Boris the builder

[kerouac2]

I just wanted to open a new space to discuss the PM of the United Kingdom.

I actually watched his speech today, standing behind the banner that said "Build Build Build" and it became obvious that interesting things are ahead.

Here is what the BBC said:  Boris Johnson: Economy speech fact-checked

[monetsmum]

What struck me most when I listened to Boris the Buffoon's speech yesterday was that his plans were to pay back a tiny proportion of the money that the Tories have robbed from us over the last 10 years.  

As for build, build, build...........
I worked at a school that was on the list for a 'new build'.  After Michael Gove's cancellation of that scheme we spent years repairing holes in the roof, replacing rotten windows and generally making the school a place fit for children to learn. It was nothing unusual to walk in after a night of heavy rain and be  met by dozens of buckets dotted all over the place.  If our  Head Teacher hadn't been so canny with her budget, had a brilliant PTA, and a partner who was handy at the DIY, the school would have closed. 

And don't get me started on Robert Jenrick! 

Coco the Clown and his Circus get no respect, or support, from me. 

And thanks K2 for starting a thread where I can rant. 

[mossie]

Well. I had named in Boris the Bullshitter before he became PM, when he landed the job he appeared to grow up and become a good PM. However in recent times he has become a backslider and now well deserves his Bullshitter title again

As for that pipsqueak Jenrick, just a typical ex public school upper class twit.

Unfortunately they are the best the country can produce at the moment, where are the Churchills, Bevins, Attlees etc, who can lead us properly.

[mickthecactus]

Hear, hear.

Mind you, it could have been Jeremy....

[monetsmum]

Jul 1, 2020 7:13:28 GMT mossie said:

Well. I had named in Boris the Bullshitter before he became PM, when he landed the job he appeared to grow up and become a good PM. However in recent times he has become a backslider and now well deserves his Bullshitter title again

As for that pipsqueak Jenrick, just a typical ex public school upper class twit.

Unfortunately they are the best the country can produce at the moment, where are the Churchills, Bevins, Attlees etc, who can lead us properly.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Keir! 

[monetsmum]

Jul 1, 2020 9:08:13 GMT mickthecactus said:

Hear, hear.

Mind you, it could have been Jeremy....

If only they'd had Keir in place before the election. 

[lagatta]

Mossie, I believe you mean Aneurin (Nye) Bevan.

[cheerypeabrain]

Monetsmum my darling. A kindred spirit. X

I did think that (altho they reacted too slowly) there was some hope at the start of lockdown. Cynic that he is my son said that the pandemic was a 'gift' to any government (I know it's a terrible thing really). They couldn't really go wrong. A frightened population just waiting to be told what to do. Matt Hancock, Dominic Raab et al were flanked by medics and scientists as they assured us that they were working round the clock FOLLOWING THE SCIENCE and had everything in hand. Rishi Sumac earnestly promising that they will do whatever it takes to get us through. Boris vanished pretty quickly, after shaking patients' hands merrily on a hospital ward...EVERYTHINGS FINE!

But it wasn't fine. The PPE, sourced locally until the late 70s, now came from China. We didn't have a supply chain in the uk (altho there are plenty of middle men). We no longer had a diagnostics facility, our local public health labs (each health authority had at least one) had been amalgamated into a few mega labs, all underfunded and understaffed. Hospital laboratories are run with minimum staff and so on...so no matter how many promises the politicians made, no matter how much money they chucked at the problem they simply couldn't deliver.

Boris shouldn't be PM imo. I don't know why he was chosen to lead because he certainly fails to inspire confidence with his ridiculous bumbling. The man can barely string a coherent sentence together! I have no faith in him and dont think he gives two hoots about me and mine. He may have been temporarily humbled by his experience on ICU but he seems to have moved on. The current situation is a mess. I dont know if Jeremy would have cocked things up quite as much tbh. I think he'd have closed down pretty smartly but we wont ever know.

[lugg]

Jul 1, 2020 10:56:01 GMT monetsmum said:

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Keir! 

Me too - I am quite encouraged


Cheerie - well said - I completely agree.

[monetsmum]

Jul 1, 2020 19:38:04 GMT cheerypeabrain said:

Monetsmum my darling. A kindred spirit. X

I did think that (altho they reacted too slowly) there was some hope at the start of lockdown. Cynic that he is my son said that the pandemic was a 'gift' to any government (I know it's a terrible thing really). They couldn't really go wrong. A frightened population just waiting to be told what to do. Matt Hancock, Dominic Raab et al were flanked by medics and scientists as they assured us that they were working round the clock FOLLOWING THE SCIENCE and had everything in hand. Rishi Sumac earnestly promising that they will do whatever it takes to get us through. Boris vanished pretty quickly, after shaking patients' hands merrily on a hospital ward...EVERYTHINGS FINE!

But it wasn't fine. The PPE, sourced locally until the late 70s, now came from China. We didn't have a supply chain in the uk (altho there are plenty of middle men). We no longer had a diagnostics facility, our local public health labs (each health authority had at least one) had been amalgamated into a few mega labs, all underfunded and understaffed. Hospital laboratories are run with minimum staff and so on...so no matter how many promises the politicians made, no matter how much money they chucked at the problem they simply couldn't deliver.

