Is the UK now giving off strong Third World vibes?

K-9 · 06-10-2023 1:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201103#Comment_121201103

World leader on deaths too

Slightly Kwackers · 06-10-2023 1:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201118#Comment_121201118

When you have nothing to offer but fear of an alternative and the trough is in danger of not being able to sustain yourself and your cronies, then you can always rely on the multitudes of forelock tuggers.

You can easily steal from the great unwashed by making them feel so superior to the "enemy of the week".

kirk. · 06-10-2023 1:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201192#Comment_121201192

What does that mean

jetsonx · 06-10-2023 1:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201208#Comment_121201208

If you make migrants the enemy, uneducated people will start to resent them. And while all their resentment is focused on the migrants, the focus is turned away from the leaders.

Fianna Fail used to use this trick. For example, during the last recession, when the heat was turned up on the economy, Fianna Fail would hint that public sector workers (like nurses and teachers) are the real problem in the economy. They would pit the public sector against the private sector and let them squabble. The media would often follow. Meanwhile, FF would be in the background robbing everyone.

Strazdas · 06-10-2023 1:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201145#Comment_121201145

The Daily Mail and Daily Express had opinion pieces this week saying it would be a great idea for the Tory Party to remain in power i.e. a media that are no longer even holding the government to account and even acting as cheerleaders / propagandists for it.

06-10-2023 2:48pm

If we’re going to throw around insults let’s get them right. It’s showing signs of becoming a ‘Banana Constitutional Monarchy.’

PommieBast · 06-10-2023 4:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121200995#Comment_121200995

For FY2020-21 I was almost exactly 50:50 in Ireland and the UK. UK got a lot of things wrong (e.g Eat Out to Help Out) but there was the underlying belief that people need to get on with their lives. They at least kept things ticking over whereas most of the Irish state went into whole-sale shutdown.

Francis McM · 06-10-2023 4:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201135#Comment_121201135

Not sure if you could call Tesco a mediocre retail company - last time I looked it has turnover of 60 or 70 billion pounds and net income of one and a half billion pounds per annum . That is 1,500,000,000.00

OK, not world leading - like they were in the development of a Covid vaccine - but still not mediocre, I would have thought.

06-10-2023 4:46pm

I think pretty much all countries got COVID wrong. Johnson wasn't the ideal PM to have in office during a massive crisis that involved being sensible, but their response was reasonable enough.

Both countries did extremely well on vaccine rollouts, although the UK probably would have been better off not trying to engage in oneupmanship with the neighbours. I think some of the arguments with the EU were just petty nonsense that spilled over from Brexit and were more about tabloids having a shot at people than reality. The UK's AstraZeneca's vaccine turned out to be a bit of a damp squib in the end, but it was a good effort and the EU just spread its bets and landed very safely on BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna.

The real story was Ireland, the EU and the UK and the US all did pretty excellently on the vaccine rollout in particular. It was a real triumph of science and global research capabilities. Politicians have relatively little to be taking credit for other than making sure they got resources in place to allow things to ramp up.

Nobody got all of COVID right. Some aspects were over cautious, some aspects were over conservative while others weren't cautious enough or took counterproductive or ineffective approaches. That applies to both Ireland and Britain, but everywhere else too. We'd no idea what we were dealing with and it's a crisis that I think many of us are still only just now getting our heads around.

However, I don't think the UK's response was a disaster. They just weren't perfect, but they were usually making best efforts.

The scandalous bit about the UK response is mostly around panic contracts that were awarded to complete cronies.

Francis McM · 06-10-2023 5:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121202152#Comment_121202152

Johnsons response was reasonable enough you say? His country, partly thanks to the UK government, was the first in the world to develop and roll out a vaccine, showing a bit of light at the end of the tuinnel for the rest of the world. Tests on their AstraZenica carried out in 2020 showed that the efficacy of the vaccine is 76.0% at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 beginning at 22 days following the first dose, and 81.3% after the second dose.

Here our government increased the national debt by billions unnecessarily by, for example, giving every 15 or 16 year old who had worked a Saturday job for a few Saturdays automatic entitlement to €350 per week. And you talk about "panic contracts"!

06-10-2023 5:35pm

After a lot of initially very positive results, AstraZeneca didn't really prove to be all that great.

