Author Topic: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?  (Read 109479 times)

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Offline Mr Gray

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #435 on: April 18, 2020, 05:26:23 PM »
And finally those voices trying to defend the government’s handling of this crisis have fallen silent

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

What makes you think we should take any notice of this article. Who wrote it and what scientific /medical knowledge does he have. I know the answer...do you.

Offline faithlilly

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #436 on: April 18, 2020, 05:33:48 PM »
Despite the media’s best efforts to paint the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis as completely incompetent it seems the message hasn’t quite sunk in with the Great British Public yet

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/04/17/support-government-holding-despite-increasing-crit

It will as it did with America and Trump.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/10/trump-poll-numbers-dip-handling-coronavirus
Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?

Offline faithlilly

Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?

Offline faithlilly

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #438 on: April 18, 2020, 11:44:03 PM »
https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/18/boris-johnson-skipped-five-cobra-meetings-coronavirus-crisis-loomed-12576899/

Boris Johnson has been accused of ‘sleepwalking’ into the coronavirus crisis as it is revealed he missed five emergency Cobra meetings in the run up to the UK’s outbreak. The missed meetings happened in January and February, when parts of country also experienced the worst flooding on record. The national crisis committee was first gathered to discuss coronavirus on January 24, by which time the disease had spread to six countries. That day, the Lancet medical journal warned the novel disease could be more lethal than the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed over 50 million people.

Government’s emergency shipment of PPE ‘will be used up by NHS in three days’ Not only did Boris Johnson skip that meeting, but did Matt Hancock inform reporters that the risk to the UK was ‘low’. Boris Johnson hosted a Chinese New Year reception at 10 Downing Street on January 24, the same day he skipped an emergency cobra meeting

And, although the PM didn’t have time to discuss the crisis, he did have time to attend a Lunar new year celebration in the afternoon, The Sunday Times reports. The other meetings were skipped so Mr Johnson could prioritise the EU withdrawal agreement and reshuffling his cabinet.

As the virus gradually crept towards Europe, he missed further cobra meetings to spend two weeks with his pregnant fiancée, Carrie Symonds, at a country retreat in Chevening. It was not until March 2nd – five weeks after the first Cobra committee was called – that the PM decided to attend. Boris Johnson, has been struck down with coronavorus himself, did not attend the first five emergency committee meetings to address the crisis (Picture: Getty) The PM is recovering from the virus at country residence Chequers. By then, coronavirus had infected all but one country in Western Europe. Health Secretary Matt Hancock had admitted a UK endemic was ‘inevitable’ and ministers were scrambling to put together emergency measures – the so-called battle plan- while instructing the public to stay safe by washing their hands.

Boris Johnson has been recovering in country residence Chequers after his battle with coronavirus, which saw him briefly admitted to intensive care. But once source said he was an absent leader long before falling sick. The senior adviser told the Times: ‘There’s no way you’re at war if your PM isn’t there, ‘And what you learn about Boris was he didn’t chair any meetings. He liked his country breaks. He didn’t work weekends. ‘It was like working for an old-fashioned chief executive in a local authority 20 years ago. There was a real sense that he didn’t do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly like people feared he would be.’
Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?

Offline Wonderfulspam

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #439 on: April 18, 2020, 11:56:50 PM »
https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/18/boris-johnson-skipped-five-cobra-meetings-coronavirus-crisis-loomed-12576899/

Boris Johnson has been accused of ‘sleepwalking’ into the coronavirus crisis as it is revealed he missed five emergency Cobra meetings in the run up to the UK’s outbreak. The missed meetings happened in January and February, when parts of country also experienced the worst flooding on record. The national crisis committee was first gathered to discuss coronavirus on January 24, by which time the disease had spread to six countries. That day, the Lancet medical journal warned the novel disease could be more lethal than the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed over 50 million people.

