What a shower - they are not fit to govern the country

All you have said is absolutely true. But this is a democracy, and in December a majority of the people voted Johnson in.
He is still the same person he was when made PM

You are absolutely right Cindersdad I read yesterday how the Greeks are looking on in amazement at our ineptitude and now we learn that other countries are doing the same.

I wonder how the Brexiteers think we are going to make Britain great again, now that we are an international laughing stock.

I have always thought that one of the purposes of the EU was cooperation on scientific matters. There's no doubt that our scientific institutions are world class but so are those in other countries. It's stupid to try and go it alone when right now we should all be sharing information. I heard Lord Winston saay this morning that he and other scientists are in contact the world over but I suspect this is in an informal basis.

Last night, Johnson told people to go back to work. No instructions as to how social distancing should be carried out. And how did he expect bosses to be able to organise overnight the necessary precautions for keeping their work forces safe.

I just keep thinking of that joke:
"Be Alert: this country needs Lerts....."
(I agree with Nicola Surgeon.)

Perhaps 'Free at the point of delivery' is simply not sustainable any more and, like most country's we should bear some of the cost ourselves , like we do with dentistry and opthalmology? It's either that or private investors as taxation would be far higher than it is and climbing to sustain a totally free service!

My son is returning to work tomorrow + the people he employs . He has no trouble with this as social distancing hasn't changed and will be adhered to with all the other precautions already outlined weeks ago. What is there not to understand?!

How could we have tested 'from the start' when this country didn't have any test kits? In fact, they hadn't been designed then for this strain of flu, and then the ones China sent were faulty. Employers have had 2 months to be thinking about how they can reorganise for social distancing; you can't baby sit everyone.

In 2010 when Tory government came to power The NHS was doing well doing very nicely working as it should Since 2012 with the Health and Social Care Act opened up to far more privatisation by the back door and even more recent privatisation even though we all desperately need our NHS

The NHS needs to be renationalised again.

Jabberwok so if someone is paying for basic treatment do we have to turn off the ventilator when their money runs out?

No Jabberwok that is not the answer, especially when we have a government that has squandered money. Paying for a dentist has been a complete failure with many poor people who are just above the benefit line having to pay.
No this government has been a disgrace in its handling of the crises and should hang its head in shame.

As a pathologist working for the NHS, I could not understand why accredited laboratories in the NHS and laboratory facilities such as the Crick Institute were not fully utilised for testing of Covid-19.

Now we learn that a private company is coordinating three new test centres. So the government has not been following its mantra to “protect the NHS”. Rather it is continuing its unrelenting use of the private sector, even when it risks the lives of its citizens.
Dr Sylvia Berney

One minute people including NS are shouting the odds about not having dates for a relaxation plan, now we've been given the outline of one and that's now wrong and we must all stay exactly as we are - what do people want. a tentative way forward or stay still?! Boris is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't. I frankly don't care what other countries think of us, they're not that perfect! the country to blame is China, but of course no one does!

If our system is so wonderful, how come no where else has copied it?!

Jabberwok, we live in the fifth richest world economy. We can easily afford a world class health and care system.

The proportion of taxation necessary for it should be firmly ring-fenced, so there is no possibility of reduction due to political whim - or 'pickpocketing' for other purposes.

How very true the title of this thread - here in Wales our NHS is run by Labour and my Health Board has been in special measures since 2015. Be careful what you wish for in England....

Actually, Jabberwok, I pay MORE in National Insurance in the UK than I pay in Switzerland for my health insurance. So I am certainly already paying for my healthcare thank you. IF I'm going to buy insurance, I do not then want to top up with National Insurance.

Also give OVER with the focus on China. Yes, they started it. But we've had THREE months of the UK not dealing with it now. At what point, do they start to be responsible?

They knew it was coming.
They did nothing.
Boris truanted FIVE of the key meetings.
They're OPENING up the country while we have a pandemic running rough shod through the population.

They are CERTAINLY to blame for what is happening now.

However. Our lives are in danger. I don't care WHO helps us, as long as someone does. Tory. Communist. Socialist. Because otherwise, we're going to hit the outside ballpark figure of 250,000 deaths predicted by some scientists.

