Senior public health professional John Ashton appeared on last night’s Channel 4 News and – in spite of frantic attempts by the presenter to divert him – demanded the resignation of Boris Johnson and his advisers for their handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Ashton condemned the “systemic failure of leadership and action”, the government’s “flawed” science and the “unethical, unacceptable” plan to allow the virus to spread by failing to test – which Ashton said will cost lives that did not need to be lost:
Boris Johnson and his inept Health Secretary Matt Hancock have handled the crisis with appalling arrogance and evasiveness – and people will die needlessly because of it.
Prof Ashton is right: they must go – and when this crisis passes, they must be held accountable for the deaths they have caused.
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It takes a Scouser to tell it like it is. Johnson & Co sling your hook.
To which the answer is ‘F. off’.
Not much achieved.
Now he is now being McCarthyd by guido Fawkes, that well known public health expert. Badge of honour. https://order-order.com/2020/03/13/question-time-expert-labour-member-called-britain-embarassing-dirty-little-country/
My parents both worked with him (I’m the son of a doctor and a nurse), and they both think he’s a (to quote my mum) “rent-a-quote idiot”.
You may disagree. But they’re my parents, so I generally trust their judgement.
Although the Establishment Press and its publicly-funded lapdog, the BBC, will propagandise this government long into the future, to when every one of its members have sprung their mortal coil and are in their graves, the public is already sensing that this is a clueless, directionless administration, dangerously mismanaging the climate emergency, COVID19 and the brexit departure from the EU.
Dangerous times, hopeless government.
How do you know that the public is sensing what you claim they are sensing qwertboi? It doesn’t appear to be reflected in polling results, the last of which (on the wikipedia page of polling results), conducted between the 5th and the 9th of March, has the Tories 21 points ahead of the Labour Party on 50%:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
So TWO more people have Liked qwertboi’s post (making three Likes at this point) since I posted my above comment a couple of hours ago, and I would be really interested to hear why they Liked it (all three in fact, and anyone else that Likes it as of from now on). In the first place I don’t see how qwertboi could possibly have come to such a conclusion, and in the second place it doesn’t appear to have any bearing on reality according to polling results.
Anyway, I hope qwertboi will enlighten us, as there must be a reason – or reasons – why he/she came to this conclusion, despite the evidence to the contrary.
PS Oh I see that someone else Liked his/her comment whilst I was typing out my above post, making it FOUR now, but the weird thing is that not one of them have Liked anyone else’s comments on the page, which you would have thought they would have done.
Fake likes!
Fake Likes!
FAKE LIKES!!!
STOP GASLIGHTING ALLAN, YOU EVIL MONSTERS!!!
Allan Howard, it looks like you’ve finally lost it!
Oh, I couldn’t help but notice that you had nothing to say in respect of quertboi’s assertion David. Funny how none of the people who supposedly Liked quertboi’s comment – now SIX – have responded to my request to explain why they Liked it, when it appears to have no bearing on reality whatsoever. But what are YOUR thoughts….. how do you think he came to such a conclusion (or could it be that it is qwertboi himself who is gaslighting people, or trying to).
And yes David, I have no doubt that most, if not ALL the Likes are fake (for qwertboi’s post). and that people don’t come on a thread and just Like ONE particular post, and none of the other posts.
PS And don’t forget to add a few Likes to your own post!
Well, surprise, surprise, now Jack T has weighed in with an Ad hominem attack, and just like David, he has nothing to say in respect of qwertboi’s evidence-free assertion (oh right, and Jack just HAPPENED to come back to this page some FOUR hours after posting his one and only comment at the top of the comments, and just twenty minutes after David posted his…. er… reply, and one and only post in this thread. But it’s just coincidence of course!
Funny, isn’t it, how neither of them had anything to say about qwertboi’s comment
There… I’ve removed the ‘like’ I gave kwertboi’s comment – how profound of a difference has that made in your life Allan?
Not giving a flying fuck who hates me, likes me or agrees with me I consider a strength.
My opinions can only be changed by force of argument, whether internal or external – that means I can’t be bought, flattered or swayed by plaudits or persuaded or dissuaded by universal hostility.
