, the Govt persisted with going ahead with Xmas mixing and threatened schools with legal action for wanting to switch to online learning a week before the holidays. In my book, that's 50k deaths that Johnson is directly and personally responsible for.
Arobase · 27/01/2021 15:12

As far as he was concerned, the people had voted for BREXIT, he promised to make it happen...and then the pandemic came along. He has had to juggle BREXIT talks alongside the changing pandemic, often being blamed for not being around...he was still having to be at BREXIT negotiation meetings as well

Given that people voted for Brexit as a direct result of his blatant lies, I really don't think he gets to earn a get-out-of-jail free pass for such completely self-generated problems. Difficulties with the agreement could have been avoided simply by supporting the May version, bearing in mind that what we've ended up with is actually worse. Or indeed he could have asked for an extension till the pandemic was under control, I doubt it would have been refused.

MrsFrisbyMouse · 27/01/2021 15:12

Sorry? Not at all. He is the leader of the current in power political party, and as such is accountable for their choices and actions.

If they all hadn't been congratulating themselves on winning their snap election and high on the fact Brexit was going to happen, then maybe they might have noticed they were sailing into an iceberg.

Arobase · 27/01/2021 15:13

I instinctively have massive difficulty empathising with people who are happy to preside over and take advantage of massive corruption in the use of public money, and who lie so blatantly and so often.

lunapeace · 27/01/2021 15:16

I do yes, he's made mistakes but he's a human being. He's even admitted responsibility for the 100,000 deaths caused by a virus which he really didn't have to do. But he did. Give the man a break.

dottiedodah · 27/01/2021 15:16

I feel sorry for him yes .No government in recent times has had to face such a difficult crisis .Labour would probably not have fared any better really .Lots of hindsight about how they would have done things differently .Not so easy at the time though!