This virus has been a godsend for the Tories. For 10 years theyve been able to blame their incompetence on Gordon Browns decision to bail out the banks - and now just as that excuse was runing out of gas, we have coronavirus. So, brace yourselves for more austerity and inequality. Somebody will make a lot of money out of this crisis - but it wont be you.

It is legitimate to criticise the government for being slow on the uptake now we have the benefit of hindsight.

But there were a distinct lack of voices outside government calling for all that preparation back in January / February. (Apart from within the public health/epidemiology community, but then we've been conditioned to ignore experts).

Back then, most of us probably thought this was something like SARS or Ebola. A scary but distant disease that we hoped would be contained regionally and not reach us. The attitude from most people in the UK even at the start of March, was a kind of incredulity that people were talking about playing sports fixtures behind closed doors - when we have flu outbreaks every year and nobody bats an eyelid.

It's a bit like when we had the financial crisis a decade ago. During the mid-2000s, there were a handful of academic economists who were warning that the banking system was on shaky foundations and needed more regulation, but nobody really listened to them. In opposition, the Conservatives were calling for less regulation of the financial sector, not more, and as late as 2007 George Osborne was pledging to the Tory conference that the Tories would 'match Labour's spending plans' so nobody could accuse them of not investing in public services. Then the house of cards came down in 2008 and the government had to pump tons of rescue money in to stop the banking system from collapsing and prevent us from being in a situation where the average person lost their savings and deposits and businesses went bust as their credit lines were cut.

A narrative was then created in hindsight to attack Labour which was: they failed to regulate the financial service sector during the 2000s and they spent too much on public services, and yet neither of these lines had been used by the opposition before the crisis happened - the Tories were advocating less regulation and matching Labour's spending. All a load of disingenuous bullocks.

So, when it comes to criticising the government this time, I think we have to be fair. When you hear commentators saying "why weren't you talking about ordering ventilators back when you were talking about bonging Big Ben for Brexit and building a bridge to Ireland", the fair response is, "were you talking about ventilators back then or were you talking about Big Ben and the bridge to Ireland or Priti Patel being a bully...?"

The government here has been slow on the uptake but is by no means unique in that. Italy and Spain were completely blindsided by this. We've at least learned from them and taken strong action even when unpopular. Boris's right wing government may have resembled Trump over the last year, but in this crisis, they've handled it better than Trump has. They haven't been nakedly political about it and they might end up suffering political cost because of their decisions - if their strategy works and the death count is not as big as feared, the political cost will be worse as people will say "you shut the country down and crashed the economy AND it was no worse than a bad year of flu....".

I saw Ed Balls got a lot of stick because he went on the One Show or something and basically agreed with the government's approach and especially the financial support they have given, and on twitter he is being blasted as a "Tory shill". But politics shouldn't be just about scoring points against the other side, it should be about advocating what you think is right. If Balls had been Chancellor his approach would have likely been similar to what Sunak did, hence he's saying it's right.

Really if we are going to end the old culture war and Brexit war and "come together" like people say we should, this should be a time not of making political arguments but saying OK what have we learned from this. There are some lessons here that I think there would be a consensus from most Labour supporting and Conservative supporting voters. We need to build up our capacity to deal with unexpected events. The idea that you can put everything in the hands of the private sector and let the state wither away is nonsense. Even the arch Tories in my family are all in agreement with this. When a crisis like this happens, you need a strong NHS and police and other public services with reserve capacity to step up. It also means we have to look at funding the military too. A lot of my peers who support Labour/Lib Dems/Green see the military as an afterthought and dismiss when the top brass give warnings like we aren't capable to carrying out the military operations that we used to; couldn't stage a Falklands operation again etc. We expect that there won't be a military crisis where we need them, so we can just slash their resources, but then when something happens we'll be caught with our pants down.

Also - we need to stop this trashing of academics and experts and realise that when people with a lot of knowledge about a topic warn us about something, it might be worth listening rather than just saying they are an "out of touch elite" and "the British people know what they need".

South Korea manufacture the tests. They have 5 factories dedicated to it, just as some UK companies are switching to the same task. Yes of course in your brain there should have been millions of tests immediately available despite every nation on the planet frantically trying to buy them, but you appear to be living in cloud cuckoo land.

So you think all airports should have been closed immediately? Yes, you could seal off the country, but how long for? There will be no vaccine until perhaps 2021. And it was probably already here given the tens of thousands Chinese students who travelled home and back over the Christmas break, similarly all those who travelled to Northern Italy early in the year. With a high R0 it was already spreading.

We could have locked down immediately - but again, how long for? A year? To what purpose? No-one leaves their house for what, 6 months? All the while the virus is spreading globally and is not going to go away. Then we open up again with no vaccine? Have a think about that.

