[Politics] Who would have been the perfect leader to take us through this pandemic

[Doc Lynam]

Just give me someone with a bit of forethought, integrity, kindness and compassion.

Or even just forethought.

Enjoy Freedom Day.

 

[MattBackHome]

Harriet Harman

 

[MattBackHome]

I genuinely reckon Theresa May would have done a better job as well.

 

[Da Man Clay]

Quite literally any of the other prime ministers who preceded him in living memory. Or all of the last Conservative leader candidates. I find it staggering anyone thinks he has been even remotely competent

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Stewart is a good example of the way the system keeps good and intelligent politicians away from power. Although I have generally detested most Tory governments, I can't deny that there are people of talent (misguided perhaps) in the party. Tom Tugendhat, Tobias Ellwood, Greg Clarke and Sayeeda Warsi seem to have both intelligence and integrity - but not being Brexit nutters, they will never get big jobs under the present administration.

Equally the Labour front bench is alarmingly devoid of talent, while Dan Jarvis, Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper wait their moment. Starmer would also be a better Home Secretary than party leader. I like Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips but I'm not sure either of them are front-line material. And neither Andy Burnham nor David Milliband, the two I might want in charge of the country, are even in parliament.

That's Balls.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

A large part of the problem is in this country we've really got it arse about face with the economic situation and who should be in charge. We tend to install Labour Governments when the economy is doing well and Tory ones when it's not, but in fact it should be the other way round as the best way to do things is to save money when times are good ("fix the roof while the sun shines) and spend money when they're tough (to get the economy moving again),.

As both a big believer in Keynesian economics and a bit of a prudent saver, I agree completely.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Just give me someone with a bit of forethought, integrity, kindness and compassion.

Or even just forethought.

Enjoy Freedom Day.

We were woken up at midnight last night by the dog barking at the sound of fireworks. I guess the nightclubs of Birkenhead are now well and truly open. I fear the worst…

 

[sydney]

Buzz Lightyear.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Good question! - but no idea what the answer is!

You have to have a bit of sympathy for Johnson (yes I know, not allowed on NSC - I fully expect to be shouted down by outraged Boris haters) - obviously had a long time ambition to become PM, and must have been thrilled when got the job, and looking forward to enjoying it - then only weeks later te country is hit with a huge unprecedented disaster which was none of his doing - a global pandemic the like of which we haven't ecperienced in living memory, with no previous experience to call on, no previously proven road map, nothing.

I suspect in a few year's time history will judge him as having got some things wrong and some things right, but all in all generally muddling through pretty much as well as anybody else would have/could have done

Point of order.

He was already mired in one 'unprecedented disaster' (which was very much 'of his doing'), even BEFORE the pandemic struck.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Quite literally any of the other prime ministers who preceded him in living memory. Or all of the last Conservative leader candidates. I find it staggering anyone thinks he has been even remotely competent

Indeed.

Utterly inept. It is genuinely difficult to imagine anyone doing a worse job.

 

[Horses Arse]

A large part of the problem is in this country we've really got it arse about face with the economic situation and who should be in charge. We tend to install Labour Governments when the economy is doing well and Tory ones when it's not, but in fact it should be the other way round as the best way to do things is to save money when times are good ("fix the roof while the sun shines) and spend money when they're tough (to get the economy moving again),.

You could well be right. There is the other argument I guess regarding stimulus to the economy to improve the economic situation when in a downturn - that was what labour were advocating (rightly or wrongly at the time) but the Tory party went for full on austerity, which made things worse. Austerity certainly didn't help, the debt increased massively. Now there's no way of telling whether the other route would have been better but austerity hit the wrong folk for sure.

Johnson is now throwing money at everything (mostly his mates but some suggestions that some money will go on infrastructure projects too) and seemingly suggesting that this is to stimulate the economy. Now this could be seen positively, that they acknowledge their error with austerity and are now seeing a better way forward, but I have my doubts.

I've never liked the Tories, I find them an uncaring selfish self perpetuating set of people, but they did have beliefs and principles in terms of their direction (however awful those beliefs and principles were). They are now in government with a leader with no belief or principle beyond his own power and hence this current money is more ;likely purely for his own benefit, to get away with being in power for as long as he can and building up relationships (i.e. buying off rich people) to gain him great personal wealth when he leaves.