Boris shouldn't be PM imo. I don't know why he was chosen to lead because he certainly fails to inspire confidence with his ridiculous bumbling. The man can barely string a coherent sentence together! I have no faith in him and dont think he gives two hoots about me and mine. He may have been temporarily humbled by his experience on ICU but he seems to have moved on. The current situation is a mess. I dont know if Jeremy would have cocked things up quite as much tbh. I think he'd have closed down pretty smartly but we wont ever know.


Right on so many counts Cheery!  Though Johnson isn't running the country; his sidekick Dim Chum is doing that. 
As for PPE, did you see the Channel 4 investigation into all the out of date stock?  

And he's only opening the pubs on Saturday because he couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.  

[mickthecactus]

Oh come on. The '70's were 50 years ago and how many pandemics have there been in the last century?

[cheerypeabrain]

Every hospital has a Major Incident Policy, I personally worked on the blood transfusion section. One of the HUGE sections of every single M.I.P. was the part associated with chemical contamination , terrorist attacks both chemical and explosive...and an epidemic or pandemic. These have been in place since the 80s and are reviewed annually. Every hospital has to have access to sustained supplies of PPE which were to be held in regional stores ready for distribution. These stockpiles need to be managed carefully, hospitals used to order from their regional supply centre...but in the last 4 years it has been changed and they have to order from a government body...which doesnt see the point in maintaining huge stocks of anything...consequently...we just about ran out.

We've all been expecting a pandemic for years, H1N1 was pretty bad, our ICU was full of patients in respiratory failure due to H1N1 pneumonia, many of them pregnant women, babies and children. SARS & MERS also had the potential to become pandemics. Many, many scientists and doctors warned successive governments (including Blair) but the politicians don't listen...or if they do it goes in one ear and out the other.

[kerouac2]

One would think that with the current instability of the world and the relative ease with which terrorists could poison the air or water or launch a viral attack that all of our countries would try to be ready at all times. But we don't.

We are a wonderful happy-go-lucky civilisation and that's what makes us so lovable. Except to some people.

[cheerypeabrain]

I'm all for happy go lucky, but I'd be a lot happier if I knew that we were prepared for disasters like the pandemic. Especially when the knowledge and expertise are available.

[mickthecactus]

I hate to disagree with one of the loveliest people on earth but how can you be fully prepared for a once in a lifetime pandemic? And with no idea of what form it will take.

[kerouac2]

I sort of agree with both of you. I have not forgotten my childhood and the fallout shelters that were built almost everywhere in the world just in case there was a nuclear holocaust. Everybody told us that there was very little chance that we would survive (and anyway, how many people could fit in the basement of the small local department store or the bank building with the fallout shelter signs on them?). I suppose there was a tiny chance that if you were at least 500 or 800 km away from the mushroom cloud, you might just get very sick, and that's what you were aiming for. Was all of this money wasted or was it wise to prepare to try to survive WW3?

That's sort of how I view medical precautions for other events.

[monetsmum]

Jul 2, 2020 17:43:13 GMT mickthecactus said:

I hate to disagree with one of the loveliest people on earth but how can you be fully prepared for a once in a lifetime pandemic? And with no idea of what form it will take.

Apparently they were talking about it in 2015/16 but the reports weren't published.   Makes me wonder what else they've shoved under the carpet. 

[monetsmum]

Jul 2, 2020 16:59:05 GMT cheerypeabrain said:

I'm all for happy go lucky, but I'd be a lot happier if I knew that we were prepared for disasters like the pandemic. Especially when the knowledge and expertise are available.

Too right!   Maybe Dim Chum wasn't concerned that a few thousand old people might die.   

I hate to say this, but I'm going to anyway; imagine how much the government has saved on State Pensions.  I'll duck behind the sofa now. 

[cheerypeabrain]

Here in Lockdown-Leicester the higher numbers of positive tests are largely people of working age. The biggest group being men aged 20 - 40 but that info came from a newspaper...havent seen the official figures.

[bixaorellana]

Jul 2, 2020 17:43:13 GMT mickthecactus said:

how can you be fully prepared for a once in a lifetime pandemic?

I don't know about fully prepared, Mick, but what makes the responses of both the UK and the US so shameful is that they certainly could have been far, far more prepared than they were. The reasons for the failures were practically identical: feckless, pandering, venal administrations that were and are indifferent to the real needs of their people. time.com/5861697/us-uk-failed-coronavirus-response/

Jul 2, 2020 20:25:18 GMT monetsmum said:

I hate to say this, but I'm going to anyway; imagine how much the government has saved on State Pensions.

I cannot pronounce on the politics of the UK, Mossie, because I neither understand it well nor know enough about it. But I will say that the very word "conservative" makes me believe that those in power at least would not mind if enough seniors died to make it look as though the government was doing well economically.

[questa]

The hospital where I trained was about 10km from Lucas Heights, the only nuclear reactor in Australia. It was a little reactor- used only for medical requirements and disposal of radioactive waste.
In the Casualty Ward (E.R.) of our hospital were 3 bundles, about as big as a carry-on flight bag. These were wrapped in light canvas and stitched closed and kept on a shelf high enough to deter curious nurses.
We were told that this was to be used for treating any burns caused by any mishaps at Lucas Heights. It had instructions written on a folder and a tick box to record date of last check.

Of course we imagined such mysterious contents...a secret antidote to radioactivity which "we" had that "they" didn't, (this was early 1960s) or some James Bond equipment etc. but now I realise it was probably just three packs of PPE, probably sterilised, waiting for use as needed.
But even then...we were PREPARED.