The UK. The view from afar.

[arsenal]

For me, it's difficult to fully understand exactly how things are in the UK. It looks like, for once the govt is getting it mostly right and the people ate fucking it up big time.

In vaccination they're right on the money. Big Boris secured large numbers of vaccines from all the pharmaceutical companies very very early on. He also ensured they were not manufactured in America knowing they would be seized by Trumps administration. EU law prevents the Belgians doing the same. Whatever he did he also got a deal done that has given the UK uninterrupted supply, unlike the rest of Europe. Lockdown judgements are a toss of the coin in how long and how deep.

However. To me they've been very lax in closing corridors and seem to be continually opening and closing the border to this or that country, the transport of goods between France and Britain obviously necessary. No surprise when the South African strain showed up in the UK.

I also see huge crowds at Heathrow Airport while illegal raves are busted by the police.

A mixed bag indeed.

[goji]

The immigration people at Heathrow deserve a good kicking. There is zero excuse for queues at passport control with the airport operating at a fraction of capacity. If they need to check extra documents like covid certificates, get more immigration officers back to work.

The vaccination seems to be going well. What they need to do is ignore all the bleating from the spoilt brats in the public sector and carry on vaccinating older vulnerable people. We don't see frontline workers in essential services like Tesco asking to jump the queue. So why should the idle sods at the local council office or my local GP surgery jump the queue ? Particularly when both have spent the last 10 months dodging their customers as much as they can.

One dose per person until the hospital admission data suggests It's time for the second dose.

Quarantine hotels should only be for countries with high infection rates. There is more risk of a virus mutation in any small British town than the whole if Thailand at present.

(Thankfully my view is from afar as well)

[StevieWonders]

Total cock-up seems to be the majority view of how Boris is managing the pandemic response - but then my perspective comes solely from The Spectator, The Telegraph and - occasionally - the New Statesman. I should add I’m somewhat prejudiced in my views (as a life-long fan of Boris). A manager however he is not.

[cdnmatt]

What are you talking about? Boris is a total fucken moron who pooched the UK's response to the pandemic. Don't give him credit because he finally began taking it seriously in the last inning. He didn't care for the first long while, then when he finally started to him and his government had no clue what they were doing, constantly changing their minds as quickly as the wind changes direction.

Some cities are open at different times and some are closed, some weeks schools are open others they're not, "yes you can have Christmas, ok no Christmas for anyone, ok you can have Christmas, no your can't, ok you can have Christmas but only a little bit", and the list is endless. Hell, just finally now the UK decided to put in mandatory quarantine for everyone entering the country, whereas most developed countries Canada included have had that in place since I think around last March.

Don't give him credit for pre-ordering vaccines, because every country who could afford it did the same. Hell, Canada pre-ordered more vaccines per-capita than any country in the world. We have enough on order to vaccinate the entire Canadian population almost six times over. Wouldn't give him credit for having the vaccines manufactured in Belgium so they're off limits to the US defense production act either. I'm assuming it was a marketing pitch by Pfizer, as lots of countries seem to brag about coming up with that idea, Canada included.

The entire reason the guy got voted in was because he was the "get it done" guy for Brexit, and he totally fucked that up too. Blew past deadline after deadline after deadline, then ended up with an agreement that doesn't even cover services (ie. financial services), which is the UK's main export.

Everytime I hear that guys' voice on the news all I think can is, "the UK can't have another election soon enough". The guy is an absolute muppet who doesn't even seem to know what's going on at most times. Just blurts out whatever words his neural synapses can muster up at that moment.

[StevieWonders]

What are you talking about? Boris is a total fucken moron who pooched the UK's response to the pandemic. Don't give him credit because he finally began taking it seriously in the last inning. He didn't care for the first long while, then when he finally started to him and his government had no clue what they were doing, constantly changing their minds as quickly as the wind changes direction.

Some cities are open at different times and some are closed, some weeks schools are open others they're not, "yes you can have Christmas, ok no Christmas for anyone, ok you can have Christmas, no your can't, ok you can have Christmas but only a little bit", and the list is endless. Hell, just finally now the UK decided to put in mandatory quarantine for everyone entering the country, whereas most developed countries Canada included have had that in place since I think around last March.

Don't give him credit for pre-ordering vaccines, because every country who could afford it did the same. Hell, Canada pre-ordered more vaccines per-capita than any country in the world. We have enough on order to vaccinate the entire Canadian population almost six times over. Wouldn't give him credit for having the vaccines manufactured in Belgium so they're off limits to the US defense production act either. I'm assuming it was a marketing pitch by Pfizer, as lots of countries seem to brag about coming up with that idea, Canada included.

The entire reason the guy got voted in was because he was the "get it done" guy for Brexit, and he totally fucked that up too. Blew past deadline after deadline after deadline, then ended up with an agreement that doesn't even cover services (ie. financial services), which is the UK's main export.

Everytime I hear that guys' voice on the news all I think can is, "the UK can't have another election soon enough". The guy is an absolute muppet who doesn't even seem to know what's going on at most times. Just blurts out whatever words his neural synapses can muster up at that moment.

Mirror mirror on the wall

[cdnmatt]

Mirror mirror on the wall

Yeah, but I'm not prime minister of the UK, nor am I responsible for the well being of 68 million people.

[arsenal]

Neither are you in the UK. It's the view of those I'm more interested in. Eye witness testimony rather than those relying on primary sources, how ever many august organs they may devour.

[Ninodf1]

Boris and his cronies is the wrong leader at the wrong time. He’s done so many u turns we can’t keep up. I’ve forgotten/confused over the rules between lockdown, tier 3,4 and 5. They forced school children to go back to school one day then schools shut the next. This Lockdown feels nothing like the first. People are out and about, more traffic on the roads, people breaking or bending the rules. Ever since Cummings indiscretion people don’t take rules seriously. He relaxed rules for Christmas when he should have done opposite. Little enforcement. Way they have managed this an absolute joke. Over 100K dead and counting. If you die one day after a month you tested positive you’re not counted in the statistics. Shifting policies on travel in out of UK a joke. Testing a failure. Test and trace a failure. So far vaccine rollout on track but many have questioned 3 month gap between jabs. And it seems only Piers Morgan criticises Boris and crony’s publicly! Oh dear.

[Nirish guy]

But hey we can't really blame Boris as he was getting Brexit done - and what a total fucking mess he made of THAT too !!!

[Zebedee]

but hey we can't really blame boris as he was getting brexit done - and what a total fucking mess he made of that too !!!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-up-shop-in-eu
“And then they said, 'the best way to avoid all this Brexit red tape is to just move your business to the EU' ”