Covid Inquiry

My son, who's a politics geek, came to visit yesterday and said he was looking forward to watching Johnson's appearance. I jokingly responded that I didn't think he'd be able to stick it. He's just texted me to say "Mum, you were right!" I think that's the first time he's ever admitted that I'm right sometimes.

25Avalon

Are other countries having similar inquiries or is it just us? Are Scotland having one?

Yes, there’s a separate Inquiry for Scotland. According to the BBC Inquiry bosses have said they will "adopt a flexible approach" to collecting evidence given the inevitable overlap between these different themes. The UK Covid Inquiry will be sitting in Scotland in January of next year meaning the Scottish inquiry will not. Wales opted not to have a separate Inquiry which I’m glad about, as the UK Inquiry will focus on the responses of the individual nations too.
I hope Johnson will be asked about his dealings with the leaders of the devolved nations, if it was on today I missed it.

MIY Did the claim about New Zealand have anything to do with Andrew Bridgen's recent speech in Parliament? If so, I give anything that man utters about as much credence as I do stories about the tooth fairy.

Here's a factcheck on New Zealand's excess deaths:

apnews.com/article/fact-check-covid-vaccines-new-zealand-949096630073

I think all countries will, to some extent, be better prepared

The funny thing is Dickens the NHS and other sectors did have a plan for pandemics and did have practices ( I m not sure how regularly maybe annually) but all that was completely thrown out the window and overshadowed by the government and their ideas (look at PPE)

He hasn't been asked the right questions. More than who-said-what on WhatsApp, I want to know why so many contracts were awarded to friends to provide stuff that was useless or never materialised. And why were so many business loans made to fraudsters who promptly disappeared with the money? And why has no effort been made to catch up with those people and prosecute them/recover the money?

Thats why the inquiry has been divided into modules Scribbles they can't possibly cover everything in one go

BlueBelle

*I think all countries will, to some extent, be better prepared*

The funny thing is Dickens the NHS and other sectors did have a plan for pandemics and did have practices ( I m not sure how regularly maybe annually) but all that was completely thrown out the window and overshadowed by the government and their ideas (look at PPE)

Emergency planning and preparedness for an infectious disease was not high enough on the Government’s agenda and took a back seat to Brexit preparations. In the run-up to Covid-19, resource and manpower was diverted to plan for the UK’s exit from the EU and pandemic preparedness meetings were regularly cancelled.

The UK’s pandemic preparedness was inadequate and focused only on influenza – as previous witnesses have explained, including former Prime Minister David Cameron. This was despite strong evidence and expert advice that other potential infections should not be ignored.

NHS and Department of Health restructures and reorganisations from 2012 onwards – as austerity measures took hold - undermined the resilience of the health system, and the quality and coherence of pandemic and emergency planning.

(The Royal College of Nursing (RCN)’s Rose Gallagher MBE, a nurse, expert and professional lead in infection prevention and control, giving evidence.)

Many will disagree, but I believe the-man-in-charge had more important (to him) things on his mind and really did not want to bother with an infection that he believed had been blown out of proportion (and which, anyway, was nature's way of dealing with the old), so didn't give it the focus that was needed. Possibly the kind of focus that he wasn't even capable of because as is rumoured, he doesn't 'do' detail - for which he only has a short attention span. I wish him no ill, but I believe he was the worst Prime Minister we've ever had, and unfortunately he presided over the pandemic.

He was too busy with getting Brexit done and sorting out his divorce.

This is costing £££millions and seems bloated already with the KC showboating. It’s not a court of law! It’s an inquiry and it’s tortuous to listen to. I’ve given up on it.

Look at Sweden they’ve done theirs and published it already! Ours is like a farce. We should cut & paste Sweden’s recommendations otherwise we’ll be presented with another pandemic before this last one has been assessed!

Beyond ridiculous.

I don't believe proven liars.

