Its not Boris's fault!

Secretsquirrel1

On the down side, BJ may well be a big fibber who wasn’t sticking to the lockdown rules but on the plus side he isn’t Jeremy Corbin. What ever mistakes BJ has made I hate to think of how catastrophic it would have been with JC in charge of managing the pandemic.

It's not just Johnson who's is managing the pandemic - he has a team of scientist to advise him (he may not take much notice) and also a cabinet.

Secretsquirrel what evidence do you have to say that Corbyn
would have been catastrophic? Absolutely none probably, apart from what you've read in the MSM 9and I'm assuming the read tops)

Oh, my goodness MaisieD. Thanks for that link. It rather confirms what I thought Mr Cummings was like. A disturbing man for sure. (And I would have come under the disposable pensioner category.) His prediction about a pandemic was a bit too accurate. I'm rather glad Boris dismissed him even though Dom did keep him in line. His scientific logic would have put a stop to any "parties".

No Maizie I’m afraid you haven’t! Please give a concrete example of when the government are or have been prepared to countenance the murder of people from other nations.
Of course the reason that you haven’t given an example is that you can’t.
You are talking emotional rubbish!

Whenever Boorish (sorry do I mean Boris) Johnson is on the tv I think of the wonderful programmes of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. If you have never watched them do try and look them up. They were made in about 1970's I think but you would see them as totally up to date. Paul Eddington as the said PM with the great Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphry , the senior civil service boss , whose brilliant difficult tongue twisting speeches were a marvel. So absolutely civil service speak e.g. well he probably did do it , but he probably knows that you know he probably did it " etc/ So he kept the pm in check but with some lovely simple sentences. If Paul said " I am going to cut down the amount of money for the army" Sir Humphrey would smile and say " Oh that is a very brave decision" which frightened the pm into just doing what Humphrey wanted . Also as a younger pp to the pm was Bernard - played by --- foulds , just cant remember his first name at the moment but he went on to be the ex policeman who ran the pub in Heartbeat . Anyway I digress, but they had episodes of politicians close to election times, visiting places and mentioning the possibility of new factorys or business arriving soon. All the machinations of political life are there but in a much more amusing way. If you can find it on utube or they sometimes put them on the box, I think you would enjoy it and find it extremely topical.

Zoejory

*... I can’t really see the them achieving the world beating death rate that Johnson has here*

Please, would people please stop trying to compare the deaths in NZ to those in the UK. It's comparing apples with oranges.

Also my son and family are in NZ. They and their peers, NZ born, are not as happy with Jacinda as you are, MayBee70 There's a lot of dissent.

Can you explain to me why that is?

In fact I still wonder how many deaths were from something else - as I said before - even if they picked up Covid in hospital - death certificates had Covid on them. I know someone who had a huge row with the hospital doctors about Covid on her mother’s death certificate- her mother died of cancer- she died of that but with Covid. She got the death certificate changed. It was wrong - Covid was not the cause of death.

No spin - common sense - most people just saw the deaths on television - the reporting of which was very misleading.

^ We have not, in the past, been used to seeing daily death rates as a matter of course - and on occasions the rates have been higher in past years - than in the pandemic when we were all stuck at home - hardly any flu or other diseases which in previous years, has killed many of us^.

The ONS publishes weekly death statistics. I checked them regularly during 2020. They also published the average death rate for each week based on the previous 5 year's rates. Excess deaths were always well above the average. That's when we were 'stuck at home'. It's nonsense trying to spin this away.

Maybe70
Yes- I take your point but the population of New Zealand is a fraction of ours and it was therefore possible and easy - if you wanted to- to close down the whole shebang - the country is miles away from anywhere - apart from OZ - unlike our crowded island with massive links to many other countries - The New Zealanders were not very happy with the decisions she took.
Our death rate was terrible I agree- but also as I said, the reporting of deaths was misleading - many died with Covid but from something else - not from Covid. We have not, in the past, been used to seeing daily death rates as a matter of course - and on occasions the rates have been higher in past years - than in the pandemic when we were all stuck at home - hardly any flu or other diseases which in previous years, has killed many of us.

Alegrias1 Oh, well done you!!! I was loving your use of a more interesting word. Seems someone was so excited to correct your verbiage that they missed the point of the tense entirely.

... I can’t really see the them achieving the world beating death rate that Johnson has here

Please, would people please stop trying to compare the deaths in NZ to those in the UK. It's comparing apples with oranges.

Also my son and family are in NZ. They and their peers, NZ born, are not as happy with Jacinda as you are, MayBee70 There's a lot of dissent.

Well put, montymops.

Blossom5

It infuriates me that he's the one taking all the abuse when there were plenty of MPs joining in at the parties and probably more than one or two, yes he's the boss and responsible but name the others too

Of course he's getting all the flak. As you said, he's the boss. The boss is the person who should be in control and setting the rules and standards.

Thanks Tanjamaltija. It all makes sense now!

That took some time, didn't it? There's been any numbers of posts pointing out that 'rent' was correct in the context in which it was used...

I'd suggest that you read the Guardian piece about Cummings, Nfk (It dates from 2020, thought the G only published it a couple of weeks ago). It's quite eye opening.

