How do you think Boris has handled it so far ?

[WATFORD zero]

dont disagree how it should be, its way it is and has been for a couple of decades. if you dont the media would fill their pages speculating and attacking everything they perceive to be wrong. so the politicans go for the slightly easier route, control the daily message as much as you can.

But the Government, through political ineptitude, keep giving them things to fill their pages. How is that an easier route than making them 'speculate about their perceptions' ? Besides which this whole circle of bollocks, is just a method of avoiding addressing the real issues.

I would strongly disagree that Government has been like this for the last couple of decades in the UK. The last few years maybe, and we certainly seem to be following the US in this regard. But this is the first UK Government I have experienced that has prioritised 'managing the press message' above all else. I have personally found it annoying in the few years up to now, but while we are in the midst of a pandemic, it is unforgivable.

As a complete aside, is there any reason you always seem to edit my posts down to a single phrase before quoting it

 

[beorhthelm]

As a complete aside, is there any reason you always seem to edit my posts down to a single phrase before quoting it

flow and brevity.

 

[Titanic]

Given the open goals for the opposition and the usual 'new leader bounce', there is something quite unusual about this latest poll...

YouGov poll, 5-6 May (changes since 2019):

CON: 50% (+5)
LAB: 30% (-3)
LD: 7% (-5)
GRN: 5% (+2)
SNP: 4% (-)
BXP: 3% (+1)

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politic...um=website_article&utm_campaign=VI_6_May_2020

 

[The Clamp]

the PPE from Turkey is farcical, who orders the wrong specification? or did the supplier not have compliant product?

If we had followed through with the EU suppliers, we’d have quality controlled PPE now.

 

[beorhthelm]

If we had followed through with the EU suppliers, we’d have quality controlled PPE now.

is that known or an assumption, do all EU approved contrators match with NHS standards?

 

[Titanic]

If we had followed through with the EU suppliers, we’d have quality controlled PPE now.

Are they the same EU suppliers that German doctors are complaining about?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/german-doctors-pose-naked-in-protest-at-ppe-shortages

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

But the Government, through political ineptitude, keep giving them things to fill their pages. How is that an easier route than making them 'speculate about their perceptions' ? Besides which this whole circle of bollocks, is just a method of avoiding addressing the real issues.

I would strongly disagree that Government has been like this for the last couple of decades in the UK. The last few years maybe, and we certainly seem to be following the US in this regard. But this is the first UK Government I have experienced that has prioritised 'managing the press message' above all else. I have personally found it annoying in the few years up to now, but while we are in the midst of a pandemic, it is unforgivable.

Given the open goals for the opposition and the usual 'new leader bounce', there is something quite unusual about this latest poll...

YouGov poll, 5-6 May (changes since 2019):

CON: 50% (+5)
LAB: 30% (-3)
LD: 7% (-5)
GRN: 5% (+2)
SNP: 4% (-)
BXP: 3% (+1)

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politic...um=website_article&utm_campaign=VI_6_May_2020

And this is why they do it. Get their mates to slap it across The Sun/Express/Mail with a bit of spin and they know they’ll still be popular.

I agree with [MENTION=396]WATFORD zero[/MENTION] that it’s probably the worst it’s ever been in terms of managing the press message.

 

[JC Footy Genius]

dont disagree how it should be, its way it is and has been for a couple of decades. if you dont the media would fill their pages speculating and attacking everything they perceive to be wrong. so the politicans go for the slightly easier route, control the daily message as much as you can.

Indeed. It's like New Labour - Alastair Campbell et al (9/11 good day to bury bad news) never existed ...

 

[Albion Dan]

Fantastic news. Life starting to return to normal and sanity prevailing.

 

[The Clamp]

is that known or an assumption, do all EU approved contrators match with NHS standards?

Yes.

 

[narly101]

Fantastic news. Life starting to return to normal and sanity prevailing.

And not a single thought of the 30,000 people who have died.....

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Well, precisely.
And, yes, [MENTION=189]Wozza[/MENTION], it is time for another poll. We should run them at regular intervals (with exactly the same options), so we can track if there's any changing opinion on NSC, and what the direction of travel is.

Examine how numbers vary over time (no matter how flawed the process of generating the numbers)? Now, there's a thought

 

[Swansman]

Are they the same EU suppliers that German doctors are complaining about?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/german-doctors-pose-naked-in-protest-at-ppe-shortages

Word.

Each to their own on the EU question, but in regards of this virus the EU has been of zero use.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Fantastic news. Life starting to return to normal and sanity prevailing.

Did this afternoon's statement from number 10 and the press conference somehow slip by you?