Yes they started it!! That actually sums it up!! Incidentally don't tell me what I can or cannot focus on, people on this thread can comment as they see fit,not in accordance with someone elses views!

As you say Pantglas2, we need to be careful what we wish for! I in fact was just begging the question as to how best to finance the health service going forward, I wasn't actually favouring anything, but of course I got leapt on!! c'est la vie !

Cindersdad ; I do not agree with all you are saying.
In fact you say we should look to Germany and South Korea and see how they have handled the situation so much better.
It is now a stated fact that Germany and South Korea are experiencing a high raised spike in cases of Covid 19 since they started lifting restrictions because they thought it safe to do so. They will now have to re-introduce further measures to get things under control. South Korea opened bars and clubs about two weeks ago in the gay district and the newest spikes have been traced to there.

We should not be bothered with what other countries are doing although we could learn a bit from New Zealand who are doing well. I agree with Gagajo that Boris has opened the Pandoras box with no specific guidelines no clear and transparent measures in place and even telling people to go to work from this morning which now seems to have been a mistake he meant Wednesday. It is a SHAMBLES and we have no leadership in any of it.

It's ridiculous to blame a country for a world pandemic. A new virus could start anywhere. How long would it take any country to recognise a new strain? We don't seem able to know exactly how many are infected with a known virus. If we have the capacity to test 100k a day and are looking to 200k in a couple of weeks' time why are we sending some to US? Why not using a closer country - where they do seem to be managing better than us?
As regards the actual question here - it seems like the usual fault in all this - go with the broad statement, ignore the detail (and apparently, what you really mean)

jabberwork Nicola Sturgeon most certainly HABS;T been shouting aboutrelaxation dates.Please find facts BEFORE posting

Cindersdad neatly put. I agree with you, although this pandemic could not have been predicted, possibly, the Cygnet report did show that we were not prepared, but like everything else since the Thatcher administration, all Tory policy has been, to my mind, based on keeping taxation as low as possible, thus the perfect storm built up and has now arrived.

Of course they ignored the Cygnus Report which recommended investing in the NHS, stockpiling PPE, ventilators, testing and other equipment. How could they possibly spend money on these things when their priority was brexit, which had cost £130 billion by the end of 2019?

There are plenty of people who thought they were right to prioritise brexit. They voted for this appalling government and even if they have to admit it has proven to be utterly incompetent in coping with the pandemc, they can console themselves that good old Boris got brexit done and that's all that really matters.

It's really, really time that people started thinking seriously about money and the economy. It is NOT TRUE that the national economy is like a household economy. I have several times posted pages of search results full of economists saying that it's not true, but I've rarely known anyone to take it up and drop their misconceptions.

A country cannot run out of money. Those of you who believe this have been completely fooled and it's really time you opened your eyes. By continuing to believe it it's as though you think you're in a dark prison cell while really you're sitting in a country park in the sunshine. You will fall for the 'austerity' con trick, for the 'we can't afford the NHS so we'll sell the rest of it to the US and you'll have to pay your own ways con trick, and we will experience the sort of hardship and poverty post-Covid that a few of us might just remember from our childhoods.

We have our own currency. It's called a 'sovereign' currency for a good reason. No other country has any control over it. We can issue as much as we like so long as there is a use for it (such as paying for the NHS, Education, Green infrastructure etc). The country has been issuing money for years. That's what several bouts of Quantitative Easing in the last 15 years was. Money creation to stop the banks failing and the pound tanking... It wasn't 'borrowed' and the public at large don't have to pay it back.

Issuing our own money doesn't lead to inflation; inflation in the countries always trotted out as dire examples of the evils of money creation was always the result of a very specific set of circumstances, none of which apply to the UK today. A better example of money creation is Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s which revived the USA's economy after the Depression. Look it up...

I appreciate they started it. BUT we have to move on to HELPING OUR OWN COUNTRY. We don't live in China, we live here.

It is going to kill us HERE if we don't do something. Sitting bleating 'But they started it!' isn't going to help anyone. It's what children scrapping in the playground cry. It may well sum up the beginning. But WE have to do something about our end.