Point 1 - Hunt would have been a far better leader for Covid than Boris - different skill set

Point 2 - this is a fast moving situation - the government tried to control movement over Christmas to minimise the impact - hence the 5 days - they believed the population wouldn't comply to a full lockdown over Christmas - things changed especially in the south - and we all know the South is the only thing that matters - so plans had to change - action was taken quickly - not sure what you wanted the government to do?

I think it's easy to forget that the early mess we found ourselves in was due to a lack of a pandemic management strategy and a shortage of PPE. Hunt was the previous Health minister and as such picks up a significant proportion of the blame(As does Burnham! albeit from some years ago)

The lack of PPE was down to mismanagement of the national stockpile. We received some laughable consignments that were utterly unusable. Had a Trust done the same with it's own equipment its feet wouldn't have touched the ground.

Again, leftism and no reality. I would rather have a pot plant running the country than Cringebin or Stammer.

You’re in luck then because we do.

How on earth can you blame ANYONE who was part of the last Labour administration for the current chaos is actually, ridiculous.
The Tories have been in charge for well over a decade and the current lack of strategy and planning is on their shoulders.

Have you forgotten last summer already.
Stay in, go out, stay in. Go to work, work from home, go to work.

It's been like a sick version of the hokey cokey, with peoples lives and livelihoods on the line.

Christmas, egged on by the Tory press will be another Covid disaster and in another 7/10 days time, we will see the effects of Boris's advice - numbers are already exploding and the period of peak pressure on the NHS isn't yet upon us

Burnham



We may as well blame Thatcher, after all, that bottle of milk was quite important to many of the poorest kids

As opposed to the pudding "running" the country we have now ?

The thread title was certainly accurate.

He'll be back shortly with his 'politics of envy' bollox.


As I caught Hislop explaining the other week, the bellend couldn't get his head around the simplicities of appearing on a tv panel show, never mind trying to be a nation's figurehead.

You're in luck, then, because the current PM is very much like a pot plant in that he too needs plenty of sun, takes a regular watering, and haphazardly spreads his seed everywhere.

Hunt had some difficult decisions to make - the Tories came into power with a financial crisis on their hands - not solely Labour's fault - to cash was squeezed. The NHS has a finite amount of money so how do you make the best use of the funding?

Do you invest in PPE just in case of a potential pamdemic - last one was around the time of the 1st world war or do you spend the money on the here and now - treat cataracts, hip replacements etc? Hindsight is great thing - ask Brown when he ordered all those vaccines. This wasn't incompetence it was an informed decision based on a set of circumstances.

Not sure you can blame Burnham

Actually a Flu Pandemic has been the most serious risk on the National Risk Register since 2004 - above everything including terrorism, floods etc. Government investment in a central buffer stock of PPE has been a lynchpin of response plans since then. This is because economies of scale make it better that they maintain large supplies of "in date" PPE rather than individual hospitals and GP Practises. Hospitals were literally told to only buy small amounts to tide them over until the central stocks were released.

Unfortunately we saw for ourselves that investment in the central buffer stock hadn't been what it should be when orders couldn't be processed due to shortages and we received items that were years past their expiry date and utterly unsuitable or unsafe. I could tell you stories that would make your hair stand on end.

While Covid19 wasn't influenza the PPE required was much the same as would've been needed for a flu pandemic.

I hope this particular part of the shambles isn't forgotten about when the public enquiry is held.

would that be a GLOBAL PUBLIC ENQUIRY?

I'm not with you. What?

Well, the WHO have been blocked from China, nearly 2 million will have died worldwide, so why would an anti-tory UK public enquiry be sufficient?

other than to suit the political agenda of some on here?

You would hope a open enquiry would set a platform of excellence in dealing with a future large scale public health emergency.

There is no doubt this government has not covered itself in glory and it doesn't seem to learning from its passed mistakes i.e. over promising.

There isn't a government in the world that couldn't have done a better job it is just a matter of highlighting those areas and developing a more appropriate solution.

I think there's more to be gained by learning lessons in time for the next pandemic. To not do it because it might hurt someone's feelings isn't a valid excuse.

you mean like we learned from fake WMD, selling off gold at a record low, or do you mean a chance to try and give the Conservatives a bloody nose. Ypur aim is as flimsy as the basis for your politics.

Anyway,enough said, this is getting boring,green user names intimidating people.

To find out what has been done well and what could be done better in future



The UK cant control what happens in China but, it can take some "learning" from what happens over here (understatement).

Thankfully nobody cares about your opinion.

You cared enough to post

According to the PM, it's too early to say where any mistakes have been made in the Covid response.
The UK now has the highest death rate per capita in the world and many of those death are at the feet of the country's "leader".
Too indecisive to act, either when closing borders, going into lockdown or his "world beating" test and trace.

Shame on him.

shame on the lefties spilling hate and insults, wish I had a green username.

When you are the only country in the world that reports deaths as “any reason within 28 days of a positive test” I’m not surprised we do.

Although the excess deaths figure which is the internationally accepted standard to work out mortality rates pretty much equals the above and still confirms that we are the worst in Europe for Covid deaths

What I don't understand is why the government don't simply explain the thinking behind the decisions - if mistakes have happened then people will understand the logic - dealing with this is not an exact science as we have seen across the world.

Would it not be simple to explain why they delayed the first lockdown - they didn't want to trash the economy - perfectly logical position

Why didn't we have sufficient PPE - finite money it was invested in other more pressing areas - actually how many trusts in the NHS did run out - none.

Care homes - we panicked when we saw what was going on in Italy - in hindsight very poor decision

Communication would have gone a long way - sadly politicians never want to admit they got it wrong - and no one gets everything right