Coronavirus (OLD)

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by denphone

Can we be surprised?.

Not by this Govt's continuing incompetence Den. At least they're consistent.....

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Not by this Govt's continuing incompetence Den. At least they're consistent.....

Rafael Behr summed it up well today "When the qualification for joining the government is loyalty to bad ideas, it is no surprise that Britain is badly governed."
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...e_iOSApp_Other

But I think it is important to get the app right before launching it as people, won't give it a second chance. I'm not sure how France and Germany are progressing with theirs, but they would be the obvious countries to benchmark us to before judging our performance here.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Rafael Behr summed it up well today "When the qualification for joining the government is loyalty to bad ideas, it is no surprise that Britain is badly governed."

Well you don’t need any qualifications or experience to become an MP, so why be surprised when you have a Parliament full of idiots.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Well you don’t need any qualifications or experience to become an MP, so why be surprised when you have a Parliament full of idiots.

Well, quite. However this Government has essentially filtered out anyone who wanted to remain in the EU, regardless of the fact that some could have remained competent Ministers leading Departments in a range of policy areas where they needn’t have felt compromised.

Indeed, I’m sure many Ministers of many Governments (both sides) of the past have ploughed through and implemented manifesto commitments they may not have personally agreed with.

The poison of the Brexit debate isn’t exclusively for internet forums, it would appear.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Well you don’t need any qualifications or experience to become an MP, so why be surprised when you have a Parliament full of idiots.

They all seem to come from a humanities background so when it comes to questions of history, philosophy, economics and political theory they're probably all pretty good.

It's anything else they seem to struggle on. Especially science and technology. It reminds me of the encryption debate where they kept saying they wanted the most secure encryption to protect us but with exceptions for police. And kept arguing as if this a concession that can be made. It's just not in their mindset that you can't just argue a technological concept into something else.

[1andrew1]

Sadly, infections are not decreasing in the US. We need every country to be in a good position so that travel can be resumed. A set back in such a key country impacts the entire world.

It is now at 80 days of >20,000 new cases/day
It is off the chart. It's a log scale.
The only country in the world
And now it's up-sloping.

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status...60497094144000

[tweetiepooh]

Originally Posted by jfman

Well, quite. However this Government has essentially filtered out anyone who wanted to remain in the EU, regardless of the fact that some could have remained competent Ministers leading Departments in a range of policy areas where they needn’t have felt compromised.

Indeed, I’m sure many Ministers of many Governments (both sides) of the past have ploughed through and implemented manifesto commitments they may not have personally agreed with.

The poison of the Brexit debate isn’t exclusively for internet forums, it would appear.

The problem there was that ministers with remain tendencies were stalling where it wasn't needed to try to keep us in the EU. If they focussed on their brief they may have remained in office.

[Carth]

Originally Posted by tweetiepooh

The problem there was that ministers with remain tendencies were stalling where it wasn't needed to try to keep us in the EU. If they focussed on their brief they may have remained in office.

That's how I see it too, they backed the wrong horse and lost their stake

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by tweetiepooh

The problem there was that ministers with remain tendencies were stalling where it wasn't needed to try to keep us in the EU. If they focussed on their brief they may have remained in office.

Nope. There was a very strict inclusion criteria to join Johnson's government. This made the talent pool far smaller than usual for a government with predictable results. Be it Dominic Raab thinking that taking the knee came from Game of Thrones or the culture secretary Oliver Dowden phoning Google about the Churchill photo removal this is not the A Team by any stretch of the imagination.

[Carth]

Gosh . . oh lordy lordy . . you don't mean he wanted to surround himself with 'yes' men do you?

I'm gobsmacked that any political group or business would have the audacity to do that

Originally Posted by Carth

Gosh . . oh lordy lordy . . you don't mean he wanted to surround himself with 'yes' men do you?

I'm gobsmacked that any political group or business would have the audacity to do that

Thatcher didn't do that

Quote from Norman Fowler



And Blair was the same - he and Brown didn't get on, but they worked together.

When I managed large departments, it was important to have colleagues that would challenge you (in a positive "how can we fix this" way) - if a manager doesn't accept constructive critiques, they are doomed to failure.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Nope. There was a very strict inclusion criteria to join Johnson's government. This made the talent pool far smaller than usual for a government with predictable results. Be it Dominic Raab thinking that taking the knee came from Game of Thrones or the culture secretary Oliver Dowden phoning Google about the Churchill photo removal this is not the A Team by any stretch of the imagination.

There are many capable on-message Tories not in government. It may be that the “message” is not the way I perceive it not having met Boris.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

There are many capable on-message Tories not in government. It may be that the “message” is not the way I perceive it not having met Boris.

I wish Boris would exchange them for some of the hapless souls disgracing the front benches then! A Foreign Secretary who didn't know the importance of the Dover-Calais route and thinks that taking the knee is derived from Game of Throwns is ill-suited to such a pivotal role.

It's official: https://twitter.com/ruskin147/status...92249755021314

BBC scoop - NHS abandons centralised contact tracing app, moves to Apple/Google decentralised model

Looks like it will be ready for winter....

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Damien

It's official: https://twitter.com/ruskin147/status...92249755021314



Looks like it will be ready for winter....

So why did they not heed the advice that they were given in the first place as they must have been the only ones who though their own contact tracing app would be a success.