You don't need to self deprecate here

No matter what this government does - have they made mistakes of course they have - you will find a way of twisting the view point to suit your narrow-minded agenda. If we had used the app developed with the help of Google/Apple you would have been moaning about "big business". How long would you like us to wait to go through a government tendering process? we will never get out of lockdown. How would you advocate we develop an app - some non-for-profit group?

Perhaps if you had been quite as smart as you think you are you would still have a lot more customers in your homes than you currently have - hindsight is a wonderful thing?

And here we have it. Avoids questions, facts and science beyond his own little bubble because the answers demolish his agenda. Interesting how you always get personal when you're drowning.

Pathetic - but not at all surprising.

As proof you ignore the inconvenient - I have never disputed your experiences or struggles in procuring PPE. What I did do, was point out that early on in the UK, distribution not supply was the main problem, and also to point out the global situation and the fact most of the main PPE supplying nations had blocked PPE exports, and there had been a massive surge in worldwide demand in the scale of many billions of PPE items, all of which had severely impacted supplies to the majority of countries.
You ignored all of that and resorted to your usual dull '...but Boris...' drivel.

And tell me again how if only the government had published findings of a pandemic exercise (Winter Willow 2007?) you would have stockpiled PPE? Well?

As for fanboy (you found a new word!) - hardly. Yes, I think we should have locked down a little earlier but listening to the social behaviour science behind it and looking outside, I can see why it would have been pointless. I also think the lockdown should be far more strictly enforced rather than the rather cavalier attitude that seems to be allowed (why the feck is B&Q open for example?). I've already given my view on masks - even a tiny benefit is better than none - and in my view they should therefore be required in public - but you ignored that, and the science behind it, as usual. Didn't fit your narrative, did it. Instead we got '...but Boris...' again.

And now you're railing against the new tracing app, because you've heard something about the developers. Here are the facts (which you will probably ignore). The app is being developed by NHSX (NHS digital), Palantir (big data) and Faculty (AI/data). Faculty already had an NHS contract to build an AI lab. One of Faculty's founding team is Dr Mark Warner, who has worked with Cummings (a big fan of AI) and attended a SAGE meeting with him as an observer from a big data perspective. Mark's brother Ben Warner 'reportedly' worked with Dominic Cummings on the Vote Leave modelling programme. What's your point? These people are leaders in their field. Big data is vital right now. You're whining simply because - in their professional capacities - they helped defeat Remain and put Boris in office.
If Remain had won and Corbyn was in office and Labour had worked with Faculty to get there, and continued to work with them, you would have zero issue with it.

You also seem to think this would be a great time for a protracted NHS procurement process, which can take years. The mind boggles.

And then you throw abuse at the millions who pay a little bit of gratitude to the NHS each week. Classy. BTW, you're not front-line, you work in procurement. Spreadsheets, not ventilators.

Sal, I’m now convinced that you’re a parody account.

Brilliant.

You mean, as opposed to bowing in front of blue eyed Boris, a bloke who despite his long, long, list of failings, is still being hailed as our saviour.
The Tories, inspired by Cummings, have shown how they are happy to lie, spin and mis lead the public, with alarming regularity and yet, you choose to have a go at someone who dares to call them out.
We even had the hailing of reaching the 100,000 day testing target, which has failed each day since, it's almost as though they are bending the truth

"Getting away with it" is the Johnson mantra - hoping not to get found out for their failings and despite listening to the science, the UK has the second highest covid 19 deaths in the world, behind the USA and although India will probably surpass both the UK and USA and there are some discrepancies in how each country collates it's figures, this doesn't make for great reading.

Despite the much hailed 100,000 tests a day, specifically on the 30th April , the UK has fallen short.

It's still way to early to apportion blame and there is no doubt that it will be the scientists in the firing line, with Boris & Co absolving themselves of ANY responsibility, it is ultimately the fault of our government.

Even when our death rates are undeniably bad, Raab still manages to throw in some curve ball about the different ways in which other countries might be counting their deaths. It was almost like he was saying "yes, our death rates are high, but we're counting them properly. Are the other countries counting theirs properly?" It's that imperialist, Tory arrogance again, the one which Backwoodsman said was a 'tired, stale cliche'. "We're British. We're the best. We're right. Everyone else is just messing about".

For once, I wish they'd just concentrate on the situation here, and stop using the "hey look! a squirrel!" distraction tactic. It just appeals to the whataboutery brigade who will no doubt be spending their day parroting endless lines of "whatabout Italy, are they counting it right?", "whatabout Germany, are they counting it right?"

No doubt Cronus will be along shortly to explain the counting methods of each and every country, and why his beloved Raab is right on this one.

He's just running it past Mrs Flashman first, hopefully, for her sake, while she's still asleep.

Between them, they are making a right mess of the situation.

We had longer to prepare, absolutely hid behind our inability to test people, with Hancock spewing nonsense about the quality of the available tests, despite Germany, China, South Korea etc, etc all being comfortable with the tests that they were carrying out. Yet again, they have misled the public to absolve themselves of their responsibilities.

Cronus and Sal will be along to claim this is just "spin", you know, like Alistair Campbell did for Blair but, Boris and Cummings are prepared to mis lead all of us.

As the UK deaths continue to surpass those who we deem "equal" to the UK, they will eventually run out of excuses bur, at what cost, in both lives and livelihoods.

I agree with you the Government have not done well here and it will hurt them in the future - what they have got to do now is get everything right from now - release from lockdown and getting the economy up and running are key.

I'd have more respect for them if they were open, honest, and actually managing the situation. Instead, they're managing the message. Even today, we get another dead cat in Neil Ferguson's stepping down. The right wing papers have all lead with this story, despite the fact it happened a month ago. It's almost like they've been saving it up for a bad news day. Is it just coincidence they break the story as the UK registers the highest death toll in Europe? What's more important? A woman calling in on Neil Ferguson for a bit of nookie, or the UK's death rate hitting the highest in Europe? It's a tough one! Don't ever say newspapers don't direct the narrative.

Correct - And the admission from Patrick Valance that the government were too slow on testing etc. is demoted to a 1inch piece!!!!

Releasing the lockdown may put us right back to square one.
They need to get urgent help into care homes, in terms of testing and adequate PPE and stop telling fecking lies.

Hancock and his "no reliable test" is an absolute bloody disgrace.

Remember at the start, when we were told that "keeping deaths below 20,000 would be a good outcome" ?
What happens when they pass 50,000, which they may already have ??

If you look at how many people normally die at this time of year and compare 2020 with the past 5 years, there is one hell of a gap between the "usual" figure and this year, even when you take account of the numbers that the government are admitting to.

Now, either it's a very unfortunate year or, we aren't being told the truth and with Boris and Cummings "running" the show and the probability is that, the numbers losing their lives to covid 19 are being massively underestimated and in the absence of any meaningful tests, it will all be open to conjecture, which probably suits the government.

Of course, I'm just a "leftie" having a rant so feel free to dismiss my comments (as usual) but, you know that I'm right.

I remember certain posters ridiculing my comments when I suggested that the UK's death toll would surpass Italy, France and Spain but, guess what, we've proved that we are no 1 in Europe after all.

Their circulation is so low compared to TV and social there influence is no where near what it once was. If the radio and TV didn't lead with it then it would be a non-story