Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

13536384041135

Comments

  • For Boris that was surprisingly waffle free. (Although didn't they comb his hair beforehand?)
  • I suspect the PM is one of those people who will always look rumpled. I once worked with a chap who, despite having his suits and shirts made-to-measure (Savile Row and Jermyn Street) and hair trimmed by Trumper's every 3 weeks, always looked dishevelled.
  • I suspect the PM is one of those people who will always look rumpled. I once worked with a chap who, despite having his suits and shirts made-to-measure (Savile Row and Jermyn Street) and hair trimmed by Trumper's every 3 weeks, always looked dishevelled.

    Yes, you're probably right. I did wonder about the still-ruffled hair. But I thought it would've been ridiculous for him to have got specially groomed for that announcement, and actually had more authenticity because it clearly was the same BoJo at work; but this time really being a Prime Minister. Remember how he was criticised - probably rightly - when he got his hair cut during his campaign for Downing Street, trying to look more statesmanlike? It would've been a silly distraction for him to suddenly look smarter than usual, as if everything that had gone before was 'old' Boris, but now he was being properly serious. Ironically, if ever there was a time he needed to recognizably be himself as we know him, this was it.
  • Looking at the two other national leaders available at the last GE I can't see either of them doing any better in the current circumstances.
  • Obviously, you're wrong, but the current circumstances wouldn't be the current circumstances without the 10 years of degradation of the NHS and the social care system and public health and the benefit system. So, fuck the Tories. They've killed people quietly throughout that decade, and now they're killing them openly where we can no longer finally ignore it.
  • If there had been a Labour lead government in December then PM Corbyn would have started to invest in the NHS before this virus reached this country, though there wouldn't have been time to repair any of the massive damage of a decade of Tory mismanagement. There would have also been steps taken to make the welfare system fit for purpose (again, probably not enough time to have done anything significant) but the plan would be there to reform/replace Universal Credit which could have been accelerated in the circumstances to provide a proper safety net for those who now need it. The emergency measures taken to protect the economy would have been biased to provide financial security for workers rather than business owners, maybe the introduction of a universal basic income. I'd be surprised if PM Corbyn would have used this emergency as an opportunity to cut away care for the disabled.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    Also I suspect, as in Spain, he would have nationalised the private hospitals - and when he had to take over the railways and cover their losses he would have proceeded to complete nationalisation rather than bailing out the companies involved with the intention of handing them back later.

    I also think, if I was in charge (and let’s all be thankful I’m not because I lack the knowledge, experience and stress management skills) I’d have renationalised the post office / Royal Mail and tried to assertively recruit to use it as a safe distribution network. It goes to every address and is centralised organisation so you could roll out hygiene protocols - potentially integrate other courier services into it as ancillaries.

    (This is why they are suspending competition regs so supermarkets can organise shared deliveries - just seems to me it would be easier to do this via the Royal Mail.)

    Arguably the government, should draft lyft and Uber into the NHS volunteers effort - much of volunteering will be transport, and they could use a deal with lyft /Uber to provide financial security to the drivers. Likewise milk delivery companies - could be coated for doorstep delivery to the vulnerable.
  • Coopted, not coated.
  • chrisstileschrisstiles Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    Looking at the two other national leaders available at the last GE I can't see either of them doing any better in the current circumstances.

    Given that the things Sunak - as an example - has been getting plaudits for - are a fraction of the measures that Mcdonnell and others have been calling for, I think you are obviously wrong. More prosaically, perhaps that first COBRA meeting would have been earlier, maybe they wouldn't have got it wrong initially because they followed the advice of cocaine swilling weird scarf eugenicist guy, maybe they wouldn't have put so much trust in the 'nudge unit.

    Well, actually you are probably correct, because if the situation had been reversed I think we'd be A Very British Coup territory at this point.
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    I take it you have reliable evidence for the cocaine?
  • @Doublethink
    Milk delivery companies, as you call them, don't exist in large parts of the country. Similarly we don't get daily post deliveries either, 3 days a week is the norm for us.

    Never heard of lyft, and there is no Uber in our neck of the woods, nor do any of the supermarkets deliver to many houses.
  • Yup, but if the government took over these in the short term they could expand provision in those areas it doesn’t currently cover.
  • Eirenist wrote: »
    I take it you have reliable evidence for the cocaine?

    Given his blog contains the phrase: "Adding AI to already broken nuclear systems and doctrines, hacking the NSA etc — mix coke, Milla Jovovich and some alpha engineers and you get…?" I'll give myself permission to use artistic license.

    Though amused that it was that to which you took exception.
  • Jesu, mercy. Mary, pray.

    That is the man supposedly running this country (I don't count The Mad Mophead)...??

    We. Are. Doomed.
  • Yup, but if the government took over these in the short term they could expand provision in those areas it doesn’t currently cover.

    We'd put reliable broadband and a decent mobile signal at the top of the list, followed by TV reception via aerial that doesn't reduce you to two channels whenever atmospheric pressure is high.
  • Well you know there was a plan for fibre broadband in the labour manifesto too.
  • But that's socialist broadband. Free-market broadband, throttled for the poor and those in less desirable postcodes is far better.
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    CS, I didn't take exception. I just wanted to know. It's what I suspected.
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    Boris has Coronavirus, but will still lead the government
  • How sad.
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    That he has the virus, or that he's still leading the government?
  • How sad.
    The odds are that he'll fully recover.

  • I would never wish anyone ill. Although that is challenging right now. However, it's not wrong to wish that the PM's personal involvement teaches him some empathy.