Only history will prove who was right and who wasn’t and even then there’ll be a few dissidents who refuse to accept that I could possibly have been right all along, despite the evidence 🙂
I do find myself pondering how many of the “people” involved with handing Johnson the keys to #10 through nefarious means sit at the kitchen table at night with a bottle of wine and think to themselves…
“What the f&+£ have I done?!?!”
Nahhh , they’ll be down Weatherspoons getting “it in ” as fast as poss before the pubs are closed down… with no possible cognitive link between that fact , and the useless twat they put into number 10 ..
Another pint Nige ? ,
don’t mind if I do ,
hows the Brexit plan going then Nige ?
Chatted to Boris my best mate and made it clear no surrender to those bungling bureaucrats in the EU , just get Brexit done ….
Most of them are too busy running for the leadership of the Labour Party to sit around and think.
Went far, far deeper than that though, didn’t it? The press collusion (purdah?!), the security services, the statement by May “We won’t let you be prime minister”
What we saw was deception on a national scale. And I hope they are sick with worry right now!
Well perhaps when enough of peoples ” loved ones” are dead , there might just come a point where they rebel and deal with the dictator in No 10
But he’s not a dictator Rob. He was elected by a landslide by the very people whose loved ones will die. They knew who and what they were voting for but did it anyway – what did they care about the sick, homeless and otherwise vulnerable. They bought the lie that Jeremy Corbyn was the devil incarnate and Boris Johnson was one of the boys and would get Brexit done They were all right Jack .
Well they are not all right now and may well become sick homeless and vulnerable themselves. Their lives are now in the hands of a callous incompetent who they chose over a decent caring man who would have moved mountains to stop the spread of this disease.
Smartboy, I don’t see how you can make the claim – the sweeping statement – that they knew what they were voting for, and that they don’t care about the sick and the homeless etc. If I remember correctly around fourteen million people voted for Boris Johnson and the Tories, and I’m sure that the majority of them DO care AND that they DIDN’T know what they were voting for.
I mean if they bought the lie(s) about Jeremy Corbyn, then they no doubt bought many of the other lies that the Tories and their media buddies were disseminating, including their oft-repeated platitude ‘Take back control’. They were fooled and deceived and hoodwinked and misled (the majority of them that is, not all), and what you are doing in effect – and not for the first time – is blaming the victims.
ahhhh but … but… well but …get brexit done , just get brexit done and and and its all Corbyns fault cos the Scum says so and the Daily hate ,
Ohhh yes and lets not forget the JLM , BOD and all the other false AS BULLSHIT spread about him ,, all leading up to this one calamitous catastrophic decision.
Meanwhile a certain head of state appears to have run off and doesn’t take it on the chin .This country is xxxxed
Can’t agree with you Allan Howard that Tory voters are ” victims”. In my opinion they are exactly as I described – for the most part care for nobodies
There are of course a significant minority of people who vote Tory who know that the lies about Jeremy ARE lies and that it was all a smear campaign, but the majority who voted Tory had no idea that it was. So bearing this distinction in mind, are you saying that the latter were duped about Jeremy, but saw through all the white propaganda disseminated about the Tories, and knew they were voting against their own best interests as such?
It’s funny, because about six months ago you posted a comment along the lines of ‘if we on the left can see through all the lies and smears made against Jeremy, surely most ordinary people can as well’. Do you remember? And someone else posted an almost identical comment the following day (in a different thread), but when I then pointed out how if that were the case, then there was no need for posters to attack and denigrate Jeremy for appeasing the A/S smearers and not ‘fighting back’ (as the likes of Jack T and Joseph Okeefe and several other posters were doing repeatedly), because according to yourself and the other poster, the vast majority of people had seen through the smears anyway.
So anyhow, you’ve now changed your mind and done a complete 180. And every single one of the almost fourteen million people knew exactly what they were voting for, and they weren’t duped and deceived and hoodwinked (by the Tories/Establishment and their propaganda machine, the MSM):
Media linking NHS leak to Russia is absurd, but using the Atlantic Council & Ben Nimmo as the source is journalistic malpractice
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/474945-nhs-corbyn-russia-nimmo/
When people are lied to and duped and fooled and misled, they ARE victims smartboy!
