It's just been announced that we have passed 100,000 deaths.

The Cygnus report of 2016 was totally and completely ignored. Had this been acted on then the UK would have been far better prepared at the onset of this pandemic.

I believe that the special cttee advising UK governments on handling Pandemic was dismissed by Johnson when he took office.

Exactly a year ago, we (the public) were told by Hancock the government was satisfied that there was no imminent of real danger to us from Covid 19.

I think it was James Rees-Mogg who actually predicted that a lot of money could be made from this potential pandemic.

Throughout this year the UK government has been more concerned at handing out billions of pounds to themselves and their mates for contracts for which there had been no competitive tendering and no checks made on abilities to deliver.

The PPE scandal, Test and Trace debacle. etc etc

I do believe that Johnson and co are truly appalled at what there total mismanagement of this crisis has produced in terms of death figures (amongst the top in the world) and the crashing of the economy (amongst the worst in the world). But....to say they have done their best in the circumstances is a downright lie.

And do remember, it may not be the government who wants to blame the public - it is the government who wants the public to blame the public......to take that blame from where it does lie - with that government.

It’s a very sad milestone and a sobering thought that we have the highest death rate in Europe.

I am sure mistakes have been made at government level and, with the benefit of hindsight, our borders should have been closed back in the spring but there are other factors at play to explain our high death toll.

We are an overcrowded country with a high number of ethnic groups which are more likely to die from the virus. Unfortunately these groups are also the ones most likely to refuse the vaccine.
There needs to be a big campaign to try to convince these people to have the vaccine or our recovery will be slower this year than it should be.

We are the second fattest nation in Europe, and it’s well known that the overweight are more at risk than those of normal weight.

There is encouraging news though that the daily rate of infections has been steadily decreasing, and our vaccination programme is going very well.

I pretty much agree with what you have said in your last post PippaZ. Even now when people talk about closing our borders its clear that we can't do what NZ or Australia have done. But I do think the leaders of both those countries took difficult decisions that could have backfired on them, but have ended up with the right outcome. Ardern in particular treated the population like adults and showed them what their responsibilities were to the rest of the country.

There is a long tradition of mateship in Australia as well and I'm sure that will have contributed to the people there doing the right thing.

Plenty of warning that we were ill prepared for a possible pandemic. What action was taken?.....NONE. It’s shameful.

What action was taken by Bojo? We are safe to have Cheltenham, a packed Westminster Abbey, no masks and having a laugh at having to greet each other, touching elbows. Consistently sending out the wrong message, too little, far too late as the virus spread out of control. To date, months later, told us we can mix to celebrate Christmas and we are now in lockdown yet again. Beggars belief ! ?

I think the piss poor government and its lack of leadership is accepted.

The decisions over the timing of lockdown, both in the spring and autumn.

No control over our borders, totally ironic really.

Johnson’s character flaws which influence his decisions.

The pressure from the tiny minority group in the Tory party who are responsible for the Brexit fiasco and now seem to want to break the latest lockdown.

The decision to stop test and trace and then to spend £22bn on a system that has never worked.

The other contributions to the numbers are a few factors like poverty, which leads to obesity, which in turn leads to poor outcomes if the population gets infected with covid.
Poverty also means that those showing symptoms are reluctant to stop work as they fear that they either won’t eat or be out on the streets, probably both.

One factor which is common to all nations in the west is society’s behaviour. The Tory blame game won’t wash.

I don't think we could ever have done what Australia and New Zealand have done although we may have been able to learn somethings from them rather earlier than we have.

Yes, we and they are surrounded by sea and could close our boarders to all but we are very, very different countries. If you are flying into NZ or Australia it is very likely you are flying into that country to stay in that country rather than flying in to fly out and onwards to other countries.

Our country is a hub country and large parts of our economy depends on that fact. I am no apologist for this government but at the beginning no one knew how long this would last and what would happen to the economy. There is a balance to be found. The government have not always found it quickly enough but comparing us to countries that are not, in a day to day way, like us, is not helpful.

Being a leader is about making the unpopular decisions Septimia When the government saw what was happening in Italy in February last year they could have put in place the measures that we are just starting to see now. Countries like NZ did and Ardern approached it by getting the population onside and showing them that the measures were good for their whole country.

Johnson and the rest didn't want to be unpopular and thought there would be riots if we were asked to stay at home for 3 weeks, remember. He thinks he's Churchill but he's more like Chamberlain.

Chewbacca

Excellent post @ 19.56 PippaZ.

Thank you Chewbacca.

Lucca, you have a point about Aus and NZ., and about the events in Italy etc. The thing is, though, that no-one knows how things are going to pan out and it's only afterwards that you can see you've made the wrong decision.

If we'd locked down earlier, and done all the other things we now think we should have done, then it had all fizzled out, the government would have been castigated for getting that wrong.

Good post Alegrias

Froglady I think we are number one in the world for the amount of deaths per capita but I notice that they don't mention that in the news very much and neither do the politicians.

That is incorrect, we are not number one in the world for per capita deaths. NotSpaghetti is correct.

I know people think its immaterial, but what kind of country do you want to live in? One where people just repeat the wrong information for effect? Here are some really scary stats if you want to think about them.

A quarter of the people who have died in the UK of this pandemic have died in the last month. The government have had all those months to put in place measures to prevent that happening and they've failed.