Government’s emergency shipment of PPE ‘will be used up by NHS in three days’ Not only did Boris Johnson skip that meeting, but did Matt Hancock inform reporters that the risk to the UK was ‘low’. Boris Johnson hosted a Chinese New Year reception at 10 Downing Street on January 24, the same day he skipped an emergency cobra meeting

And, although the PM didn’t have time to discuss the crisis, he did have time to attend a Lunar new year celebration in the afternoon, The Sunday Times reports. The other meetings were skipped so Mr Johnson could prioritise the EU withdrawal agreement and reshuffling his cabinet.

As the virus gradually crept towards Europe, he missed further cobra meetings to spend two weeks with his pregnant fiancée, Carrie Symonds, at a country retreat in Chevening. It was not until March 2nd – five weeks after the first Cobra committee was called – that the PM decided to attend. Boris Johnson, has been struck down with coronavorus himself, did not attend the first five emergency committee meetings to address the crisis (Picture: Getty) The PM is recovering from the virus at country residence Chequers. By then, coronavirus had infected all but one country in Western Europe. Health Secretary Matt Hancock had admitted a UK endemic was ‘inevitable’ and ministers were scrambling to put together emergency measures – the so-called battle plan- while instructing the public to stay safe by washing their hands.

Boris Johnson has been recovering in country residence Chequers after his battle with coronavirus, which saw him briefly admitted to intensive care. But once source said he was an absent leader long before falling sick. The senior adviser told the Times: ‘There’s no way you’re at war if your PM isn’t there, ‘And what you learn about Boris was he didn’t chair any meetings. He liked his country breaks. He didn’t work weekends. ‘It was like working for an old-fashioned chief executive in a local authority 20 years ago. There was a real sense that he didn’t do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly like people feared he would be.’

The Lancet medical journal warned that the virus could be worse than the Spanish flu that killed 50 million.

Over egging the virus there. The total death rate is disappointingly minuscule compared to the Spanish flu.
Certainly not worth bankrupting small businesses over imo.
I stand with Putin. Glory to Mother Putin.

Offline faithlilly

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #440 on: April 19, 2020, 01:01:35 AM »
The Lancet medical journal warned that the virus could be worse than the Spanish flu that killed 50 million.

Over egging the virus there. The total death rate is disappointingly minuscule compared to the Spanish flu.
Certainly not worth bankrupting small businesses over imo.

That is because measures were put in place....albeit not quick enough in this country.

What do you think the figures would be if many, many countries hadn’t locked down their citizens?
Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?

Offline Venturi Swirl

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #441 on: April 20, 2020, 04:51:34 PM »
So, to all the Boris-bashing know-it-alls - what course of action should he be taking now (apart from tendering his immediate resignation and ritually disembowelling himself on the doorsetep of No. 10? ). It will interesting to see you advise him now, so we can look back in a few months to compare your advice to what he actually did do, with regard to ending or extending the lockdown.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2020, 06:50:40 PM by Vertigo Swirl »
"Surely the fact that their accounts were different reinforces their veracity rather than diminishes it? If they had colluded in protecting ........ surely all of their accounts would be the same?" - Faithlilly

Offline faithlilly

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #442 on: April 20, 2020, 07:17:11 PM »
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/20/boris-johnson-sunday-times-prime-minister-coronavirus#comment-139936024

The Sunday Times revelations confirm all our worst fears: the prime minister’s handling of coronavirus has been shockingly complacent
Coronavirus – latest updates
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Mon 20 Apr 2020 14.50 BST Last modified on Mon 20 Apr 2020 16.48 BST

 ‘No one forget his cheery 3 March boast that he was still shaking hands with virus-sufferers. Nor that he was at Twickenham for a rugby match on 7 March.’ Photograph: Javier García/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
Everything unravels with almost indecent speed. After a brush with death, the prime minister is still recovering at Chequers when one of his many supportive newspapers drops a grenade straight down his Elizabethan chimney. No period of grace and convalescence: the Sunday Times didn’t even wait for him to stumble back to Downing Street before firing off its devastating attack on his cavalier incompetence over the coronavirus outbreak.

