Oh boy, has Cummings got the knives out!

[Workingman]

I have watched for two hours now and he has made some damning accusations.

If there are any investigative journalists left they are going to have a field day looking at names, dates, meetings and minutes.

However, I guess that we will have to look at foreign media for the real story. Our mob are too close and chummy with politics and the civil service to get to the bottom of what has been said.

He is outlining a failure of government, with a small 'g', that many of us have suspected for decades.

[cromwell]

True enough. Unfortunately for him he is a notably bitter man who resents being fired, which will result in many people just tuning them out.
Doubtless the BBC will seize upon them for their latest round of Boris bashing, put as the result of the Hartlepool by election showed, most people tuned the run up to that by election of constant "Tory sleaze / wallpaper scandal" out as well.

I think Cummings will have some valid points to make; the role and ability of the Civil Service and of various government structures, namely the Department of Health and maybe the NHS, but this will probably get lost in the "what did Boris Johnson say" furore.

[Workingman]

I think Cummings will have some valid points to make; the role and ability of the Civil Service and of various government structures, namely the Department of Health and maybe the NHS, but this will probably get lost in the "what did Boris Johnson say" furore.

That's why I say we need good investigative journalist to look at events outside of what "Boris said".

Do we have them? I am not convinced.

[victor]

Hmmm strange he didn't have anything to say before he got pushed out.

[Suff]

Revenge is a dish best served cold....

[Workingman]

Revenge is a dish best served cold....

Pf/BionTech -70 ºC cold?

The media is now rushing round trying to catch up and cover its own arse(s). Make no mistake, it has been complicit in this whole mess.

But is it just revenge or is there substance in what he said? My take is that he his nearer to the truth than his detractors would have us believe.

[TheOstrich]

My take is that he his nearer to the truth than his detractors would have us believe.

Oh absolutely - no clear minds, no clear direction, prevarication - and let's face it, no change after nearly 18 months.

[Suff]

Oh absolutely - no clear minds, no clear direction, prevarication - and let's face it, no change after nearly 18 months.

I'm struggling to work out what new and innovative policy they could suddenly pull out of the hat in the middle of a world wide pandemic which is crippling economies and hampering trade?

On the other hand, if you look for it, the UK continues to build trade relationships with the rest of the world, mange the fall out of the EU exit, try to handle the NI situation and, generally, get on with what they promised the country they would do, get Brexit done. It is not over and won't be over for at least another 8 years. Just because the press don't want to report that the government is actually out there doing what they said they would do is no reason to suppose they are not.

Meanwhile the vaccination continues, the lockdowns are going away and the country slowly comes out of stasis.

What are we offered in alternatives? Well they could lock us down harder to make sure nobody dies, whilst at the same time give us more freedoms because the lockdowns are really unpopular. Work that one out.

Just about everything the opposition parties have been saying, over the last 18 months, has cancelled itself out over time. You talk about flip flopping from the government, the opposition is flip flopping so fast it is about to spin off into orbit. But they should be treated as a serious alternative to the government. Why? Well, because! Because what? Because they're not Bojo.

Yeah right. I simply do not listen to them.

Did the government do a good job at the beginning of the pandemic. No. Did any government? Yep, China. Want a gun stuck in your face? Go to China and they'll oblige. The rest? No, most of them really didn't do any better. Or there would be no second and third waves.

On the other hand did the government focus on the exit path and drive to it ruthlessly? Yes it did. Did it spare any money in getting there (unlike the EU), no it did not. Is it on track to get the whole country vaccinated and out from under this yolk of Covid? Yes it is.

It is worth looking back at an op ed written in Bloomberg as countries prepared to lock down last Christmas.

This is the first sentence.

Every country has at one point dared to believe they’ve figured out how to beat SARS-CoV-2, until reality sets in.

It was about the stress on the "Swedish" model as a second wave ravaged Europe.

Some key points to take away.

The U.K.’s misguided flirtation with a hands-off “herd immunity” strategy in March led quickly to a U-turn and tough restrictions. France and Spain promised they’d never repeat the draconian lockdowns they imposed early on — only to break their vow when test-and-trace systems failed to keep pace with summer vacation contagion.

It’s tempting to gloat over Sweden’s failures and the attitude of its top epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, who is by turns curiously inflexible (he opposes face masks) and unpredictable (his U-turns on guidelines for children). But maybe Sweden is simply falling into the norm for this public health crisis. After all, Germany, a bright spot of Europe earlier this year, is going through a similar reversal of fortunes. Its daily deaths are hitting their highest levels since the start of the pandemic, prompting Chancellor Angela Merkel to call on Germans to rein in Christmas celebrations in an emotional speech. Switzerland, too, is being hit harder this time around.

The reality is that all countries have had to learn from mistakes

And finally

Until vaccines get rolled out at scale, the danger for people everywhere will be imagining they’ve got this virus beaten.

Very prescient. As Israel, the UK and the US are proving to the world at large. 2022 will be a very different year from either 2020 or 2021 as far as UK government goes.

[Workingman]

In my OP I deliberately made this not about party or personality politics as it is not helpful.

Suff, you obviously did not listen to Cummings' testimony so have linked to an opinion article from December last year and gone off on one. Very little of what you say relates to what he said. I know because I watched every (painful) minute

[Suff]

I was commenting on the coverage. No, I don't have time in my life to watch him dish damaging claims.

The point is nobody got this right and very few are getting it right today. I was also replying to Ossie about the government not making any changes 18 months in.

Cummings is playing a total hindsight game and a blame game. He was right you see. Apparently we didn't lock down fast enough. Well he obviously didn't agree with the lockdowns or he would never have gone home and run the risk of cross country transmission. His acts spoke louder than his words today.

I'm not going to bother too much. This will be over by next year, mostly, for Europe and the developed world. Cummings can dig his grave, I don't care.