Boy George is a more terrible person than Matt Hancock and I'm sick of people pretending he isn't

[CallMeNutribullet]

Why does he get a pass for his brutal, clearly sexually motivated crime (he threatened the guy with whips and sex toys) and still have a career?

I'm so irritated I'm having to sound like I'm defending Hancock, a corrupt, inept Tory who cheated on his wife. He personifies everything wrong with Johnston's cabinet, but no he didn't kill thousands, Covid did. The decision to return vulnerable people from hospital to care homes was a terrible one, but we did the exact same thing in Scotland. He isn't a sex offender.

If Boy George had chained up a female sex worker and beat her with an iron bar and threatened to rape her with sex toys he wouldn't have ever had the opportunity to be on TV again.

There wasn't much moaning about Johnson off on his Caribbean holiday when parliament was sitting and in my book he has far more to apologise for than MH.

I broke lockdown rules sparingly when I believed the risk was small based on the evidence and the benefit was great.
I think part of the reason people are so livid is that they outsourced their moral decision making to the government and made decisions that they now regret.
I’m not offended really because I made decisions according to what I viewed to be morally right at the time and feel peaceful about them e.g kept largely to all the rules but also hugged my uncle at my my aunts funeral (we had both recently had covid so risk was tiny, benefit large).
I could never really understand people who blindly followed the rules just because they were the rules even when logically the risk was low or no greater than something else that was ‘allowed’.

blindly following the rules?
to me it was protecting others.

Everybody broke the rules in some way. I don't believe one person did not break one guideline, one law, on rule or do anything they were not supposed to do for the entire duration of it.

Oh I think there were some Mumsnetters who stuck to it - it was like a religion at one point, heresy and sin would have been punishable by death if they had had their way!

but no he didn't kill thousands, Covid did.

Yeah right. No fewer could have been killed! 🤣

There really must be some nervousness about the covid enquiry!

The way people go on it was like they expected the government could have prevented every single death during a global pandemic.

I think I stuck to all the rules but I'm nearly 70, DH is disabled and we don't exactly live a riotous life. Apart from getting shopping delivered from Sainsbury's and not seeing adult children for months it wasn't much different. I do work part time but can do it from home.

Oh I think we might have broken the rules once, DS came to drop some stuff off for us, he lives about 90 minutes away and needed the loo so he came in. That was probably breaking the rules but not sure what else we could have done.

No they are expected to only take holidays during recess dates.

"We" didn't do the same thing in Scotland, the politicians did - rhose if a similar ilkbto MH. They killed my beautiful, lovely, gem if a FIL. Blood is in their hands.

Precisely.

So because someone goes to prison that erases what they did? And the man broke free from where he was chained to, George didn’t let him go so he could have been held captive for months/years for all we know!

I think decision making during the pandemic was hard. There are people who hate politicians because they locked down too much and people who didn't think they locked down enough. Boy George thinks visitors should have been in Covid ridden hospitals. Wales and Scotland made similar decisions to England Scotland had an unnecessarily prolonged lockdown as Sturgeon tried to copy New Zealand until they woke up to the fact that later variants of Covid were much milder and it was time to get the economy and normal life going again.
When the elderly were sent back to care homes there were few tests available and they were saved for the seriously ill, also there was concern frail elderly people would block all hospital beds so no young Covid sufferers could get a bed or ventilator as happened in Italy. I worked throughout the pandemic and most people I know who worked in buildings broke some rules/ guidance. Those able to work at home seemed keenest on harsh lockdown for all forever.

I reserve judgement on MH as a person compared to my judgement as health minister.

You can be a nice person and principled and make horrendous decisions that backfire.

He was right to resign for the affair.

However I do think their decision to remove people from hospitals to care homes was about freeing hospital space - not sending covid to care homes because they didn't care about elderly and vulnerable.

We currently have 1 in 3 beds being occupied by people who could be discharged. My own mum spent 2 weeks in hospital this year because she needed a bed and oxygen at home. She could have been discharged medically (terminal cancer) as nothing they could and were doing for her except a drip.

My issue was that he and the government stuck to their soundbite "protective ring around cafe homes". They should have acknowledged it was a bad decision with consequences when it was obvious it was. It was their lack of reflection that bothered me most and MH was also part of that - because that's what his job requires him to do.

I never felt he fully believed what he was saying and was often sent out as the fall guy to media.

But I also maintain that there are lots of double standards in the camp.

BG deliberately held someone hostage - he deliberately assaulted them.

I don't believe MH deliberately killed thousands. But it was a consequence of their decisions during an unprecedented pandemic for which he played a part.

The enquiry will be interesting and I hope it provides answers.

'However I do think their decision to remove people from hospitals to care homes was about freeing hospital space - not sending covid to care homes because they didn't care about elderly and vulnerable.'

This! <we don't often agree @itsgettingweird >

They'd seen the desperate scenes in Italy, we knew a massive surge of hospital admissions was coming. They did what every other country did, discharge people fit for discharge to get them out of a high risk area and free up space for those in much greater need of an acute bed.

I also don't understand those who critique them discharging when there was covid as to the risks but then also critique the lack of visitors (who could also take in covid).

It was a shitshow. The messaging wasn't clear which caused more issues - but that was on Johnson.

Personally I think Johnson's poor leadership caused most of the issues. An area I know we don't agree on - because he got vaccines!

The fact that people still cant agree, with the benefit of hindsight, shows it was an impossible decision.
I wouldn’t have wanted their job for all the money in the world.

there was no testing
it was desperate measures
does anyone remember Boris first talk about covid, how we would lose loved ones.
it took a while for testing to come

When I see all these accusations now I wonder that people have such short memories. We saw the scenes from first China, then Italy. People dying in corridors, all the ranting on here about wasting resources on ‘people who have already lived their lives’, ICU staff wearing nappies because of the global shortage of PPE. Where else were the frail elderly bed blockers supposed to go in order to remove them from the worst harm and free up acute beds. I want the strident accusers who judge MH more harshly than a sex offender or repeat drunk driver to spell it out.

I don’t give a shit about anyone who had to physically go out to work sharing pizza, curry or wine with their colleagues after work either. They couldn’t visit their loved ones at home or in hospital or attend their funerals either. I was safe in my home office earning my full salary and getting my shopping delivered. I thank them for their service and they are welcome to any moments of pleasure, camaraderie and support they got.

Well exactly ,unless people stayed locked up.in their homes 24/7 than the virus ws going to spread ,all governments had rules and regulations which many people chose to ignore ,no government got everything right
It was covid that killed people .

This. Widespread testing wasn't available for 3months, which was a achievement in itself tbh in such a short time.

I agree those condemning him for the elderly dying in carehomes (which happened in every other country as that age group highest risk) what should they have done, kept everyone in hospital while folk queued in corridors like in Italy?

Our hospitals weren't ever overwhelmed. MH should actually have some recognition for that.

I have only been dipping in and out of the show but I just saw a clip where MH was stung by a scorpion and was clearly quite distressed about it and BG thought it was funny. That's a pretty nasty character flaw George.