What makes the insiders’ account so devastating is that it chimes with everything everyone already knows about Boris Johnson’s character. An unnamed “senior adviser” to Downing Street “broke ranks” to say: “What you learn about Boris was he didn’t chair any meetings. He liked his country breaks. He didn’t work weekends. It was like working for an old-fashioned chief executive in a local authority 20 years ago. There was a real sense that he didn’t do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly like people feared he would be.”

Exaggerated or not, hearing that the prime minister took two weeks’ holiday at Chevening as the virus began to spread in the UK will stick in the public memory. Nor will anyone forget his cheery 3 March boast that he was still shaking hands with virus-sufferers. Nor that he was at Twickenham for a crowded rugby match on 7 March. But above all, he missed not one but all of the first five Cobra meetings on the gathering crisis. Gordon Brown chaired every single Cobra meeting on foot and mouth – when only the health of animals was at stake. Johnson is charged with wasting 38 days before taking serious action against an epidemic approaching in plain sight. In his mind, China was far away. And even when Italy suffered the full horror – despite being better prepared, with more beds and more intensive care units – well, that was just Italy.

No one elected Boris Johnson to cope with a plague. The small group of ageing activists in the Tory party selected him for his Brexitry – and they liked the cut of his cheery jib. He was fun, upbeat, popular and, above all, he had swung the Brexit vote to victory. Michael Gove reported on Sunday that the prime minister is “in cheerful spirits”, but that’s bafflingly inappropriate. Cheerful? About what? Good croquet on the blossom-strewn Chequers lawns? There are scores of dead doctors and nurses among some 20,000 dead citizens, and rising. Here is the wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time – the polar opposite of Winston Churchill’s arrival in power.


What makes Johnson supremely unsuited to this particular darkest hour is his natural antipathy towards the state. In a speech mainly on Brexit in Greenwich on 3 February, he attacked Wuhan-style lockdowns: “We are starting to hear some bizarre autarkic rhetoric, when barriers are going up, and when there is a risk that new diseases such as coronavirus will trigger a panic and a desire for market segregation.” He went on: “Humanity needs some government somewhere that is willing at least to make the case powerfully for freedom of exchange.” He was that government, along with Donald Trump. “Herd immunity” was Johnson’s policy until it became politically unsustainable. Thereafter, incompetence.

The Financial Times’ analysis of bungled ventilator procurement is a sobering read: it says the government called in non-specialists to make up the shortfall in units and ended up with products unfit for Covid-19 patients. And the Guardian revealed that, under austerity, there was a deliberate 40% cut in emergency personal protective equipment stockpiled for an epidemic.

Labour’s shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, is calling for publication of the findings of a three-day epidemic simulation in 2016, Exercise Cygnus, which uncovered a critical shortage of intensive care beds, morgue capacity and PPE. The government is refusing freedom of information requests, so that may have to wait for the inevitable public inquiry. As will final details of the failure to test, trace, isolate and treat every single case, which the World Health Organization now says should be a pre-condition before countries loosen their lockdowns. None of these things are in place in the UK, nowhere near.

Yesterday the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers finally lost patience with government dishonesty over wishful targets and plans: just tell us plain facts, they demanded.

No government could be fully ready for this: future lessons will be learned from South Korea and others. But this we know: our government is singularly unsuited to the task and unfit for purpose. In his absence, Johnson’s lack of seriousness is reflected in his abysmal choice of cabinet, selected for all the wrong reasons. Dominic Raab, Priti Patel, Elizabeth Truss and the rest were chosen for Brexitry and hatred of the state. Read Britannia Unchained, the compilation of their collected thinking, to see into their souls. There’s no evidence their worldview has changed.


Dominic Cummings was brought in by Johnson to swing a wrecking ball at Whitehall, local councils, the BBC and anything that smelled of good government. No surprise that those who don’t believe in the state have made the worst possible fist of running it in a crisis. Brexit embodied their mindset: break away, break things and disrupt. When the prime minister returns, his single most reassuring act would be to prolong immediately the Brexit transition: yet last week No 10 said it would reject an extension, even if the EU offered it. If Johnson blunders on as the economy collapses, then we shall truly know we are in the hands of fanatics.

