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

MaizieD there is a transcript further down on the page linked to.

Well written, Ramblingrose.
Does anyone perhaps want to debate the comments she has made?
Following with interest.

MaizieD

^So the medical staff who looked after BJ are lying are they paddyanne?^

I don't think the medical staff have said anything at all about Johnson's illness. It would have been highly unprofessional if they had because they would have breached patient confidentiality.Which is extremely serious.

So Paddy-Anne is free to speculate as she likes. Lots of people share her views, they're just not in 'Boris bubbles'.

And it would be good if people refrained from making personal attacks on her. Perhaps they've no idea how spiteful and petty it looks.

Now you are making yourself look as ridiculous as Paddyanne
Johnson’s nurse from ICU did comment ....after he told the press how amazing she had been, she was from NZ.
Do you really think that if he hadn’t been in ICU it would be kept quiet?! Conspiracy theorists on GN make my jaw drop at times.

I haven't listened to the OP's audio yet but I absolutely agree with Gagajo. The criticisms I make of BJ are made with regret, not because I just want to have a go.

When BJ was Mayor of London he assembled a team of deputies around him who did their jobs well and he made sure he took all the credit. He employs the same methods and person now who was in charge of communications when he was Mayor.

The Greater London Authority has a committee structure which scrutinises the Mayor's decisions and invited him to answer questions about the garden bridge (another vanity project). He refused to attend for as long as he could and only did so eventually when he was summoned to do so. Why? What was he afraid of? I think he was afraid of transparency and scrutiny and doesn't like to be held accountable for anything.

He is demonstrating these traits all over again as PM - leaving others to run things (eg Dominic Cummings), laziness (why 2 weeks off in February?) inability to master detail (eg claimed that no other country had an effective track and trace system), and a resentment of being questioned and held to account (eg trying to ask the Leader of the Opposition to answer a question rather than answer the one he was asked). He had completely forgotten what Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) is for until it was pointed out to him! PMQs are not the same as the Oxford University Debating Club!

He has no leadership qualities because he won't take unpopular decisions which, IMHO, has delayed the UK's response to the virus (eg not introducing quarantine at UK airports until June when it should have been introduced in February) and may lead to a second wave (though I hope not). He will only issue guidance and thinks it's enough to ask people to use their common sense. We've seen what that has led to - overcrowded beaches for a start. Where is the "world beating" track and trace system he promised? Why did it have to be world beating anyway - simply one that works would do.

He recently accused seaside MPs of not having any guts when it's he who hasn't got the guts to enforce social distancing by law. Even his fellow MPs are said to be critical of him.

He may have liked the idea of being PM but from what we've seen so far he can't cut it. It requires hard work and a preparedness to attend to detail, which he is too lazy for. He should go back to journalism and take his hyperbole with him. After all, he knows from experience that when you're a journo you can write any old rubbish and with a compliant editor (as his former editor Max Hastings regretfully acknowledged) you are unlikely to be challenged.

I realise all this will upset the BJ fan club on here! I have given real-life examples of his antics - not just given an opinion. Others who disagree with me can give their own examples of why I am plain wrong.

2 points:

1) The only people who know the detail of Johnson's illness and how close he was, or not, to death's door are the doctors and nurses who treated him and Johnson himself. In the forst instance, the medical and nursing staff, as I pointed out in a previous post, cannot give any detail because it would be breaching patient confidentiality and highly unprofessional. If someone can cite an instance of any of them disclosing any details of his illness I would be very surprised. Paddyanne is not saying that they're lying because they haven't said anything which could be construed as a lie.

One of Boris’ nurses did appear on the news when she was back in New Zealand, expressing her surprise that she and a colleague had been specifically mentioned and thanked by him. She did not comment on his illness, except to say she nursed him as she would have done any patient.
Absolutely correct of her. It gives nothing away at all.

All the rest depends on the word of a known habitual liar and his supporters, and speculation. People are at perfect liberty to draw conclusions from what is out in the public domain. Paddyanne is not the only person to doubt the severity of Johnson's illness.

2) We've most of us known Paddyanne for quite some time and we know that she is forthright and passionate in what she says.

If people don't like it I think they should just move on past her posts unless they feel they want to reply to any point she's made. Making personal attacks is not, I understand from the moderators, in the spirit of these forums. But it doesn't stop people piling in to lecture her about what she says in a way which I don't think they would do to anyone in real life. It's playground behaviour IMO.

who has said they wished him ill?

Paddyanne did say that, Barmeyoldbat. At least she's honest about what she thinks.

I read it (quickly, I admit)

I am fascinated to find no one can be bothered to listen to the essay - it's really not that difficult - but you still believe you are commenting on what the post is about as set out in the OP.

GN seems overrun with those who care nothing about knowledge only about being angry and expressing that angry opinion which is not based in anyway on what the thread puts forward.

