Boris Johnson 8pm televised address - official match thread

[GT49er]

?? - I thought he was 'supporting the government line', because the government has changed it's mind and now agrees with him?

Did you ....................... really?

OK

 

[Bodian]

Did you ....................... really?

OK

Well, yes. Most things Starmer has called for have happened a few weeks later. So, it would indeed seem as though the 'Government Line' changes to what he has been calling for - and therefore they then agree.

 

[darkwolf666]

We had issues with child wellbeing in Lockdown 1 and its aftermath. Despite their preference for home life, it was awful for their mental health.

I also found out that local CAMHS departments since March 23rd operate at a much lower level. Not sure why ... staff sickness? furlough? Leaving poor kids without help for ADHD and other conditions, whilst kids with severe depression now join a far longer waiting list.

Side effects of the pandemic and Lockdowns, not to be underestimated.

Not trying to score any points, but CAMHS wasn’t fit for purpose long before COVID. When I took my two grandchildren to CAMHS, after referral from our GP, the first question they asked was do they self harm. They almost appeared disinterested once the answer was no... they have been under funded for a long time and it probably won’t get bettter...

 

[The Clamp]

We were each supposed to be getting test kits twice a week at my work. That was in October. Haven’t seen one yet.
We are supposedly all getting vaccinated here by mid Feb.

Does anyone want to buy a second hand bridge?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

My condolences and best wishes. People are being hit left right and centre, whether it be distressed kids, dead relatives, or death itself.

We are not pulling together as a country owing to dithering, venal, spiv leadership. It is a disgrace.

The next GE is a long way away; where are the Tory Grandees, now, the ones who told Maggie her game was up? Have they all been replaced by spivs? Judging by the pathetic weaselry exemplified by the likes of our NSC 'pig in a blue rosette is great by me' contingent, I fear the answer is yes

There doesn't appear to be any Grandees left. We need some educated oldies from all sides of the house to help but there's no one. Respected old politicians have all retired.

 

[Weststander]

Not trying to score any points, but CAMHS wasn’t fit for purpose long before COVID. When I took my two grandchildren to CAMHS, after referral from our GP, the first question they asked was do they self harm. They almost appeared disinterested once the answer was no... they have been under funded for a long time and it probably won’t get bettter...

Totally agree, please see my later post.

So under funded that they in the main act only when self harm and suicide are mentioned.

 

[Bozza]

The only people still supporting a pig an a particular coloured rosette at the moment seem to be the Boris supporters. Suggesting 'whatabout people preferring Starmer just because he has a red rosette' is crass. I support Starmer but I never supported the wanker Corbyn Tories opposed to Boris, however, are thin on the ground. I can't see Bozza et al cutting Corbyn any slack if he were (heaven forfend) in charge now. Rightly so. But I can't see them cutting Starmer any slack either. Fancy that

Bottom line, Boris has failed, failed and failed again over Covid, while enriching his pals, and that's why we are top of the charts in the race to disease and death.

I love you mate, you know that, but if any of the above applies to me you're ridiculously wrong.

As I say, I genuinely try to play the ball not the man on all occasions. If I can be accused of anything that I would readily accept is that I cut everyone too much slack, that I'm a naive optimist who gives the benefit of the doubt to everyone too often and that empathy is often my go-to.

But frankly, I'd rather approach things in this manner than be a snide cynic to everything that comes my way. Life's too short to be like that IMO.

 

[Weststander]

We were each supposed to be getting test kits twice a week at my work. That was in October. Haven’t seen one yet.
We are supposedly all getting vaccinated here by mid Feb.

Does anyone want to buy a second hand bridge?

No one said 70% of 68m would be vaccinated by mid Feb. The vaccines have only just be given the green light, even the most optimistic aspire for 2m doses a week once both vaccines are at full manufacture. Always having in mind the ethic that non-first world nations deserve the vaccine in equal numbers per capita to us.

21 Feb (or 18 Jan in Wales, 31 Jan in Scotland) are just initial announcements. Shirley they’ll be extended to Easter.

 

[Laridae]

Agree.

I think it was always known that the winter months would bring a surge but we'd have been out of this MONTHS ago if people in this country weren't so ****ing thick and selfish.

Loads of people play fast and loose with this concept of 'support bubbles' to basically carry on exactly as they were this time last year, seeing exactly who they want, when and where they want, then just attaching the glib phrase "it's my bubble" to justify their selfishness. Nobody likes living with restrictions but it seems there is a critical mass that believe they shouldn't have to- and don't - which is just going to drag this thing on forever.

I agree that almost anybody could have done a similar or better job than they current administration in so many regards, but when a large number of people are just going to do what they want anyway, what does it matter? And before people say "well he should have sacked Cummings then" that is just a pointless smokescreen. Selfish, ignorant people are selfish ignorant people whatever. Welcome to many, many more months of this. Everyone wants it to end - but seemingly not quite enough to actually make the sacrifices necessary to break transmission.

Excellent post! Sums the situation up perfectly.

 

[GT49er]

Well, yes. Most things Starmer has called for have happened a few weeks later. So, it would indeed seem as though the 'Government Line' changes to what he has been calling for - and therefore they then agree.

