The Politics Thread 2020

[TramRam]

15 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Depends how long it would take to attain the other 18.39%.

 

[Rev]

56 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

I would guess that it was medical/scientific experts that had put the concept of herd immunity forward rather than the Government.

As pointed out in Private Eye a month ago, depends who the scientists were.

Big difference between medical/disease control scientists, and behavioural scientists.

[Norman]

6 minutes ago, reverendo de duivel said:

As pointed out in Private Eye a month ago, depends who the scientists were.

Big difference between medical/disease control scientists, and behavioural scientists.

I built Mr. Nguyen Van Tam's extension a fair few years a go. 

He was a tropical disease specialist before working for the government. 

[Rev]

5 minutes ago, Norman said:

I built Mr. Nguyen Van Tam's extension a fair few years a go. 

He was a tropical disease specialist before working for the government. 

Did you get to call him JVT?

[Norman]

2 minutes ago, reverendo de duivel said:

Did you get to call him JVT?

Yeah, haha. It's always confused me. His initials are JNVT. He's a really nice bloke. Don't see him around much anymore, but then again, I guess he's been very busy making crucial decisions on behalf of all of us. 

[1967Ram]

2 hours ago, Eddie said:

It's never been a case of 'how many' but 'when'. I know that you will pretty well hear nothing against this government, but by basically contemplating 'herd immunity' from the outset instead of testing, tracing and isolating, they didn't merely drop the ball - they kicked it into the motorway.

Like this Eddie?

 

[Gritstone Ram]

2 hours ago, Eddie said:

It's never been a case of 'how many' but 'when'. I know that you will pretty well hear nothing against this government, but by basically contemplating 'herd immunity' from the outset instead of testing, tracing and isolating, they didn't merely drop the ball - they kicked it into the motorway.

But they weren’t geared up for mass testing and it has taken time to Ramp up. How would you have magiced all these tests out of thin air with no testing places and no one to carry out the tests. Oh did the government know about this for years and had stock piled loads of chemicals for these tests. Did they even have a test before March? 
Germany were already geared up to produce these tests on mass but I bet our European colleagues feathered their own nest and couldn’t provide us the amount of tests required to carry out the testing required. So we had to set our own production up. Boris waved a magic wand and oh it didn’t work so they had to do it the hard way.

[bigbadbob]

15 hours ago, ariotofmyown said:

Will this report be released before the one about Russian interference into uk elections? Or the one about Johnson giving public funds to his 'friend' whilst mayor of London? Or the one about how so much money was spent on the ill-fated garden bridge, also when he was mayor?

Hear hear and don't forget the one about the child grooming gangs

[Eddie]

20 minutes ago, Van Gritters said:

But they weren’t geared up for mass testing and it has taken time to Ramp up. How would you have magiced all these tests out of thin air with no testing places and no one to carry out the tests. Oh did the government know about this for years and had stock piled loads of chemicals for these tests. Did they even have a test before March? 
Germany were already geared up to produce these tests on mass but I bet our European colleagues feathered their own nest and couldn’t provide us the amount of tests required to carry out the testing required. So we had to set our own production up. Boris waved a magic wand and oh it didn’t work so they had to do it the hard way.

Basically I would have taken President Madagascar's approach a month before the government did, in the same way that Australia and New Zealand did. If you wanted to come into the country, then 2 weeks in isolation for you, whether you displayed symptoms or not. Don't care how many people would have been affected by that.

As far as Germany 'feathering their own nest' - wouldn't you be applauding British companies - or the British government for that matter - for prioritising British people if the boot was on the other foot? After all, we're not in the EU now so they are no longer 'colleagues'. The inescapable fact remains that we were sorely unprepared, and we had three years warning of that fact because it was in 2016 that the pandemic stress test highlighted the shortcomings - shortcomings that are only now being resolved.

[GboroRam]

52 minutes ago, Van Gritters said:

But they weren’t geared up for mass testing and it has taken time to Ramp up. How would you have magiced all these tests out of thin air with no testing places and no one to carry out the tests. Oh did the government know about this for years and had stock piled loads of chemicals for these tests. Did they even have a test before March? 
Germany were already geared up to produce these tests on mass but I bet our European colleagues feathered their own nest and couldn’t provide us the amount of tests required to carry out the testing required. So we had to set our own production up. Boris waved a magic wand and oh it didn’t work so they had to do it the hard way.

Incredible that it's still the EUs fault. Thought we'd left? 

[Gritstone Ram]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Basically I would have taken President Madagascar's approach a month before the government did, in the same way that Australia and New Zealand did. If you wanted to come into the country, then 2 weeks in isolation for you, whether you displayed symptoms or not. Don't care how many people would have been affected by that.

