I’m delighted Boris is back!

This is an unprecedented crisis such as not been witnessed in recent history. Mistakes have been made and would have been made whatever political party was in government, such has been the speed and complexity of the onset of the Pandemic.

However, I along with many others applaud the pace at which this government have provided assistance to both employees and businesses who have lost all income due to the lockdown.

Of course, that assistance provision will not be perfect in its requirement, and some persons and businesses will "fall through the net" of help. However, speaking as someone who has been a very strong lifelong Labour Party/movement supporter I have no doubt that no political party in government at this time would have got everything perfectly correct.

There will be without doubt, I believe, further mistakes made in fighting this virus, and in the severe economic battle that will follow the health crisis. That will be in itself a very long road to travel with much hardship and sorrow along the way. However, if the nation continues to "pull together" in the way that it has, all will be eventually overcome.

I really fail to see why the Chief medical officer for Scotland (who had to resign for twice breeching lockdown) was consulted about a race meeting in Gloucestershire. She really didn't have much judgement about this virus at all did she?

No Chestnet - we’re not discussing where it originated because we already know that and none of us can change that in the UK. What we’re discussing is what the UK Govt did and didn’t do - and it didn’t do enough.

granddad43. I agree 100%

Grandad1943

One of the best posts I've read on here

I dont know what pull together means though? Does it mean backing government plans, does it mean looking at the success in countries such as NZ, Greece, Germany, and following what they have done. Pull together means completely different things to different people.

I disagree.

We have the fifth highest death rate in the world - the fifth. No Govt will get it right 100% of the time but many Govts got it a lot better than this one. Not just marginally better - many thousands of saved lives better.

Oh, and pulling together as a nation won’t help to overcome this - the collective expertise of the scientific community to produce vaccines and drugs will. We can certainly continue with social distancing measures and appropriate hygiene but more than that is down to Govt.

EllanVannin the number of flu deaths in the very worst year is approximately half of the number of covid deaths expected.
Flu deaths
2014/15
28,330 (27,462 to 29,208)

2015/16
11,875 (11,237 to 12,524)

2016/17
18,009 (17,260 to 18,768)

2017/18
26,408 (17,260 to 18,768)

2018/19*
1,692 (1,352 to 2,056)

Trisher, it's a man---Sir Liam Donaldson.( England )

Chris Whitty.

Do we have evidence of that? The racecourse quoted the CMO of Scotland in their letter
The letter, sent just before the Festival began, also quotes advice from the then chief medical officer of Scotland, Catherine Calderwood, who said: “There’s actually very little impact on virus spread from mass gatherings, particularly if they are in the open air.” Calderwood was subsequently forced to resign after facing intense criticism for breaking her own rules to twice visit her second home during the coronavirus outbreak.

For those that state they do not understand what "pulling together" means, then let us take a look.

We have witnessed in Britain since the start of the lockdown UK citizens reduce their travel to less than a third of pre-crisis levels.

We have witnessed business owners and their employees accept the shutdown of their work and the general public overwhelmingly accept that the services provided by that businesses will no longer be available to them.

This British nation has accepted that daily life has fundamentally changed and will continue to be that into the foreseeable future, or until a vaccine becomes widely available.

The United Kingdom is in a war which it simply has to win for life to return to normal. As in all conflicts, there are always armchair generals who are so wise in the criticisms of others after events have taken place.

And in the meantime, there are politicians who seem to believe that they should prioritise brexit, that Boris Johnson vanity project, and so they are refusing to extend the transition period so that it is becoming increasingly likely that the UK will have to leave the EU on WTO terms, meaning that the damage done to our country because of the coronovirus will be increased to the nth degree by the nonsense of brexit.

These people are hell-bent on damaging and possibly destroying the UK.

Grandad, your posts have been excellent. I agree with them 100%. You speak with clarity and much common sense. As you have stated, this terrible virus is completely unprecedented, and whichever government had been in power would have struggled and made mistakes especially at the beginning when it was virtually impossible to judge , underreact? overreact? somewhere in the middle? A difficult call! It's going to be tough time ahead that's for sure, but we will get through it! I'm all for a bit of optimism

I don’t like the comparison with war when people’s health is concerned but if by pulling together you mean we should all continue to observe social distancing and other measures recommended by the medical and scientific evidence then of course, that’s simply common sense and no-one with less than an ounce of it will disagree.

The real, significant difference will come about when a vaccine or drugs become available, and we can only hope that this Govt doesn’t continue to botch things up during the remainder of this wave and into the next to the extent that we move into a higher position on the league of death rates.

Good posts Grandad1943. A couple of days ago I made a decision not to comment on political threads anymore, but this morning I saw Urmstongran’s thread and thought a simple and innocuous ‘Welcome back Boris’ should be ok! ???

Come on - you must have known that a post about a man presiding over a country with the fifth highest death rate in the world and whose party cheered when they voted not to award NHS workers a pay rise (the same NHS workers who are now dying to save others) wasn’t “innocuous”.

I applaud you Grandad1943. Excellent posts.

Boris voted

Yes SirChenjin, I knew that a positive thread about Boris being back would attract the sort of comments it had, but the ‘simple and innocuous’ words I referred to were mine, in amongst many likeminded people who posted the same. For me, although it was in agreement with the OP and in itself innocuous and my view on the matter, I had allowed myself to be drawn in after having decided not to comment on political posts anymore. Must try harder!

Sorry, posted by mistake (we all make them!) Boris incidentally voted for that pay rise! But don't let the facts diminish the vitriol!

You might want to check your facts Jabberwok www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1269007/NHS-pay-mps-voted-against-nhs-nurse-pay-rise-Boris-Johnson-Matt-Hancock-voting-history/amp

Even the EU is casting aspersions upon China SirChenjin.
The Chinese Communist Party are a devious lot. I’m happy (where I can anyway) never to buy ANYTHING in future that carries a label ‘Made in China’. I would rather go without.

I think you’re right though SCj it’s time for more transparency and openness to be shown to all the political parties. That cross party involvement and consensus can only be a good thing.

? to you Grandad1943 as although we are on different ends of the political spectrum, I admired your generosity of spirit in welcoming Boris back to lead us all forward.

I’m delighted (if not a little surprised) to see the surge on here with the same opinion of Boris as me! Truly, I thought any sharing my opening sentiment would join me in the minority!

Maybe see some of you on future political threads perhaps? That would be grand! Especially now that we all agree it’s GREAT to have Boris back.
??

Ah varian we still have to agree to disagree over Brexit I’m afraid!

I’m even more determined the U.K. will do well after Brexit - especially when I read of all the EU wrangles over funding issues post Covid-19. We can & will plough our own furrow and, I’m convinced, do well financially as we will be able to tailor taxes, inducements and trade incentives to suit ourselves. We will not be afraid. We will be innovative, nimble and brave. I honestly believe more will rally to the cause.

Hurrah for the U.K. ?? where Boris, the great liberalist, has promised to level up. Change for GOOD is coming and not before time!