General Discussion on Current Situation 2/

[familydar]

To lighten the mood, imagine BoJo the clown as a glove puppet, with the puppeteer in control.  Every time BoJo squirms or struggles to give a meaningful answer imagine that finger sticking up his ***

The puppet can't function without the puppeteer.

Jane :-)

[Kiltpin]

I too will remain angry.   

I served in Northern Ireland and the Falklands and know what it is like to have to comply with orders that I don't like and don't understand. Today's situation is no different. We follow the rules, regulations and laws if for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. 

I feel as if I have been personally betrayed. 

Regards
Chas

[Gan Yam]

Imagine BoJo the clown as a glove puppet, with the puppeteer in control.  Every time BoJo squirms or struggles to give a meaningful answer imagine that finger sticking up his ***

The puppet can't function without the puppeteer.

Jane :-)

He doesn't function that well with the puppeteer!   His recent performances have been abysmal to say the least.

[pharmaT]

I too will remain angry.   

I served in Northern Ireland and the Falklands and know what it is like to have to comply with orders that I don't like and don't understand. Today's situation is no different. We follow the rules, regulations and laws if for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. 

I feel as if I have been personally betrayed. 

Regards
Chas

For me it feels worse because i absolutely understand the reasons behind the rules.  I don't like them in the sense they're not fun and in some senses heartbreaking.  However I understand what the rules are trying to do and the science behind it.

[IgorStrav]

In my view, the Prime Minister remains tone deaf to the reaction in the country to his unapologetic defence of Dominic Cummings and his 'reasonable' interpretation of very simple rules. 

Stay at Home and don't take the risk of spreading the virus across the country.

There are many implications which he seems unaware of

 - people feel stupid as they have stuck, painfully, to the rules in really difficult circumstances and now feel regret as well as disillusion at having believed 'we're all in it together' and finding that they're totally naive and stupid, and we're not.

Nothing like feeling your personal sacrifice was unnecessary, and you were too silly to realise it.  And it is you who are to blame.

 - We need to remain ever cautious and stick to the rules - and now people feel that they don't have to.  Why should they?  Some people can break the rules, nothing happens to them and they don't even need to apologise.

 - Those who have previously tried to stick to the rules - the NHS staff who've prevented families seeing their loved ones in extremis - now, will families challenge their decisions?  Well, that's uncomfortable to think of, isn't it.

 - And worst of all - lives depend on considered, well communicated information and advice.
Who now feels confident they can trust what the Government says?

Move on?  Well, that's an insult from the PM and his self-serving Cabinet supporters in itself.

[familydar]

withdrawn

[groom]

[

For me it feels worse because i absolutely understand the reasons behind the rules.  I don't like them in the sense they're not fun and in some senses heartbreaking.  However I understand what the rules are trying to do and the science behind it.

That makes it sound as if the rest of us don't understand the reasons behind the rules. According to the statistics 80% of the country have been following the rules. It is just the few idiots who think it either doesn't apply to them or that they are untouchable.

[Spidermonkey]

I cannot brush this under the carpet either - there is no moving on from this.

I am a teacher,  for the last 10 weeks I and all my education colleagues around the country have been teaching online, running childcare hubs to enable key workers to do their job, dealing with safeguarding issues, working out how to award grades to students who can't sit exams, working out how we can get students back into school asap in the safest possible way, and generally trying to make sure that there is a 'normality' for children across the country.

We have all been "in this together" - or so I thought.  Yes, there was always going to be a few who ignored rules, but truthfully- in my small, rural community there has been no rule flouting.  No one has had a party.  No one has had friends over.  There wasn't even any VE day bunting let alone parties!

For a Government Advisor to then break so many guidelines without any hint of remorse- that is one hell of a kick to the teeth.  Fine - drive to your family if you think you are going to be poorly - but what is this utter crap about you having to drive to test your eyesight???  Why would your journalist wife write and vocalise utterly fictitious reports about your time in lockdown?  Why do that?  Why treat the public as if we are scum to kowtow to our masters?

[John915]

Good evening,

It appears that what he should have done was go to his line manager at the civil service office. He should have explained the facts and asked permission to travel to Durham. Which would probably been allowed but we will never know.

Junior came to visit today, under the new rules. He sat at one end of our table outside with us at the other. A little over 2 mtrs for our 10 seater. He works in IT as a programmer, and we were talking about the track and trace taking place. He said that it would appear that the company that got the job of setting this up is run by none other than Dominic Cummings brother. Now I wonder who put his name forward, 1 guess only please.

John915