How did we ever get to have such an incompetent government?

Hetty58

I'm hoping any holiday travel would be on the condition of proven vaccination.

In that case, you're going to be disappointed. Vaccination has not been established to stop transmission and is unlikely to be available to the general public for many months.

One of my fears is that people understand so little about the Pfizer vaccination that they will see it as a "Get out of jail free" card. It really isn't!

I'm hoping any holiday travel would be on the condition of proven vaccination.

Whatever the internal problems for the Johnson administration at this time, I believe we are at a crucial time in this Covid crisis when matters could turn one of two ways for the government. Should a vaccine become available by Christmas and the New Year the outlook for the whole population would look much brighter and extending the furlough scheme until March could look like a masterstroke?

Very many jobs would have been preserved by the furlough of employees who could return quickly and safely to their jobs as the spring approaches. Such things as holidays could be booked with confidence and with shops, pubs and restaurants open and serving as normal, life could once again be taken up as before the crisis. In that, and with the economy bouncing back, without a doubt this government would be left basking in the glory and good feeling of it all.

Of course, there are many "if'" circumstances to the above where the above "factors" could go very wrong, but there is now hope and a glimmer of light being brought into this very dark winter.

Using WHO figures:

UK deaths per million, 733

US deaths per million, 715

In Europe, discounting microstates like Andorra, only Belgium (1,170) and Spain (850) have higher numbers than the UK.

I agree with Lemon that different countries count deaths differently, but we did remove several thousand from our count a few months ago so we are probably undercounting.

Surely a more accurate comparison with European (or any other) Countries would be percentage of deaths per population ?

Any unnecessary death is one to many.

Whitewavemark2

We are the first in Europe to hit over 50000 deaths. Shades of Trump America.

Nonsense, (it’s nothing like Trump’s America) . In Europe .....
Looking at fact check it makes it clear that comparing countries and their ways of documenting Covid deaths isn’t
A good idea, because the counting of deaths and what goes on the death certificates are all very different.

The rats are leaving the sinking a Brexit ship

Andrew Adonis

Jenrick on the radio should be resigning after the Public Accounts Committee found his ‘Towns Fund’ to be a Tory slush fund, not lying about the government being ‘solely focused’ on COVID19 when everyone knows there is civil war between Cummings & Johnson’s girlfriend in No 10

Officials are refusing to release the justification for a £25m handout to Robert Jenrick’s constituency that was approved by a colleague. His seat was among 100 winners from the £3.6bn Towns Fund, despite being only 270th on the most deprived list.

We are the first in Europe to hit over 50000 deaths. Shades of Trump America.

It seems that No 10 is rapidly falling apart.

Lee Cain has left pushed out apparently by the PMs girl friend.

Cummings is best friends with Cain and is reportedly very huffy about the whole thing and may walk taking it is said David Frost with him.

Sounds very much like a pound shop White House.

No surprise really.

We just need a bit more democratic socialism. We have lost too much to private companies. Just look at roads as an example of the benefits of things being publicly owned. Imagine paying a toll just to move your car, dodgy road owners not bothering with proper maintenance, areas where roads were so extortionate some people were unable to use them.

Astral, perhaps a bit of true communsm would be good thing. I think most people want a fair society where you get a fair wage for a fair days work.

But where ever attempts have been made to build such societies, they seem always to degenerate into something that is worse than it was before and, sadly the first to be corrrupted are that society's leaders.

The Christian story of original sin and Adam and Eve being thrown out of Eden, whether you are Christian or not does put a finger on the problems that will stop us ever reaching a completely just and fair society and that is the imperfectibility of humankind.

However, we are living in a far juster and fairer society than we had 20,50, 100, 200 years ago and we must hope and do what we can to make sure that progress continues.

M0nica I'm not a communist, but society is broken and we should never be party to people working full time being unable to support themselves to pride and happiness.

Ideals do not have to be extremes.

The available words that describe the way society can be structured are not all there is.

Exactly Oopsminty.

The English voted for them! "Flee wi' the craws, dee wi' the craws" comes to mind!

As an aside, what does Priti Vaca mean exactly?

Vaca is cow in Spanish!

I did wonder

Astral It is a lovely thought, but I do not think it will ever happen. Your thoughts are similar to those that informed the first true communists and the Kibbutzim in Israel. We saw what happened in Soviet Russia and its satellites and the Kibbutz movement is a much smaller and much less communal than the organisation the first pioneers established .

In every society there are people whose only interest is themselves and getting their hands on the levers of power and while we have people who leave school/university with the intention of being professional politicians, we will be governed by people whose contact with ordinary life is limited.

What you describe, is what we are told we will find in heaven, when we reach it.

Society is the problem.

When we live in a society where movements like BLM don't have to kick up the biggest stink imaginable just to have reasonable concerns heard then we will know we are moving in the right direction.

Politics isn't football, you don't pick a side and support it no matter how badly they play.

Times are changing. Just because "I turned out fine" doesn't mean old ways of doing things work for the majority and its not good enough if it doesn't work for the minority.

We have to start thinking of each other, not just our own need to be right or have an opinion.

We have to realise that society is a machine and every cog matters. No single person can go about their daily lives without hundreds, if not thousands of people on too little money growing/supplying/delivering their food or packaging their toilet rollor that piece of plastic one se we didn't really need or just making their view a little cleaner and more colourful.

When we become society instead of individualistic we will get the government that works for everyone.

National Careers Service

beta.nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/

A few weeks ago, the government was encouraging people to retrain after being made redundant and set up a website (can't remember the name) to give people ideas. Just for fun, I did the quiz and the site suggested I should train to be an MP!

I'm thinking about it!

Ps. Gavin Williamson was a fireplace salesman before he became an MP, but I don't think his work experience has done him much good.

Hmmm, Ramblingrose, I hoped it wasn’t a religious reference but the Guardian has form on this!

Pantglas2 - I think Priti Vaca means Priti Vacant.

As the first name is accurate I expect you know whose nickname this is.

they might be on their knees but they are sitting luxury

MOnica, I'd vote for your suggestion that anyone wanting to enter Parliament has at least 10 years experience outside political circles. Some balance of work experience would be good.
Pantglas2, do you mean the JC led opposition or the one under new management?