The effectiveness lagged a lot with the variants and by 2021 several countries had already abandoned it in their rollouts and it never got FDA approval in the US. There were also concerns raised about side effects quite early on.

It didn't form the basis of rollouts in most western countries. The two mRNA vaccines became the mainstay of the vaccine programmes in the EU, US and most Western countries. AstraZeneca and Jannsen / J&J, both using similar technologies with Adenoviruses as a vector didn't' end up as the core technologies used in most developed countries.

The first vaccine used in the UK was actually Pfizer/BioNTech btw. They approved it slightly before either the FDA or the EMA had signed off, using an emergency authorisation, but it was effectively German-American technology.

AstraZeneca's vaccine was at least cheap to produce as it's technically far less complex to manufacture (a normal biotech approach) rather than than mRNA vaccines, which have quite a complex manufacturing process involving encapsulating the strand of mRNA in tiny lipid capsules. The delivery system is very sophisticated. Also the cold chain for the mRNA vaccines subsequently turned out to be somewhat overkill. They had initially taken the most cautious storage approaches possible, but the vaccines provided to be far more robust than that, and they went to be far easier to deliver than anticipated.

However, the whole rollout of vaccines in the US, EU and UK was stellar. There was a lot of shouting at the time, but the speed of development, delivery and scale up of manufacture was an incredible example of scientific and engineering ability.

The UK responses to COVID were mixed and driven a lot by populist rhetoric from some of the ministers. The big negative over there is scandals around PPE purchase and contracts for various things that were just handed out all over the place to cronies. The overall scientific and medical response from the UK though was top notch. The scandalous bits were lack of adequate PPE for nurses, doctors and frontline staff and so on, but that was a scenario repeated almost everywhere else too.

K-9 · 06-10-2023 6:29pm

They f*cked up the start of the pandemic though, what were they waiting on to lockdown?

At that stage Italy and then Spain was getting hit hard. We closed down and everybody was wondering what's the story with the UK?

The model they were relying on was completely wrong, they underestimated the exponential rate by a hell of a lot and it took ages for them to correct it.

As for them doing well or not too bad:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1093256/novel-coronavirus-2019ncov-deaths-worldwide-by-country/

If being world leading in Covid deaths with the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and Peru was doing well, I'll take our approach all day. Not great company to be in, Trump, Bolsanaro, Modi and Putin. Good company for the purposes of this thread though, BRIC countries, would be second world these days.

Boris was a terrible leader to have, shaking hands with infected patients, "let it rip" comments, indecisiveness, partygate etc. etc. He was never a serious politician and he cost tens of thousands of lives, people who didn't need to die.

His whole pantomime act was shown up for what it was. Jeremy Vine copped to his act years ago. He was presenting an award at some industry show years ago and was at the same table as Boris. Boris was saying how he'd no speech prepared, and Jeremy noticed him busy chatting and drinking away, no prep whatsoever. 5 minutes before his speech, he scribbles down a few notes on a napkin, ruffles his hair, gives the speech and brings the house down. Jeremy thought that's some going.

A year or two later, another award show, Boris there again. Boris proceeded to enact the same show gain, the same pretend lack of preparation, scribbling notes down with 5 minutes to go, and then proceeds to give the same speech again. It was all an act, perfected by Boris over many years. It came undone in his famous Peppa Pig meltdown speech.

That whole Hugh Grant, bumbling idiot character from Three Weddings and a Funeral, Tim Nice but Dim from Harry Enfield:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC0IJQ_s7No

Or probably based on his age:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGxSM5y7Pfs

Monty Python's Upper class twit of the year.

The biggest con he pulled was making people think he was intelligent behind the act. There's nothing there.

jetsonx · 06-10-2023 7:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121202533#Comment_121202533

I remember the Peppa Pig comment alright. That's when some of the mainstream media like Sky News started to turn on him.

Seth Brundle · 06-10-2023 10:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121202286#Comment_121202286

From memory, the AZ vaccine development was part funded by the EU. It was the British government who tried to make a vaccine race or battle with the EU.

In terms of the irish government providing wages topeople who were forced to stop working because of cocis, thats a rather strange (if not deliberate) approach to take on it. If you recall, the idea was to ensure that the economy didnt take a massively big hit by thousands suddenly out if work. As this funding policy had to be developed and funded quickly In order to ensure that people had money, there were some who inevitably took advantage of it. However, the money was all taxable plus AFAIK people did have to prove entitlement, in time. However, it sounds like you would have preferred masses of people to find themselves suddenly out of work with no money to pay bills and, long term, how would that have affected the Irish economy?