 

[Weststander]

These are all fair points and need to be answered in due course. IMHO the closest comparison to us is France who are broadly recording deaths in the same way but have a much stricter lockdown.
PPE has undoubtedly been the biggest cock up and been the root cause of many problems like NHS and care home deaths.

In the long run it will only be the analysis of excess deaths that shows how much of a real difference lockdown actually made. It's all the hysteria and hyperbole I can't get on with, we all know the numbers aren't accurate but ultimately it's a headline writers' wet dream to be bottom of the death league.

I agree with all your points.

I also think that lockdown should’ve been announced a few days earlier. But I didn’t think that at the time, I was a stunned when it was announced. I genuinely think that far more Brits would’ve disobeyed it early on, we’re an awkward, non-compliant nation (or many of us are).

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Fantastic news. Life starting to return to normal and sanity prevailing.

Christ. That's disgusting. I have had R5 on all day, as per, and the news is emphasizing that Boris has backed off from anything more than the possibility of some very minimal loosening of restrictions some time soon.

I normally say we get the governments (and press) we deserve, but on this occasion, if blowsy chavs and young male oafs start behaving like it's New Year's Eve and August Bank Holiday rolled into one, it won't be them, but the unfortunate olds who come into their contact who die.

Even the Mirror is in on this circle jerk so we can hardly blame the tories for it, though. This is simply the media (that we deserve). Sometimes I wonder why I long gave up reading any of it. Then I remember. Even the Guardian gets science and medicine wrong, even if it does resist the temptation to refer to men in white coats as 'boffins'.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I agree with all your points.

I also think that lockdown should’ve been announced a few days earlier. But I didn’t think that at the time, I was a stunned when it was announced. I genuinely think that far more Brits would’ve disobeyed it early on, we’re an awkward, non-compliant nation (or many of us are).

This. So was I.

And I work in medical research. None of my 'wet biology' colleagues had wind of this. Ironically the only colleague who did is a mathematical modeller. That reminds me - I should ask him how he sees the trajectories. I faff about with an excel spreadsheet; he writes his own programmes.

I am still not ready to defenestrate Boris. But I trust that Starmer has a little black book.....keep the powder dry and the gun in the cabinet so that if a bullet between they eyes is found to be required, the target can be swiftly and accurately dispatched before dancing away under cover of his fawning oafs.

 

[Weststander]

This. So was I.

And I work in medical research. None of my 'wet biology' colleagues had wind of this. Ironically the only colleague who did is a mathematical modeller. That reminds me - I should ask him how he sees the trajectories. I faff about with an excel spreadsheet; he writes his own programmes.

I am still not ready to defenestrate Boris. But I trust that Starmer has a little black book.....keep the powder dry and the gun in the cabinet so that if a bullet between they eyes is found to be required, the target can be swiftly and accurately dispatched before dancing away under cover of his fawning oafs.

Up until that point, the lay people of NSC as a microcosm, with many good brains, weren’t really switched on to the gravity of what was hitting the UK. The media and independent scientific community too, going by countless interviews on the box, LBC and 5live. Experts openly talking about the touchy-feely Mediterranean nature, their habit of living under one roof with grandparents and a smoking culture all as reasons why Italy and Spain were suffering more than the UK was and would. [MENTION=189]Wozza[/MENTION]’s early posts about the threat, were met with jokes or derision by many of us.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Indeed. It's like New Labour - Alastair Campbell et al (9/11 good day to bury bad news) never existed ...

Yes, I agree with you. If Bernard Ingham invented the weaponizing of English Spin doctoring, Campbell nuclear-proliferated it.

But in both their cases these two were pursuing what they saw was a rightous cause.

I don't see Boris as a man like Maggie or Mr Tony (at their beginnings; both lost their vision later but that's for another day).

And I don't see Cummings as a man with a rightous cause. Brexit is far too narrow to fit that bill. And if Boris has spent the last 20 years with Brexit as his rightous cause then he's covered that up well. Yes, we both know that he has barely given Brexit a thought till it suited him. But....that's OK.

Nevertheless....when it comes to relentless spin, if the current government has hitched its wagon to that (relentless spin) as its main tactic for everything, it is surely far too soon, lacking in a rightous cause (other than to 'win') and in that regard, rather new and rather American. People will eventually see through it and sniff at it.

But I did say if. I am letting out my leash on Boris right now, as I hope his professional ememies (Starmer's labour) will. Then, if a yank back is required it will be all the more brutal.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Did this afternoon's statement from number 10 and the press conference somehow slip by you?

He's being ironic.