In Praise of Boris Johnson and His Efforts to Overcome Covid-19

1. He didnt close 40 tube stations, TFL decided with staff shortages they would not be able to cope so to manage this they have closed those stations and distributed staff to other stations.

2. He has chosen 12 weeks as this gives him time to catch up with other countrys, what's he doing different to others in this time?

3. The public have been advised to avoid pubs, no action will be taken if pubs stay open.

4. Your probably right

5. There is no intention of stopping public transport,  the Government have not told public transport to cut services 

6. Think he has had you over.

I think the silver-lining will be the whole country stops bickering and being judgmental and everyone helps and supports each other and our leaders to cope with the current situation. We personally know six people with ‘bad flu’ in three different counties in the U.K. and numbers going up quickly - so we all need to be kind and helpful and supportive to each other regardless of political or religious beliefs? 

Apologies,  my number 6 point either disappeared or (most likely) it was my numeration calculations. Probably explains why I don't referee table tennis matches. 

A couple of things from Ireland:-

1. There was a bit of a surge in Covid-19 figures yesterday in Ireland. The amount of infected people was was not expected here at this stage. We'v'e had 3 deaths in ROI and 1 in NI of the virus todate. 

2. One of our hospital consultants appealed last night for people to maintain the recommended two metre distance rule. She was pretty matter-of-fact and stated that "you don't need to see me in hospital." She added some startling figures and additional information also. 

When this all started, pretty much every country was, and still is, doing things differently from each other. Can't see picking on the UK specifically helps. 

What seems obvious, now, is how easily spreadable this is. As at this morning, Fri 20th, the WHO official stats show it took three MONTHS to infect 100,000 people. It then took 12 days to infect another 100,000 people. Current confirmed total is just over 209,000. 

China has over 80,000 infected with a 1 in 25 death rate. Italy, under half that, has a 1 in 12 death rate. The overall death rate is 1 in 24 across the world. 

We can blame anyone and everyone as much as we like but, this has simply caught the world out.

Fair play to you Mathew (as a regular Boris basher) for having the guts to post a retraction.

Stay safe folks

CC

And to do it without germanic reference .

James 

Hi Crank (forgive me for shortening your name; you can call me Matt). I am not posting a retraction; I believe Mr Johnson was short of the mark in not closing schools earlier in the UK. And still I am not impressed with his main advisors either. However, he is in the process of closing the schools that have not already self closed. With respect I think Mr Johnson is joining my camp rather than the other way round. I have no problems with this.

Boris has his following of Boris Bashers and to be honest, I think within reason he deserves much of what he gets, but let me say he is not wrong in everything he does. I know you know that I don't have a vote in the UK and any criticism I come up with has little or no effect. 

I'm looking at BBC and ITV pictures and listening to some interviews. The penny hasn't dropped for many UK citizens yet. One 70 year old lady informed the viewing millions that she was not going to give in to the virus and was going to have no change in her daily behaviour. Another inspirational guy yesterday informed the UK nation that he wasn't going to change his daily process either. When challenged he conceded that if he gets infected, it's his problem. But, when challenged further about his possibility to infect others, he had no answer.

Look at the queuing in UK supermarkets. No system whatsoever is in operation in most. Worse again I see shop operatives handling unpackaged cakes with their bare hands while stacking shelves. This was on national UK television news. God knows what they are doing when the television cameras are not there.  

Hi James (although I don't know why I am being so friendly to a guy who wanted me banned from this forum, but I believe everybody is entitled to their opinion and so it is with James).

I have an invitation to Carol's terrace to share a drop of vino and a conversation with her husband. Dario also has had an invitation. I haven't replied to Carol's kind gesture yet but my baseball cap might look out of place amongst Panama hats on other terraces.

I forgot to add that my "Germanic" references  and other countries will not cease.

I must agree with Whoopydo's opening comment. "When this all started, pretty much every country was, and still is, doing things differently from each other".

We have been afforded the opportunity to follow each (and or every) country's health strategy as a basis to formulate our own health programme.  We can learn from all our European colleagues (both the positives and negatives) and find the right strategic balance that also recognises the very "English" persona ( as clearly demonstrated in Benidorm and in other areas of England).

In the UK, by allowing the pubs/restaurants/etc to remain open firmly places the onus on the "individual" to act responsibly in following the advice given by our Government and Health Bodies. 

In this case it is felt that the Government is being too sensitive to the rights and freedoms of the individual and should direct (and enforce) the close down all pubs/restaurants etc to ensure that the programme of social isolation can have a more positive effect in promoting the 12 week programme. Also a directive should be rolled out to all food retailers to initiate a programme of  basic rationing to bring some sanity to the shopping public !

On a more personal note, my wife and I are "long term" renting and feel that by deciding to stay here until July helps to reduce the pressure on our family in the UK and takes advantage of the Spanish authority's prudent steps to curtail this epidemic.