Boris Johnson 8pm televised address - official match thread

[Fignon's Ponytail]

I worked through the first lock-down as I am at a company deemed an essential service. Back in March - April the main coast road between Brighton & Newhaven was completely empty on my commute every day at 7am....but this morning it was still just as busy as usual. There seem to be a lot less people "WFH" now, despite the instructions. Will be interesting to see if it changes over the next few days...

 

[Chicken Run]

Where did you get those figures from out of interest?

Only those in exam years were supposed to go into secondary schools and Primaries were closed throughout the South East, including my daughter's school. Then very many had inset days planned anyway to either create the online learning plan or prepare further for the testing they were being asked to do. I'd suggest a lot of schools were closed. Brighton was shut.

Do we know if the Private Schools are open, HPP College is due back tomorrow?


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[dazzer6666]

I have an ongoing battle with CAMHS at the moment about my oldest. They do good work when you get to that point but are so stretched

I won’t go into all the issues here but a fair % was undoubtedly due to them being underfunded and understaffed. We also came across some fantastic individuals working in the service.

 

[Charity Shield 1910]

I thought I would raise a non British viewpoint.

I have a German uncle, and with my aunty they live mainly in Germany. Brunswick has been given circa 1000 vaccines for a population of 250,000. My aunty and uncle are now their 70's and they say that they will be unlikely to get vaccinated before June/July. This is not a leave or remain post and don't wan't it read as such.

However the UK have been more successful in it's procurement of vaccines than the EU. The way things are in Germany, virtually all of the UK will be vaccinated before my German uncle and aunty will get their vaccine.

As for when my cousin in Germany will get his vaccination is anyone's guess. This does not mean that the EU have done something deliberately wrong, or have been negligent, it's just they made a call on procurement and it has not gone well. It happens and the EU will now be between 3 to 8 months behind the UK in vaccinating people, with all the implications on lives and the economy.

If the UK gov had got it's procurement wrong then this would be all over the press, but I have only very briefly heard it mentioned on Times radio and by a presenter who was very keen to excuse the mistake. The BBC and ITV seem to have not mentioned this at all. Either way, procurement of the vaccine is one of the biggest calls to make and the UK gov should get credit for getting it right. We might also think about the people of pensionable age around the world who won't have been vaccinated before all of us, who are younger than them, get our vaccine. That's my two penneth anyway.

 

[loz]

I worked through the first lock-down as I am at a company deemed an essential service. Back in March - April the main coast road between Brighton & Newhaven was completely empty on my commute every day at 7am....but this morning it was still just as busy as usual. There seem to be a lot less people "WFH" now, despite the instructions. Will be interesting to see if it changes over the next few days...

Judging by my company, most feel safe at work and want to go in...thats a big change since March, mind you the Suns not out !

 

[cjd]

I have many contacts in France and Germany and can assure you both governments face continual criticism including why was UK able to start vacinating before them. I am of view this has been an unprecedented situation and whoever was in government would have done some things better and some things worse. Every likely hood they would have been taking advice from same people.
Who knows when this will be over but Government will then be judged on how they deal with post covid and get people back to work and businesses going. At next election If we have come through this and NHS coped it will be a plus for government. Those of you out there who will, whatever the situation will never vote Tory or Labour but these votes dont win or lose elections. Huge problems for next government on how to repay this huge debt and creating tax income from individuals and businesses to do this. The party that is deemed best to do this will win election

I live in France and agree with your post. This pandemic is unprecedented and although ( in hindsight) many mistakes have been made I do believe Governments are doing their very best.

In France up until yesterday they had vaccinated a total of 138 people with the new vaccine. I'm still waiting for the local pharmacy to re-stock its supply of the anti flu virus because France ran out of supplies in November.

Its unfortunate, but I understand everyone, and every country is trying.....( Donald Trump aside of course ). Whoever is in power at the moment holds a poisoned chalice.

I do wish people and posters on here were more reasonable with their criticisms. Slagging off all and sundry surely helps no-one ?

 

[Bry Nylon]

I'm more than happy to make the sacrifices. I'm no longer convinced any will work because of the high percentage willing to ignore them. I wasn't aware watching football on TV was such a massive thing that people are ignoring so would love to see the evidence that it's causing transmission rates to surge to such an extent.

Not convinced you needed to start your post in such a patronising fashion but I'm also painfully aware that everyone has given up the being kind ethos that was so good to see during the first lockdown.
For what it's worth, without kids around who like yours are missing out I doubt id be here now. I guess for me football is another of these things that's keeping me going and whether I continue sustaining that and keeping the brave face going for much longer is very much up in the air.

In response to your how much longer do I want this to go on for, it is what it is. I will continue to follow the rules and deal with it as I need to so kind of resent your suggestion that I am one of these who doesn't want to do so. I've lost so much already through this and am very much treading water to keep loved ones going, deal with a tough background investigation going on and trying desperately to stay positive.