(I wonder if the guy who wrote it still feels the same about him?)

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/06/inside-the-mind-of-dominic-cummings-brexit-boris-johnson-conservatives

It infuriates me that he's the one taking all the abuse when there were plenty of MPs joining in at the parties and probably more than one or two, yes he's the boss and responsible but name the others too

Thanks Tanjamaltija. It all makes sense now!

I've just been reading Dominic Cummings Wikipedia entry as I seem to have vague memories of mention being made of him being part of a group who had rather anarchic, weird views and some of whom worked in the civil service. But most of my memories are vague, so I may be imagining it. Can anyone of you clever folk remember? It was around the time of the Barnard Castle incident. They weren't affiliated to any party, just a group of really clever bods thinking outside the box the way Cummings does. I was wondering what happened to them.

montymops

There are some good things that Boris has done. In fact, he does get things done. I wonder how many people can honestly say that they haven’t broken even the tiniest of rules? Who knows how many parties were held in hospitals or other places where work continued through the pandemic- Boris is an easy target - The victim of his own carelessness- yes, he’s the prime minister and takes responsibility for what happens in Downing Street - however, others may be much better at dissembling- Dominic Cummings is getting his revenge of course - not a trustworthy colleague - with someone like him on board, who needs enemies? Any institution is riven with secrets and poor behaviour- we are all flawed humans. I think there is a certain amount of hysteria and hypocrisy around - someone must be blamed - the media present biased statistics, interview those with an axe to grind and instil fear - scientists who have been trusted to give the facts, don’t always get it right. Blame China if you must - or just blame Covid - we have no idea how many Chinese or Russian citizens died - and will never know - many people died with Covid but not of Covid. We could not close down our country - London is the very crowded capital of a major world economy - unlike the saintly Jacinda In New Zealand - only for her to find that now it is rampaging through the islands. Who on earth could have managed Covid any better? What an unenviable time to be in charge. I like Rory Stewart but wonder how he would have fared if he had been in charge - he sounds good but hindsight is a wonderful thing -I have met Boris and was not particularly impressed- But am grateful for the vaccine initiative- the current witch-hunt is a horror to witness - we have all suffered in one way or another - do we really need a scapegoat? We need to pull together to get back to normal.

Given that 95% of New Zealanders are vaccinated and the fact that Omicron is so transmissible and pretty unavoidable now the country has opened up I can’t really see the them achieving the world beating death rate that Johnson has here. Jacinda has put the safety of New Zealanders above everything else and is, imo, the sort of leader I’d want in a pandemic. Johnson has been the worst possible leader at the worst possible time.

Rent, when used as a noun, can mean both a patyment and a tear. Rend is the verb.
("verb (used with object), rent, rend·ing.
to separate into parts with force or violence:
The storm rent the ship to pieces.
to tear apart, split, or divide:
racial tension that is rending the nation.
to pull or tear violently (often followed by away, off, up, etc.).
to tear (one's garments or hair) in grief, rage, etc...")

Johnson is a vile bawbag voted in by English votes. He was and is a proven prolific liar, has been sacked from several jobs and has promoted himself above the country he is supposed to represent. He is utterly without any genuine remorse and while he is reaping what he has sown, sadly so are we.
The Tories appointed him as their best bet - what does this tell us about this odious government?

When Johnson sends in the troops to start killing dissidents no many will speak up and say he’s a tyrant!

Boris like the challenge and the chase but no the everyday hum drum attention to detail, that is for someone else to do. He isn't a very good boss as he protects his so-called pals and gets rid of those who make him look ridiculous even if they are better suited to their post. He's no different to a lot of other bosses in business only they are not elected into the post and are not scrutinised at every turn on every type of media available. Of course he's not a nice person, anyone who gets to a top job like PM is not a nice person that is what can make them good at the task.

Rend is the verb and rent is the noun. Like many words, rent has more than one meaning.

Apologies if I'm repeating something already said. I admit to skimming through all messages rather quickly. Can't be bothered with political mud swinging, either way.

usuallyright

At least he did get us out of the disastrous EU

Not quite yet…..

At least he did get us out of the disastrous EU

Craicon

Lincslass

poshpaws

Johnson's got Narcissistic Personality Disorder (if you don't know the symptoms, Google it and you'll see he ticks every single box) but I believe he's also actually evil - like Rees-Mogg and Patel and it "boggles my mind" that apparently 34% of the electorate STILL think "he's doing his best" and "he got us through Covid". The Conservative Party in my opinion is itself an evil entity, so it doesn't surprise me that they made him PM. I saw the Rory Stewart video and was quite amazed and impressed.

Ridiculous comment. Honestly people are really getting outrageous in their anti Tory rants. Pol Pot, Hitler , Stalin, Mussolini were all murdering tyrants. When our Gov sends in the army to murder it’s own citizens, then you can call Johnson a tyrant.

Nope. I’d call over 153k deaths from Covid pretty Tyrannical. Mainly due to ineptitude, I grant you.

Incredibly, he’s overtaken Thatcher as the worst Tory PM in history.

Think Covid caused those deaths. Same as in any other country. It’s a pandemic.