Just how pathetic is Boris going to be allowed to be?

Johnson will get away with it for as long as it suits his financial backers to allow him to.

A few weeks ago an education minister (Grant Shapps I think) said that class sizes should be reduced to 30 (I think that's a laugh for a start) and that they could 2 metres distancing. As a more informed wag said, 15 of them will have to hang from the ceiling.

Just another example of govt. stupidity.

It's so easy to criticise when you don't have to do it! This pandemic has been unprecedented, no one could have prepared for it and yet somehow everything had to run smoothly when it clearly couldn't. Yes Cheltenham should have been cancelled, but so should Extinction Rebellion in Bristol following on soon afterwards, why on earth did the Mayor allow it to take place?! The government have done the best they can under very difficult unforseen circumstances and I bet Labour are thanking the good lord everyday that they lost that election !

Yeah yeah yeah! That point has been made before Jabberwok. If this is seriously the governments "best", I would hate to see the worst.

However, you would have thought the Education Minister (Gavin Williamson) would know that most state school classes have 30 pupils and, therefore, need splitting into two groups to maintain safe social distancing. This creates problems in a secondary school, which has specialist teachers and teaching spaces. Even before considering all the health and safety issues, there are going to be logistical issues.

You might also have thought that anybody serious about getting children back into schools would have spoken to headteachers and teachers' representatives (unions) before issuing unworkable directives. No, they preferred to make a political point and blame teachers and unions for their own lack of planning and understanding of the issues.

BTW Year 10s have been back at my local secondary school for over a week. There are 300 in each year group. As each pupil has an individualised timetable, bubbles can't be created, so strict social distancing is in place. Over 20 classrooms are being used at any one time and each one is thoroughly cleaned once a day. Pupils attend school for two days a week, which is the maximum which is feasible at the moment.

Johnson appears to think he's invicible because he has an 80+ seat majority and four years before the next election. He had to attend a meeting of the 1922 Committee yesterday. It will be interesting to see if there is any change in direction.

Spot on grow. Those who think the government is doing its best clearly have extremely low standards - which I suppose is just as well.

That point has been made before Jabberwok.

It certainly has! Along with the point that it has been a new situation for all the world's nations and that a large number of them have made a much better job of protecting their citizens and controlling the spread of the virus than has the UK.

I think that anyone who defends the UK government's handling of the pandemic has extremely low standards when it comes to making judgements on the government's performance.

Anyway, Johnson is bored with the virus now.
He's moving on to find other ways of making the UK an international laughing stock.

^ clearly have extremely low standards ^

Snap! *suziewoozie

Why do you insist they didn't know the pandemic was coming? They clearly did ,it was reported in December that gave them months to get organised,to close borders etc.Instead planes are STILL coming in Boris has been following herd immunity as he wanted to,the excuses of lack of PPE ,no ventilators etc are just that excuses ,its how he wanted it .60,000 + DEATHS .Thats 60.000+ families mourning people who cant be replaced .I wonder if THEY think Bojo is "doing his best" ,

growstuff Thank you for the correction and also for the further explanation. I'm grateful.

Closing borders in January including the channel tunnel!!! Think of the outcry!! Over reaction , decimating the economy, useless government creating chaos, and much more besides! Immigrants trying to get here left to?!!! It's so easy to rant on about hindsight, but the truth is that nobody, not even Scotland had the crystal ball to forecast the severity of this pandemic !

If the population of this country wasn't so high then you could all have the lower class numbers you desire. One of the tenets of the EU is free flow of movement of people, and Mr Stammer and many on here are all for that. Also, many on here think that women should have as many children as they like whether they can afford them or not. There isn't an endless pot of money or space for everything you would like.

As someone previously said, Labour and Mr Corbyn, especially, must be so relieved they lost the last election because I suspect they wouldn't have a clue how to deal with all this. Boris has a good team around him and thank goodness we have Mr Sunak as Chancellor, I say.

So , quizqueen, you think that a lower population meaning fewer children that the same number of teachers would be employed thus reducing class sizes? Dream on!

Who is Mr Stammer? Excuse my ignorance.

Mr Stammer? He's the one who sits opposite Starmer during PMQs.

What planet are you on quizqueen? I'm not surprised to see you blaming immigrants for the current situation in schools. It appears to be your "raison d'etre".

Who cares about the outcry? Sometimes short, sharp shocks are needed. The country needed one at least two weeks before it imposed one. It should have imposed it more strictly too.

If it had have done, many people would still be alive and the country would be well on its way to being back on its feet

The government has an 80 seat majority. It could have done what it wanted.

Hear, hear quizqueen, but no one on here will agree!!!
I think you realise who quizqueen meant Lucca ,it was fairly obvious!!!

It could have been the completely wrong thing to do! The outcry then would have been deafening, particularly on here!

Shutting the channel tunnel would have been interesting! The French might have had something to say!! Would we have told them that we know best and they'd have to put up with it?!! Bit arrogant surely!! Not the way we speak to people these days!

Hear hear Quizqueen and Jabberwok. Mr Stammer what a great name for Starmer.

France went into lockdown on 16th March, Jabberwok. 7 days before the UK. I don't think Macron would have objected at all had we closed our borders then.

If you read my thread you'll see that I was talking about January!!

I wonder if Macron is getting the same stick from the French public as Boris is for not shutting down earlier?!

I don't think anyone, apart from China, was thinking about lockdown in January. Apologies for following a red herring...