Infected, leaderless. How Boris Johnson’s brush with death revealed a lethal amateurism at the heart of government

Thank you for flagging up that podcast GGumpteenth

I listened to it with my OH and we both thought it shed quite a lot of light on the sad sequence of events.

I have listened to it. It is quite sympathetic to Boris and his cronies. No condemnation of Cummings but Mrs Cummings is an editor of the Spectator of course.

It is an account of what we already know was happening, and emphasises the shambolic lack of preparedness in the UK government, in general, and of this particular bunch who had no idea how to cope.

England now has a rising rate of infection with numerous new cases each day, while Scotland has almost none.

Yet Scotland is already seeing tourists from England and is likely to see more of them and likely to see infection increasing as a result.

Here, in a 5 min news clip, Conservative MP Huw Merriman claims that it is a good idea for English people to go to countries which have a low R number as that will be safer for them (the English people).
www.channel4.com/news/travel-changes-led-more-by-economics-than-public-health-says-professor-devi-sridhar?fbclid=IwAR25W2Q6yq90tg5175A5QPHwustDqUyTYT6qiVdOaYElDGKrl22Dj9wlOdw

paddyanne Just the sort of nasty comments we have come to expect from a Labour supporter. Boris is by far a better option than your Marxist Corbyn. Any member of the Labour party would be a disaster as leader of this country. People need to be encouraged to take pride in their own achievements not to be constantly propped up by the government.

FarNorth.....Scotland cannot be compared to England regarding Covid cases ...the entire population of Scotland is about similar to London.

Janpt

No, there are very many decent caring Labour supporters!

paddyanne has made it clear she is member of the Scottish Nationalist Party, a devotee of Nicola Sturgeon and wants to be freed from the despicable Westminster and England.

lemongrove

*FarNorth*.....Scotland cannot be compared to England regarding Covid cases ...the entire population of Scotland is about similar to London.

I wouldn't mind betting that parts of Glasgow have a similar population density and the same kind of overcrowding as parts of London have.

Janpt

paddyanne Just the sort of nasty comments we have come to expect from a Labour supporter. Boris is by far a better option than your Marxist Corbyn. Any member of the Labour party would be a disaster as leader of this country. People need to be encouraged to take pride in their own achievements not to be constantly propped up by the government.

Paddyanne is a proud Scot. I suspect she takes a lot of pride in what she and her country have achieved. That's possibly why she supports the SNP and wants independence from Westminster. It's probably why so many former Labour voters in Scotland vote SNP too.

Glasgow has 1.2 million and London a little under 9 million.

Quite a lot of proud Scots don’t like the SNP much.

Nor do they all want to leave the Union....you can be proud to be Scottish without voting SNP.

Scotland has a population of almost 5 and a half million. London has almost 9 million.

Can't really compare the two when it comes to Covid

^ It is quite sympathetic to Boris and his cronies.^

I thought so Grammaretto. That makes me think that, whatever you may think of this particular government and its politics there is a problem with propping up our way of government and not moving into this century - or in some cases at least the last.

lemongrove Scotland can easily be compared to England by looking at figures per thousand or per million of the population, for instance.

I see an earlier post of mine on this thread has been deleted.

Didn't Gnet contact you and tell you why, Calendargirl? They do usually.

They aren't at the moment Maizie. As far as I can see, if someone complains, they delete. No explanation and no reading round to see what it relates to.

No they didn’t MaizieD, but I can imagine who it was who complained about me.

An interesting essay, some fact and some speculation from the point of view of one man. As are the responses.
My own feeling is that Boris is a good leader with a positive outlook much needed at this time. I like his vision for our union and am saddened that the country has been weakened by the pandemic. My hope is that Boris recovers to his former fitness very soon to lead us through this turbulence and through Brexit. He does have some strong and competent members in his cabinet who will grow in to their roles having faced down this crisis. Early days and hopefully some of the old guard will in time be brought back to the fold
In regard to PaddyAnne, she has shown herself to be a passionate woman with a great love of her family and her country but equally capable of extreme hatred which latter can't be a good thing.

You should have been told in an email, Calendargirl
As far as I can remember, the post was not a personal attack on another poster ut on the post itself so wasn't against the rules.
However, it is the weekend!

They never tell you who reported your post, Cg. Just the reason why they've removed it.

lemongrove

Quite a lot of proud Scots don’t like the SNP much.

I know. My point was that paddyanne isn't a Labour Party supporter and I'm sure she isn't "not proud of achievements", which is what the poster implied.

No, no e Mail Callistemon.

And I did not expect to be told who sent it MaizieD.

No matter, I broke no rules and my post was justified.

If it doesn’t suit others, tough!

☹️

“ Any member of the Labour party would be a disaster as leader of this country”
Wow - sweeping statement of the century.

^"Wish they'd stop reporting "UK" death numbers and, instead, report England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland numbers. This will give a clearer picture of what is happening in the "UK" and exactly how each Government within each of the 4 Nations is managing this crisis.
Westminster hate this information being shared:
Daily deaths reported 26th June:
UK: 186 (149 on 25th)
England: 183 (147 on 25th)
Scotland: 0 (2 on 25th)
Wales: 2 (0 on 25th)
Northern Ireland: 1 (0 on 25th)
So England has 98.4% of the "UK deaths" (98.7% on 25th)*

Perhaps the figures above show why many people in the 3 smaller Nations of the UK feel anger, if not hatred towards the UK Government and its leaders. Especially now when some are recommending that English residents should holiday in Wales or Scotland (which still have strong restrictions on travel) as the 'R' number is lower and the tourists will be safer there!!

It has become really confusing when the UK media report changes to the rules, which apply only to England, as if they were UK wide. Which encourages people in the smaller Nations to ignore/breach the local guidelines and justify their actions because 'Boris said so'