Is Johnson a "bad-luck" politician/Prime Minister?

Graceambrose

Lucky or not Lucky, he is leading the country into a desperate period of shortages.

I wouldn't really call it 'leading'. More like sitting back and allowing it to happen..

Lucky or not Lucky, he is leading the country into a desperate period of shortages.

Sorry, the quote is from the Wiki page. Forgot to link it.

Katie59

Operation Alice was certainly publicized in March 2020 when hospital and care homes could not get PPE. But that’s how the present government works,
say what the public want to hear,
write a report,
file it and forget it.

Was it, Katie59? I only saw lots of stuff about operation Cygnus at that time.

Looking it up, it was called 'Exercise Alice' (Operation Alice was something completely different) and details of it were only publicised this month.

Someone has done a Wikipedia page on it already!

Exercise Alice was a British Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) pandemic modelling exercise from 2016 involving officials from Public Health England and the Department of Health and Social Care[1] and led by the Chief Medical Officer.[2] The details of the exercise was kept secret on grounds of national security[3] until October 2021.[4]

A BMJ paper on it, dated June 2021 states that details had only just been released after a Freedom of Information request,
here:

www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1501

Operation Alice was certainly publicized in March 2020 when hospital and care homes could not get PPE. But that’s how the present government works,
say what the public want to hear,
write a report,
file it and forget it.

Operation Alice was only publicised recently. It was an exercise based on dealing with a highly infectious coronavirus of a SARS or MERS type. The earlier Cygnus was flu pandemic scenario. Both reports ignored by the tories, despite the fact that there have been warnings of an imminent pandemic for many years.

Operation Alice "was one of 10 previously unpublicised pandemic planning exercises in the five years before Covid-19, now disclosed under freedom of information legislation. PHE had previously declined to reveal details of the exercises, citing the need to safeguard national security."

MayBee70

Was it on here that there was a mention of another pandemic paper Operation Alice (?)which was also ignored. And someone said there must also have been another one beginning with B that hasn’t been mentioned.

I think you might mean this MayBee70 www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/10/secret-planning-exercise-in-2016-modelled-impact-of-mers-outbreak-in-uk

That was actually about something else (police?). I must find what I actually read……

Was it on here that there was a mention of another pandemic paper Operation Alice (?)which was also ignored. And someone said there must also have been another one beginning with B that hasn’t been mentioned.

I can’t blame him for Covid, previous Tory governments did not prepare for a pandemic, not even stockpiling PPE.

The only thing he cannot be 'blamed' for is the actual existence of covid. His dilatory initial responses, his prioritising of the economy over the health of our citizens and his foolish declaration of 'Freedom' in July this year along with nearly total lifting of restrictions have all exacerbated a very difficult situation and are eminently blameworthy.

The government of which he was a cabinet member knew of the problems with our pandemic responses, too... There were not one, but two reports on pandemic 'exercises' whose recommendations were completely ignored by that government.

Unlucky

Luck is where preparation and opportunity come together.

BJ prepared for Brexit badly - in fact not at all and has been playing catch up, they disregarded the warnings of transport and labour problems.

I can’t blame him for Covid, previous Tory governments did not prepare for a pandemic, not even stockpiling PPE.

We should never have elected a second rate journalist PM, he has no substance as a politician, other nations have elected comedians, which just shows how strong populism is.

Whitewavemark2

Nothing surprises me any more

Good grief that man is a tow rag.

Headline today - Nursing crisis hits wards as NHS battles to find nurses. Lack of EU staff adding to shortages. 'There aren't enough to deliver care we need.'

Also headline today - Boris and Carrie fly off for family holiday on Costa del Sol.

PippaZ I am 'politics weary'! I feel sure many people are now!!

love0c

I think they all say whatever they think we want to hear or what is relevant at the time. To sum up, they never mean what they say and certainly do not believe it themselves.

I don't think they all do. I also think that excepting that everyone in a certain position lies constantly - as Johnson does - that is the quickest way to it happening.

I think they all say whatever they think we want to hear or what is relevant at the time. To sum up, they never mean what they say and certainly do not believe it themselves.

Nothing surprises me any more

Lucky for us, the Netherlands, too. My parents had great respect for Churchill.

It is always helpful for a stupid leader to have a deputy who is even stupider

And Raab doesn’t appear to know what misogyny means. No surprise there then. I actually feel sorry for him doing his speech and the PM not bothering to listen to it but playing around on an electric bike elsewhere.

I don't think they have any idea at all. I used to think David Cameron at least had some capacity to understand the emotional element of 'care' even if domestically their situation was wildly different. But I imagine most people 'look after their own' anyway. Gone are the days when children were 'sent away' or women were incarcerated for a whole host of 'problems'

Carers already carry out a huge amount if caring and generally only turn to the state when it becomes too difficult to carry on without help

“Turn to family first, not the state, for social care" say Javid?
Family and other unpaid carers save the economy £118 BILLION a year already, and many go on to care long after they're broken by it themselves.
He'll know this of course.”

By that logic those who smoke and drink and don’t take exercise should just not get treatment or go to the bottom of the queue. If you fall off your bike and break a leg - you obviously weren’t taking care of yourself properly and shouldn’t have been behaving so dangerously.

I’m trying to find what Keir said about health in his speech. I’m pretty sure that he said he wanted to give people the means and the information with which to keep themselves healthy. Too tired to dig it out tonight, though.

serious cases go to panel if someone has a serious disability or health issue by the way = loss adjustment