For Forks Sake · 06-10-2023 10:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121200728#Comment_121200728

it will be very intereting to see who buys up all that CPOd land for pennies on the pound...

Count Dracula · 07-10-2023 12:05am

I think that getting Jeremy Kyle off the Television was a very progressive step. i found the show fascinating, as a time piece. But it would be imperative that if they are to survive into the future that they start looking after themselves.

Tomorrow is the first Saturday in October and it should be an early start for Rotterham United Fans as they make the scenic journey over the Pennines as far as the stone clad enclave of Macclesfield for a 3pm afternoon kick off. It should give the Rotterham supporters club a great opportunity to gesticulate the wanker sign at parallel traffic on the motorway, or even, offer a chance to drop trouser and moon flat arse into the window at any vehicle driving past inhabited by female English shopping addicts, on the way out for their Saturday fix at the nearest MnS . Nothing like the milk white hairy ring-piece of a 48 year old unemployed, industrial car mechanic.. getting flat arsed to within an ass pube of Jesus's Tomb, whilst being pressed against the side window of a Swedish manufactured tour bus, which smells vaguely of Dog shight, Tennants, cigarettes and hydroponic Purple Haze.

I once witnessed a 14 year old boy snorting a line of cocaine on an inter city train during a draw poker game charging 20p for openers, I stared and he advised me to to " foooook off and mine me own busy ness "

They are a charming bunch all said.

I would love to have a threesome with Prince Andrews daughters, both amorously cladded in black leather gear and knee high stilettoed boots.... what is bred in the marrow comes out in the bone, the apple rarely falls far from the tree. They look really filthy, I would say they would be up for anything after a few looseners and a gobble on a large stiff throbbing Golly Bar they enjoy soaking their gaping monarch mouths, which tingle in the anticipation of an SAS officer's cock being shoved down menacingly to almost suffocate their silky throats on, triggering an glistening tear of emotion.

Francis McM · 07-10-2023 10:51am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121203727#Comment_121203727

That only happens in Ireland ( eg Haughey land rezoning etc ) - - has it ever happened in the UK? If so, who?

Francis McM · 07-10-2023 11:04am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121203553#Comment_121203553

For the AZ, "Once the new coronavirus was identified and started to spread in January 2020, the UK government stepped in with more than £33m of funding for the vaccine, on top of the £5m it had given earlier, making it the largest overall source of money, according to the FOIs."

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/15/oxfordastrazeneca-covid-vaccine-research-was-97-publicly-funded

As regards the €350 a week here in Ireland given to 16 year olds living at home who had just worked one or two Saturdays, that was a panic measure if ever there was one. There were students going around that year with more money than they could spend / knew what to do with. Crazy waste of public money, no wonder our foreign debt increased by 20 billion....money which will eventually have to be repaid, with interest.

If the government wants to borrow money to invest in housing or infrastructure , fine - but what is left of the €350 a week the students got? Pi**ed against a wall? Not even votes? At least the UK government invested in a vaccine, and rolled out the first one in the world.

K-9 · 07-10-2023 11:18am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204617#Comment_121204617

Look up the Teeside freeport, seriously dodgy stuff went on there. Private eye did great work on it.

yagan · 07-10-2023 11:23am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121202034#Comment_121202034

And Irish economy still grew.

K-9 · 07-10-2023 11:23am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204660#Comment_121204660

Nah, the Tories would prefer wasting money on the likes of Servo, how many Billions did they waste on the track and trace system that Serco was running?

But f*cking students.

Francis McM · 07-10-2023 11:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204719#Comment_121204719

Googled servo and all that came up was Servo are motors that allow you to accurately control the rotation of the output shaft, opening up all kinds of possibilities for robotics etc.

You sure you are not thinking of the voting machine scandal here, where €54m voting machines scrapped for €9 each, after paying many millions of euro for storage too?

Peregrinus · 07-10-2023 11:53am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201023#Comment_121201023

While the UK's vaccine performance is impressive, they were not the first country in the world with a vaccine; China was. The UK was not even the first country in Europe; Hungary was.