    AFZ

    P.s. for the record I have mild symptoms.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    May they stay mild, and swiftly disappear...

    As for The Mad Mophead carrying on leading the government, I thought that role was being filled already by Dread Cthulhu Dominic Cummings.
  • I would never wish anyone ill. Although that is challenging right now. However, it's not wrong to wish that the PM's personal involvement teaches him some empathy.

    AFZ

    P.s. for the record I have mild symptoms.

    Logical bonds AFZ - hope you and yours stays safe and gets better.
  • How sad.
    The odds are that he'll fully recover.

    What a tragic state of affairs.

    And yes, fullness of healing to AFZ.
  • DafydDafyd Shipmate
    for the record I have mild symptoms.
    Best wishes.
    I'm glad to hear he was tested. If they have enough capacity to test an under-60 year old with mild symptoms who can work from home that means they must be able to test all NHS staff.
    Angry, me?

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I think you've expressed what everyone's thinking, Dafyd. I agree with AFZ too - maybe it'll teach him a bit of humanity.

    I know it makes me a Bad Piglet, but why couldn't Cummings and Trump have got it too?
  • May they stay mild, and swiftly disappear...

    As for The Mad Mophead carrying on leading the government, I thought that role was being filled already by Dread Cthulhu Dominic Cummings.

    ISTM that Boris is taking notice of the scientific and medical experts and less of Dominic Cummings. Maybe we should be grateful that this is not taking place in the run up to an election as is the case in the USA where Trump is preoccupied with winning a second term. He's taking a heck of a chance but I'm sure he will brazen it out and put the blame game into effect.
  • Dafyd wrote: »
    If they have enough capacity to test an under-60 year old with mild symptoms who can work from home that means they must be able to test all NHS staff.
    Angry, me?
    They also managed to test a man in his early 70s who ignored the clearly expressed wishes of rural communities and the advice of government that people shouldn't go to second homes in the country. And, they tested his wife showing no symptoms.

  • CameronCameron Shipmate
    Have you seen the video of Dominic Cummings literally running out of 10 Downing Street?

    Should one be charitable and assume he was just making haste to get home and self isolate for everyone else’s sake? Or should one draw other conclusions?

  • EutychusEutychus Shipmate
    Talk about bad optics.
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    Other conclusions I think. Maybe he won’t come back
  • They also managed to test a man in his early 70s who ignored the clearly expressed wishes of rural communities and the advice of government that people shouldn't go to second homes in the country.

    I suspect that the specific rural community to which that particular man has gone is happy to have him there, which is certainly of more relevance than the opinion of "rural communities" on whether "second home owners" should travel there.


  • DoublethinkDoublethink Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    To be fair part of the issue with celebrity / politicians & leaders testing - is that they are surrounded by lots of people and exposed to lots strangers - we don’t want them to be super spreaders.
  • They also managed to test a man in his early 70s who ignored the clearly expressed wishes of rural communities and the advice of government that people shouldn't go to second homes in the country.

    I suspect that the specific rural community to which that particular man has gone is happy to have him there, which is certainly of more relevance than the opinion of "rural communities" on whether "second home owners" should travel there.


    Noooo, I don’t think so. It has been interesting to hear how Radio Scotland news programmes have covered this story, interviews with locals etc, compared to how the BBC online news puts it, even in the Scotland section. The radio carries the rage. But that family does not understand how much less loved they are up north (with possibly one exception, who is the sister of the man in question). There is a lot of anger at this story locally. @North East Quine would you agree?
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    I don't think you've grasped the significance of the Queen being in Windsor, Charles being in Scotland, and William being in Norfolk. Minimising the risk of cross-infection? And are you really ill-wishing them all?
  • Was Johnson practicing the 2m / 6ft distancing? at all? consistently? If he wasn't, and this includes all news conferences and meetings, can he be sued?
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    It is 2m where it is possible. They are pretty strict but not totally
  • What I meant was if he was doing the 2m before he was diagnosed. I could also ask: is he now?
  • DafydDafyd Shipmate
    The Guardian illustrates its story with a shot of Johnson and the chief medical advisors at podiums at about arms' distance from each other, but then says they have been more appropriately spaced in the last couple of days.
  • Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Professor Chris Whitty have also tested positive.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Professor Chris Whitty have also tested positive.

    If this were a work of fiction it would be dubbed far fetched.

    🙄

  • Boogie wrote: »
    Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Professor Chris Whitty have also tested positive.

    If this were a work of fiction it would be dubbed far fetched.

    🙄

    Edgar Allan Poe.
  • TelepathTelepath Shipmate
    With no ill wish to him... I'm TRYING, ok?... this shone like a beacon of hope:

    Dominic Goings
  • Boogie wrote: »
    Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Professor Chris Whitty have also tested positive.

    If this were a work of fiction it would be dubbed far fetched.

    🙄

    As a work of irony, it's doing rather well...

    And yes - hopefully The Cummings has indeed goinged.

  • DafydDafyd Shipmate
    There's a long history of SF novels with pandemics that wipe out the majority of humanity. Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel has one that wipes out 90% of humanity in a week or so. Earth Abides, by George Stewart, has one that makes Station Eleven look mild.
  • And in other news a medical fetish company has donated its entire stock of disposable scrubs to an NHS hospital, after being contacted by a branch of NHS procurement - yes, really.
  • Also am I the only person getting repeated spam adverts from sex toy companies with tag lines such as ‘staythefuckhome’, offering me discount vibrators ?
Sign In or Register to comment.