Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[Flavour]

It's almost as if breaking the six-figure barrier has tripped some sort of switch and now there's no avoiding a discussion of just how badly the UK has handled the pandemic from the very beginning. But 10,000 deaths would also have been too many. I find it all very cynical.

 

[MrSki]

I thought Morgan would have been tougher.

The tribute to some of those who have died by Morgan and Susanna was very touching, very sad.

Yeah if anything Susanna Reid was tougher.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

It's almost as if breaking the six-figure barrier has tripped some sort of switch and now there's no avoiding a discussion of just how badly the UK has handled the pandemic from the very beginning. But 10,000 deaths would also have been too many. I find it all very cynical.

I wonder how much of the population are suddenly surprised to discover just how badly the UK has been doing.

 

[MrSki]

It's almost as if breaking the six-figure barrier has tripped some sort of switch and now there's no avoiding a discussion of just how badly the UK has handled the pandemic from the very beginning. But 10,000 deaths would also have been too many. I find it all very cynical.

Yeah 98000 deaths & lets focus on vaccine rollout but hit the 100K & the media can let rip with their library clips they have had on ice waiting for this landmark. Starting to ask awkward questions that are almost a year too late.

 

[andysays]

Yeah 98000 deaths & lets focus on vaccine rollout but hit the 100K & the media can let rip with their library clips they have had on ice waiting for this landmark. Starting to ask awkward questions that are almost a year too late.

To some extent the media have been complicit in the mishandling up to now because of the supine way they (in general, there have been a few exceptions) have behaved.

Not that that removes any of the blame from the government.

 

[Cloo]

I'm a great believer in giving leeway to people for doing the best they could with the information they had available to them at the time. But the Tories did not do the best they could with the information they had available at the time. They crossed their fingers and hoped it would go away,

 

[frogwoman]

I liked what the person from the bereaved families group was saying about 100,000 deaths not being a milestone but a tombstone.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

Yeah 98000 deaths & lets focus on vaccine rollout but hit the 100K & the media can let rip with their library clips they have had on ice waiting for this landmark. Starting to ask awkward questions that are almost a year too late.

Very much so. I've lost count of the number of times I've said over the past year 'thousands of people are dead and yet we're just .' Also the repeated utterings of 'ooh it's completely unprecedented' as if pandemics have never happened before and the worst one is the one that talks about hindsight being a wonderful thing, despite the fact there were numerous voices virtually screaming at the government to lock down now. Do you remember when Johnson went on TV and just said 'wash your hands and don't go on a cruise if you're over 70' I knew then it would be a really big fuck up.

And remember this bloke? He was on media everywhere for about a week before disappearing pretty sharpish for forcefully pointing out what was coming.

 

[frogwoman]

I remember being yelled at on fb in early March for 'thinking I know better than the scientists'.

 

[LeytonCatLady]

Just watched a clip of Johnson's performative grief yesterday and found new reserves of disgust for the man. With a thin gloss of attempted gravitas all he had to offer was an attempt to deny of any kind of responsibility or failure at all. "We have done everything we could to keep deaths to minimum" is an obvious lie and an insult to everyones intelligence. More of the same we have come to expect from him but in this context just painful.

#BorisBullshitter

 

[zora]

It's all so nuts. And it's not exactly like it's been party time in the UK for the past year and that's why we are where we are now.
To have such a high level of restrictions to so much of social and economic activity for such long periods of time, (including parts of the country being practically in lockdown for the whole year), and to have such high compliance and support from the public for this, and to spend so much on test and trace, and after all this instead of ending up with near zero covid, to end up with 100000 deaths and rapidly counting and god knows how many cases of long covid and other health conditions exacerbated by delayed treatment, and covid still rife...it really takes some doing.

 

[Flavour]

It's all so nuts. And it's not exactly like it's been party time in the UK for the past year and that's why we are where we are now.
To have such a high level of restrictions to so much of social and economic activity for such long periods of time, (including parts of the country being practically in lockdown for the whole year), and to have such high compliance and support from the public for this, and to spend so much on test and trace, and after all this instead of ending up with near zero covid, to end up with 100000 deaths and rapidly counting and god knows how many cases of long covid and other health conditions exacerbated by delayed treatment, and covid still rife...it really takes some doing.

Yeah but Christmas

 

[chilango]

Cynical me has massive fucking klaxons blaring right now.

It's been rumoured for some time now that Johnson planned to quit in January (for "health reasons").

Is the groundwork being laid for him to turn this craven act into one of noble self-sacrifice?

Would fit the narrative of individual responsibility that has surrounded the Covid response here perfectly.

 

[magneze]

The government should quit. Pretty much every ministry is complicit in their own way.

 

[magneze]

If they don't quit over this then what DO they quit over?

 

[frogwoman]

Wouldn't surprise me tbh.

 

[frogwoman]

Lock him up.

 

[frogwoman]

To be honest if he did resign that would be the best thing he ever did.

 

[chilango]

I don't want the murdering public school bastard slinking off to a comfortable retirement. I want him in the dock, on trial, for the deaths he's caused.

 

[two sheds]

I think it's the first time I've ever seen him say "sorry" about anything.

 

[Artaxerxes]

EvErYtHiNg We CoUlD

 

[two sheds]

I don't want the murdering public school bastard slinking off to a comfortable retirement. I want him in the dock, on trial, for the deaths he's caused.

manslaughtering bastard should also be a term really

 

[frogwoman]

I don't want the murdering public school bastard slinking off to a comfortable retirement. I want him in the dock, on trial, for the deaths he's caused.

Has any PM ever been sent to prison? We don't really have 'impeachment' or similar here do we.

 

[Cloo]

What will happen is there will be a very expensive enquiry that will conclude 'Oh well, it was all very difficult they probably could have done better but we can't blame anyone in particular'

 

[existentialist]

If they don't quit over this then what DO they quit over?

Nothing, but nothing.

 

[existentialist]

To be honest if he did resign that would be the best thing he ever did.

But then we have the "Pence" trolley problem. Johnson goes...and who takes over? It could end up being one of those Brexiteering swivel-eyed loons who are now burbling on about "herd immunity" and "the economy". Appalling as the prospect is, there really are people who could be even worse for us than Johnson...

 

[LeytonCatLady]

Has any PM ever been sent to prison? We don't really have 'impeachment' or similar here do we.

I assume the Queen or whoever's his boss can take some kind of action against him in really extreme circumstances but it would probably have to be something blatantly illegal, not just immoral. More's the pity.

 

[Artaxerxes]

What will happen is there will be a very expensive enquiry that will conclude 'Oh well, it was all very difficult they probably could have done better but we can't blame anyone in particular'

It'll take at least 3 inquries and maybe a decade but that'll be the conclusion.

 

[frogwoman]

Does the uk have impeachment or anything similar?

 

[DotCommunist]

the only one who ever faced consequences was Spencer Perceval