Can anyone see anything positive that covid has done in response to covid ?

[helpmehelpmetoday]

So much bashing of tories on here.. does anyone see anything good that Boris and the gov have done in their response to covid ?

Genuinely curious !

@helpmehelpmetoday

So much bashing of tories on here.. does anyone see anything good that Boris and the gov have done in their response to covid ?

Genuinely curious !

Is that you Carrie?

Anything they put the Army in charge of went well (at least until they had to hand it over)

The vaccination programme.

@DolphinFC

The vaccination programme.

In the main delivered by NHS Trusts and GPs

ThIs kind of sloppy thinking is rife on MN.

If the vaccination programme had gone badly you would have blamed Boris.

His ridiculousness has fuelled a LOT of excellent memes. Ambushed by a cake!

@lljkk

tbh, as someone who has discovered Libertarian tendancies that I never would have believed I could hold, I feel a lot more comfortable with the social restrictions coming from Tories than I would the lefties. At least I can find moments when I actually believe Tories when they say these are temporary measures.

If lefties were in charge I'd be expecting a lot of unnecessary controls, ZeroCovid craziness, more vaccine mandates (Biden pushed for all employers with at least 100 employees; Austrians & Germans will fine you if no vacc), covid passes to go to a pub (Scotland) or most shopping centres (Israel), Schools closed completely for 12 months (California), 2-5 yr olds in masks (Illinois), severe travel restrictions (NZ), etc. I despair of BJ & all the reborn Brexiters. Tories aren't highly competent, but thank fuck they aren't doing the worst of the Covid control mania.

That's my impression too...

Welsh Labour have done a better job so yes I think Labour would have been better.

Not sure anyone would’ve been worse than the man who hides in fridges, visits hospitals without a mask, has parties with his mates while telling the public they can’t visit their dying relatives, thinks not knowing the rules that he set and briefed the public on is a valid defence, and still thinks he can bluster and brazen this all out.

Anyone would have done a better job than Johnson. He doesn't care about anyone but himself, and possibly whoever is paying his bills and who he's shagging.

@MirabelM

Furlough helped a lot and vaccine rollout was good.

The rest, awful.

BJ needs to leave. He's a joke

Agree with this Also in terms of Boris vs the opposition - I'm a life long Labour voter but I'm not sure whether people would have been so compliant with a Labour government through this. One of the reasons I found spring 2020 so scary was that a Tory government was risking shutting the economy due to the risks of the virus. I think most of the early covid sceptics were v right and v left wing but more on the right was 'survival of the fittest' type thinking and I think there would have been more of this from Conservatives with a Labour government making the decisions and less compliance with restrictions as it would have been viewed by some as socialism/ communism . It would have been easy for a Tory opposition to win votes by criticising restrictions and the impact on the economy etc

Vaccines, furlough and business support are the positives.

Gambling with the science/politics has paid off but it was a gamble.

I think Labour would have responded in at least an equal fashion with KS at the head.

BJ is devoid of a moral compass, I don't think that we wouldn't have seen any of the goings on/parties-not parties under KS's leadership.

All I hear is “no one else could have done any better!”

Even if someone else had done the EXACT same job, but not had the parties, that would be a better job.

Anyway, my positive to add is that it looks like a nice work environment he’s running with great perks, and his cake looked very tasty.

I think the vaccination role out was impressive and Furlong was good. A part from that, nothing.

After a bit of an understandably shaky start I think they have done a pretty good job
Mass vaccination
Furlough
Providing free testing kits
Keeping the economy going as much as possible

Oh I have one more. I reckon his flat will look gorgeous when we finish paying for it. So he obvs has an eye for interior design which doesn’t get enough recognition frankly.

Starting from the beginning...

Boris on his hols when the reports starting coming through. He didn’t return not attend crucial meetings.

The initial lockdown was slow to come.

Work from him if you can, go to work if you can’t, use a bus, but don’t use the bus - clear leadership. Fabulous!