Francis McM · 07-10-2023 12:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204821#Comment_121204821

The UK administered the first COVID-19 vaccine in the world, outside of clinical trials. Early December 2020, I remember it well. I think the person they gave it to may even have had Irish heritage, Maggie Keenan.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-marks-one-year-since-deploying-worlds-first-covid-19-vaccine

There was light at the end of the tunnel for the rest of the world.

K-9 · 07-10-2023 12:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204745#Comment_121204745

Sorry. Serco, they've a history of f*cking up contracts but still, mysteriously, getting bigger and bigger contracts from the Tories. Something seriously odd going on there.

That's the thing with our f*ck ups, I used to think we were a corrupt, incompetent country and the UK did things pretty well. Not perfect, but a damn sight better than us.

After 13 years of the Tories I'm not so sure anymore. They are on a leveling down trajectory as far as I can see.

Its a result of incompetent government after another, 5 prime ministers in 7 years. The internal back stabbing and Brexit shenanigans meant they've taken their eye of the ball.

People have a habit of failing upwards under the Tories, ministers getting promotions or cushy private sector jobs after monumental f*ck ups. Chris Grayling a great example.

kirk. · 07-10-2023 12:53pm

Subak will go down in history as the PM who cancelled HS2

Don't think he'll be around too long anyhow

Francis McM · 07-10-2023 2:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121205031#Comment_121205031

Only part of the HS2 has been cancelled. The part linking Birmingham and London is still going ahead afaik.

kirk. · 07-10-2023 2:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121205430#Comment_121205430

Theres another part in London that may not go ahead

PommieBast · 07-10-2023 3:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204716#Comment_121204716

Suspect that down to the FAANGs MNCs.

yagan · 07-10-2023 3:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121205674#Comment_121205674

Or the fact that biomed and pharma had a good pandemic. Before the pandemic Ireland manufactured half of the global supply of critical care ventilators; Medtronic in Galway went into 24hr production to meet demand.

The pandemic bounce is wearing off now.

Seth Brundle · 07-10-2023 4:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204660#Comment_121204660

As regards the €350 a week here in Ireland given to 16 year olds living at home who had just worked one or two Saturdays, that was a panic measure if ever there was one. There were students going around that year with more money than they could spend / knew what to do with. Crazy waste of public money, no wonder our foreign debt increased by 20 billion....money which will eventually have to be repaid, with interest.

Can you confirm the approx amount that went to students who worked a couple of Saturdays.

In terms of it being a panic solution, do you think all measures to respond to a global pandemic were all methodically thought out and implemented? What would have happened if we took a much more restrictive approach to providing people with a covid wage?

If the government wants to borrow money to invest in housing or infrastructure , fine - but what is left of the €350 a week the students got? Pi**ed against a wall? Not even votes?

So what you were hoping for is that the government should have made it's covid decisions based on getting votes?

We get it! Based on your posts here, you dislike the Irish government and seem to think the sun shines out of the rear end of the British government. Well, absolutely nobody is stopping you from making the move over there!!!

Jim2007 · 07-10-2023 4:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204821#Comment_121204821

It is completely irrelevant to the discussion and the direction the UK has unknowingly taken in terms of the economy. British industry has failed to produce anything close to a regular positive balance of trade during a period in which they had preferential access to a major world market and now they are expected to do better with at best the same trade agreements, but in most cases slightly inferior ones while at the same time competing on a cost basis with other third countries with a lower cost basis. That is a complete fantasy! The only way British industry can expect to compete going forward is to lower their cost basis and that means a lower standard of living. And while the UK is not a third world country is indefinitely heading that way at the moment and the British government has done absolutely nothing to strengthen British industry, despite the fact they claim to be no longer bound by competition rules.

So while the EU member states including ourselves are off trying to build high value added economies in recognition of the fact that we can't compete on a cost basis with third countries and deliver a high standard of living, they are doing the opposite. Which suits us, we need access to a low cost partner to buy cheap stuff from and it would be better to have it coming for a country on the edge of Europe than have to rely on places in Asia etc for it.

Francis McM · 07-10-2023 4:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121205830#Comment_121205830

The COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) was extremely well know in 2020 and was €350.

I thought a politics moderator would have at least known that? Seems extremely basic knowledge.

Seth Brundle · 07-10-2023 4:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121205901#Comment_121205901

FFS! What was the total spent on students who had worked a few saturdays?