On quickly reading through my above post again, I see that I didn’t finish making my point – ie that when I pointed out that if most people had seen through the smears about Jeremy etc, then there was no need to castigate him as an appeaser and for not ‘fighting back’ etc, neither yourself or the other poster OR anyone else continued with this line of thinking, the point being that you can’t have it both ways.
One of the biggest lies in recent times was the falsehood about Saddam Hussein’s WMD, and then there was the Sunday Times falsehood (when Andrew Neil was editor) about Kinnock’s Kremlin Connection in 1992 just a few weeks before the GE was called, and the Sun’s abominable lies about Hillsborough and the Liverpool supporters……….. And needless to say, the media coverage in relation to Julian Assange has been completely fraudulent and skewed.
There are literally thousands upon thousands of examples.
He was voted in by a minority of therelectorate, as all tory governments are.
As I’ve pointed out elsewhere – don’t get sentimental about numpties – who can be seen in action in any supermarket at the moment.
The propaganda machine is at work for the Torys again.We have one chance to stop the spread of this virus and it looks like the establishment broadcasting corporation have blown it away with supporting nonsense and inaction.Wait for sunny 🌞 days and rising temps to cure the “Herd” seems to be the main line of action.Look for more money and help for the Tory corporate supporters and of course the “City and Banks.to cure the failing system of capitalism,Thats all this government is caring for and bugger the peasants.
Bozo’s plan is this: Let the Europeans and British companies make all the sacrifices and hope this will make Covid19 disappear. Meanwhile, he intends to take the credit for other people’s actions, and say “I stood alone.” As for not appearing daily, it takes them at least two days to get Boriski out of his champagne and drug-induced stupor, so that he can even stand up!
I wonder if there will be any of them , “Old Buggers” left after we’ve locked them away says Johnson?.Cummings replys “maybe we can let out in May to vote Tory again” says Cummings.Johnson replys “well at least the 🌞 is shining,Sunny days and rising temps the peasants fell for that one didn’t they.Best get the cleaning crew out then ..” Them oldies will stink the place out “..JCB are providing the digging machines for mass graves!….free of charge I think?
Returning from a two week tour of India on March 2 there were not even basic common sense protocols in place at the UK’s largest poet of entry, Heathrow.
People from flights all over the world were allowed to mingle in confined spaces with no separation or health checks. Who then we’re allowed to go out into the Country carrying anything from a cold to the conorovius.
This is criminal negligence and in a sane world the total absence of basic protocols on ports of entry in the middle of a pandemic would see medieval style punishment for the irresponsible fourth form Eton remove who don’t do science because it hurts their heads who are running the Country.
As I type I am advised of a case reported by someone who is a GP – details in this link:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10158245654913669&id=615628668
Which details how the Government are completely failing to test, isolate, trace contacts,came break the infection chain in one with WHO guidelines.
Well. It’s not going to happen, is it? So banging on is pointless.
Meanwhile – it’s time to focus on practicalities, like getting numpties to wash their hands properly and regularly, and encouraging the reduction of social contact to a minimum – more effective than diktats about quarantine. Another numpty behaviour that needs work is panic buying.
The public tardiness on these fronts is partly related to expecting ‘the government’ to solve the problem – which it won’t.
In all this, focusing on the Spiv goverment is just a infantilising diversion. There are specifics where, of course, their action is necessary : particularly in terms of a more effective testing regime, staging the shut-down of hubs of activity, and possibly schools – although the latter isn’t as obvious as some think in terms of its effects.
And – just as an observation – I don’t think continually swearing and cursing at Johnson has been particularly effective at mending anything up to press. Nor has excusing numpties for voting for him.
Attacking numpty behaviour might, however, have an effect on both fronts.
… and if anyone thinks that numpty Thatcherite behaviour isn’t the issue – note the following :
“Nurses at the Royal Victoria hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in north east England have been forced to lock away masks and hand sanitisers after visitors stole the essential items from the wards.”
That’s the Tory support.