Bored of Boris-bashing

[Miaowmi]

I'm not a massive fan or anything, nor do I think the government have made all the right decisions during the pandemic. But I'm just getting bored of the fuckwit Boris letting the delta variant in, fucking moron, etc narrative. I'm too bored of this to waste energy being angry! Like, honestly, it would have got in anyway. All it takes is one case. And if they had "closed the fucking border" and refused to let ANYONE or ANYTHING in from India (which is impractical) it would be branded discriminatory, racist, etc. And meh, New Zealand managed it, whatever - smaller population than London in a larger group of islands than GB&NI. Cannot understand how anyone thinks it's comparable.

I'm just fed up of all the wrath and anger. Honestly, I think the government bashing is making them go freaky-cautious. So it's detrimental to businesses, wellbeing, etc. Yeah, I get this isn't how things work in an ideal world. But the world is not ideal! I just can't bring myself to be pissed off about it.

@Miaowmi

I'm just sick of the ANGER. It's so negative...unkind...pointless. Call BJ a fuckwit ten times a day. Does it help the situation? Does it make you feel better? Lay into random people who don't agree with and call them fuckwits / selfish / idiots. Is it necessary? Is it kind? I can for sure agree that some of the PM's decision-making was poor. But how does being angry about it help? I don't think it helps anyone. Generally shouting at someone "you're an idiot!" doesn't bring them round to your point of view.

I agree. I don’t get the venom personally. I disagree with what him and his government have done, so I won’t be voting for them at the next election. I don’t think they’re evil, or scum, and hating someone for being posh is as bad as hating someone for being from a council estate. I just disagree with them.

In any event, we’re gonna have to get used to him as we’ve probably got him for the rest of the decade.

Oh and Indian varient - it was clear enough to the government the situation was bad enough in Pakistan and Bangladesh to put them on the red list, but even though it was worse in India, left them off for 3 weeks. This was purely a political decision (or else the other countries in the region would also have remained free to travel to/from uk).

Boris Johnson is the PM so ultimately this decision - that has cost lives and cost millions in the delayed reopening in June - is down to him.

To have ignored the facts for short term political gain in March 2020 is sort of forgivable, to be still making the same bad decisions in April 2021 suggests an inability to learn from mistakes, or an inability to value human lives above political point scoring.

So he's stupid or evil. Neither is good for a PM.

If you can't get angry about political decisions that have killed people, what can you get angry about?

Anger is important. It's necessary to get things moving, to fire people up to fight for change. It can be used for good and evil - the Brexit campaign being a prime example of evil. Hopefully Labour have some anger up their sleeves.

On the other thread you did mention testing. You should have invented, mass produced, distributed and conducted this testing based on your advanced prior knowledge

Again look to the far east. We should have been testing extensively in Febuary.

Hi carrie

And as for the captain hindsight bollox, they didn’t need a crystal ball we had an example of what would happen because it all happened in Italy before it happened here. They should have looked at that situation & learnt from it

It was too late for that by then, we overlapped with Italy 😕

I think calling the Brexit campaign evil is stretching it a bit. But yeah, the People's Vote campaign got very angry. And achieved such a lot?

@Miaowmi

am not sure though who would have been hurt if those schools that needed to would have been allowed to shut a week early for Christmas? The kids who lost a few more weeks of their education? The child who doesn't feel safe at home and the longer they're stuck there with no one to notice, the more risk they are at? The agency teachers and TAs who lose two weeks pay because they don't get paid if the school isn't open?

If you can't get angry about 10s of thousands of lives being lost, and the incredibly incompetent government failing to minimise that risk, what the hell in life should we be getting angry at?
I can be sad and sorry without being angry.

I think you are arguing that lockdown should have happened earlier. For that was the only way in which children would have lost fewer weeks at school, those who do not feel safe at home spent longer there due to the delayed lockdown, agency staff spent more time without work.

Shouldn't we be angry that the Prime Ministers inability to lead meant that this did not happen?

Other countries must have had testing kits long before March.
It took ages to get proper testing up and running here.

@Miaowmi

The "let the bodies pile high" thing is a classic example.

Did he actually say it? Probably. But it was more likely a "I'll see the bodies pile high before I put this country back into lockdown" statement. Tasteful? Absolutely not. Offensive? Yes (since it's been spread more widely than intended). Rhetorical flourish? Also yes. Has no one else ever said anything mildly distasteful in private to make a point?

If you want to argue that he made some very poor decisions, fair enough. But I couldn't get worked up over that comment.

Well there we go. That's where you and I differ and probably why we don't agree on Boris.

Again look to the far east. We should have been testing extensively in the Far East

What would ‘looking’ have done? Don’t understand your point. There were no tests!

@whatswithtodaytoday

If you can't get angry about political decisions that have killed people, what can you get angry about?

Anger is important. It's necessary to get things moving, to fire people up to fight for change. It can be used for good and evil - the Brexit campaign being a prime example of evil. Hopefully Labour have some anger up their sleeves.

This.

But in Febuary Boris was totally distracted by the mess of his personal life when he should have been totally focused on China/Italy.