What would have happened had the scheme been restrictive towards potential recipients?

K-9 · 07-10-2023 6:14pm

......

K-9 · 07-10-2023 6:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121205836#Comment_121205836

But that's what the likes of Truss, Patel and Raab want. Raab was the genius Minister for Brexit who didn't realise how much trade went through Dover.

Truss still hasn't got the hint after her beloved markets told her to f*ck off, a book out and turns up at the Tory conference like the ghost from Christmas past. That takes a whole other level of gumption and lack of self awareness. There has to be a screw loose there, the lift doesn't go to the top floor there. Another know it all who sidelined the civil service and advisors, hell anybody with half a brain, when she went ahead with that budget.

At least Cameron, toff that he was and as robotic as May was, they were semi competent politicians who listened to advice.

While the pound plummeted along with Tory poll ratings last week, there was one obscure winner from the government’s disastrous “mini-budget”.

Liz Truss’s and Kwasi Kwarteng’s 2012 free-market treatise Britannia Unchained has shot up the sales charts, hitting the top spot on Amazon rankings for books on “economic conditions”. It costs £19.55 for the paperback.

“The key is to make sure that failure is survivable,” is one of the book’s insights. “In the early stages of a project, failure need not be a disaster.”

This is likely to provide scant consolation to Tory MPs facing the threat of losing their seats at the next election. Nor is the rest of the book, which notoriously labels Britons “among the worst idlers in the world”. Britannia Unchained is a free marketeers’ blueprint for an assault on tax, regulation and what are described as the “perks” of the welfare state. It is co-authored by three other Tory MPs: Priti Patel, Dominic Raab and Chris Skidmore.

The book was published the year after Truss set up the Free Enterprise Group, which was in effect a parliamentary outpost of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the free market thinktank based in Westminster.

Francis McM · 07-10-2023 6:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121205908#Comment_121205908

You, the politics moderator that did not even know about the The COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), should be able to work out the number of stufdents / part time workers etc who got more from the taxpayer under the PUP than they did working from their employers. Not!

Are you any good at sums?

How do you think our national debt went up by 20 billion since before the pandemic, any thoughts on any unnecessary spending by government?

Seth Brundle · 07-10-2023 7:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121206460#Comment_121206460

1. Me being Politics mod has nothing to do with anything other (I suspect) than I threadbanned you yesterday because you ignored a clear mod instruction. I get them impression you're feeling hard done by despite the abundant warnings, etc you were afforded. Anyhow, this is AH where I'm just a regular poster with no privileges or anything.

2. You were the one who first mentioned students who hadn't really worked previously getting money via PUP. I have asked you several times how much them getting this money has cost the taxpayer and each time you choose to interpret a simple question in some bizarre way, presumably because you can sense that your argument is about to be shown to be a complete strawman. I'll phrase it in a way that is clear to you: how much has it cost the exchequer to pay PUP to people who barely worked previously? A source would help back up your figures.

3. I've asked you a number of times that had the government imposed restrictions and more vigorous checks on the PUP applications, what effect would have been imposed on the economy. You've ignored this question and in your last post answered something I didn't ask. So, I'll be clear: what would have happened the economy if the PUP was based on rigorous checks before anyine would receive money?

4. Yes, I'm very good at sums, thanks! Not sure what that has to do with me trying to get you to back up your claims though!

Tiger20 · 07-10-2023 9:37pm

I visited Germany for the first time this summer, and bought a book to read on my holidays, “ A short History of Germany”, which I know you can read anything into anything if you want, but what struck me in particular was the period after WW1 and the similarities of what seems to be happening in the UK at the moment. Ok, the UK are not after losing a War, but they are after some sort of national breakdown and inability to come to terms with their circumstances and place in the world. After the war, their was a lot of political instability and no leader enjoyed a long time in office. The effect of this instability and inability of politicians to provide solutions is what led to the turning of a “strongman” leader, and we know the eventual outcome of these events. While I am not saying this is what will happen in the UK, I do feel they are going to have to hit rock bottom before an eventual acceptance and coming to terms with reality, and hopefully a better UK will come from the ashes, if it still exists. What might happen is a breakup of the union, but whatever happens, we are living through what I believe will be historic times and lead to the eventual demise of England being the dominant nation in the UK

kirk. · 07-10-2023 9:45pm

Has to be .

