O/T:- ⚠️Impressed with the leadership [The UK Party Politics Thread]

[navypie]

Are you feeling hormonal again sailor boy?

Whatever happened to Pugwash? On another note. I was looking at the Derby board the other day and I see yer ode sparring partner, Tricky, is all over it like pickle over cheese. I would guess you knew that anyway??

[Notts78]

What other countries who have tackled this issue far better than us have done.

Imposed the lockdown earlier instead of telling people to wash their hands a lot.
Followed the WHO advice to "test, test, test" instead of ignoring it.
Proactively sourced and distributed PPE early instead of letting other countries get in first.

Driller pretty much agreed with you, and I pretty much agreed with Driller on 2 points that you raise. The one I discussed with him is the timing of lockdown. We will never know how Jo Public would have dealt with lockdown had it been done earlier, but IMO it would have been catastrophic (more so than what we are currently seeing).

[seriouspie]

Does all that bullsh!t mean that you classed yourself as a loser when Blair was winning 3 elections?

Of course .... no problem if you accept defeat with disappointment but good grace. Sorry apologies, I doubt if you know any of the social graces.

[Notts78]

The only thing I would say about the lockdown, Notts78, is that Leo Varadkar did it here, did it earlier, and did it right before St Patrick's Day of all things, and my dear old mother back in Blighty is banging on about how she's glad I'm over here now as she's seen that Ireland has something like the second best record for managing the pandemic behind the Solomon Islands every time I ring her.

I'd be intrigued if anyone is going to suggest that the Irish love of the pub is less than anyone elses!!

I certainly wouldn’t suggest the Irish love the pub any less, I would suggest the opposite.
I am glad that the Irish have a low mortality rate. However policing 5 million people with just over 2m in one city is a piece of cake compared to the UK demographic.
And let’s say 10% of the 2 populations breach the lockdown rules... I think you can see where I am going with this. The numbers just don’t compare.

[magpie_mania]

Thankfully Starmer is a bit more supportive of the initiatives and steps the Government has taken. He is probably relieved that Corbyn isn’t running the show as the UK would certainly be in a much worse place. Dianne Abbott giving daily updates congratulating the government on achieving its target of 8 billion tests a day.
All staff furloughed on 110% of normal salary. 800 new hospitals built in recorded time and (wo)manned accordingly. Hang on a minute we shouldn’t have needed the 800 hospitals because less people would have been infected under Labour so wouldn’t have needed hospital treatment.
All joking aside, sitting at the top of the tree in the EU for the number of deaths is sad to see. This government has clearly made mistakes, as I am 10000% convinced any government would have. However, we should put this League table in to context as we ordinarily sit near the top of the mortality tables in the EU along side Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
It’s easy for us all to sit here with hindsight and zero pressure of people’s deaths on our hands or how businesses will function when this is all done, or whether our economy recovers and provide could’ve, should’ve and would’ve opinions.
IMO it’s worth seeing the end result rather than where we sit now before assessing the Government’s performance in all of this. It’s a bit like getting up/down on where Notts sit in the League when there are still games to play.

If your last point is right, last season when we were in relegation trouble, we shouldn't have commented until after game 46.

[magpie_mania]

Of course .... no problem if you accept defeat with disappointment but good grace. Sorry apologies, I doubt if you know any of the social graces.

Shouldn't accepting victory also be done with good grace?

[pingu_pie]

I certainly wouldn’t suggest the Irish love the pub any less, I would suggest the opposite.
I am glad that the Irish have a low mortality rate. However policing 5 million people with just over 2m in one city is a piece of cake compared to the UK demographic.
And let’s say 10% of the 2 populations breach the lockdown rules... I think you can see where I am going with this. The numbers just don’t compare.

That's one interpretation of it that you could argue, yes.

Let me throw back, however; despite the vastly different population numbers, both are essentially island nations which ought to therefore have been able to close themselves off relatively easily, as opposed to places like France and Germany, with long land borders. Leo Varadkar took it seriously right from the start, made fast, hard decisions, and inspired a generally good adherence to the lockdown (we've been in it longer than you, remember) with his excellent, statesmanlike appearances speaking to the nation that have won him praise internationally. And he did this while serving as only the Acting Taoiseach, as the three big parties here were all negotiating the formation of the next government - Varadkar himself wanted to go into opposition, from what I understand.

To borrow your words - I think you can see where I'm going with this.

If anything, I'd have thought the British population would have been more likely to follow the rules than the Irish one - all that British spirit of the Blitz certain populist politicians like to bang on about, no?

[navypie]

That's one interpretation of it that you could argue, yes.

Let me throw back, however; despite the vastly different population numbers, both are essentially island nations which ought to therefore have been able to close themselves off relatively easily, as opposed to places like France and Germany, with long land borders. Leo Varadkar took it seriously right from the start, made fast, hard decisions, and inspired a generally good adherence to the lockdown (we've been in it longer than you, remember) with his excellent, statesmanlike appearances speaking to the nation that have won him praise internationally. And he did this while serving as only the Acting Taoiseach, as the three big parties here were all negotiating the formation of the next government - Varadkar himself wanted to go into opposition, from what I understand.

To borrow your words - I think you can see where I'm going with this.

If anything, I'd have thought the British population would have been more likely to follow the rules than the Irish one - all that British spirit of the Blitz certain populist politicians like to bang on about, no?

On that last line, too many chavs with no respect for the police these days. I worked in France a few years back and saw first hand how their police don't take any sh1t from anyone.

[BigFatPie]

https://twitter.com/sime0nstylites/s...616553985?s=21

For those who accept Boris Johnson has made a complete mess of it, this is a great thread considering the reasons why and contemplating more generally why we elect such terrible governments.

Post Cold War complacency is a good starter.

[i961pie]

That's one interpretation of it that you could argue, yes.

Let me throw back, however; despite the vastly different population numbers, both are essentially island nations which ought to therefore have been able to close themselves off relatively easily, as opposed to places like France and Germany, with long land borders. Leo Varadkar took it seriously right from the start, made fast, hard decisions, and inspired a generally good adherence to the lockdown (we've been in it longer than you, remember) with his excellent, statesmanlike appearances speaking to the nation that have won him praise internationally. And he did this while serving as only the Acting Taoiseach, as the three big parties here were all negotiating the formation of the next government - Varadkar himself wanted to go into opposition, from what I understand.

To borrow your words - I think you can see where I'm going with this.

If anything, I'd have thought the British population would have been more likely to follow the rules than the Irish one - all that British spirit of the Blitz certain populist politicians like to bang on about, no?

How many Italian,Chinese,Indian, Pa-istani, Bangladeshi, Afro Carribean etc. etc. live in Ireland compared to Britain?
These people travel back and forth to their country of origin creating a large risk, but the vast majority are British citizens so they are entitled.
Mind you it is criminal that when we new of the problem they weren't tested or isolated.