Sad people. Lazy people - I'm dyslexic and I read what you write or link before I comment - and unknowledgeable people. Very, very sad to think this is the representation of older people in our society.

The script is in the link too if you prefer to read it.

Some posts are predictable and quite vicious, which I suspect deters other GN members from contributing to political threads.

Barmeyoldbat

Calendargirl, who has said they wished him ill? A few of us have said we thought he wasn't as ill as it was made out. Also your post attaching Paddyanne was out of order, its not alright to call someone bitter etc on GN.

Tbe fair, I don't think Calendargirl called paddyann herself bitter.

Perhaps read paddyann's post again, barmeyoldbat.

I am certainly bitter at yet another attack on the staff of St Thomas's.

We weren't leaderless, though.
There was Cummings, plugging the gap and probably terrifying everyone into obedience yet above the rules himself.

You obviously haven’t read all of this post Barmeyoldbat,

Go back to the beginning, and I think if you read Paddyanne’s post, you will see she certainly did ‘wish him ill’ amongst other things.

Which is why I (and others) think how nasty it was!

paddyanne Boris's illness was discussed at length on other threads and it was quite upsetting to hear nasty remarks like yours that insinuated that the doctors and nurses at St Thomas's Hospital were lying.
A disgraceful slur on the NHS staff at that excellent hospital, especially those in the ICU where one of my relatives works and where they have dealt professionally with one crisis after another in recent years.

I do think Boris should have stood down whilst he was ill and for some time afterwards to recover; we don't have a Deputy PM at the moment to take over and the whole thing has become a shambles.

Calendargirl, who has said they wished him ill? A few of us have said we thought he wasn't as ill as it was made out. Also your post attaching Paddyanne was out of order, its not alright to call someone bitter etc on GN.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Well I agree to a point with Paddyanne, I don't think he was on deaths door by any means. He was on oxygen and they put him in ICU as a precaution I think, in case he did get worse. He wasn't put into an induced coma, then put on oxygen and in ICU. After he was discharged he was seen out running two weeks after. Now anyone who has had the virus will tell you that after two week of recovering you can barely lift your bum off the sofa let alone go out running. If he was so ill why didn't someone else take over the running of the country,?

I expect the usual verbal abuse now from the Boris Fan Club.

He's a waste of space. He can't do the job without Cummings and that idiots stretching of the rules has led to a lot of safety breaches by the public who have followed his lead.

I didn't like Johnson to start with but whereas in the past, I would at least listen to what he said, now I realise there is no point. He's just a puppet.

I don't wish him ill. And I don't even think he's that much worse than a lot of the rest of them. They're a popularist government with few really experienced people up to the job. This virus situation would try the best of politicians, but it's totally outside the current govs skill set. Unfortunately, this has led to thousands of unnecessary deaths.

Hiding away in St Thomas's hospital for two weeks?!!

I am sorry no one has actually listened to it. It's easier for some than reading Maizie and we don't do it often.

If you all do manage it you will hear more than just how this government has been working but the worrying way we are set up to run government whichever party it is.

It talks about the attitudes and I related them to the way many of these "superior" middle-aged men have grown up. Believing ever-one likes a trier (I'd prefer success at this moment) and how they uphold amateurism and talk down the professional - although scientists seem to have weathered that storm this time because we see how essential they are.

Never mind. I found it interesting and thought I would share.

The only comments that are spiteful and petty are those expressed by Paddyann! Boris was clearly very ill, and these particular nurses did attend to him in ICU, that is a fact that we do know, unless of course they were lying, also the Dr's which seems unlikely!

If Johnson's illness was just his "hiding away" don't you think that would have been "leaked" by someone.

It seems to be OK for some to post "spiteful and petty" comments but not others

I am not in a Boris bubble, I did not vote for him, people have made comments on what she has said, you can disagree with someone without wishing people ill. I really cannot understand anyone doing that.

So the medical staff who looked after BJ are lying are they paddyanne?

I don't think the medical staff have said anything at all about Johnson's illness. It would have been highly unprofessional if they had because they would have breached patient confidentiality.Which is extremely serious.

So Paddy-Anne is free to speculate as she likes. Lots of people share her views, they're just not in 'Boris bubbles'.

And it would be good if people refrained from making personal attacks on her. Perhaps they've no idea how spiteful and petty it looks.

Paddyanne, that comment was nasty, vile and hate filled. It's also hysterical.
I did not vote for the Tories, I am not a Brexiteer, and do not particularly like Johnson, but I would never post the remarks you made.
Wishing someone Ill says alot about you, and it is not pleasant just hateful.

So the medical staff who looked after BJ are lying are they paddyanne? He wasn't really in the ICU and wasn't really being nursed 24/7 and given oxygen!!!!!