Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[welshbairn]

20 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Nick Robinson trending. Apparently he crucified Matt Hancock in a radio interview.

I was never a massive fan, particularly during the Indy ref, but he's light-years ahead of Laura Kuennsberg. Why was he replaced?

Think he switched to radio after recovering from cancer, i suppose a desk job is easier. The Today programme's about as high profile on radio as you can get though, John Humphreys was one of the best paid people with the BBC.

[Guest bernardblack]

Hancock laughing during that interview earlier had made me so angry.

What time is our Nicola on today?

[swiftyswifty swifty]

3 minutes ago, bernardblack said:

Hancock laughing during that interview earlier had made me so angry.
 

It’s little wonder Hancock and Co are laughing, they realise now that there is literally no tipping point in terms of their incompetence. 
 

If they spent half the time on actually doing their job and steering the country through a health crisis instead of constantly misleading, covering up and protecting themselves we may not be top of the global excess death league. 

 

[welshbairn]

11 hours ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

What's your point Welshy ?  Given that his tweet is from 24th January, I'm assuming his comments are based on the scientific evidence available at that time and that he thought the media were scaremongering.

Am I missing something ?

Nah, just a cheap jibe from me. 

[vikingTON]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/italy-says-96percent-of-virus-fatalities-suffered-from-other-illnesses/ar-BB14ar-BB14BLbg

This is why we should be focusing government resources on shielding those who are at genuine risk of harm instead of just throwing money on a massive bonfire by pretending that 'everyone might need a ventilator!!!!111!!!' and clamping down on low risk activity among healthy adults. It's a pernicious myth that has contributed to the UK's abysmal handling of the outbreak so far. 

[WhiteRoseKillie]

23 minutes ago, swiftyswifty swifty said:

It’s little wonder Hancock and Co are laughing, they realise now that there is literally no tipping point in terms of their incompetence. 
 

If they spent half the time on actually doing their job and steering the country through a health crisis instead of constantly misleading, covering up and protecting themselves we may not be top of the global excess death league. 

 

I managed to fire that email off to my MP at just the right time, to be honest - the naked contempt that these cúnts are now showing towards the people is threatening to send me back into stroke territory, and I don't think there's meds available to keep a lid on my BP. Seeing Hancock laughing - fucking laughing! - as he tries to sell us the latest snake-oil may well be the last straw. I expect lies, I expect Tories to Tory - I don't expect them to openly mock the electorate on TV. We've turned a corner, here.

"It is is your civic duty to follow these instructions" - NO, you fucking corporate shill, it is your job as a Government Minister to either use your position to remove an individual whose behaviour has directly and indirectly put the entire fucking National public health sytrategy at risk, or admit that you haven't got the balls to stand up to him and resign.

I agree with your first sentence - they actually believe that's it, literally, "if we can get away with this, we can do anything!".  In fact, this Government is guilty of a failure, both in their actions and inactions, which is greater than anything I have ever been aware of in the developed world. Public Health and the economy fucked in one fell swoop. They have literally broken our society in a matter of months - every action has had a negative effect, or at best has had any benefit mitigated by delay. And meanwhile, the xcess deaths continue to mount up. Thank fúck they're mainly old, poor, or black, eh?

I would actually go so far as to say that the Government's response to this crisis has bordered on and, with the support for Cummings being paramount, actually crosses the line and becomes treasonous.

Edited May 28, 2020 by WhiteRoseKillie

[Todd_is_God]

5 minutes ago, virginton said:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/italy-says-96percent-of-virus-fatalities-suffered-from-other-illnesses/ar-BB14ar-BB14BLbg

This is why we should be focusing government resources on shielding those who are at genuine risk of harm instead of just throwing money on a massive bonfire by pretending that 'everyone might need a ventilator!!!!111!!!' and clamping down on low risk activity among healthy adults. It's a pernicious myth that has contributed to the UK's abysmal handling of the outbreak so far. 

BuT a ThIrTEeN YeAr OLd BoY DIed is the response you will get to that.

"We are all in it together"

[renton]

5 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

BuT a ThIrTEeN YeAr OLd BoY DIed is the response you will get to that.

"We are all in it together"

Funny thing is, that when the death rate was low enough that there was detail around who died, most if not all dis have underlying conditions. It was the same in Singapore when I was there in January, all very much leaning into the "if your healthy you'll probably be ok" angle.

[Gordon EF]

It'll certainly be interesting to see whether the prevailing view of this utter shit show in a few years time will be 'nothing we could have done m8, it was global innit' or will we actually recognise that through complete unpreparedness together with a galling level of rolling incompetency, we actually managed to wreck our whole economy whilst still hanging vulnerable people out to dry and having one of the worst death tolls in the world.

I sincerely hope people don't swallow the former.

[Michael W]

1 hour ago, RiG said:

Bit late with both of these so apologies if I have missed them being mentioned in this thread.

Apparently the UK Government has been spending cash doing sponsored stories in the Daily Mail. Obviously they have done this in other publications WRT the original Stay At Home message but this seems to be, as Cadwalladr says, akin to political propaganda. 

More humorously people are being conned into dropping huge sums of money on repainted USB sticks to protect themselves and their home from 5G signals using "nano layer protection". 

https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/20/internet-mocks-website-selling-usb-sticks-protect-users-5g-12730489/

https://5gbioshield.com/

They're in the Guardian as well. 

