Coronavirus

[wilts rover]

The Government 'hadn't noticed' that it had not been showing Testing Figures (at press conferences hosted by the Prime Minister & Health Secretary) for the past few days.

How more surreal can this get?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-daily-testing-figure-announcement-boris-johnson-uk-a9534761.html

[wilts rover]

Even more so it seems. For the 5th consecutive day the number off people tested is 'unavailable'

https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1265658306850324480

[Filo]

Even more so it seems. For the 5th consecutive day the number off people tested is 'unavailable'

https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1265658306850324480

Theres an easy explanation, they’re saving them up for the last day of May to reach 200k tests on that day

[BillyStubbsTears]

I expect the frantic e-mails to Tory party members ("Roll up, roll up! Come and get yer laverly CV testing kits by the dozen. Offer ends 31 May") will be going out tonight.

[Filo]

This committee thing that Boris is doing is a waste of time, just shuts down every question about cummings, thinks its a wast of his time having an inquiry, his time is scarce as it is 😂😂😂😂

[Filo]

Boris doesn’t even read the scientific papers 😳😳😳😳😳

[IDM]

f**king hell he really is a bumbling baffoon.!

[Filo]

He’s been told not to set any more deadlines for tasts, tacking etc


Told by who, he’s the f**king PM!

Yvette Cooper has also just had him on toast 😂😂😂

[BillyStubbsTears]

To be fair, I wouldn't expect him to read the original academic papers.

a) He shouldn't have time for that.
b) He shouldn't be expected to understand the detailed technicalities.

That is what SAGE is supposed to be there for. SAGE has the people who understand all that and then distill it for a non-expert to absorb.

The bigger question is whether he's any good at taking on board the distillation. Cummings sent a rant out to other advisers and ministers a few weeks ago saying that any briefing document should be kept to 2 pages or Johnson wouldn't read them.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnsons-aides-told-keep-21558629

[Filo]

When he started this liaison committee meeting he was in the quicksand up to his waist, he’s now just about to sink fully into it

[IDM]

Any senior manager, in any organisation, would take briefings from his subordinates/associates who are the experts in their field.  The manager doesn’t need to be the expert but has to trust his/her experts to include the correct details.

[Donnywolf]

I've just thought - and nobody's mentioned it as far as I know...these baying mobs that were supposedly making poor ol' Dom fear for his and his family's life...where did this 'mob' spring from in the middle of everybody being in lockdown? And did he not call the police saying he was in fear of his life and needed protection, and that therefore the police would have a record of such a call and what their response was?

... and how come Hancog suggested the Police should probably get involved when The Prof allowed his lover into his house BUT has defended Cummings to the hilt for something similar (a breach of the then "rules") insisting he had done nothing illegal

[BillyStubbsTears]

When he started this liaison committee meeting he was in the quicksand up to his waist, he’s now just about to sink fully into it

He is really not very good when he's put on the spot is he?

Tetchy, not very well prepared, blustering.

I've just watched a very minutes at the start of that Liaison Committee meeting. He's clearly easily riled. Just keeps tetchily saying "I think we need to move on" from Cumgate. Like he's been debagged and radished in the dorm at Eton and it's got beyond a joke and it's time to stop.

[Jonathan]

When will we see Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance at the daily briefing again? They were down to do the one on Monday after Dominic Cummings’ statement, but they were seen leaving Number 10 shortly before Johnson took to the podium and a late replacement was drafted in.

Surely now, when there’s widespread confusion on the public health messaging, accusations of issues being politicised, hugely significant developments as we move through the phases and today the launch of test and trace... now would be the right time to hear definitively from the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser.

Whether or not they agree with the line of the Cabinet, the government has said it’s important not to politicise the issue. So hearing from the CMO and CSA would be particularly helpful.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Johnson being grilled by his own Science Minister about whether he has asked SAGE why we have a policy of greater social distancing than other countries.

Johnson jumps in and says "I HAVE actually!" And you just KNOW that he is lying, because when the follow up question comes "And what did they say?" he just goes into fish out of water gob opening and closing mode.

https://youtu.be/0W2rPMS2PxM?t=2019

And THAT is him answering a gimmee question from his own f**king side!

The man is beyond belief. He sounds like a rambling drunk asked by his wife where he has been. He makes May look like the epitome of calm, self-assured control.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Have a look at that video. There is a moment of existential angst at 34:08, where Johnson realises he has no f**king idea how to answer the gimmee question and starts trotting out the "we are following the science. And the science changes" line, like a heavyweight who has been floored and drags himself back up the ropes dully searching through his memory banks for what the safety net approach is to see the round out. And you see him grimace, just for a second. His eyes half closing and his face looking way from the camera as he realises what that is going to sound like.

