New Year Of Truth

Much easier to come out with all the answers when you don’t have to be accountable for the consequences.
In this pandemic there don’t seem to be clear answers anywhere and government are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. We want Christmas. Should have cancelled Christmas. We want our children to be educated. Should have closed schools.
No government have come out of this well.
Please don’t say that NZ have done okay, they are an island miles from anywhere with a very small population. No comparison.

Ed Davey gave a clear lead well before Starmer or Johnson

Is the Leader of the Opposition privy to the same level of briefing from the scientific advisors as the Cabinet to enable him to respond in that level of detail, if so you’re right he should have come off the fence.

I like Starmer, but of course he’s saying what you would expect ( it’s politics innit?) but he remained unclear about the schools question, not answering.It would have been better if he had said ‘yes, in my view schools should close’.
It’s far easier to oppose than to actually govern ( as he will find out perhaps one day.)

Opal

Whitewavemark2

If anyone doubts the facts of Johnson’s lies I recommend that you look up fact check on the BBC site.

All his lies are exposed in their gruesome glory.

I'm really not sure that "fact check" and "BBC website" should appear in the same sentence - more like "left wing spin" than facts.

And for all of you Boris haters, just take a look on Sky News at the interview with Keir Starmer - can't or won't answer whether schools should be shut, evading the question repeatedly. He could give Boris a lesson in bluster!

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Yes Starmer sitting on the fence as usual but what's new, a change I suppose from being Mr Hindsight.

Whitewavemark2

If anyone doubts the facts of Johnson’s lies I recommend that you look up fact check on the BBC site.

All his lies are exposed in their gruesome glory.

I'm really not sure that "fact check" and "BBC website" should appear in the same sentence - more like "left wing spin" than facts.

And for all of you Boris haters, just take a look on Sky News at the interview with Keir Starmer - can't or won't answer whether schools should be shut, evading the question repeatedly. He could give Boris a lesson in bluster!

She is a recent convert varian! Staunchly EU beforehand. By your reckoning, 4 years later we would find it harder to find people who had changed their mind?

She was against Brexit though!
And her comments about the French uptake of vaccines is damning.
Not all columnists who write in the Telegraph voted to Leave.
It adds a certain flavour to read different POV.
For the last 4 years she has derided Brexit.

Anyway I thought it illustrated Macron’s vaccine bungling.

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet

Aahh. Daily Telegraph columnist, 'provocative' French writer and broadcaster. Looks a teeny bit racist too.

What great company you keep, UG

If you search hard enough for long enough you will always manage to find someone who agrees with brexit, but it's got more and more difficult for the last four years.

Here we go.

“While Britain started to vaccinate in droves, the EU’s vaccination campaign was delayed for weeks because they chose to buy from six suppliers equal amounts of doses even though three of those – national champions like France’s Sanofi – are years away from producing a vaccine.

Germany’s excellent health minister, Jens Spahn, eventually forced his government to buy separately tens of millions of Pfizer vaccine doses. I’m afraid we French went the opposite way.

Our vaccination czar was wheeled out to say that it was a good thing that the process was so slow – just as back in March we were told that we didn’t need masks because we had none available – because the logistics chain for the Pfizer vaccine was not fit for purpose.

In both cases, we have needed the EU like a fish needs a bicycle. British friends, you were right all along.

The arrogant EU establishment has convinced me finally I was wrong to view leaving as a mistake.”

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet
(A woman who over the past four and a half years, has taken part in scores of French television debates)

Someone who has inside knowledge of the EU and now concedes the UK was right to Brexit.
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Jaberwok

Getting Brexit done is good enough for me.

Me too Jaberwok I have to pinch myself to remember it really did happen last week, finally!

Hetty58

MaizieD, surely many will - due to Covid rather than Brexit. How will we know what caused it?

I think that covid will make a very good excuse for the government and the pro Brexit lot, but it won't explain the demise of previously successful on line businesses which won't be able to source from abroad because of the new VAT rules, or will find it too expensive to send goods abroad because of the customs declarations and phytosantitary requirements. They will have been doing fine up until now...

If anyone doubts the facts of Johnson’s lies I recommend that you look up fact check on the BBC site.

All his lies are exposed in their gruesome glory.

Casdon

Absolutely right Lucca, or should I say absolutely correct, just in case anybody thinks saying right in this context is a political statement too.

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Absolutely right Lucca, or should I say absolutely correct, just in case anybody thinks saying right in this context is a political statement too.

Urmstongran

On GN we are in the minority.
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Political threads are usually an echo chamber of anti Boris cheerleaders all lined up, waiting for a peck.

Only quoting you as an example, nothing personal, but please can we stop this fiction that GN is overrun by left wing voters ? I could bring to mind as many from the right as from the left. Not to mention many who are centrist but happen to find plenty to dislike about the PRESENT government.

Ah so now we have the old “leftie” jibe.

Getting Brexit done is good enough for me.

Perhaps UG would like to give us a list of the high points and successes of the Tory government.

We are beginning to see the result of lies, uncertainty, incompetence and obfuscation.

The country is taking back control and making decisions for themselves.

HMG is watching as LA after LA and area after area is ignoring government pronouncements and making decisions in their best interest, which is largely to protect its population as far as is possible.

We may be ahead of the EU wide ban, Laura by a number of months but the French are ahead of us having banned it last summer. They actually banned it immediately the EU passed the motion. We, on the other hand decided it was a good move to imply it is a result of Brexit.

This is the manipulation of truth that many of us really don't like.

How can Boris say schools are safe, does he have some inside info that guarantees this . IMO they aren’t safe , and there will be another rise in cases within a couple of weeks in to term I am sure ,

MaizieD, surely many will - due to Covid rather than Brexit. How will we know what caused it?