But I'm just getting bored of the fuckwit Boris letting the delta variant in, fucking moron, etc narrative. I'm too bored of this to waste energy being angry!

I was willing to give the politicians a bit of leeway because it’s an unprecedented situation, scientific advice isn’t absolute or certain and there are so many other factors to juggle.

But delta has blown that out of the water. I’m so angry about it.

All my family are overseas in a country that is being very conservative about its own borders and I can’t help feeling we’ve squandered any advantage we had acquired as the result of the vaccine programme - and with it any chance of being in a travel corridor with other low-Covid/high vaccination countries any time soon as the huge transmission advantage of Delta being the dominant strain means countries that don’t have it aren’t likely to take the chance unless we manage full eradication which isn’t government policy. And so any chance of seeing my family before the middle of 2022 is snuffed out by political weakness.

So yes. I’m angry. And bitter. And upset.

Like, honestly, it would have got in anyway. All it takes is one case.

Interestingly, this hasn’t been the experience of many other countries. One case and one outbreak is much easier to contain (and has a higher chance of fizzling out as Covid onward transmission isn’t linear) that it being thoroughly seeded in the population.

It’s why so many countries have re-closed their borders to us.

And if they had "closed the fucking border" and refused to let ANYONE or ANYTHING in from India (which is impractical) it would be branded discriminatory, racist, etc.

But that didn’t happen when Bangladesh and Pakistan were added to the list at the point India should have been added. There was just a lot of confusion and head scratching about why India hadn’t been added as well, based on the data. And it all became clear it was because our internationally weak government was frightened of insulting their Indian counterparts.

And so, after all the sacrifices people made and all they’ve lost and missed out on, the government squandered our efforts. Because they needed to show they could get meaningful trade deals.

Strange how you are so heartless when it comes to your fellow citizens but you are more than happy to defend someone like Boris. Says it all really.

Again look to the far east. We should have been testing extensively in February

Yes we should. There were no accurate tests that picked up incubation or asymptomatic cases.

whatswithtodaytoday
If you can't get angry about political decisions that have killed people, what can you get angry about?

Anger is important. It's necessary to get things moving, to fire people up to fight for change. It can be used for good and evil - the Brexit campaign being a prime example of evil. Hopefully Labour have some anger up their sleeves.

Absolutely this. I do wonder what an example would be that would make these angry, I'm failing to see anything.

Evil Brexit 😂 Hi Ursula!

There were no tests in March because our Prime minister hadn't procurred them in Febuary. The goverment decided the tests should all be processed centrally by a private provider, despite the fact they were approached by multiple smaller labs/ universities and hospitals who had the capability to perform these tests. These resources weren't used until MAY in many cases (the bigger university hospitals started running their own tests in April).

There must have been testing in other countries long before it was the norm here?
I remember seeing nurses isolating on tv with symptoms completely fed up that they couldn't work or be tested , begging for someone to do something.
It all took too long to be implemented sadly.

It's the lies
The corruption
The callousness
The blatant disregard for life
The hypocrisy

Yes, absolutely angry about his appalling behaviours and politics.

@Scottishgirl85

I have to agree. I'm not a fan, but jeez I'd like to see some of the people on here doing any better. It's an impossible situation, he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

Civil servant: Mr Johnson, Pakistan & India have a new dangerous variant sweeping their countries, i'll order them both being put on the Red list shall i sir?

PM: Err NO! i want a trade deal with India and Mr Modi won't like that, so just Pakistan, for now.

Its not difficult is it?

Sure Delta would have come here but more slowly, more time to vaccinate... exactly why its looking like a 4 week delay.

How am I "so heartless" when it comes to my fellow citizens? And as for defending Boris, I'm only saying that I think the narrative is a bit OTT. I didn't vote for the man. Or his party. As it happens, I didn't vote for anyone because I don't have a vote, so I accept that is a bit of a meaningless statement

Only reason I feel the need to suddenly bother to defend BJ after years of keeping a dignified silence is because of the current state of Labour and their voters childish opinions!!!

He and his cronies causedthe death of thousands of care home residents with his policy of discharging covid positive patients into care homes to free up NHS capacity.
He and his cronies have absolutely put many more people put of work bygoing against the science He claims to be following(though not before one of them had already been on his jollies to Portugal).
That's before you get into closing hospitality while keeping the restaurant (subsidised by the tax payer) in Parliament open by reclassifying it as a work canteen so they can enjoy subsidised gourmet food whilst feeding the poorest children absolute shite worth 2.80 at a cost of 35 pounds to the taxpayer....but that's OK cos at least it was lining their mates pockets. Also ok-ing one of the lowest education recovery funds in the world at 310 pounds per pupil the next lowest being 1660 (though that shouldn't be a surprise, they didn't want to even feed them so I doubt they give a shiny shit about educating them)
Spaffing billions of pounds on contracts to their mates and tory donors on contracts that were never tendered for (Hancocks pizza box making mate getting the contract for vials fir testing despite having no experience in this field....serco being given track and trace when an adequately funded public health service could have done that)

This isn't about us thinking we can do better, it's about asking the people we elected to look after our interests to actually look out for ours and not their own.