Ask yourself - how long can South Korea and others stay locked down? What happens when their population - that has not been widely exposed - starts moving again? Another outbreak, back to square one.

No, you cannot escape this. The only strategy is a managed spread, allowing a significant percentage of the population to be infected in order to build widespread immunity, which is what we are doing. "Flattening the curve". It's not nice and people will die but if it comes back in cannot spread anywhere near as quickly or widely and the NHS will not be as overwhelmed as it is about to be. I'm not actually sure why I'm bothering to try and explain this again, you're either incapable of understanding or are too biased.

And I'm sure you think we should have 20,000 ventilators and associated equipment, as well as masks, gloves, etc just sitting in storage? Bearing in mind many of these items degrade over time and become useless. The fact is, every nation is ill-equipped for this and yes, doctors all over the world will have to prioritise those who will die anyway, over those with more chance of survival. Those are the stark realities of a novel pandemic, not the comfortable entitled world we've all been living in so far.

BTW it's already reached my family. My sister's husband was horrifically ill for over a week. Fortunately her family are symptom-free so far. My family and I are in day 12 of isolation for various reasons. I actually suspect (and hope) we've had it although very mild, but it's a chance I cannot take. But if we haven't had it and in about 6-8 weeks things start moving again and we all go back to work, we'll be much safer with a largely immune population around us. Do you get it yet?

You know that, do you? He spent all his time on this bridge,did he? All of his daily No.10 briefings were focused on the allegedly proposed bridge were they? He spent all his time commenting on it, rather than a few remarks? Are you positive it wasn't the media occupying far too many column inches with an amusingly unlikely story? Because if not, prove it.

I assume that's the royal "we", because all I see here is a total lack of comprehension of the UK's strategy, vastly unrealistic expectations, and surprise that things are escalating. Jolly well done you for being so intellectually advanced compared to your peers.

BTW, deaths in Italy hit 28 on 28th Feb, by which time Boris had already stated that tackling COVID19 was the government's "top priority". Hand washing and other advice had been issued and a number of COBR sessions had been held. If you're saying you wanted a total and immediate lockdown, it would have been pointless and counterproductive in the long term. The first UK death wasn't until 5th March.

And for the umpteenth time - stop politicising this. Some of the best scientists and medical experts are driving this, not Boris Johnson. Plans prepared over decades and being assessed against the experiences of other nations in recent weeks are being put into play. You cannot escape a novel pandemic. They know better than you, me, Boris and most of the human population. Has it all been perfect? No. Show me a country where it has.

And Santa Claus Suni shuffles another £10 billion quid into his Tory vote base slush fund



This time for the £150 grand a year self employed tax avoiding company directors working as limited companies for the last 10 years.

whose £3 grand a year accountants pay them minimum wage to avoid income tax, and have trouser the rest in dividends at 10% tax, thus avoiding 25% corporation tax.

And not forgetting their wives who they employ as so called company secretaries, again tax free.

Fill yer boots time lads

Boris Johnson took Trumps lead for the month of February and sat on his ample backside and did nothing but talk coronavirus down and protect his crony capitalist pals in the boardroom and stock market.
As Cummings said, who gives a toss about a few thousand pensioners.



I already know of solicitors assembling class action stratagem against this shocking Boris Johnson government for negligence.

This is worth a look from an american surgeon, last 5 mins is a bit repetitive tho.



[urlhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4J0d59dd-qM[/url

A company isn’t allowed to pay dividends if it doesn’t make a profit. If it makes a profit it pays corporation tax, then it can pay dividends.

That's pretty well put.

The only part of the Governments strategy that seemed wrong at the time and more so with the benefit of hindsight, was allowing people to travel freely overseas to anywhere they chose.
Absolutely crazy in the circumstances.
Maybe this was in the vain hope of protecting the Airlines but, if so, it clearly didn't work.

Politically speaking, the only other area where we have been "caught short", is with the lack of nurses etc within the NHS, which is largely down to government policy over the last 10 years.
Also, the audacity for Johnson to extol the virtues of the NHS and the staff working within it, after his government froze the wages and cut the bursaries (which is why there is such a shortage), is borderline sick - the two faced b'stard.

Protect his pals in the stock market? Check out the uk stock market at the onset of the outbreak of the pandemic. Then have a look at the market as it stands at the moment.

Oh dear, no such thing in the UK, jog on troll.

[url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51706225Indeed, unless Boris and his mates are invested in Orange concentrate...[/url

Trust all the NHS staff and key workers are all getting £5k a day Danger Money off this Shyster capitalist joke show

you're not responding to the numerous posts saying you are wrong then?

figures, I think you see trolling as exercise, wish you'd stick to once a day.