The result of that will almost inevitably be further austerity and pain for the most vulnerable, with the new Tory leader of the government blaming the British public for voting in a charalton and saying they have no choice. If the great British Public voted in Johnson not once but twice then there is no longer any hope for the sort of change that is required.

We're domed I tell ya!

 

[Biscuit]

Another vote for Blair.

 

[beorhthelm]

Nicola Sturgeon has done a decent job in Scotland.

Mark Drakeford in Wales, too, has done well. Sensible, measured and in the main trusted.

overlooking that at times both have seen their nations far higher cases/hospitalisations than England. Scotland was same case rate last week. may be they learnt and imposed more restrictions longer as a consequence, often looks like they do so just to be different to London. Scotland in particular can often be used as a proxy for "what would happen if we did..." and we see similar numbers, showing its not all about policy details but the virus and people's behaviour.

 

[dadams2k11]

F8ck em all. None of them really care about us, they just leave the country in a mess, then go a line their pockets further.

 

[dazzer6666]

Too early to call who has done the best job.......when the pandemic is properly over we'll have a better idea - far from convinced Oz/NZ (for example) are out of the woods yet, and they will need to open up at some point. Pretty sure BoJo won't be winning any awards though.................

 

[king Wombat]

overlooking that at times both have seen their nations far higher cases/hospitalisations than England. Scotland was same case rate last week. may be they learnt and imposed more restrictions longer as a consequence, often looks like they do so just to be different to London. Scotland in particular can often be used as a proxy for "what would happen if we did..." and we see similar numbers, showing its not all about policy details but the virus and people's behaviour.

That's an interesting point, but you would need to look over the period of the pandemic rather than one week Shirley..

I think broadly that the way the Scottish govt. have interacted with the public/opposition parties has been far more 'grown up' and measured than the shit show from Johnson and his cronies.

Plenty of examples, i.e not branding a day as 'freedom day', not spaffing billions of pounds over to donors for contracts, giving the NHS staff a meaningful payrise and not embarking upon cringeworthy u-turn after u-turn, whilst blatantly flouting the rules/parliamentary protocols at whim and countless others are available for perusal..

One good example of this was that before the schools broke up for Christmas, the Scottish govt. announced that the schools would be shut for 2 weeks at the start of the term in January, and that the kids would be homeschooled for a number of weeks after that. That meant that the schools, parents, teachers & kids all knew what was happening. At the time the Tory press hurled into the SNP for doing this as being irresponsible and foolhardy.

Meanwhile despite rocketing numbers down south, the Tories kept going with the mantra that schools would be re-opening as normal in Jan. They opened for ONE day before launching into another shutdown with all the resultant chaos that caused.

 

[GT49er]

Point of order.

He was already mired in one 'unprecedented disaster' (which was very much 'of his doing'), even BEFORE the pandemic struck.

Point of order rejected. The question was specifically about his handling of the pandemic crisis.


Besides, whilst you and I both know the NSC majority view on a certain subject, even on NSC some people (and in the wider world, a far greter proportion) are not outraged or up-in-arms over it.

 

[sydney]

ken dodd

 

[Lincoln Imp]

Like her or loathe her, Margaret Thatcher never avoided tough decisions…

She would have been at the top of my shortlist for sure, although would her housekeeping principles would have allowed largesse such as the furlough scheme and other initiatives?

 

[Gwylan]

F8ck em all. None of them really care about us, they just leave the country in a mess, then go a line their pockets further.

When did Gordon Brown line his pockets? Since leaving number 10, he's only worked for charities and non-profit foundations (often unpaid). Do you have any evidence of these highly-paid gigs he has?

She would have been at the top of my shortlist for sure, although would her housekeeping principles would have allowed largesse such as the furlough scheme and other initiatives?

She was avidly pro-business (particularly British business) in a way that Johnson isn't (remember, "f*** business") so she'd have been keen to keep companies afloat.

She certainly would have got to grips with Covid sooner. There's no way she'd have scarpered on a two-week holiday when the pandemic took hold: there's no way that she'd have failed to attend any of the first five COBRA meetings; there's no way that she'd have gone into hospital and boasted about shaking hands with Covid patients: there's no way that she'd have ignored WHO advice and delayed shutdown.

I can't think of any politician who'd have done worse than Johnson but among PMs I remember, Brown and Thatcher would have probably have done best.