Give Boris Some Credit

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

So who do you think would have had the foresight to act better than Boris. Excluding your esteemed self of course.

Good morning,Mottie, sorry to raise an old comment, but it is perhaps the best comment to respond to.
I think your question is way off the mark.
Please allow me to tell you a story.
I remember one time, long ago, when we were touring Ireland, (Eire). We were four lads, we'd take it in turns to drive, one driving, one navigating, (pre satnav days of course) two resting in the back. We'd rotate round, in the seats, so we all took a turn at navigating, driving, resting, resting in that order.
One day, the driver of that period, decided he could take a short cut, against the advice of the navigator. we were heading for Kilmacduagh in County Galway.
Well, after a couple of hours into the drive, and having driven along some very narrow twisty lanes, he eventually agreed he was completely lost.
Fortunately, we found a yokel, sitting on a field gate.
We told him we wanted to go to Kilmacduagh. He took off his cap, scratched his head, rubbed his chin, and thought long and hard. "Well", he said, "if I'd wanted to go to Kilmacduagh, I wouldn't have started from here."

There is a deep philosophical lesson there. I won't insult your intelligence by condescendingly explaining it in detail.
The upshot is when you have managed to FUBAR the situation, be honest, admit your incompetence, and relinquish the reins to more competent people.

The UK now has a government that relies on mass-appeal policies and unachievable aspirations. You are where you are, it would have been far better not to find yourselves here, and it's probable that you could have found yourselves in a far better situation by more appropriate actions long ago and more recently.

 

[durhamplumber]

Good morning,Mottie, sorry to raise an old comment, but it is perhaps the best comment to respond to.
I think your question is way off the mark.
Please allow me to tell you a story.
I remember one time, long ago, when we were touring Ireland, (Eire). We were four lads, we'd take it in turns to drive, one driving, one navigating, (pre satnav days of course) two resting in the back. We'd rotate round, in the seats, so we all took a turn at navigating, driving, resting, resting in that order.
One day, the driver of that period, decided he could take a short cut, against the advice of the navigator. we were heading for Kilmacduagh in County Galway.
Well, after a couple of hours into the drive, and having driven along some very narrow twisty lanes, he eventually agreed he was completely lost.
Fortunately, we found a yokel, sitting on a field gate.
We told him we wanted to go to Kilmacduagh. He took off his cap, scratched his head, rubbed his chin, and thought long and hard. "Well", he said, "if I'd wanted to go to Kilmacduagh, I wouldn't have started from here."

There is a deep philosophical lesson there. I won't insult your intelligence by condescendingly explaining it in detail.
The upshot is when you have managed to FUBAR the situation, be honest, admit your incompetence, and relinquish the reins to more competent people.

The UK now has a government that relies on mass-appeal policies and unachievable aspirations. You are where you are, it would have been far better not to find yourselves here, and it's probable that you could have found yourselves in a far better situation by more appropriate actions long ago and more recently.

Preaching via a quip from a witty Irishman.Ages since I heard that joke...A govt that relies on minority appeal policies will not be governing long.You are starting off from a vague viewpoint that whatever mess we are in is entirely the fault of the govt,,THAT my friend is the first of many assumptions people will disagree on not to mention,the best path to progress.

 

[Bodd]

Lol....poppycok

C4 are even more biased than the BBC

 

[durhamplumber]

and it's probable that you could have found yourselves in a far better situation by more appropriate actions long ago and more recently.

Well ain’t 20/20 hindsight a wonder,if only one had a time machine..

 

[festive]

I have to say Boris speech on Sunday was an all time low for me. Much as i've supported him and wanted him to do well. It's not the Boris i saw come back from the Prorogue to parliament all guns blazing making that speech to the house.
It's like he knows the economy is on a cliff edge and is sh'tting himself now and just wants all the 'workers' back to work to get the economy on track hoping his 'friends' in high places that helped him get there stop ringing his phone demanding such. Hope im off the mark there.

 

[Brigadier]

And what do you do, if you know there is (currently) no such place as Kilmacduagh?

 

[SirGalahad]

I have to say Boris speech on Sunday was an all time low for me. Much as i've supported him and wanted him to do well. It's not the Boris i saw come back from the Prorogue to parliament all guns blazing making that speech to the house.
It's like he knows the economy is on a cliff edge and is sh'tting himself now and just wants all the 'workers' back to work to get the economy on track hoping his 'friends' in high places that helped him get there stop ringing his phone demanding such. Hope im off the mark there.

We started off on the wrong foot and have never recovered. It has been run as a PR campaign from the initial outset of underplaying it, then moving to nudge theory to "wash your hands" until the expected lockdown, from the lack of PPE, mistakes in co-oridnating testing, was then compounded by throwing resources at building Nightingale Hospitals throughout the country for a quick PR win. All the time they were not developing a coherent exit strategy but dealing from the fallout of one mistake to the next.

Now the mixed message is his 'hail mary address', unfortunately Boris let circumstances dictate his response, instead of getting ahead of this early and leading he has been dragged through this by the mistakes. He has become a vicitim of circumstance.

The speech was anything but Churchillian, it was vague and meandering. He survived the Corona virus but I doubt he survives till the end of this parliament, give credit to the Torys they know when to eat their own.

 

[SirGalahad]

And what do you do, if you know there is (currently) no such place as Kilmacduagh?

?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilmacduagh

 

[Brigadier]

?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilmacduagh

I am using it as a metaphor, as Bobby Dazzler did.

 

[crystal ball]

C4 are even more biased than the BBC

In what way are these channels biased?

 

[crystal ball]

Well ain’t 20/20 hindsight a wonder,if only one had a time machine..

Or some common sense

 

[IT Minion]

Boris became leader of the Tories because he was fun. That's part of why they won the election. His work ethic, leadership skills or organisational skills were never really demonstrated or tested. (Or when they were, he did poorly)

Who might have done a better job than Boris? There are 10 medical doctors in Parliament, eight in the Tory party. Probably dozens of MPs would be better able and equiped to handle this crisis, but could they have been elected? Probably not.

 

[Notch7]

Well ain’t 20/20 hindsight a wonder,if only one had a time machine..

thats an excuse, yo uare just a Tory apologist -at least Pete 50 has the balls to say he vote for Boris but he knows this govt have made a total shambles of this crisis.

So how come 90% of the world rejected herd immunity but UK knew better?
how come Johnson was advised by president Xi early on about how to deal with it
how come the UK govt started checks at airports, contact tracing -then dropped it.

your 'hindsight' argument is as much a crock of dung as Tory MPs claiming they are 'following the science'

 

[Notch7]

I have to say Boris speech on Sunday was an all time low for me. Much as i've supported him and wanted him to do well. It's not the Boris i saw come back from the Prorogue to parliament all guns blazing making that speech to the house.
It's like he knows the economy is on a cliff edge and is sh'tting himself now and just wants all the 'workers' back to work to get the economy on track hoping his 'friends' in high places that helped him get there stop ringing his phone demanding such. Hope im off the mark there.

Sadly Johnson and this government won by their ability to campaign, they did not win based on their ability to govern.

At a time like this we need clarity, leadership and honesty.

Instead we get Hancock fiddling the figures to get to 100,000 at the end of April and lots of 'number theatre' like 1 billion pieces of PPE.

I can accept that whoever is in government there would be mistakes, there would be lots of deaths, what I cant accept is a government smugly treating the public like fools and not being honest.

This government would have much more public support if they admitted they got things wrong

 

[durhamplumber]

Sadly Johnson and this government won by their ability to campaign, they did not

He was pushing against an open door with Jezza who can do sweet FA.