We are having to limit our freedoms to save the NHS. The problem is Johnson and his party have made no effort to do so themselves over the last 10 years. To make it worse they increase the workload by not testing those NHS staff having to isolate unaware if they actually have the virus. This in addition to the lack of PPE and ventilators which also increases the stress for NHS staff. This suggests that the biggest threat is not the public but the Conservatives.
I note that the deputy medical director is not so practiced at lying like Johnson because she indicated that we could remain under restrictions for three to six months or even longer. The current three weeks is only a test to see its impact before they decide how longer to extend it. Johnson indicates that the three weeks were to access if the current limits could be reduced.
The fact he is also sending a letter to every household is not just only a waste of money but puts the Royal Mail staff at increased risk. He could just do one of his now presidential tv appearances to say what he would have put in the letter.
I know it means him combing his hair but it would save several millions in postage which could go on the missing equipment.

My theory is some people are so stupid and self-centred, it'll take an official letter from the PM to finally get through to them. I wonder if he'll be sending one to Johnson Snr after his defiant "I'll still go to the pub", despite the nation being advised not to the day before? How many more people like old Stan will be dismissing this as 'just some bug that's going round'?

Nail on head there King Street.
Everyone thinks that they know best and especially the older generation.

The more spritely ones value their independence above al else and dont want to be "confined to barracks".
There ought to be an advert showing a grandparent giving the virus to their Grand Children or something. I know this sounds to be in extremely bad taste but, they either dont understand or, choose not to understand the severity of the thing.
This really isn't about how it affects you or me etc, it's about the other people who we may come in to contact with or the people that we meet, may com into contact with that will spread the virus and some wont recover.

My Mum and Dad were quite blase about it until only recently. Offering to look after our 3 year old so I could get some work done at home, and inviting us all round for dinner! It wasn't until I explained the severity that they realised how bad an idea all that was.

It tickled me when I read this. We aren't in our 70's but mid to late 60's. My wife, who is a very intelligent person couldn't understand why none of ours are able to come round for Easter Sunday and to be fair, I had a good think about it.

Reckon as you get older, change of any kind is hard to take in, especially as regards family.

Our daughter and two lads patiently explain why but grandchildren and grandparents relationships don't do logic, it's just sheer emotion.

I’ve heard that in these times of National Emergency that Lyin Boris is going to order that all private company and stock market dividends are to be diverted into NHS funds to purchase PPE and ventilators.

Any objections?

We’re all in this together

My Mum signs every phone call off with "so, we don't when we're going to see you all, do we?", and I reply, "you do, in about 12 weeks".

One of the problems is that people struggle to deal with the concept of risk, when it comes to very rare events. And also people's complacency increases with time. So bad events come as a real shock, eg home destroyed by floods or being diagnosed with a critical illness, even though maybe you've known for years you lived in an area prone to floods or have had lifestyle factors (obesity/smoking/drinking) that predisposed you to higher risk. The longer people live with risk, the less they worry about it, so its a shock when something happens. When there's been a terrorist attack, people are nervous in train stations and stadiums and taking the tube for a few weeks, but then gradually forget about it.

With the risk of pandemic, we've been fortunate that some of the feared outbreaks in the past never materialised. SARS got contained in the far East. Avian flu didn't develop in to human-to-human transmission. Swine flu did hit us, but had a low fatality rate so was just a "bad flu year". Ebola got contained in Africa. So I guess it was easy to think when we started hearing about Covid-19 in China, that this was going to be SARS again, something that got contained after a few months and never impacted us. Nobody has been through a serious pandemic before as we haven't had anything on this scale since Spanish flu a century ago, so nobody had any fears lurking in the memory. I bet if Covid had come about say in the 1970s or 1980s, the older generation then would have been the ones who were taking no chances, after having memories of what happened with Spanish flu when they were young, and the "boomers" who would have been in their 30s or 40s would have been more dismissive then, just like they are now they are in their 70s or 80s.

Another thing that has made it harder to get the message across is the way politics has been run in recent years, with a "counter-intellectual" culture being encouraged where "experts" are dismissed as being part of some kind of establishment elite with an agenda to undermine Britain, and "the man on the street" knowing best. So when scientists and health professionals started saying this is a big deal, a lot of peoples default reaction was to say "what nonsense, you're not going to stop me going out for a pint".

I think most people - including the older generation - thought until a week or so ago, yes this is a new virus and I will probably get it but it will be a few days in bed then recover, just like getting a normal virus. If we had locked down earlier, most people would have thought this is a load of fuss over nothing and not really complied. The rising death count is probably making people realise that this is a real problem and so compliance will improve as people understand it is necessary.

trolling again....

It must be cheaper to test everybody than the cost to an already failing economy. We are already heading for a recession and after our sacrifice to save the NHS next we will have the austerity to save the failing economy made worse by our withdrawal from the EC.