O/T:- Impressed with the leadership

[BigFatPie]

That's an excellent article, and demonstrates very well why an issue like this isn't / shouldn't be / can't be divorced from politics.
I have zero idea of how someone could have watched this play out so far and thought there is good leadership involved; apart, of course, from those who view the entire world through "Get Brexit done" and think the answer to everything is Diane Abbott is rubbish. Having just moved over here, Varadkar was much quicker in making decisions to limit social interaction, and that's without there even being a government. Even then, it could be said they perhaps ought to have shut more things down more quickly.

A couple of friends at my old workplace have kept me up to date with the instructions they were being given from the executives, and it was laughable how long it waffled to what is still not a stop - for several days it included the lovely instruction that "if you share a house with someone who is having to isolate, you must still come to work". All these decisions were based on... The UK government advice.

One thing of particular interest is the mentions of the nudge unit. Not the first time I've read about them, and if it turns out that "following scientific advice" meant they were listening to behavioural insight on people getting frustrated by staying home for a while then... Well, do I need to spell out the failure in strength of leadership in that case???

Whatever you think of his politics/record/lifestyle, Johnson is just the worst type of person to put across a simple message that can be clearly understood. Not only because of his delivery, but because he appears to just not want to tell people anything that he thinks they won’t want to hear.

Having said all that, stopping at home with your kids is going to drive people mad, including me.

[sidders]

Methinks Banjo, i961 and several others need to demarcate 'politics' from 'party politics'. The first should be open house, the second far less important at this time.
One can see in many of the above posts the same kind of unhealthy 'it's all a big con' attitude to the virus that makes people spread out on Skeggy beach or queue to climb Snowdonia though they would, of course, claim they were responsible citizens (Serious, Beechy).

Boris is doing his best to project himself as a benevolent headmaster who, if things don't improve, will keep 5a in for an hour after school rather than shutting down the flucking academy lock, stock and barrel.

[tarquinbeech]

Methinks Banjo, i961 and several others need to demarcate 'politics' from 'party politics'. The first should be open house, the second far less important at this time.
One can see in many of the above posts the same kind of unhealthy 'it's all a big con' attitude to the virus that makes people spread out on Skeggy beach or queue to climb Snowdonia though they would, of course, claim they were responsible citizens (Serious, Beechy).

Boris is doing his best to project himself as a benevolent headmaster who, if things don't improve, will keep 5a in for an hour after school rather than shutting down the flucking academy lock, stock and barrel.

You are aware that these viruses are never going to stop, and never have in the past?...it's nobody's fault except the greed of humans in general, a vastly growing population consuming ever-decreasing amounts of land, water and natural resources.
Humans rape and pillage and desecrate their own environment....they don't care, never have.....then nature comes along and bumps off a few thousand, a million, 5 million.....because somebody wanted a leg of pangolin, monkey ribs and bat soup.

So Sid's answer is to shut down all the world's economies, close all the airports, the schools, everything, every time we get a whiff of "here comes covid20 or 21".....wow, I'm glad you aren't running the country.

Boris acted on the advice given to him by experts, they were there at the daily briefings to take copious amounts of questions, and his actions have been broadly in line with other countries in similar situations....Fatboy says he doesn't understand Boris's message, delivery and style, so my advice is wait until the Guardian print out today's latest instructions in big bold letters.

[frenchmagpie]

Says the bearded Leftie perchance? Trump will still get re-elected old lad.

Nope, just bright enough not to be fooled by the BS you right-wingers suck up. And no he won't, he's been found out bigly. Of course, not by you right-wingers who have sucked up his BS.

[pingu_pie]

Next time anyone sneezes, let's close the country down, cancel every single sporting event, arrest Elite and his Chelters bus and give them an automatic 12 months in pokey......anyone daring to open their front door, shoot 'em in the head, level all the schools and supermarkets (they ain't gonna be needed after everyone is dead anyway) and lob mars bars and burgers-n-chips onto rooftops via drones to the few survivors....there you go, vote for Tarkers, the man with all the answers.

Meanwhile, I'm happily growing my veggies, the animals are chewing the grass and I might live on the wild side tomorrow by walking to the supermarket to buy another litre of Captain Morgans....oooo errr Tarkers, that's scary, "yes I know, I might trip and get a grass-burn"

An excellent piece of satire on overreacting there, Mr Beech.

Well, it would have been, had the virus popped in, say, the Lake District a few days ago. As it has been in the news for two months or so, with evidence of how quickly it was spreading, instead it reads like some standard libertarian bull****.

Boris, and his Prime Minister, is failing at leadership. Will is no surprise, as Boris has failed at every job he's ever had. His only success - and what a success he has made of it - is persuading / conning ordinary folk that he has any interest in them, their lives etc, in order to get himself further and further out his depth as he goes along.

[Elite_Pie]

Fatboy says he doesn't understand Boris's message, delivery and style.

When I listen to Boris saying "The errr, errm government will be errr, errm doing all it can to errr, errrm get us through this" I get the impression even he doesn't have much confidence in what he's telling us!

[BigFatPie]

When I listen to Boris saying "The errr, errm government will be errr, errm doing all it can to errr, errrm get us through this" I get the impression even he doesn't have much confidence in what he's telling us!

Have a look for the video of Trump trying to read ‘0.25%’.

He makes our Boris look like Martin Luther King!

[SwalePie]

Have a look for the video of Trump trying to read ‘0.25%’.

He makes our Boris look like Martin Luther King!

[optipez]

Predictably and sadly the criticism of the government has gone down the usual lines on here. The broad left think he's a slow acting idiot, a non partisan quiet majority are hoping he's doing a good job but will have reservations and some on the right will cheer him on regardless.
Personally I'm very glad that we don't have the 2019 parliament in charge and I've no faith at all in Labour doing a better job at the moment.
I'm delighted I'm not in charge,( yes, I know, everyone is ) but what a massive responsibility to have thrust on your shoulders, can't think of a worse job in the country right now.
It's easy to do a Piers Morgan and scream for more to be done now but we've had to step change the economy, coral a country not used to having freedoms curtailed and do it whilst ensuring there isn't anarchy and social breakdown from a mass panic. He's managed that in a fortnight and offered a colossal amount of financial help to get us through it all without imposing martial law or welding people into flats.
Already we've gone from 5000 to 12,000 ventilators available with more to come, early testing of a possible vaccine and managed to get a large number of retired NHS staff to volunteer.
As a nation we've done pretty well so far, not perfect, too much hoarding, some not being very sensible and some truly wicked people out there scamming the vulnerable but pretty well overall I think.

I am missing the football though, really missing it. So lucky we didn't do a Bury, their whole season has been like our last fortnight.

[i961pie]

Predictably and sadly the criticism of the government has gone down the usual lines on here. The broad left think he's a slow acting idiot, a non partisan quiet majority are hoping he's doing a good job but will have reservations and some on the right will cheer him on regardless.

You have hit the nail on the head, the brexit debate all over again with the usual suspects lining up on either side.