The official Boris pm cluster-fuck thread

[Baxter Parp]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/world/middleeast/coronavirus-antibody-test-uk.html

U.K. Paid $20 Million for New Coronavirus Tests. They Didn’t Work.

You may have heard of this already, here's how it happened.

Classic clusterfuck.

Edited April 17, 2020 by Baxter Parp

[Theroadlesstravelled]

1 hour ago, Baxter Parp said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/world/middleeast/coronavirus-antibody-test-uk.html

U.K. Paid $20 Million for New Coronavirus Tests. They Didn’t Work.

You may have heard of this already, here's how it happened.

Classic clusterfuck.

That’s a disgrace.

It makes it even worse when there are nurses and doctors dying cause they can’t get a 90p mask.

[Jacksgranda]

5 hours ago, Baxter Parp said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/world/middleeast/coronavirus-antibody-test-uk.html

U.K. Paid $20 Million for New Coronavirus Tests. They Didn’t Work.

You may have heard of this already, here's how it happened.

Classic clusterfuck.

A joint RoI & NI effort fell through. Although some was delivered and didn't work. Can't find the story now.

[Crùbag]

A couple of pertinent articles doing the rounds this morning. Surely, heads have to roll in London once this is over. We should go back years too - to the systemic running-down of the NHS and the ignoring of the Cygnus exercise 3 years ago by the Tory govt.
 

Quote

 

Ben Fogle – an early experiment from the petri-dish of reality tv – who seems to have been elevated by the dark recesses of British popular culture into some figure of substance writes: “It’s the Queens birthday next Tuesday. Let’s throw her a surprise. At 9am 21st April, we are calling on the whole country to sing Happy Birthday from our windows and doorsteps. Let our song bring good cheer not just to Her Majesty but to the whole nation #singforthequeen”.

We’re literally living with death and disease stalking the land and the default anglo-normative response is to sing for the fucking Queen. Not only that but the not-so-subtle Vera Lynn and World War 2 references are shoe-horned into your consciousness. The result is to reinforce deference and hierarchy and to sidestep openness, transparency and accountability. The ancien regime responds to every crisis, however severe with cultural bunting.

 

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2020/04/17/gaslighting-the-virus/

Quote

The days in question are 12-23 March, days in which the government decided to all but give up contact tracing and do, well, nothing. Mass gatherings were still allowed; concerts and racing and Champions League football; pubs and public transport. The over-70s, it must be conceded, were advised to avoid cruises.Medics in Italy screamed: “Do something!” “Don’t make our mistakes!” “Look at what happens if you leave it too late!” In those 11 days, our government decided there was nothing to be done. We wrestled open-mouthed with the ideas of “taking it on the chin”, “letting it pass through the community” and “herd immunity”.

https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/04/eleven-days-may-have-tragically-cost-uk-fight-against-coronavirus

[Granny Danger]

1 hour ago, Crùbag said:

A couple of pertinent articles doing the rounds this morning. Surely, heads have to roll in London once this is over. We should go back years too - to the systemic running-down of the NHS and the ignoring of the Cygnus exercise 3 years ago by the Tory govt.
 

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2020/04/17/gaslighting-the-virus/

https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/04/eleven-days-may-have-tragically-cost-uk-fight-against-coronavirus

We will never get rid of moral corruption and forelock tugging conservatism through the democratic process.

I am not advocating armed insurrection, simply stating a fact.

[peternapper]

If he had any decency Johnson would follow Hilters example & not re-emerge from his bunker.

 

[doulikefish]

Things must be bad he is getting it from the Sunday Times

 

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by doulikefish

[Detournement]

You've got to admire Boris's sheer laziness. He's made it to the top by being a skiving malingerer so why start attending meetings now.

I would wager he's taking a Churchillian approach to boozing and sleeping in office. 

[marty_j]

Things must be bad he is getting it from the Sunday Times
 
 

Full article

https://archive.is/20200418182037/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-38-days-when-britain-sleepwalked-into-disaster-hq3b9tlgh

[Granny Danger]

25 minutes ago, marty_j said:

 

Full article

https://archive.is/20200418182037/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-38-days-when-britain-sleepwalked-into-disaster-hq3b9tlgh

 

Everyone should read that article in full, but here’s four paragraphs:

They told us that, contrary to the official line, Britain was in a poor state of readiness for a pandemic. Emergency stockpiles of PPE had severely dwindled and gone out of date after becoming a low priority in the years of austerity cuts. The training to prepare key workers for a pandemic had been put on hold for two years while contingency planning was diverted to deal with a possible no-deal Brexit.

 

Several emergency planners and scientists said that the plans to protect the UK in a pandemic had once been a top priority and had been well-funded for a decade following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. But then austerity cuts struck. “We were the envy of the world,” the source said, “but pandemic planning became a casualty of the austerity years when there were more pressing needs.”