Ultimately, a public inquiry will examine the state of the country when the virus struck. How 10 years of austerity crippled every service designed to protect and defend. How the Andrew Lansley reforms blew the NHS into fragments; social care was stripped bare; and local government, responsible for public health, was shredded. Even the army was hobbled.

The prime minister can wax sentimental about the NHS, but it’s only one artery of public service that is the lifeblood of good government. As parliament returns, it’s time for MPs to challenge the failures of these renegades.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist.
Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?

Offline faithlilly

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #443 on: April 20, 2020, 11:39:28 PM »


And there’s more.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exclusive-nhs-using-flawed-covid-19-test-missing-25-of-positives/


NHS laboratories are using a flawed test for coronavirus, according to a leaked Public Health England document seen by openDemocracy. Experts warn that the test fails to detect up to 25% of positive COVID-19 results.

Although the current test is known to be inconsistent, NHS labs are nonetheless being advised to continue using it, while an urgent “migration” or shift to a commercially available test takes place.

The leaked document from the National Infection Service (NIS) will put intense pressure on Health Secretary Matt Hancock to explain why the NHS has been using knowingly flawed tests for many weeks, as national death rates have spiralled.

Hancock – who promised 100,000 tests a week by the end of April – recently said that “no test is better than a bad test”. Yet the documents reveal that senior government advisers have known for some weeks that the UK’s critical coronavirus test was not entirely reliable.

Among the leading scientists who have seen the NIS document, the reaction has been one of outrage. One said: “There should be mass resignations, both at the top of PHE and in the government. We should expect better.” 

Jon Ashworth, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, said: “Ministers boasted we were world leading in developing this test back in January. If there have been concerns about its accuracy, senior figures have a duty to be clear and transparent with the public. Given the Secretary of State has promised 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month we now need total clarity on what these tests are and who will be processing them."

Throughout the pandemic, the government has regularly stated that at “all times” medical and scientific advice has been followed, and that the “right thing has been done at the right time.”

A testing ‘catastrophe’

Despite two months of reviewing the key test used in the UK to detect the virus – officially known as the ‘PHE SARS-CoV-2RdRp assay’ – no minister, leading scientific or medical adviser has publicly acknowledged that the test is not fully reliable.

Although a numerical evaluation of the test’s reliability is not included in the NIS document, openDemocracy has learned from a leading pathologist with knowledge of the NIS’s ongoing review that the test misses 25 percent of positive cases.

That, according to one leading epidemiologist, is a “catastrophe”. It means that those given a virus-free status in error since testing first began two months ago would not have known they were infected.

As such, they would have continued spreading the disease among their close family and – if they continued going to work or not practising social distancing – among the wider community.

They would have continued spreading the disease

The UK is currently projected to have one of the worst infection and death rates of any country in Europe.

The NIS document seen by openDemocracy is authorised by Dr Susan Hopkins, Professor Maria Zambon and Professor Andrew Mumford: all senior research directors who report to the chief executive of Public Health England, Duncan Selbie, and ultimately to Matt Hancock as Health Secretary.   

UK ‘bottom of the queue’ for reliable tests

Evidence of “quality assurance difficulties” for key reagents – essentially the test’s chemical makeup – is quoted in the document as one of the contributing factors for the test’s unreliable performance.

The document says that Public Health England (PHE) has reviewed its own COVID-19 test and has agreed “immediate actions” to mitigate or rectify the problems. Among the advice given to laboratories using the PHE test is to be careful before “calling” a result negative, to "retest ambiguous samples", and to move towards using commercial tests.

Private-sector tests are sold by major pharmaceutical firms such as Hoffmann-La Roche, Abbott Laboratories and others. Commercial laboratories and academic institutions, such as the Crick Institute in London, largely use commercially available tests and not the PHE test.

