O/T. The Government's handling of Covid

[mistaram]

Well he was off for a week at Chequers before the birth whilst the pandemic was building, in some far flung exotic place apparently paid for by someone he has just ennobled over Xmas and the new year, had paternity leave, I mean he seems to have more holidays then your average person.

And breaking from a holiday to do ones duty as a PM is not quite not having a holiday, though from the last years performance it seems highly likely he is more "not at work" than at work, but i suppose good old Dom is there to do the real work whilst the paid stooges utter nonsensical platitudes.

Williamson hasn't been sacked or resigned, no honour in politics these days, I mean it used to be when a minister ****ed up they resigned, but that seems not to be the case with this shower, too busy finding scapegoats.

Hancock Jenrick, Williamson they shouldn't need to resign they should have been sacked .But when your boss has no morals you can hardly expect the staff to have them

[mistaram]

Agreed, ‘they’ (trying not to be party political here) have ****ed up big style, someone forgot to do pre-implementation testing, a fundamental of the use of computer based logic in any environment. Let’s hope it’s not the same ‘they’ who are in charge of the vaccine.

Well 'they' are in charge of the vaccine theve bought 340million doses of six different types that nobody knows whether they work or not .
The only thing I'm pretty sure about is that they will have shares in the pharmaceutical companies producing them

[Andy_Faber]

Well 'they' are in charge of the vaccine theve bought 340million doses of six different types that nobody knows whether they work or not .
The only thing I'm pretty sure about is that they will have shares in the pharmaceutical companies producing them

You’re probably right. My’they’ though, goes beyond just HMG, I think there have been a lot of **** ups by a lot of entities that could have done so much better. I think a random group of a dozen men and women from’’the public’ should have been given the job of sense checking everything.

[ramAnag]

Here we are, let's stop corrupting other threads and discuss the Government's handling of Covid in it's own thread.

I'll try not to involve the media, as that is covered on a previous thread.

In the Government's defence, these are unprecedented times, creating many difficulties and many impossible decisions to get right.

On the other hand, many glaringly obvious wrong decisions have been made. So many stupid promises and claims have been made, regarding ppe supplies, tracing app and such.

In the fullness of time, you will hope that the true facts will come out. This will be difficult, as people will naturally try to cover up their own failings.

There you go, the floor is all yours.

Well, we’ve discussed, R59 and I think it’s fair to say that, GP’s not untypical indecision apart, the consensus - after 67 posts on the subject - is pretty damning.

[MadAmster]

IMO, going back to the Brexit ferry catastrophe when a Tory supporter (or was he a politician?) got £26M to organise ferry operations across the channel and back. He had no ferries. No experience of the ferry business other than as a customer. To paraphrase BoJo, he spaffed the lot up the wall.

Since then we have had:

The PPE fiasco where more Tory sympathisers got a shedload of money to organise PPE when in fact they had no experience of the medical supply industry. The medical grade masks have already failed the "fit for purpose" test and the non-medical ones, intended for the public, are also on the brink of failure.

The CV App fiasco where another shed got emptied of its cash to yet more friends of Cummings to create an app that has failed. The Irish have one that works and it cost £850K. Why doesn't BoJo offer to but it off the Irish?

There are more examples of nepotism where YOUR tax money has been put in the back pockets of friends, family and backers of BoJo et al and/or the Tory Party. The rich have got richer on the back of all these failures.

Similarly, in the USA, funds intended for small and medium sized businesses have found their way into the pockets of Trump's rich elite friends.

The man in the street is being screwed over while the 1% are lining their secret offshore bank accounts. Bring on the revolution.

[ramAnag]

IMO, going back to the Brexit ferry catastrophe when a Tory supporter (or was he a politician?) got £26M to organise ferry operations across the channel and back. He had no ferries. No experience of the ferry business other than as a customer. To paraphrase BoJo, he spaffed the lot up the wall.

Since then we have had:

The PPE fiasco where more Tory sympathisers got a shedload of money to organise PPE when in fact they had no experience of the medical supply industry. The medical grade masks have already failed the "fit for purpose" test and the non-medical ones, intended for the public, are also on the brink of failure.

The CV App fiasco where another shed got emptied of its cash to yet more friends of Cummings to create an app that has failed. The Irish have one that works and it cost £850K. Why doesn't BoJo offer to but it off the Irish?

There are more examples of nepotism where YOUR tax money has been put in the back pockets of friends, family and backers of BoJo et al and/or the Tory Party. The rich have got richer on the back of all these failures.