About 30% of people who have died were in care homes. Last week 26% of deaths were in care homes, even though around 10% of the population is over 75 (I know younger people can be in care homes, this is an estimate). So care home residents continue to be over-represented in the morbidity stats.

Despite having months to put in place a strategy to be ready for this second wave the government have squandered the chance. Now they are going to "pause" the construction of a new mega testing lab while they consider long term demand. Instead of blaming the ones you think are breaking the rules, blame the government for messing up from start to finish and not having a clue how to do anything about it.

You've forgotten all the people who couldn't afford to self-isolate and the grannies providing childcare.

Why do people keep on about hindsight? Australia and NZ managed without hindsight (yes I know different etc etc))

Plenty of warning with situation in Italy for action to have been taken sooner, events that shouldn’t have gone ahead.

Rosina Good post. My thoughts exactly.

It's the government and the some of the public who are not listening at all, both are to blame. The government did not taking it seriously at the start and then continued making stupid decisions after decisions. Eatout scheme, no masks, not closing borders and the silliest thing to me was Xmas! Look at what's happening now because if it. Also, its the idiots too that do not listen or are to ignorant to see what is happening with Covid. I watched GMB this morning in tears as they showed the faces of some of the people who have died in this horrible pandemic, it broke my heart. All of us want to have our lifes back, but as long as there are ignorant people just suiting there own needs to party, etc it isn't going to happen for a long time.

Most of the "idiots mixing are within families not raves and on beaches - and the family home is still the most frequent place for transmission.

The number of deaths is awful, there's no getting away from that. The reasons it's so bad in this country are complex, though (there's a good article on the BBC news website).

The virus was here almost before we could do anything, brought in by travellers from Spain and Italy. We have a density of population, unlike places like Australia and New Zealand, which allowed the virus to spread more easily. We have places where there are a lot of multigenerational households. And so on...

Yes, things could and, with hindsight, should have been done differently. I wish we'd locked down sooner, stopped foreign travel, made incoming people quarantine etc. It wouldn't have stopped idiots mixing when they shouldn't, though. And yes, again, a different government would have done at least some things differently but that doesn't necessarily mean they'd have got it right all the time.

At least we've done some things better than other countries, including the roll-out of the vaccine. Yes, it's patchy, but at least it's happening.

Horrendous figure and it will continue to rise. Far too slow to close borders, strict curfew and isolation. UK is constantly being referred to as an internstional travel hub, wasn't this clue borders should have been closed. Goodness, folk were still going abroad on holiday in the early stages. A lot continued for sake of economy. Economies can be rebuilt but lives are lost permanently. Stricter controls earlier would have enabled the economy to recover quicker. Let's hope the next time we will be more responsive. Viruses like Covid-19 are with us all the time just need the right conditions to flourish. I am so angry need to go have a cuppa!

The Government isn't directly spreading this virus - it is the idiots who continue to hold rave parties, socialise in their homes, and decide to flout the rules because it doesn't suit them. This is a terrible situation, and so easy to criticise from your armchair - and use that very powerful tool, hindsight. This country has vaccinated more people than the whole of Europe has managed; why not pull together and stop carping? Who would have wanted to be in charge of the ever changing nightmare that this has become for the whole world?

According to her, 88% of people who have died have been over 70 - to her those people obviously don't matter. Why anybody gives her air time is beyond me.

BTW Oakeshott lied on Good Morning Britain. The people who died weren't all at death's door. Many people live for years with underlying health issues.

Firstly I agree that the number of deaths, each and every number, is heartbreaking and yes the Government haven’t got this totally right and we do need to learn from this terrible experience.

However, you should read about the swine flu pandemic. The Government followed the same regime as our present government did in March. The Government in 2009 ordered thousands of vaccines costing millions. (The press attacked the government when it was seen as not needed) The young were dying over the elderly. There wasn’t a lockdown and thankfully the virus wasn’t as virulent as Covid. However in one week 55k cases were reported and without testing it was probably more. Over half a million deaths world wide.

If we had been locked down for no reason can you imagine the headlines.......”Brown (PM at the time) destroys U.K. economy.”

Just remember hindsight is a fine thing and I can assure you not one of you would have made it through the last year without making an error of judgement.

Also remember that the government had the foresight to back several vaccines which a lot of people are now benefiting from.

Several new vaccines are on the way and also drugs that will hopefully stop the devastating affects of this deadly virus.

So many things to think about here
So very sad
Beyond words

Being political
I do not wholly apportion blame to the government

But all politicians and not just Westminster

And then also the people,deniers,and those who didn’t
Attempt to keep the rules

And then...... ongoing

Does any of this help us?

Shirlb

Remember a lot of those people only had the virus mentioned on their death certificate along with other issues! Unfortunately people die can’t say when or how. Thousands have survived but not reported so much.

The excess death rate is almost the same as those who have died form Covid. Those are people who in a "normal" year wouldn't have died. Yes, some of them have underlying health conditions. Some of them might even have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, but the point is they would have lived for longer, if they hadn't been infected with Covid. Maybe you think 100,000 unnecessary deaths is a trivial number. I don't agree. You've been listening to too many people like Isabel Oakeshott, who said on GMB yesterday "They would have died anyway".

paddyanne

yet they are closing a vaccination centre to let the racing go ahead for 7 days over the next few weeks??? Doesn't sound as if Bojo and co have learned anything to me

What? I just despair of this government.