Operation Last Gasp

Chestnut I don't think I am contradicting myself. I'm saying that people on the front line, dealing directly with the responsibility and unimaginable pressure of life and death situations every day, and putting themselves and their families at personal risk, need that release or they would be weighed down with grief and worry.

Boris Johnson and other Ministers also are no doubt under pressure but Johnson prefaces almost every remark he makes by making it clear that, ultimately, it is the experts who are leading policy decisions, not him personally.

His "last gasp" remark is not, in my opinion, funny or excusable. Some of the comments made on here and elsewhere are, I think, funny and provide some light relief, but they are not making callous jokes at the expense of people who might literally be gasping for breath, and the anguish of those that love them.

I have been waiting and watching for others to come forward, to speak out against the comment the PM made. Can anybody ' name' the person who reported it it to Politico? I am not asking because it did not happen but I wonder who was so upset they informed Politico the details of a business conference call given they would be a high level representative of their company.

The conference ' call ' was held with over 60 manufacturing businesses on Monday evening. Only one anonymous person has reported the PM so I presume the others took the comment in a different manner and probably concentrated on the fact the PM was trying to rally Buisiness Leaders into manufacturing 20,000 additional ventilators to cope with the increased demand as a result of the pandemic.

If there is more than one Business Leader who was engaged in the Conference Call who has also found the comment worthy of commentating on I apologise but I am of the opinion it is one person.

As for the comment itself I understand black humour and do not find the comment a problem but I understand others will.

I find it interesting one person who surely holds a top level managerial/directorship/ownership role / position in what presumably would be a high ranking businesses would be more interested in speaking out about the comment rather than the plea from the Boris Johnson and the UK government to provide ventilators and what his/her business could provide
to help.

Hear hear wildswan my thoughts exactly.
If Corbyn had said it I would have been surprised....to find that he had any kind of humour, black or otherwise.?

Hear hear Lemongrove. Too much doom and gloom.

However it was said, and in whatever context, I think I can forgive anyone for not being totally sensible in what they say just now. Whatever we think of BJ's politics he (and others) must be working 20 hours a day just now and are dealing with totally unknown situations both from the health aspect and business/economy/safety/travel/etc etc aspects as well. Along with all other governmental business that still goes on.

Who would want that job?

Eloethan Black humour is known to be a release mechanism for those who are constantly having to take personal responsibility in the most serious and distressing life and death situations.
That is exactly what Boris is having to do! You have just contradicted yourself by condemning him for his remark and excusing him for it in the same post.

And it was another one of his 'throwaway' remarks that led to Nazanin being incarcerated in prison indefinitely....I will never forgive that. Thank goodness she is, temporarily at least, back with her family. When someone reaches the position of PM they should be more careful of things that they say, should they not?

No doubt if Corbyn had made such a comment (though it would be unthinkable for him to be so lacking in human decency), there would have been pages and pages outrage from the very people who are excusing Johnson.

How can anyone just write this off as "black humour". Not so humorous I think for the people who have lost someone they loved in such a horrible situation. Black humour is known to be a release mechanism for those who are constantly having to take personal responsibility in the most serious and distressing life and death situations.

Although, I should have added....this is social media, and many only want to come on to it and have a rant.So be it.

I can’t get worked up about a throwaway remark that the PM either did or didn’t say Soozie....and I expect many PM’s have, over the years said all sorts of things, but now, every word is noticed, leapt upon and leaked.
So far, he is doing much better than I expected, both with doing what he said and getting us to actually leave the EU
( many predicted he wouldn’t be able to do it) and in his handling and presentation of the Corona virus catastrophe.
He has never been an urbane loquacious speaker, that isn’t his strength ( David Cameron was...look how that turned out, he ran for the hills.) However, Johnson gives the appearance of a man who is trying his hardest to find a way through this for the benefit of the country, and all the strategies that he is recommending are those pushed by medical experts.It’s a fast moving scenario that must be a nightmare for any PM.
He was never my choice for the job ( not that I had a vote anyway) but seems to be doing alright, certainly as well as any politician could do, with this health and economic bombshell that has just been dropped on his doorstep.

Funnily enough lemon I think some of us are quite aware that there could never be enough resources for a pandemic.
However, we are quite aware, which clearly you are not, that our base line of resources is sadly lacking compared to many other countries - in terms of equipment, number of hospital and ITU beds and medical and nursing staff. We’ve started off behind the curve and that has dictated the policy choices made by the Government re CV. Sorry if that’s a bit too complicated for you to understand. You seem to think our NHS was in fine fettle before the virus.

lemon amazingly low standards you have for the appropriate behaviour of a PM. Still, it avoids being disappointed I suppose. And Johnson will never disappoint on that score - there are no levels of morality and unacceptable behaviour to which he will not sink.

There would never have been enough ventilators ......ever!
You can’t stockpile the things in a barn somewhere just in case there is a pandemic.That’s why by self isolating where possible we can slow things down, make more ventilators and
Not allow things to get out of hand.
Do stop being angry, stay at home and have a and stay calm, much better for us all.

As I have said before a pandemic of this kind is top of the list of what a government needs to prepare for. It's in the BBC4 programme if anyone can be bothered to watch it. We should have been better prepared for this; there should have been more ventilators and we shouldn't have a shortfall of tens of thousands of nurses. If this isn't the fault of the government then may I ask whose fault it is. Oh, and given that we've known about this virus for 3 months we should have acted sooner. I'm sick of hearing excuses. And I would have been equally angry if we'd had a Labour government for the past decade, too. If you can't be angry when so many lives are at risk, when can you be....

When the leader of the country is a selfish immature thick git who hasn’t got a scooby, it’s not surprising 65% of the population follows suit

Sensible post lemongrove

Too silly to get all het up about.

Maybe he said it....and maybe he didn’t! ‘It’s claimed’ doesn’t
Mean it’s gospel.
Even if he did say it, I can’t get worked up about it, a bit of black humour after what must have been a gruelling week ....
Who would be PM? They never know what awful catastrophe
Is just around the corner.

Well if it all goes Italy-shaped, then there won’t be enough to go round sadly, even with the effort finally being made

I wonder if people will be laughing As much if there are no ventilators for them?

This comment( which is not bring denied) was in the course of a formal meeting ( albeit remote) in his role as PM and discussing a serious issue - how to save more lives of UK citizens. I’m amazed that anyone would defend it.

' Can’t we laugh!'
...quite frankly, at this moment in time, my sense of humour has deserted me. And I don't want a comedian leading the country.

Oh for Heavens sake. One little remark after all the information he was giving us. Just a little comment and people jump on him. A little light relief. Can’t we laugh!

Politico is fairly reliable though!

Chestnut, I believe he doesn't need anyone else at all .to make him look bad.

Sorry

Unless there is proper evidence I won't believe this sort of comment

Nothing to do with political leaning either

I am just tired of rubbish being tweeted by boring people