However due to the worldwide demand for COVID-19 testing, these commercially available tests are now in short supply. If all NHS labs were to suddenly be mandated to switch to commercial products, one leading professor said: “We would find ourselves simply at the bottom of a very large queue for these critical materials.”

The three advisers who authorised the document make it clear that use of the flawed PHE test cannot continue.

But, given the lack of an immediate alternative, they advise NHS labs in the meantime to take care in interpreting the results.

A “shortage of swabs” and the specialist fluid used to “transport” the swabs to laboratories are also identified in the documents as causing variations in the performance of the Public Health England SARS test in NHS laboratories.

The importance of accuracy in test results was emphasised late last month by Professor Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical officer. At a time when questions about the reliability of the PHE test would have been surfacing internally, Professor Whitty discussed the use of tests that might detect the presence of antibodies in those who had recovered from the virus.

He said tests needed to be “incredibly accurate,” adding: “If they are not accurate, we will not release any of them.”

Last month Health Secretary Matt Hancock authorised the purchase of £20m antibody tests from China. The tests were later found to be unreliable and effectively junked. It is understood the Chinese tests were 60 percent reliable.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2020, 11:49:30 PM by Faithlilly »
Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?

Offline Venturi Swirl

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #444 on: April 21, 2020, 07:24:42 AM »
Which scientific expert knows best and which one should the government be guided by?

“The pandemic has peaked and draconian measures are now unnecessary, a leading scientist claimed yesterday.

Carl Heneghan, director of the centre for evidence-based medicine at Oxford University, said that the impact of the lockdown was “going to outweigh the damaging effect of coronavirus”.

His assessment adds to pressure on the government to set out how it will ease the lockdown after the coronavirus death toll fell to its lowest level for a fortnight”.
"Surely the fact that their accounts were different reinforces their veracity rather than diminishes it? If they had colluded in protecting ........ surely all of their accounts would be the same?" - Faithlilly

Offline Venturi Swirl

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #445 on: April 21, 2020, 07:32:38 AM »
Isn’t it time those who know how to manage this virus better than the government and who have been critical of its handling so far stepped up to the mark and nailed their colours to the mast regarding whether or not to extend the lockdown further and for how long?  What would Keir do?
"Surely the fact that their accounts were different reinforces their veracity rather than diminishes it? If they had colluded in protecting ........ surely all of their accounts would be the same?" - Faithlilly

Offline Venturi Swirl

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #446 on: April 21, 2020, 08:19:58 AM »
“People who do not have to make huge knife edges decisions but come out with simplistic assertions are less than helpful. The truth is there is no right decision and whatever decision that is made will have a downside. Economic consequences or more deaths ....not a simplistic choice for anyone.

We should let those charged with making such decisions on our behalf make them without putting even more pressure on them.

It is always easy to come to decisions when you don’t actually have to make them.”

Exactly Stephen Williamson commenting in today’s Times.
"Surely the fact that their accounts were different reinforces their veracity rather than diminishes it? If they had colluded in protecting ........ surely all of their accounts would be the same?" - Faithlilly

Offline faithlilly

Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?

Offline Mr Gray

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #448 on: April 21, 2020, 11:34:22 AM »
Oh no....caught out again !!!

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-uk-only-formally-asked-turkey-for-ppe-shipment-after-it-said-it-was-already-on-its-way-11976238

I think if Boris researched Co-vid and personally manged to develop a vaccine in two weeks taht saved millions of lives you would probably say....Why couldnt he have done this in January

Offline faithlilly

Re: Is Boris’s Lax Leadership Putting Us All in Danger ?
« Reply #449 on: April 21, 2020, 12:02:54 PM »
I think if Boris researched Co-vid and personally manged to develop a vaccine in two weeks taht saved millions of lives you would probably say....Why couldnt he have done this in January

But he hasn’t, has he ? 

Do you think it’s just coincidence that Britain is on track to have the highest death toll in Europe or the incompetence of this government?
Brietta posted on 10/04/2022 “But whether or not that is the reason behind the delay I am certain that Brueckner's trial is going to take place.”

Let’s count the months, shall we?