As far as Germany 'feathering their own nest' - wouldn't you be applauding British companies - or the British government for that matter - for prioritising British people if the boot was on the other foot? After all, we're not in the EU now so they are no longer 'colleagues'. The inescapable fact remains that we were sorely unprepared, and we had three years warning of that fact because it was in 2016 that the pandemic stress test highlighted the shortcomings - shortcomings that are only now being resolved.

I’m not sure how you would police the isolation when everyone else is still moving about may be tag them??

As for a Germany yes I don’t blame them at all. Any country would do the same. What we needed to be able to do is set up these testing centers quicker but you still need a testing strategy. 
 

As for the 2016 shortcomings what were they?

[Eddie]

13 minutes ago, Van Gritters said:

I’m not sure how you would police the isolation when everyone else is still moving about may be tag them??

As for a Germany yes I don’t blame them at all. Any country would do the same. What we needed to be able to do is set up these testing centers quicker but you still need a testing strategy. 
 

As for the 2016 shortcomings what were they?

You tell me. The government suppressed the report because they (and I kid you not) "...didn't want to create panic".

[Gritstone Ram]

3 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

Incredible that it's still the EUs fault. Thought we'd left? 

It’s not Germany or any other country at fault, they have done what you would expect. We hadn’t got the facilities to test on a large scale. Did we need them before March? It’s the ability of getting it set up quick to adapt. I work in a reactive job and believe me an emergency repair can throw all sorts of obstacles in front of you. Unless you have been on the front line having to deal with issues as they come in and making a decision that is made to the best of your knowledge I don’t think people can really appreciate the task in hand. Then getting the logistics Put in while every day another obstacle is thrown in front of you. The actual people who have dealt with this have done really well to deal with what they have picked up.
 

I would say in hindsight we did need to be more prepared but before this there were 1000’s of other real issues that needed addressing. Was the 2016 shortfalls brushed under the carpet? I personally think we have been squabbling over Brexit since 2016 to take much notice of anything else. No real direction or anything for 3 years. Preparing for a pandemic was the last thing on anyones mind before this.
 

[Gritstone Ram]

4 minutes ago, Eddie said:

You tell me. The government suppressed the report because they (and I kid you not) "...didn't want to create panic".

I don’t know but that’s for a later date. Most people were arguing over Brexit to take any notice I suspect.

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

Incredible that it's still the EUs fault. Thought we'd left? 

Its also amazing that the same people who have spent the last 3 years telling us that we should be bending over backwards to co-operate and maintain relations with the EU, dont expect the same in return...

[GboroRam]

46 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Its also amazing that the same people who have spent the last 3 years telling us that we should be bending over backwards to co-operate and maintain relations with the EU, dont expect the same in return...

I can say for certain that the tories and the brexit supporters need to own this pooshow now. Don't blame Brussels or Merkel, don't blame Corbyn, don't blame Blair. 

You proudly didn't "bend over backwards" so you got what you expected. 

Now you have to make it work. You took back control. Congratulations. 

[Eddie]

53 minutes ago, Van Gritters said:

I don’t know but that’s for a later date. Most people were arguing over Brexit to take any notice I suspect.

Whereas the layman could be forgiven for such an oversight, the Department of Health cannot. It's their job.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

I can say for certain that the tories and the brexit supporters need to own this pooshow now. Don't blame Brussels or Merkel, don't blame Corbyn, don't blame Blair. 

You proudly didn't "bend over backwards" so you got what you expected. 

Now you have to make it work. You took back control. Congratulations. 

Agreed.

And the EU need to own the poo show going on with their members.

How is their order of ventilators and PPE going?

Thank goodness we didnt sign up to that scheme hey? And thank goodness we are leaving as we watch as certain countries are hung out to dry.

Easy game this is.

[Eddie]

4 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

I can say for certain that the tories and the brexit supporters need to own this shitshow now. Don't blame Brussels or Merkel, don't blame Corbyn, don't blame Blair. 

You proudly didn't "bend over backwards" so you got what you expected. 

Now you have to make it work. You took back control. Congratulations. 

Unfortunately, that won't happen (making it work). It will always be Europe's fault, they will always to be to blame for everything, and excuses will be found to exonerate this government, the decisions they have made and the people that voted for them because everybody knows that it would have been far worse under a Labour government.

Still, never mind - Wetherspoons are planning to open in a month's time - a self-fulfilling prophecy if ever I heard one.

[A Ram for All Seasons]

39 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Wetherspoons are planning to open in a month's time

With a spitoon at every table.