UK Government Performance 2019-2024

[Freakbro]

If the straw does brake the camel's back - you know it will be over something much less significant like no pigs in blankets for Christmas. 10s of thousands of preventable deaths - pass. And they're already wheeling out the 'we don't recognise' these findings excuse.

Oh, I heard the "lesson will be learned" line...

So the Govt has been too slow to respond to Covid
They have been too slow to respond to the HGV driver shortage
They have been too slow to respond to the Butcher shortage
They have been too slow to deal with the Energy price crisis

I think I'm spotting a trend....

So much for the 'take back control' and making Britain a lithe agile international performer that can respond to issues and cut trade deals in a way that is so much quicker for ourselves now we aren't being held back the the beaurocracy of the EU....

 

[Mr C]

Holiday and report release date convenient timing ?

Almost certainly, he knew this was coming and didn't want to be around for PMQ's etc.. when this was in the public domain.

Boris could easily be replaced with very simple guide to being PM:

1) Can I make a 3 worded slogan / joke?
YES - Make joke/slogan
NO - go to 2

2) Can I lie/pretend it didn't happen?
YES - Lie
NO - go to 3

3) Can i hide?
YES - find nearest holiday destination / fridge
NO - run away, return tomorrow with option 1.

Decision making:

1) Are there >1 choices available to make a decision from?
YES - go to 2
NO - Chose only option

2) Do I need to make a decision today?
YES - let someone else decide
NO - wait (return to 1)

Edit: Default mode: Waffle, waffle, waffle.

 

[Dolph]

Nothing will come of it. I always saw racism as being a problem for the Cons but nothing stuck, news papers, Joe Public don't appear to care. It comes across as a sort of causal racism from decades past that it now no longer acceptable in public let alone a national party.

You compare that with Labour in the news you'd think they were actual Natzis, endless articles, day after after. I'm not trying to say there wasn't a problem but to this day it feels like this country is far less forgiving when it comes to antisemitism compared with racism directed to black, asian people.

The difference is that Tory racists aren't seen as hypocrites, whereas labour racists (due to the parties positions and agenda on the issue) are. Labour are held to different standards because they hold others to different standards.

For the avoidance of doubt, James gray should be suspended by the party, but when your leader should never have still been a member due to his history of racist statements, it's unlikely to happen.

 

[Nate--IRL--]

Interesting that Hypocrisy is a bigger crime than either racism or anti-Semitism.

Nate

 

[Dolph]

Interesting that Hypocrisy is a bigger crime than either racism or anti-Semitism.

Nate

In the eyes of the general public, hypocrisy is seen as worse than most other things. It is usually hypocrisy and dishonesty that causes scandal, rather than the actual issue itself.

Telling people how to behave is unpopular but accepted. Telling people how to behave while failing to live up to those standards is always rejected.

 

[Hagar]

In the eyes of the general public, hypocrisy is seen as worse than most other things. It is usually hypocrisy and dishonesty that causes scandal, rather than the actual issue itself.

Telling people how to behave is unpopular but accepted. Telling people how to behave while failing to live up to those standards is always rejected.

Many Tory grandees downfall has been due to hypocrisy of the sexual kind, remember John Majors Back to Basics campaign and several ministers from Majors and Thatchers cabinet failing the whiter than white test. Including John Major himself it transpired. Of course Harold Wilson allegedly had an affair so it is not exclusively a conservative peccadillo.

 

[Dolph]

Many Tory grandees downfall has been due to hypocrisy of the sexual kind, remember John Majors Back to Basics campaign and several ministers from Majors and Thatchers cabinet failing the whiter than white test. Including John Major himself it transpired. Of course Harold Wilson allegedly had an affair so it is not exclusively a conservative peccadillo.

Exactly, hypocrisy has always been the biggest political killer.

 

[ltron]

Exactly, hypocrisy has always been the biggest political killer.

I hope Johnson is held to that standard when he fails to 'level up' the country and instead makes deliberate political choices that level it down.

 

[ltron]

A great article about the shameful and avoidable failures in our pandemic response. It amazes me that as a country we are all too eager to support the lowest standards of governance for some intangible future benefit even if it means very dire consequences for us: https://www.theguardian.com/comment...nment-boris-johnson-scientific-advisers-polls

 

[Dolph]

I hope Johnson is held to that standard when he fails to 'level up' the country and instead makes deliberate political choices that level it down.

I would hope so too, but I have my doubts.