First off, I apologise for the tone of my response. On reflection I should have adopted a different tone and regret that I didn't; you are right - it comes across as patronising. In my defence I guess I can only say that I am deeply frustrated that we are back here again, just as much as you must be and everybody else - and am just looking for anything that will help us find a way out.

Like you I've given up or had taken away just about everything that makes life enjoyable over the past 10 months and yet here we still are. I'm not going to talk about football on TV anymore as I've already done that and my views will change nothing. All I will say is that I hope you stay positive - and for what it is worth the occasional laugh, debate or argument on here is quite a good antidote for everything else we are having to contend with.

All the best

BN.

 

[Nobby]

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.

Brilliant post Poojah.

I have watched Johnson weedle his way into the top job, bringing together all of the no marks in the Tory party at the same time.

Brexit is done, - but the only reason we have it, is because he saw jumping on to that side as his best way to power. All of his family are remainers and his father is now applying for French citizenship. You couldn’t make it up.

His handling of this crisis has been appalling - although he has arrived at the correct decisions in the end, they have have always been too late to stop the next problem.

Some on here defending him, saying all of the other leaders have made the same mistakes and that no one could have made different decisions

His unique problem though, is the constant lying, promising this, guaranteeing that, so that he can get to the next meeting, conference or woman on the list.
And every promise has been u turned.

The perfect example to everyone, everywhere, that you just don’t keep overpromising and under delivering. Every single time

He is a scumbag, pure and simple

 

[amexer]

Wise, considered words. This thread is becoming more and more a political slagging match and must surely be due demotion to the Bear Pit, or at least a sideways move to the Coronavirus thread. Or maybe I'll just put it on my Ignore List. Yes, I'll do that.

Most on this thread are just black and white. No interest in wise words

 

[atomised]

First off, I apologise for the tone of my response. On reflection I should have adopted a different tone and regret that I didn't; you are right - it comes across as patronising. In my defence I guess I can only say that I am deeply frustrated that we are back here again, just as much as you must be and everybody else - and am just looking for anything that will help us find a way out.

Like you I've given up or had taken away just about everything that makes life enjoyable over the past 10 months and yet here we still are. I'm not going to talk about football on TV anymore as I've already done that and my views will change nothing. All I will say is that I hope you stay positive - and for what it is worth the occasional laugh, debate or argument on here is quite a good antidote for everything else we are having to contend with.

All the best

BN.

Much appreciated. You caught me at a bad time. Predictable as they are I always have a wobble on Boris bad news days

 

[Chicken Run]

I live in France and agree with your post. This pandemic is unprecedented and although ( in hindsight) many mistakes have been made I do believe Governments are doing their very best.

In France up until yesterday they had vaccinated a total of 138 people with the new vaccine. I'm still waiting for the local pharmacy to re-stock its supply of the anti flu virus because France ran out of supplies in November.

Its unfortunate, but I understand everyone, and every country is trying.....( Donald Trump aside of course ). Whoever is in power at the moment holds a poisoned chalice.

I do wish people and posters on here were more reasonable with their criticisms. Slagging off all and sundry surely helps no-one ?

Interesting to get a view from across the Channel, I wonder what the numbers are in Deutschland?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....rocurement-labeled-a-gross-failure/a-56115322


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[Bry Nylon]

Much appreciated. You caught me at a bad time. Predictable as they are I always have a wobble on Boris bad news days

Well, quite. Same here. Keep going.

 

[doogie004]

Just done a round taxi job of 80 miles Loxwood to lewes station A272 packed , m23/a27 very busy no change out there in the real world


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[Randy McNob]

Brilliant post Poojah.

I have watched Johnson weedle his way into the top job, bringing together all of the no marks in the Tory party at the same time.

Brexit is done, - but the only reason we have it, is because he saw jumping on to that side as his best way to power. All of his family are remainers and his father is now applying for French citizenship. You couldn’t make it up.

His handling of this crisis has been appalling - although he has arrived at the correct decisions in the end, they have have always been too late to stop the next problem.

Some on here defending him, saying all of the other leaders have made the same mistakes and that no one could have made different decisions

His unique problem though, is the constant lying, promising this, guaranteeing that, so that he can get to the next meeting, conference or woman on the list.
And every promise has been u turned.

The perfect example to everyone, everywhere, that you just don’t keep overpromising and under delivering. Every single time

He is a scumbag, pure and simple

No one gets angry about 22bn spaffed on non exsistent track and trace - world beating and ready by June 2020, but thank god we didn't vote for the other lot who would wreck the economy - hmm...