MayBee70

He was too busy with getting Brexit done and sorting out his divorce.

And going on holiday. He had 5 during early 2020.

Urmstongran

This is costing £££millions and seems bloated already with the KC showboating. It’s not a court of law! It’s an inquiry and it’s tortuous to listen to. I’ve given up on it.

Look at Sweden they’ve done theirs and published it already! Ours is like a farce. We should cut & paste Sweden’s recommendations otherwise we’ll be presented with another pandemic before this last one has been assessed!

Beyond ridiculous.

But there again.....I do believe you are a member of the Johnson fan club? It must be difficult for you seeing on screen what many of us have said for years, namely that Johnson was morally unfit for the job and a proven liar. Thoughts and prayers 🙏

I have seen just a few bits on the news but like most enquiries (of whatever nature) it will be a complete waste of time and money with the same outcome “lessons will be learned.”

The thing is it was a complete one off and nobody had any experience of how to handle it. Boris had to listen to his advisors as, obviously, he is not an expert in Covid. At the same time he had teachers screaming at him that he needed to lock down straight away along with thousands of other people who fancied a few months off work.

It’s now generally accepted that lockdown was the wrong thing to do but millions of people were paid furlough, businesses were helped enormously in this country unlike many other countries so I really do believe that Boris did his best under very difficult circumstances.

Really. I thought the only thing accepted about lockdown was that it was left too late and cost thousands of people their lives? I agree that he did his very best, it’s just that his very best wasn’t good enough and he was the worst possible leader of this country at the worst possible time. Just remind me of the death rate in New Zealand which had a leader who locked down fast because she could see what was happening.

This was Arden's approach
‘The best thing we can do to get out of this as quickly as we can is to go hard,” Ardern told a news conference. “We have made the decision on the basis that it is better to start high and go down levels rather than to go low, not contain the virus and see it move quickly,” she said.

Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish scientists wanted to lockdown earlier ,before the Cheltenham races,football matches and massive concerts AND closed Airports.They were rubbished all over the media.Patrick Vallance said in HIS statement that she should have been listened to....it would have saved over 30,000 lives IN THE FIRST MONTHS .

The inquiry, so far, has looked like a sinister Pass-The-Parcel exercise. Certainly Pass-The-Responsibility.

Primrose53

I have seen just a few bits on the news but like most enquiries (of whatever nature) it will be a complete waste of time and money with the same outcome “lessons will be learned.”

The thing is it was a complete one off and nobody had any experience of how to handle it. Boris had to listen to his advisors as, obviously, he is not an expert in Covid. At the same time he had teachers screaming at him that he needed to lock down straight away along with thousands of other people who fancied a few months off work.

It’s now generally accepted that lockdown was the wrong thing to do but millions of people were paid furlough, businesses were helped enormously in this country unlike many other countries so I really do believe that Boris did his best under very difficult circumstances.

It's not generally accepted at all that lockdown was the wrong thing to do.

Johnson now playing the I was ill with covid too, card.

Even Johnson accepts that there was no alternative to lockdown.

Now he’s being questioned by someone else he’s getting a bit bolshy. It’s getting very interesting now.

I’ve been listening to the questions from the barrister representing families. Mr Johnson soon became irritated when asked to answer the question rather than deflect.
His fan club may reject this inquiry as a waste of money - it isn’t.

I would quite like a discussion on the rights and wrongs of lockdown but that wont happen. The impact on children has been incaluable in particular vulnerable children. I dont think as a society we are ready for that discussion yet.

Iam64

I’ve been listening to the questions from the barrister representing families. Mr Johnson soon became irritated when asked to answer the question rather than deflect.
His fan club may reject this inquiry as a waste of money - it isn’t.

I certainly don’t think ‘an inquiry’ is a waste of money Iam.
Just ‘ours’!
Yes we need to work out where we went wrong and where things could have been done better etc but our UK inquiry seems inferior to that of Sweden’s.