 

[Dolph]

A great article about the shameful and avoidable failures in our pandemic response. It amazes me that as a country we are all too eager to support the lowest standards of governance for some intangible future benefit even if it means very dire consequences for us: https://www.theguardian.com/comment...nment-boris-johnson-scientific-advisers-polls

The biggest failing for me is that the same mistakes were made over and over again. Thinking that public responsibility and people making good choices would have been enough to keep things in check was forgivable the first time, but when it was clear that approach failed completely, there was zero excuse for continually returning to it and delaying responses in the vain hope that maybe this time people will actually do it. We're still seeing this with the utter failure to bring in covid passports for mass gatherings and clear approaches on mandatory vaccinations for employment purposes.

Likewise the door for abuse of exemptions should never have been left open in the way that it was.

Some parts can't be blamed on the government, the police failure to use the regulations brought in by doing basically nothing to enforce them has to count as one of the greatest act of stupidity going, for example, and was not a failure of government. (Example https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-54295612.amp)

Given how much more directly dangerous a pandemic is was than speeding, there is zero justification for not using the speeding ticket model for breaches of pandemic control conditions.

 

[MadMossy]

Every country in the world has handled covid poorly, and they all did different things. No one has got it right.

 

[Dolph]

Every country in the world has handled covid poorly, and they all did different things. No one has got it right.

Agreed, but that just means we shouldn't use it for partisan points scoring. Specific criticism and suggestions for alternative approaches to that criticism are somewhat different. We should also give praise where it is due, the UK gov's vaccination involvement was a definite high point, even if other factors reduced some of its impact.

 

[Mr Jack]

Every country in the world has handled covid poorly, and they all did different things. No one has got it right.

Nonsense. Many countries handled it well, but as excellently as countries like NZ did, they can't hold back the tide of infection flowing from countries that bungled it. It's only because of Western nations fluffing their handling of this that there is a pandemic.

 

[Dolph]

Nonsense. Many countries handled it well, but as excellently as countries like NZ did, they can't hold back the tide of infection flowing from countries that bungled it. It's only because of Western nations fluffing their handling of this that there is a pandemic.

Pretty much no western nation handled it well, because the measures that were required to do so are almost entirely at odds with liberal western democracy. NZ and Aus had a bit more freedom to react due to their geography meaning they are only really a travel end point, not a travel through point, and their relative remoteness means they attract much less business travel than USA/UK/Europe/middle East.

The problem is that we are still not having any meaningful discussion about this reality. We have developed societies where the perceived rights of individuals go beyond the normally considered approach of 'no restrictions on rights as long as you don't harm others' to a more problematic one of 'no restrictions on my rights even if I'm harming the rights of others', which cannot be considered healthy.

 

[MadMossy]

Nonsense. Many countries handled it well, but as excellently as countries like NZ did, they can't hold back the tide of infection flowing from countries that bungled it. It's only because of Western nations fluffing their handling of this that there is a pandemic.

NZ were able to do the things they have because of their location and small population, there's no way on earth somewhere like the UK or US could have got away with half the crap they pulled off without serious retaliation. Being in a perpetual lockdown where people didn't leave their homes for months on end. Then you have Australia with its draconian police enforcement of ridiculous covid laws, again things which would have never gone unchallenged this side of the planet. Well even the Aussies are getting a bit ticked off by it all now and they are normally extremely chilled about everything.

 

[Mr Jack]

NZ were able to do the things they have because of their location and small population, there's no way on earth somewhere like the UK or US could have got away with half the crap they pulled off without serious retaliation.

For the majority of the pandemic NZ has had far less restrictions than Western Europe.

But even then, most of that was because the west screwed the pooch at the start. Without that the problem is dealt with and gone. Repeated lockdowns occurred because we failed, instead of achieving Covid-zero we let it spread round the world and produce worse variants. Next time, perhaps we will have learnt.

 

[MadMossy]

If you consider having their borders closed to the rest of the world for the majority of the past 18 months "far less restrictive" then sure I guess your right.

 

[Mr Badger]

If you consider having their borders closed to the rest of the world for the majority of the past 18 months "far less restrictive" then sure I guess your right.

Closing international borders is much less restrictive on most people's day to day life than (say) closing down the hospitality sector and telling most of the population to work from home/not work at all and stop physical contact with anyone outside your own household.

 

[Dolph]

If you consider having their borders closed to the rest of the world for the majority of the past 18 months "far less restrictive" then sure I guess your right.

It largely is, because inbound and outbound travel from NZ (especially to destinations other than Aus) is massively smaller than what's normally considered the west

New Zealand's largest airport is Auckland, pre covid it had about 20m passengers per year (domestic and international).

Heathrow does 75 million.

Gatwick does 46 million.

That's without going into the fact that international travel restrictions only stop international travel, they didn't stop you going to the pub, or shut down your office, or...