Similarly, in the USA, funds intended for small and medium sized businesses have found their way into the pockets of Trump's rich elite friends.

The man in the street is being screwed over while the 1% are lining their secret offshore bank accounts. Bring on the revolution.

All fair points, MA.

When such things happen and at a time when Marcus Rashford makes more sense over education policy than the Education Secretary there’s clearly something very wrong.

You’ll run the risk of being labelled a ‘lefty’ by some. Doesn’t particularly bother me...it’s all relative and I probably am slightly to the left of centre over many issues. Much more about right and wrong than Left and Right though, and you’re right...a ‘revolution’ in terms of values and priorities (as opposed to manning the barricades hopefully) is long overdue.

[MadAmster]

All fair points, MA.

When such things happen and at a time when Marcus Rashford makes more sense over education policy than the Education Secretary there’s clearly something very wrong.

You’ll run the risk of being labelled a ‘lefty’ by some. Doesn’t particularly bother me...it’s all relative and I probably am slightly to the left of centre over many issues. Much more about right and wrong than Left and Right though, and you’re right...a ‘revolution’ in terms of values and priorities (as opposed to manning the barricades hopefully) is long overdue.

Right and wrong are indeed my values and it is those which place me left or right of centre.

I am RoC when it comes to we need people to take risks and start new businesses that fuel the economy and provide jobs. Taxes from those businesses and jobs help fund the social services which the majority of people want to see kept.

I am LoC when it comes to keeping the social services in tact.

I am LoC when it comes to workers being given a fair shake. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work. IMO, anybody working a 40 hour week should be able to feed, house and clothe a reasonably sized family. These days there are zero hour contracts and millions of part time workers. The bosses deserve a reasonable payback for their risk taking in putting money into a start up. They also have the responsibility to ensure that the people who create their wealth through their labour also get a decent living wage. In both NL and the UK we have people working multiple jobs and still not getting enough to get by. Not on IMO.

In the Western world it's all about increasing payouts to the 1% and/or the shareholders and this, all too often happens by squeezing the workforce.

As with everything. their has to be balance. Balance between owners/shareholders and their staff is hard to find.

[ramAnag]

Right and wrong are indeed my values and it is those which place me left or right of centre.

I am RoC when it comes to we need people to take risks and start new businesses that fuel the economy and provide jobs. Taxes from those businesses and jobs help fund the social services which the majority of people want to see kept.

I am LoC when it comes to keeping the social services in tact.

I am LoC when it comes to workers being given a fair shake. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work. IMO, anybody working a 40 hour week should be able to feed, house and clothe a reasonably sized family. These days there are zero hour contracts and millions of part time workers. The bosses deserve a reasonable payback for their risk taking in putting money into a start up. They also have the responsibility to ensure that the people who create their wealth through their labour also get a decent living wage. In both NL and the UK we have people working multiple jobs and still not getting enough to get by. Not on IMO.

In the Western world it's all about increasing payouts to the 1% and/or the shareholders and this, all too often happens by squeezing the workforce.

As with everything. their has to be balance. Balance between owners/shareholders and their staff is hard to find.

Not sure that people taking risks and starting new businesses have to be ‘RoC’.
Look at mista...he seems to have done that but also seems to have been labelled a ‘Lefty’ by some. Seems to me he just understands that business owners need to treat their employees with respect.

Other than that I completely agree with everything in your post.

[macstheman]

You've just described me to a tee MA!
Brilliant post.

Use of the word 'tee' makes me fancy a round on the links.
Sigh.

[MadAmster]

You've just described me to a tee MA!
Brilliant post.

Use of the word 'tee' makes me fancy a round on the links.
Sigh.

Courses over here are open mac. Last used my clubs about 3 years ago, 3 years on from my cycling accident when I thought I'd be OK to hit balls again. Got mesen a a bucket o' balls at the local driving range. After hitting a dozen or so balls I was feeling pain in my damaged shoulder. Gifted the balls to the guy on the next "tee" and not touched them since. Had them (1/2 set left handed) up for sale ever since at €50 including 20 or so balls, various tees, towel...... no takers yet. I've had them 45 years and they were at least 3rd hand at the time. Proper vintage.

Thinking about it. I may just give the range another whirl, see if I can hit a few without suffering pain. If I can I could then accept the 3 or 4 offers of a round I've had year the past year or so. Thanks for the idea mac.