Is our PM, infallible and free of any blame?

vegansrock

Why was this announced on the same day as refusing to allow NHS staff free parking?
I’m sure most people would like health care workers to be remunerated properly rather than £10 off a meal.
Plus the trade minister has just realised that we aren’t ready for Brexit. After 4 years.....

Yes I saw that vegan

To every bodies pleasure I thought I’d re boot Brexit on a new thread???

Why was this announced on the same day as refusing to allow NHS staff free parking?
I’m sure most people would like health care workers to be remunerated properly rather than £10 off a meal.
Plus the trade minister has just realised that we aren’t ready for Brexit. After 4 years.....

Whitewavemark2

growstuff why? Did you fall between schemes?

Yes. Every single one. My income has taken a hit of about £600 a month, so I've had to spend savings. My remaining income doesn't even cover my rent. I can't remember the last time I ate out (apart from when my daughter has taken me to spend vouchers) and I don't have the disposable income to spend very much on anything which is VAT rated.

growstuff why? Did you fall between schemes?

I think the main question with regard to furloughed staff and Sunak promise is whether businesses will consider £1000 sufficient incentive, given the potential issues/crises with the economy.

I think we all have to fervently hope that the government negotiates a deal with the EU.

One of the push factors has got to be how badly Trump is doing in the run up to the election.n

I can't see the £1000 per employee being much of an incentive to businesses planning to downsize anyway.

I'm obviously just unfortunate, but of the £190 billion (?) which has been spent on Covid-19, I have received and will receive directly precisely nothing.

Something else brought to my attention is that the Furlough scheme and the EU negotiations are both due to end on 31 st October.

If the negotiations fail and a no deal is in prospect, then business uncertainty will almost certainly mean that those furloughed staff will be let go.

It doesn’t bode well.

Sunak summer budget doesn’t seem to have impressed too many economists.

At a practical level, the measures to try and encourage people to spend in ailing businesses like entertainment don’t appear attractive enough to provide the stimulation he says is needed. A £10 voucher is what most people can download every time they go out to eat anyway.

I suspect that the reduction in VAT will not be passed onto the customer, but used to prop up a failing business, so the business may totter on for a bit longe4 but won’t attract more custom because of lower prices.

Stamp duty holiday. This represents a considerable saving particularly for the first time buyer, but I think the main reason for the slow down in the housing market is uncertainty over jobs and redundancies already made. No amount of stamp duty holidays will solve that problem.

Home improvements in the form of grants towards home insulation. Two birds with one stone here. Help towards the UK emissions target and help for the construction industry.
I am sure that this will prove a winner, particularly if the poorest households get 100% grant, although I’m unclear whether this is going to happen. There have been a number of these sorts of initiatives over the years, but they always seem to Peter out after a while.

All in all, I think that there is nothing to disagree with the thrust of Sunak ambition, but imo it isn’t ambitious enough.

The U.K. is in for the perfect storm during the beginning of next year and needs far more ambitious plans than those put forward by this government.

This is where a “new deal” in all its ambitious glory would have saved the UK.

Once again headlines by this government fall far short of reality.

maddyone

Agree paddyanne.
Unfortunately many care homes are regarded as cash cows, but there are many others where the patients are looked after lovingly, and many where there have been no Covid19 cases. We have have to acknowledge the good and the bad.

Yes, absolutely, maddyone.

In fact, there is a care home in, I think, Somerset, where the staff moved in and have stayed in the home to care for the residents for the whole lockdown period.

EllanVannin

Anyway, we should worry, because dengue fever and bubonic plague have been detected in China now so it'll take more than a face mask and a plastic pinny to stop that getting through your skin.

Dengue fever is caught from mosquito bites, Ellan; there is no need to worry about it it here in the UK as the mozzies here do not carry it. Its prevalent in tropical regions, doesn't pass from human to human.

EllanVannin

Paddyanne some councils here will be in for a roasting too. It was their faults that so many had been discharged from hospital sans virus to nursing homes so the local council run homes wouldn't run short of money if the patients had remained in hospital.

Can you explain that, EV ?

Care homes were ordered by the government to take patients from hospitals. without testing, in order to free up hospital beds for the anticipated influx of covid patients. What does that have to do with council run homes (of which there are very few ) running short of money?

And how do the government orders make it the councils' fault that the care home patients were discharged back to care homes?

I don't understand what you are saying.

I was disappointed, but unsurprised, that Johnson refused to apologise to care staff in the House of Commons today. It would have been the decent thing to do
He also refuted that NHS staff should have free car parking
He has a short memory, standing there clapping for them, whilst upping their costs to get to their work
They have no shame

What are you on about KaEllen ?

Paddyanne some councils here will be in for a roasting too. It was their faults that so many had been discharged from hospital sans virus to nursing homes so the local council run homes wouldn't run short of money if the patients had remained in hospital.

Lucca it was all over the Scottish press ,as was the fact the care home on Skye imported staff from Kent after lockdown ,they're being run by the local health authority for now and may have to hand it over to NHS Scotland .

Ellan Vannin, is Boris one of your heroes?
Alternatively, do you just like to stir?

I suggest to get better acquainted with the facts, not the spin.

@EllanVannin I have other things to do, that's why I buzzed off. I think any Labour MP would have done a better job, Boris has done a bad job from day one and his party's priority is money for business. I still have other things to do, so I'm not going to be around to argue

I believe he has vowed fidelity to a couple of wives as well MaizieD and look how long that lasted!

But, but, but...*trisher*, he's just said that the government takes full responsibility..

I'm sure that Starmer will treasure that admission...

Perhaps spabbygirl has things to do, EV. She might well be back later.

Like growstuff, I think that anyone could have done the job better than Johnson/Cummings. ( Apart from Mark Francois )

It amuses me that there are still people who think Boris is in charge here. Just because he stands up and spouts whatever nonsense he has been instructed to say it's Cummings pulling the strings. You remember him? The man who believes in herd immunity who claimed at a meeting it was all about herd immunity, protect[ing] the economy and if that means some pensioners die, too bad
Of course when people actually start pulling you up on that policy you need someone to blame. Step forward care homes.

MaizieD

^And is there not some kind of body like OfSted who should be involved^.

Isn't it the Quality Care Commission? Or is that not operative in Scotland?

It's the Care Quality Commission (CQC), although I think (could be wrong) local authorities regulate private care homes and HSE regulate local authority homes. I suspect there's been quite a bit of buck passing.

Bob the Builder.

EllanVannin

There are some of us who understand the situation and there are some who don't.

Why create a caustic post then buzz off ? I refer to spabbygirl.
Any suggestions as to who could have done a better job during this time than BJ ?

Almost anybody!