[hibeejim21]

Ahhh. The londongrad laundromat.

The tory party is basically bought and paid for by Russian oligarchs who often have used their influence to get them golden visas, fasttracks to the establishment, help in property deals etc etc - much of their money is the proceeds of some pretty dodgy stuff washed clean in the city of London.

It's been going on for years, and now they have direct influence on the UKs political direction - Cummings and Brexit being prime examples. I'd bet you anything Cummings Russian pals will be getting a fat slice of these 'state aid' deals next year.

[hibeejim21]

Good lord.

I really cringe every time I hear that clown tramp or any of his craven, catastrofuck gang of ministers speak.

We could all die of covid and the xxxx would build a brexit lorry Park on top of us.

A despicable, incoherent, jingoistic fuckwit. I hope his next shite is a hedgehog.

[0762]

Ha ha ha ha!! I listened to about 30 secs of that Johnson statement and that was enough - tv switched off! Also a tad peeved that the Scot govt kowtowed to these c####. I can see why they did it but would rather we went our own way on this - so annoyed that the no of infections in Scotland suddenly "turned" on us and of course the social implications are very disappointing.

[ritchiebaby]

I totally agree with your general opinion of Boris and His Merry Men who rob from the poor and give to the rich. BUT as far as Covid is concerned, it's not the Government's fault that the prevalence of the virus is increasing.

It's the selfish, irresponsible behaviour of a minority of the general public, generally the 20 to 40 age group, who deliberately go against the Covid advice, as predicted 6 months ago. All of the UK authorities are up against the same problem. It's no use drumming home the advice in TV broadcasts or leafleting because that minority won't be watching or reading them.

I've been an arch critic of Government responses to the pandemic, but there's only so much they can do. I remember a post from jim about lockdown, then relaxation until the NHS is in danger of being overwhelmed and then repeat lockdown and so on ad infinitum. It's coming true as we speak. As far as the Test And Trace fiasco is concerned, if everyone followed the advice to socially distance and self-isolate, we wouldn't need Test And Trace because the virus would be defeated by human behaviour, as Professor Jason Leitch has been banging on about over the last two weeks.

[hibeejim21]

Actually Ritchie I think he is very much to blame that the prevalence is increasing.

His initial response was shambolic, he's constantly given out mixed messages, eat out to help out, the farce that is test and trace such an important weapon against covid spreading, not sacking that piece of shit Cummings and by association giving people the green light to start accelerating us out of lockdown, encouraging people back into the office while the medical officer was advising to work from home....

It's all very well blaming the public, and I do agree with you about the selfishness of some but the buck stops with bunter as far as I'm concerned..... And something to watch out for - 3 times today he mentioned bringing the army in, it wouldn't surprise me if he imposes some kind of martial law, especially when Brexit kicks in and the shit really hits the fan.

[ritchiebaby]

It's not just his response that's shambolic, Boris as a person is shambolic - his ebullience and bluster are pathetic attempts to carry people along with his madcap schemes. His baffling protection of Dominic Cumming was defending the indefensible and probably caused a backlash, meaning that he lost any chance of gaining the compliance of many of the more reasonable members of the public.

There's no doubt in my mind that the behaviour of the general public has a vital effect on the Covid crisis and all four UK nations have the same problem, where all their plans have been undermined by a small minority.

[0762]

Yep! Good comments. I listened to a vg debate re the "advice" that the govt has issued re various elements of the tighter measures to combat COVID19 eg don't go on hols abroad unless it is essential travel. Not a strong enough message opined quite a few critical callers. I reflected back to the strict way that the likes of the Spanish or Italian Police previously applied their govt's tough measures to ensure people really perceived "what is at stake" and the implications for offenders. We don't do it that way in this country. Therefore a faction of the population are just "taking the piss" IMO. I acknowledge the "softly softly approach" that is favoured but not if certain offenders are just flagrantly ignoring said advice while the majority of the populace are trying very hard to conform to the govt requests for cooperation. Should we try to "reset" for say a "tough" fortnight?? I don't know but I perceive that even after a reasonable success following such a measure, COVID19 will still be out there anyway although a significant reduction and control of the spread will have been achieved.

[hibeejim21]

Johnson's statement was a screed of unmitigated brass-necked arrogance, absolving himself from any errors or blame. We shouldn't be helping him with that.

His pish about British people being 'freedom loving' hence the figures compared to Germany and Italy was risible. They love freedom so much he's taken away their freedom of movement in Europe.

The real elephant in the room though is as others here have pointed out - it's not really a NHS test and trace system, although boris calls it that. It's run by the likes of Serco and dido harding and has completely sidelined the NHS labs, local health authorities and universities....Y'know people who might actually know that they are doing.

[theo_luddite]

To right Jim - but Bodgit, Hands-on-Cock and the thoroughly obnoxious weasel that is Reece-Smog don't get back-handers from them do they? In addition the Government doesn't want to fund them anyway. If they did they might unexpectedly start to function again. A dysfunctional NHS, or any other Gov't owned "utility" or business is far easier to sell off at a low price when it can't function properly than at a high price when it can.

[hibeejim21]

I saw on the news in Germany they have these pop up testing points at stations where you can get a test, get your result straight away and its all fed into their test and trace system on the spot.

Capacity isn't an issue there, just local regulations when there is an outbreak.