 

[WATFORD zero]

The inference that anybody voted for Coronavirus, or that Coronavirus has anything to do with Brexit, is a prime candidate for the most pathetically stupid thing that has ever been posted on NSC. If you want to carry on bleating about Brexit, and trying to bring it up in every discussion about the government's handling of the Covid crisis, f*** off to one of the threads set aside for you and your chums to gather together to reinforce your prejudices and share your moaning.

Where was there any mention or reference to the dreaded B word in my post whatsoever (or, indeed, any I quoted)

I simply pointed out that you are now moaning about

Hopefully this time round the uber-libertarian Boris will be forced by wiser heads to make the restrictions compulsory, with sanctions that will be enforced (and without the police being allowed to say they are too busy!).

and asked whether you were aware of Johnson's long history as an indecisive uber-libertarian before you voted him into power a year ago. You can't really be surprised by what you got, can you ?

You really have to let the B thing go, you won

 

[BBassic]

I really, really hope people adhere to this new lockdown in the manner they should though I don't have much faith.

And whilst I think they're selfish ********, a small part of me is unable to blame them fully. After all, they saw those making the rules breaking them with impunity back in March so why should they bother?

Cummings getting away with that ridiculous bag of bullshit was the exact moment the Government lost control of this entire situation. That wretched snake has blood on his hands.

 

[crodonilson]

Interesting to get a view from across the Channel, I wonder what the numbers are in Deutschland?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....rocurement-labeled-a-gross-failure/a-56115322


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Interesting excerpt from that..

Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet with state premiers on Tuesday to discuss a probable extension of the current lockdown — which is set to end on January 10.

Ahead of those talks, Uwe Janssens, president of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, called for the government to rethink its plans.

He told the Rheinischer Post that tough curbs should remain in place, even if the government reaches its infection-rate goal of 50 per 100,000 people.

"We intensive care physicians strongly advise that no relaxation should be considered until the incidence value is below 25 new infections per 100,000 population per week," Janssens said.

The current infection rate in Germany is 141.2 according to the Robert Koch Institute. However, this number varies hugely across the country, with some regions of Saxony recording rates of over 500.

I think it would take even with the vaccination programme fully 5 or 6 months from the case rates now, possibly longer for us to get our case rates back below 25 per 100,000 infections. This could be a very, very long lockdown. I can't forsee hospitality and pubs and restaurants open until well into Summer or perhaps Autumn.

 

[Stat Brother]

I really, really hope people adhere to this new lockdown in the manner they should though I don't have much faith.

And whilst I think they're selfish ********, a small part of me is unable to blame them fully. After all, they saw those making the rules breaking them with impunity back in March so why should they bother?

Cummings getting away with that ridiculous bag of bullshit was the exact moment the Government lost control of this entire situation. That wretched snake has blood on his hands.

Just one of the multitude of aspects that has me so frustrated and reverting back to my mantra of:-

'why are you making a near impossible job so much harder?'

 

[zefarelly]

In the meantime, Nadhim Zahawi (claims parliamentary expenses for heating his stables) gets the gig for distribution of vaccines.

His wife and two sons set up a brand new company Warren Medical Company Ltd. Conflict of interest?

https://bylinetimes.com/2021/01/04/vaccine-minister-nadhim-zahawi-family-set-up-medical-company/

Wow, you couldn't make it up.

Sadly its standard practice for a majority of MPs, particularly those of a more capitalist nature.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

All that said, at the risk of going down a rabbit hole, I do wonder what it was that Boris had on his mind until midnight on 31 December.

That's my frustration with it all. There is no sense that Johnson has any kind of idea what his priorities are. "Keep schools open" was a mantra last week yet in the summer the pubs were open and the schools weren't. Then it was all about "Helping out to eat out" until the industry was shut down. The priority in May seemed to be keeping Cummings in a job rather than infections down yet Cummings was dispensable the moment he upset Princess numb nuts. His opinion seems to be the last person he spoke to - or slept with - which blows with the wind and gives a poor clarity of message which confuses everyone. Last week, it should have been clear that the schools should have been shut (that Sir Kier also remained silent on as well) yet they pressed on anyway. A week preparing for online learning as opposed to mass testing in schools would have helped parents and teachers alike but the ploughing on regardless until there is no other option on the table has become a familiar feature in the past few weeks and months. That's not hindsight, it was what SAGE were advising. He can't make difficult calls.

For balance, financial help from the Government, the number of vaccines deployed already and the testing programme from scratch have all been success stories. The Government have made a good fist of parts of the pandemic which no matter how well they do they will not get praise from some quarters. Hancock, whilst being a bit weird, has done a pretty good job but some of them have failed the task miserably. Williamson, Johnson and Patel being top of the list. Where we'd be with Corbyn, Abbott and McDonnell is anyones guess.On paper though, they appear to be ones that would have done an almighty balls up. Ultimately, we need better politicians of all colours.

As an aside, I seem to remember you had long Covid. If you don't mind me asking, are you still suffering?