Sunak did what he had to do re Furlough. No brainier. Not something that was ingenious at all.

PPE contracts - need to say more?

PPE roll out - shockingly slow overall and terrible for care homes.

The mask - should wearing them be imposed or not was a joke.

Nightingale Hospitals - fabulous to hve more beds. Just a shame they didn’t work out how to magic staff to run them.

It would appear that they didn’t know the difference between work meetings and parties when the rest of us did.

Christmas is defo on in 2020. Oh hang on scrap that.

Kids Are defo back in school in Jan 2021. Scrap that too (day before the start of term).

Vaccine roll out - there were errors. Some classes as CV and ECV were not able to book initially. Different areas didn’t roll out at same time - Bham was on over 70s before surrounding areas had finished their ECV and over 80s.

Let’s remove some money from the very poorest and vulnerable in society even though we know EVERYTHING is going to go up in price.

I’m sure there is more.

Boris has been shocking. He was voted in for the shit show of Brexit. Unfortunately for us he was in situ when this began. If only the 350million a week for the NHS had been true. It might have a helped a a little bit over all this!

And now he is reminiscent of how Trump was in accepting the 2020 Election Result. Clinging on.

All in all, would say they’ve been quite shit really.

@saltedBubbly

Completely agree. It should have been cross party. It’s been a global crisis with a huge National impact. I expected a war cabinet approach. That said, all other countries seem to have taken a leader led approach though some countries will already have coalition governments in place due to different political structures. Also, as we saw on Germany and the US - federal governments often couldn’t determine the full agenda.

You tried to write Boris but accidentally wrote Covid? Freudian slip.

Erm no.

@DolphinFC

ThIs kind of sloppy thinking is rife on MN.

If the vaccination programme had gone badly you would have blamed Boris.

Merely pointing out that the government didn't arrange the vaccination programme. They did procure the vaccines though. Maybe do some less sloppy thinking yourself.

I would’ve liked to have seen more cross party working, with the best brains working on solutions.

I also hoped this would happen.

I agree furlough and the first vaccine roll out were good.

I was prepared to give the gov the benefit of the doubt right at the start when it was a new and unexpected situation.(and I have not and don't plan to vote conservative) However the further info the pandemic we go, the lower my opinion gets, and it hit rock bottom quite a long time ago.

@saltedBubbly

Yes i think Labour would have done a better job - because the Welsh Labour government have. They have been much more cautious and followed that scientific advice rather than headline grabbing and flip flopping policy to suit their popularity ratings

I live in wales. Everyone I know was angry about the fact that we had tougher measures, for longer, than England. Many felt they were unnecessarily cautious and caused more problems than they solved.

I didn't vote for Boris but I think any leader would have had a tough time over the past two years. Impossible to please everyone when even on mn the debate is so polarised.

I think they did a decent job of protecting jobs and businesses and the vaccine rollout. The NHS wasn't overwhelmed. I'm pleased we were allowed out to exercise and walk in those early days, unlike other countries. I'm pleased schools were kept open for keyworker and vulnerable children. I thought the UC uplift was welcome.

Twominutesmore you're right about the exercise provision, that was a good call.

Furlough was good but both my sister and I who are self employed didn’t qualify for a penny. It’s OK actually because another government initiative (the IR35 changes) has actually stopped my self employment and forced me to get a regular job. I didn’t want to but I had no choice.
At first I thought Boris was doing his best in a difficult time ……. More fool me - he and his staff were pissing it up the wall laughing and joking at our expense as usual.

With regards to New Zealand, it’s an interesting one. Life has had restrictions at points for sure, and yes international travel has been restricted. But there’s been an awful lot of time where life has otherwise been normal (socialising, work, school all as normal).
As more of the population is vaccinated, any restrictions will drop. And this without anywhere near the number of deaths that we have had.
A trade off - lives versus a temporary ban on non-essential travel. And you could travel there - DH did to spend time with his dad before his dad died. People who might have died are now protected by vaccines.
I’d say far from authoritarian it was worth it.