Like keeping schools open .............................. He changed his mind - so according to some that makes him look and sound like a leader. Another person who does the same thing looks like he needs to comb his hair.
So two rival politicians have both changed their minds and now agree - yet one is a leader, one needs to comb his hair - can you not now see how preconceptions and prejudices influence some people's opinions?

 

[The Clamp]

No one said 70% of 68m would be vaccinated by mid Feb. The vaccines have only just be given the green light, even the most optimistic aspire for 2m doses a week once both vaccines are at full manufacture. Always having in mind the ethic that non-first world nations deserve the vaccine in equal numbers per capita to us.

21 Feb (or 18 Jan in Wales, 31 Jan in Scotland) are just initial announcements. Shirley they’ll be extended to Easter.

Sorry, I didn’t explain very well. We were already told at my workplace we would be vaccinated by latest mid-Feb. We may well be. I doubt it though .

I’m fairly certain Boris has stated the top 5 vulnerable groups will be vaccinated by end of Feb? That includes me and everyone at work. Maybe I’m mistaken.

 

[The Clamp]

Sorry, I didn’t explain very well. We were already told at my workplace we would be vaccinated by latest mid-Feb. We may well be. I doubt it though .

I’m fairly certain Boris has stated the top 5 vulnerable groups will be vaccinated by end of Feb? That includes me and everyone at work. Maybe I’m mistaken.

Nope, here it is;

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....vid-vaccine-uk-doses-latest-b1767500.html?amp

 

[Weststander]

Sorry, I didn’t explain very well. We were already told at my workplace we would be vaccinated by latest mid-Feb. We may well be. I doubt it though .

I’m fairly certain Boris has stated the top 5 vulnerable groups will be vaccinated by end of Feb? That includes me and everyone at work. Maybe I’m mistaken.

I genuinely missed that quote.

1m were vaccinated by NYE, now conservatively it’s 1m a week. So using that online calculator someone started a new thread on today, ignoring its flaws, are you in the first 10m to get vaccinated?

 

[Poojah]

People seriously don't think anyone could have done a better job than Boris Johnson? That's a whole new level of stupidity
Even Johnson knows he's ****ing it up.

Why else do you think he comes out with "dog ate my homework" excuses like "We delayed closing schools because we know every day of education counts".
Nobody would have done a better job? Oh do **** off

He’s done a cataclysmically bad job. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been keen on Boris Johnson - there was perhaps a time when his harmless japery was a refreshing change from your typical po-faced politician, but I’ve never wanted him anywhere near number 10. I remember joking a number of years ago - “imagine if Boris Johnson and Donald Trump got into power. At the same time!”. There’s definitely been a feeling like I’ve been living in a dark comedy these past few years, and last year in particular.

I’ve always, always voted Tory. Until January of last year. I just couldn’t do it. Partly because I opposed (yet gracefully accepted) Brexit, but mainly because I couldn’t abide by a man who had manipulated and manufactured his way into the hot seat. Perhaps cleverly so, but it was manipulation nonetheless.

All that said, I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt back in March. We were undoubtedly heading into the most challenging situation since the Second World War, so the man needing cutting some slack. So, fresh start in my mind.

Then we had the herd immunity debacle, though I don’t necessarily hold him accountable for that. It was a rapidly developing situation, and if ‘the science’ changed then so be it. But the notion that they were ‘following the science’ was just that, a notion. It was just another way of saying “If we fúck this up, don’t blame us, blame poindexter over there”.

Throughout this whole charade, Boris Johnson has constantly ignored calls to lockdown to various degrees until it was way too late. They say hindsight is a wonderful thing, but Italy gave us hindsight in real-time.

Why didn’t we lockdown then? Why did we continue to allow thousands of foreigners in from countries known to be under siege from the virus? Why did we have the fúcking Cheltenham Festival? Why didn’t we have a circuit breaker in September, like, y’know, the scientists said. Why did we give the virus the chance to spring a variant of itself that is virtually uncontrollable?

Why? Because Boris Johnson is a popularity whore. He is terrified of making a decision which might annoy his followers, even if it’s the right one for them. He is pathologically incapable of making tough decisions until such a point he literally has no option, and even then it’s only because everyone else is doing it. I swear, if Nicola Sturgeon jumped off a bridge, he’d fùcking do it.

And now, here we are. Another bloody lockdown. I’m no longer even bothered about the personal inconvenience, or that fact the kids are going to barge in on me in the middle of a conference call, fourteen times a day asking me to buy them another game for their iPad. I’m bothered by the needless harm we have done to our economy and long-term prosperity. Let’s not forget that it’s less than a decade ago that the youth of London were literally burning their own towns and boroughs down because of how shit, austere and opportunity-less their lives where. I’m not condoning that behaviour by the way, but that’s not the actions of people whose lives are great. What about those people now?

But more than that, and I say this because I am so very fortunate not to have been financially affected (yet) by the pandemic, it is absolutely criminal (and I use that word deliberately) that so many people will now die as a result of gross incompetence and ineptitude. Quite literally millions of life years lost unnecessarily.