England is bringing down Wales and Scotland

goodlad_ourvlad · 07-10-2023 10:00pm

I come back to the thread after a few days and its a COVID mess :-D

Living in the UK, I must say, it was nice to avoid a load of lockdowns compared to Ireland and the EU... was mad coming home to Ireland while it was still log your details for a pint

Slightly Kwackers · 07-10-2023 11:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121207464#Comment_121207464

Mad here??

The lunacy was across the water.

People getting hit with enormous fines during lockdown while others could happily go out for a spin to test their eyesight or clap for carers on Westminster Bridge headed by the useless Ex police commissioner Cressida Dick.

Covid was a horrendous way out for a lot of people. I felt much safer here in Ireland than I would be as part of the UK clownshow.

Having worked on construction sites where common sense totally deserts the scene in the act of satisfying some stupid counter productive action to prevent a risk that cannot appear as anything but a bit of decoration or a filler on a risk assessment, One gets accustomed to an overreaction on some occasions.

I don't think Ireland's response was overreacting. Gasping a few final desperate breaths because an acquaintance wanted a pint in company isn't my idea of appropriate risk management.

British citizens are not valued or respected by their government, you don't lie repeatedly or withhold the truth from your fellow citizens if you have an iota of respect for them.

That's why so many were expendable.

Slightly Kwackers · 07-10-2023 11:19pm

Body is 1 character too short.

PommieBast · 07-10-2023 11:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121207464#Comment_121207464

There was a lot of suspicion that NPHET wanted to kill Irish pub culture, but there are plenty of other threads that covered this.

PommieBast · 08-10-2023 12:02am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121207347#Comment_121207347

England will always be the dominant UK nation because its population is by far the highest. The danger it is being the only nation left in the union.

K-9 · 08-10-2023 1:02am

And more Covid shyte, sorry goodlad, I think Nicola Sturgeon had to force Boris's hand a couple of times. IIRC she announced the closure of schools and Boris had to follow.

As Cummings called him, the shopping trolley, he's all over the place! Couldn't make a decision to save his own life, or others.

I could never get the reluctance to lockdown because the Brits love their freedom too much, argument. I mean we'd all seen the Zombie film type scenes coming from Italy, and Spain was going that way. Boris and his British exceptionalism shyte cost thousands of lives.

yagan · 08-10-2023 11:51am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121207347#Comment_121207347

I think it's the destruction of aspiration for the masses and then their turn towards extreme silver bullets like Brexit. I reckon that's what happened Russia after the implosion of the USSR, eventually they got behind a strong man to bring back national pride.

Assuming the Tories lose the next election on a swing towards Labour I do wonder will the Tories be taken over by a far more overtly right wing element.

jetsonx · 08-10-2023 12:53pm

>>The effect of this instability and inability of politicians to provide solutions is what led to the turning of a “strongman” leader, and we know the >>eventual outcome of these events.

Could this be the strongman Britain is looking for?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_stiz4aWiaQ

Badly Drunk Boy · 09-10-2023 10:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121202286#Comment_121202286

Here our government increased the national debt by billions unnecessarily by, for example, giving every 15 or 16 year old who had worked a Saturday job for a few Saturdays automatic entitlement to €350 per week.

I'm sure you already know that what you're saying is rubbish but I thought I'd remind you of some of the actual conditions:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/aa03c-operational-guidelines-covid-19-pandemic-unemployment-payment-pup/#:~:text=To%20qualify%20for%20the%20COVID%2D19%20Pandemic%20Unemployment%20Payment%2C%20a,not%20eligible%20for%20the%20payment.

Unflushable Turd · 09-10-2023 12:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121208015#Comment_121208015

There was a disaster management consultant on the Joe Marler podcast a while back and she was asked about all of this, as she had a hand in creating and testing the response plans.

people think that the conservative government made it all up as they went along, but the lockdowns were all as per the response plan that had been in place for years and it was widely accepted that you only close schools as an absolute last resort, that’s why none of the regions considered closing schools until the media pressure became too much. After that it just became a joke of each region waiting to see what England did, then so something slightly different so they can claim they know better. You even had the bizarre circuit breaker lockdown in wales, because Kier Starmer was calling for one in Westminster, so the labour controlled government had to put one in place for Wales to make them look good.

Is the UK now giving off strong Third World vibes?

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