 

In the year leading up to the coronavirus outbreak key government committee meetings on pandemic planning were repeatedly “bumped” off the diary to make way for discussions about more pressing issues such as the beds crisis in the NHS. Training for NHS staff with protective equipment and respirators was also neglected, the source alleges.

Members of the government advisory group on pandemics are said to have felt powerless. “They would joke between themselves, ‘Haha let’s hope we don’t get a pandemic,’ because there wasn’t a single area of practice that was being nurtured in order for us to meet basic requirements for pandemic, never mind do it well,” said the source.

[Crùbag]

For a Tory paper like the Times to eviscerate Johnson in that way, then surely his tenure as PM must be in question.

His negligence has been criminal though obviously a lot of the shortcoming go back years.

Will we see him back? Certainly, he should see manslaughter charges once we come out of this shitstorm.

[The_Kincardine]

21 minutes ago, Crùbag said:

 

Will we see him back? Certainly, he should see manslaughter charges once we come out of this shitstorm.

Top stuff.  I've despaired of the nutty end of the Natter spectrum of late as they've been too quite but charging Boris with manslaughter has fair cheered me up.

Not even a lockdown stops the Natters from being industrial strength fantasists.

[NotThePars]

14 hours ago, Crùbag said:

A couple of pertinent articles doing the rounds this morning. Surely, heads have to roll in London once this is over. We should go back years too - to the systemic running-down of the NHS and the ignoring of the Cygnus exercise 3 years ago by the Tory govt.
 

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2020/04/17/gaslighting-the-virus/

https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/04/eleven-days-may-have-tragically-cost-uk-fight-against-coronavirus

 

I've said it before but at least the Soviets had show trials

[WhiteRoseKillie]

Top stuff.  I've despaired of the nutty end of the Natter spectrum of late as they've been too quite but charging Boris with manslaughter has fair cheered me up.
Not even a lockdown stops the Natters from being industrial strength fantasists.

Many Prison Service employees have faced disciplinary action, and several have been charged and appeared in court, due to alleged negligence in DIC cases. The offence is known as Corporate Manslaughter. Why, as a Public Servant, should Johnson be any different if he neglects to carry out his duties?

[doulikefish]

This has to be Gove making a play for the top job 

 

[WhiteRoseKillie]

This has to be Gove making a play for the top job   

 

Assuming you're referring to the Ridge interview, it's more like he's trying to light a bonfire of what little credibility he may have left. Point blank refusing to answer very simple questions until he's been on the blower to be told how to spin this massively embarrassing situation. Pathetic, and Sophy, despite her reputation, let him of the hook again and again. 

ETA: just noticed he's on Marr as well. Let's see what he's got to say there..

 

[doulikefish]

4 minutes ago, WhiteRoseKillie said:

Assuming you're referring to the Ridge interview, it's more like he's trying to light a bonfire of what little credibility he may have left. Point blank refusing to answer very simple questions until he's been on the blower to be told how to spin this massively embarrassing situation. Pathetic, and Sophy, despite her reputation, let him of the hook again and again.

 

Sorry i was referring to the Sunday times artice I should have made that clearer but it has the hand of Gove all over it imo

Edited April 19, 2020 by doulikefish

[doulikefish]

It all becomes clearer now."Lets make money while the people die"

 

 

[pandarilla]

It all becomes clearer now."Lets make money while the people die"
 
 

I read about that speech being uncovered in a different article yesterday.

That's going to be a big story, surely.

That could turn the public opinion if it's highlighted enough. But that's a big if.

[Sergeant Wilson]

11 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Everyone should read that article in full, but here’s four paragraphs:

They told us that, contrary to the official line, Britain was in a poor state of readiness for a pandemic. Emergency stockpiles of PPE had severely dwindled and gone out of date after becoming a low priority in the years of austerity cuts. The training to prepare key workers for a pandemic had been put on hold for two years while contingency planning was diverted to deal with a possible no-deal Brexit.

 

Several emergency planners and scientists said that the plans to protect the UK in a pandemic had once been a top priority and had been well-funded for a decade following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. But then austerity cuts struck. “We were the envy of the world,” the source said, “but pandemic planning became a casualty of the austerity years when there were more pressing needs.”

 

In the year leading up to the coronavirus outbreak key government committee meetings on pandemic planning were repeatedly “bumped” off the diary to make way for discussions about more pressing issues such as the beds crisis in the NHS. Training for NHS staff with protective equipment and respirators was also neglected, the source alleges.

Members of the government advisory group on pandemics are said to have felt powerless. “They would joke between themselves, ‘Haha let’s hope we don’t get a pandemic,’ because there wasn’t a single area of practice that was being nurtured in order for us to meet basic requirements for pandemic, never mind do it well,” said the source.

It's both shocking and unsurprising, but the scale of deliberate action to remove protection is nearly beyond belief. Apart from paying for brexit propaganda it's difficult to see where the money has gone. You can only assume it's been siphoned off.

I would have said before it might have gone on defence, but military sources say much the same as the health specialists. Has anyone checked we've still got boots and guns or will we buy them off the Chinese if something crops up?