Anyway, best get to bed, I’ve got the school run in the morning. Oh wait, school’s out, innit. I don’t know what pisses me off more; that I have to explain to my children in the morning why they went to school this morning but won’t get to go again until March at the earliest, or that the butchering of their education was so, so avoidable.

Alas, we are fúcked.

 

[Weststander]

Nope, here it is;

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....vid-vaccine-uk-doses-latest-b1767500.html?amp

Reading that article and looking elsewhere, the key number of vulnerable is 12m to 15m, although that article mentions 6m as the most vulnerable.

The 12m to 15m has been identified as the number likely to require hospitalisation if they contract coronavirus.

Party politics aside, I wouldn’t put it past the pharma companies, Public Health and the NHS to achieve 12m by 28th Feb. A load of people are working incredibly hard and long hours to make us safe.

 

[The Clamp]

I genuinely missed that quote.

1m were vaccinated by NYE, now conservatively it’s 1m a week. So using that online calculator someone started a new thread on today, ignoring its flaws, are you in the first 10m to get vaccinated?

Yeah, came up between 0-500,000 for me.

 

[The Clamp]

Reading that article and looking elsewhere, the key number of vulnerable is 12m to 15m, although that article mentions 6m as the most vulnerable.

The 12m to 15m has been identified as the number likely to require hospitalisation if they contract coronavirus.

Party politics aside, I wouldn’t put it past the pharma companies, Public Health and the NHS to achieve 12m by 28th Feb. A load of people are working incredibly hard and long hours to make us safe.

Yeah, rethinking it, I think I you may be right. Figures are encouraging

 

[Weststander]

Yeah, came up between 0-500,000 for me.

Should be soon then.

I remember in the past when you explained your vocation. Are some of the people you protect very vulnerable to coronavirus?

 

[The Clamp]

He’s done a cataclysmically bad job. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been keen on Boris Johnson - there was perhaps a time when his harmless japery was a refreshing change from your typical po-faced politician, but I’ve never wanted him anywhere near number 10. I remember joking a number of years ago - “imagine if Boris Johnson and Donald Trump got into power. At the same time!”. There’s definitely been a feeling like I’ve been living in a dark comedy these past few years, and last year in particular.

I’ve always, always voted Tory. Until January of last year. I just couldn’t do it. Partly because I opposed (yet gracefully accepted) Brexit, but mainly because I couldn’t abide by a man who had manipulated and manufactured his way into the hot seat. Perhaps cleverly so, but it was manipulation nonetheless.

All that said, I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt back in March. We were undoubtedly heading into the most challenging situation since the Second World War, so the man needing cutting some slack. So, fresh start in my mind.

Then we had the herd immunity debacle, though I don’t necessarily hold him accountable for that. It was a rapidly developing situation, and if ‘the science’ changed then so be it. But the notion that they were ‘following the science’ was just that, a notion. It was just another way of saying “If we fúck this up, don’t blame us, blame poindexter over there”.

Throughout this whole charade, Boris Johnson has constantly ignored calls to lockdown to various degrees until it was way too late. They say hindsight is a wonderful thing, but Italy gave us hindsight in real-time.

Why didn’t we lockdown then? Why did we continue to allow thousands of foreigners in from countries known to be under siege from the virus? Why did we have the fúcking Cheltenham Festival? Why didn’t we have a circuit breaker in September, like, y’know, the scientists said. Why did we give the virus the chance to spring a variant of itself that is virtually uncontrollable?

Why? Because Boris Johnson is a popularity whore. He is terrified of making a decision which might annoy his followers, even if it’s the right one for them. He is pathologically incapable of making tough decisions until such a point he literally has no option, and even then it’s only because everyone else is doing it. I swear, if Nicola Sturgeon jumped off a bridge, he’d fùcking do it.

And now, here we are. Another bloody lockdown. I’m no longer even bothered about the personal inconvenience, or that fact the kids are going to barge in on me in the middle of a conference call, fourteen times a day asking me to buy them another game for their iPad. I’m bothered by the needless harm we have done to our economy and long-term prosperity. Let’s not forget that it’s less than a decade ago that the youth of London were literally burning their own towns and boroughs down because of how shit, austere and opportunity-less their lives where. I’m not condoning that behaviour by the way, but that’s not the actions of people whose lives are great. What about those people now?

But more than that, and I say this because I am so very fortunate not to have been financially affected (yet) by the pandemic, it is absolutely criminal (and I use that word deliberately) that so many people will now die as a result of gross incompetence and ineptitude. Quite literally millions of life years lost unnecessarily.

Anyway, best get to bed, I’ve got the school run in the morning. Oh wait, school’s out, innit. I don’t know what pisses me off more; that I have to explain to my children in the morning why they went to school this morning but won’t get to go again until March at the earliest, or that the butchering of their education was so, so avoidable.

Alas, we are fúcked.

Can’t argue with that. Good luck!

 

[The Clamp]

Should be soon then.

I remember in the past when you explained your vocation. Are some of the people you protect very vulnerable to coronavirus?

Unfortunately yeah, their lifestyles mean they put themselves at great risk and they have no regard for restrictions so in turn they put us at risk. But yeah, should be soon.