Utterly f**king pathetic and very, very scary that a man so far out of his depth is leading us (sic) through this crisis.

[EasyforDennis]

When will we see Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance at the daily briefing again? They were down to do the one on Monday after Dominic Cummings’ statement, but they were seen leaving Number 10 shortly before Johnson took to the podium and a late replacement was drafted in.

Surely now, when there’s widespread confusion on the public health messaging, accusations of issues being politicised, hugely significant developments as we move through the phases and today the launch of test and trace... now would be the right time to hear definitively from the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser.

Whether or not they agree with the line of the Cabinet, the government has said it’s important not to politicise the issue. So hearing from the CMO and CSA would be particularly helpful.

Unlike Johnson, Whitty and Vallance are intelligent people. Would you want to have your career jeopardised by being seen to agree with this imbecile?

[Glyn_Wigley]

When will we see Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance at the daily briefing again? They were down to do the one on Monday after Dominic Cummings’ statement, but they were seen leaving Number 10 shortly before Johnson took to the podium and a late replacement was drafted in.

Surely now, when there’s widespread confusion on the public health messaging, accusations of issues being politicised, hugely significant developments as we move through the phases and today the launch of test and trace... now would be the right time to hear definitively from the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser.

Whether or not they agree with the line of the Cabinet, the government has said it’s important not to politicise the issue. So hearing from the CMO and CSA would be particularly helpful.

Unlike Johnson, Whitty and Vallance are intelligent people. Would you want to have your career jeopardised by being seen to agree with this imbecile?

No, I think its more like 'Unlike Johnson, Whitty and Vallance would give a truthful answer to a question and not make something up on the spot to try and save Cumming's arse'.

[i_ateallthepies]

Norman Smith on the beeb reckons Cummings is going to get away with it they are battening down the hatches until it blows over despite public opinion or is that to spite public opinion. Not enough of the Tory big hitters have come out in support of him going

Easy to say now but it's exactly what I expected to happen, tough it out and it'll be fish and chip paper in a week.  How quickly we forget how brazenly the Maybot repeatedly stuck it out with unprecedented defeat after unprecedented defeat in the Commons.  Johnson will have noted that and allied to his lifelong learning that he can lie his way through anything and come through smelling of roses.  He is incapable of changing.

[IDM]

May didn’t preside over a pandemic which has killed tens of thousands of people so far in this country alone.  People who’s families couldn’t be with them in their last moments, but Johnson’s main ally in government twisted rules and used a loophole no one knew about to move his family.

People will not forget.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I don't doubt Cummings can stay in his job. But this will absolutely not be forgotten.

[scawsby steve]

YouGov do a poll every other week.

Here's how the Tory lead has gone since early April

24%
21%
18%
15%
6%

I can't remember seeing a governing party's lead collapse as quickly that so soon after election since...well, ever.

If those 40+ Tory MP’s resigned the whip it would be interesting, I know that won’t happen, but is it 49 letters to the 1922 committee that is needed to force a leadership election?

It could possibly happen Filo, but you need to be careful what you wish for. You'll find Sunak a totally different proposition to Johnson.

[BillyStubbsTears]

So, the BBC is fine with Kuenssberg tweeting lies direct from Dominic Cummings two days before the election.

But when Emily Maitlis says 100% truths on Newsnight, she gets disciplined.

https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/27/bbc-switches-emily-maitlis-in-newsnight-episode-over-cummings-remarks?__twitter_impression=true

I WANT to support the BBC because I shudder at the alternatives. But the f**king state of this...

[tommy toes]

The BBC and it's ridiculous  impartiality mantra.
That's why they keep letting that gobshite Dan Hodges have airtime.

[DonnyOsmond]

So about Boris bringing the country back together...

[IDM]

Which country.?

[DonnyOsmond]

Which country.?

Russia

[Copps is Magic]

So, the BBC is fine with Kuenssberg tweeting lies direct from Dominic Cummings two days before the election.

But when Emily Maitlis says 100% truths on Newsnight, she gets disciplined.

https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/27/bbc-switches-emily-maitlis-in-newsnight-episode-over-cummings-remarks?__twitter_impression=true

I WANT to support the BBC because I shudder at the alternatives. But the f**king state of this...

I can only think it was Kuenssberg herself who put in the official complaint. I imagine she was very confused and angry when a journalist did not quote sources close to the government, reflected public opinion, and had the audacity to construct a well-reasoned argument.

[DonnyOsmond]

It's ok when Andrew Neill goes off on one though.

[Filo]

Durham Police issued two fine to people travelling from London to Durham during the same time period of cumgate
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52801574