[Granny Danger]

Just now, Gordon EF said:

It'll certainly be interesting to see whether the prevailing view of this utter shit show in a few years time will be 'nothing we could have done m8, it was global innit' or will we actually recognise that through complete unpreparedness together with a galling level of rolling incompetency, we actually managed to wreck our whole economy whilst still hanging vulnerable people out to dry and having one of the worst death tolls in the world.

I sincerely hope people don't swallow the former.

History is written by the victors.  Guess who that quote is attributed to.

 

[Gordon EF]

Should we cause untold damage to the economy or accept that a large number of people will just have to die?

Tories: why not both?

[Jacksgranda]

1 minute ago, Granny Danger said:

History is written by the victors.  Guess who that quote is attributed to.

 

Meldrew?

[WullieBroonIsGod]

3 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

Meldrew?

I don't believe it

[Michael W]

13 minutes ago, Gordon EF said:

It'll certainly be interesting to see whether the prevailing view of this utter shit show in a few years time will be 'nothing we could have done m8, it was global innit' or will we actually recognise that through complete unpreparedness together with a galling level of rolling incompetency, we actually managed to wreck our whole economy whilst still hanging vulnerable people out to dry and having one of the worst death tolls in the world.

I sincerely hope people don't swallow the former.

I'm pretty comfortable in accepting the whole thing was unprecedented. 

However, anyone looking at this and thinking we have done the right thing or that the response has been good, is a lost cause. The inquiry will come, but the response has not been the correct one. The politicians and scientists can fight it out and blame each other, but they both got it wrong pre-lockdown, with everything that went wrong after that point being the government's fault. 

Still, I'm sure "valuable lessons learned" and all that will be the attempted deflection. 

There is no getting away from the fact this has not gone well at all. 

Edited May 28, 2020 by Michael W

[coprolite]

10 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

History is written by the victors.  Guess who that quote is attributed to.

 

Someone who never said it, appropriately enough

[Granny Danger]

In rUK I see this have minimal influence on how people will vote in future.  Hopefully I am wrong, hopefully the whole f**k up, as well as things like the Cummings incident, will badly affect the Tories.

In Scotland I think that this crisis will strengthen the position of the SNP and the case for Independence.  That’s not to say there shouldn’t be a ‘warts and all’ enquiry, there should be.  I don’t think the SG will come out of it as bad as the U.K. equivalent.

 

[WhiteRoseKillie]

43 minutes ago, Snafu said:

As you are probably aware both the leadership in Scotland and in Northern Ireland have been recommending the wearing masks for a few weeks now so at the moment it is up to the individual because its advised rather than mandatory and with the lack of face masks worn earlier on in the crisis or rather the shortage of masks many companies who's staff deal with the public have already taken steps to protect their employees with screens and also the use of gloves when handling cash.

I'm with you there on the UK government should do, but will they? They resisted pressure in April to even consider the public should wear masks because the 'science' didn't support this despite the WHO at the beginning of the month recommending the use. A month later and 'the science' has told them to advise the public that masks should be worn in public places where social distancing can't be maintained. What science are they following here??

Do you wear a mask in public spaces?

 

Look at the shameless toadying compliance of Whitty, Vallance, Harries et al. "The Science" is whatever the Tories fancy doing at the time, and the various scientists have been complicit in the deception.

At almost every step of the way, "The Science" has been out of step with both recommendations from the WHO and measures taken by other countries. The end result is that the UK is, by whatever measure, comfortably among the absolute worst in the world when it comes to their dealing with Covid-19.

I hated Thatcher (still do, tbf), but one thing you had to admit with that evil bitch was her competence, and ability to carry out a plan. This lot are not just Tory scum, they are incompetent, useless Tory scum. So fúcking stupid they don't realise they're stupid.  Given the choice of society or the economy, they've fúcked both.

ETA: On the "science", and general deception - Dido Harding, who stodd behind that massive NHS logo last night, is a Tory Peer, was responsible for a massive data breach while at Talk Talk, and is married to a Tory MP. Her connection to the NHS is to chair NHS Improvement, a body which, I would suggest, is not averse to the involvement of the Private Sector in the NHS - or, to put it more honestly, advises Profiteers on which areas they should movein on next.

Not, I would suggest, someone who is impartial or has the interests of the people at heart. That logo is about as appropriate as the badge that cúnt Hancock (and Cúnt before him) wears in his lapel.

Edited May 28, 2020 by WhiteRoseKillie

[WhiteRoseKillie]

26 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

History is written by the victors.  Guess who that quote is attributed to.

 

Wasn't that the guy they call "The Twentieth Century's Boris Johnson"?

[Brother Blades]

In rUK I see this have minimal influence on how people will vote in future.  Hopefully I am wrong, hopefully the whole f**k up, as well as things like the Cummings incident, will badly affect the Tories.
In Scotland I think that this crisis will strengthen the position of the SNP and the case for Independence.  That’s not to say there shouldn’t be a ‘warts and all’ enquiry, there should be.  I don’t think the SG will come out of it as bad as the U.K. equivalent.
 

Whilst I mainly agree with your second paragraph, I sincerely hope we aren’t moving towards a “(slightly) better than rUK” narrative, that’s not good enough in my opinion.
I think the SG response has been fairly lacklustre at best. The main difference I see, and am glad to see, is that Nicola has been front & centre throughout this whole sorry business. She’s very clued up on it & Ive not once seen her shy or shirk away from difficult questions- unlike that bumbling fucking deranged buffoon in 10 Downing Street!