Boris's Brain is missing

[Oldjohnw]

It's looking like Johnson has decided that a bad deal is better than no deal.

Recent events have shown we don't hold all the cards. We are very vulnerable.

[reohn2]

It's looking like Johnson has decided that a bad deal is better than no deal.

Recent events have shown we don't hold all the cards. We are very vulnerable.

It's all a conspiracy,the unicorns will frolic in the free UK 'fresh' air,we shall be unburdened of the yoke of oppressive jackboot EU,making deals with whosoever we wish,truly a land of milk and honey etc,etc......

[kwackers]

A trade deal was always fairly likely although I'll admit I was beginning to think I could hear the sound of someone about to kick the ball further down the field (again).

It'll be interesting to see what it is. Now is the time all those who shouted "sovereignty" to find out that a trade deal is all about giving it away again in return for cheap(er) fish.

[Debs]

Recent events have shown we don't hold all the cards. We are very vulnerable.

Don't worry, we shall examine Boris's very dodgy secret last minute trade deal with the upmost scrutiny...

and then hold a national Referendum on either voting for it, or remaining in the EU.

Any other way just wouldn't be democracy.

[Stevek76]

Seems the original boris's brain referred to in this thread (i.e. cummings rather than the one in his pants) is still busy at work leaking a (hilariously dubious) scorecard to paul staines claiming the UK side achieved 2.5x more victories [sic] trying to glitter the deal for the ERG etc.

Which was then releaked 30min later with an even more dubious set of claims vs the original vote leave objectives at the end removed.

[Mike Sales]

I sometimes wonder if the UK is really ready for self government.

I have me doubts that England is ready for self government.

You seem a reasonably bright chap Mike so I'm surprised you've got doubts about that.

British understatement.

[Psamathe]

Interesting open letter he's written to parents. All using "you" so clearly does not think of himself as being a parent (and thus thinks he does not have parental responsibilities). He's probably got more than any of those he was writing to.

Ian

[Oldjohnw]

Following the continued success of the vaccine rollout it looks like Johnson will get away with all his previous misdemeanours and incompetencies. The EU threaten the very thing Johnson threatened a couple of weeks ago (Art 16) and Johnson is praised for standing up to them whilst whatever else the EU might do they will always be dismissed for this.

Whoever said life was fair?

[kwackers]

Following the continued success of the vaccine rollout it looks like Johnson will get away with all his previous misdemeanours and incompetencies. The EU threaten the very thing Johnson threatened a couple of weeks ago (Art 16) and Johnson is praised for standing up to them whilst whatever else the EU might do they will always be dismissed for this.

Whoever said life was fair?

Whenever I've questioned the antics of anyone and how they got where they are the answer is usually "sh*t floats".
Pretty much sums it up.

BoJo was always going to get away with it, already folk are singing his praises when to my mind the only metric that really matters is how many people died.
Which is bizarre when you consider that the main reason the rollout matters is because he muffed up in the first place.

[kwackers]

I'd forgotten about this gem.

As cases rose last March, he boasted: “I was at a hospital the other night where there were a few coronavirus patients, and I shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands … people obviously can make up their own mind.”"

[Ben@Forest]

According to Politics Home:

A newly-published document by the Independent Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B), a sub-group of the Sage advisory panel, reveals officials agreed to “advise against” hand shakes on 3 March.

That was the same day the Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference: "I was at a hospital the other night where I think a few there were actually coronavirus patients.

"And I shook hands with everybody, you'll be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands."

So he shook hands with them before the advice was agreed. Further to this the Dutch PM, Mark Rutte, made the mistake in March last year of telling people not to shake hands, then immediately doing so... around the same time Angela Merkel went to shake hands with another German politician who refused to take her hand.... but our politicians are, of course, uniquely stupid......

[kwackers]

A
So he shook hands with them before the advice was agreed. Further to this the Dutch PM, Mark Rutte, made the mistake in March last year of telling people not to shake hands, then immediately doing so... around the same time Angela Merkel went to shake hands with another German politician who refused to take her hand.... but our politicians are, of course, uniquely stupid......

There's a bit more to it than that.

We knew it was a coronavirus, we knew it was highly contagious, we knew that avoiding contact, washing hands etc etc where all necessary.
At this point people had died in the west, Wuhan was in lockdown and people were walking the streets in hazmat suits spraying disinfectant.
Nobody has any excuses for thinking it was a trivial thing.

Then Sage issues its advice against shaking hands on the same day BoJo shakes hands and he didn't know? Possibly, but that begs the question what does he know? He is our esteemed leader after all, finger on the pulse and all that...

We could give him the benefit of the doubt right up until the point where when questioned when he did know about the advice he bragged about shaking hands with those infected.
The collective groans of the population were so loud it was like a zombie awakening...
Now *that's* stupidity.

[Ben@Forest]

There's a bit more to it than that.

We knew it was a coronavirus, we knew it was highly contagious, we knew that avoiding contact, washing hands etc etc where all necessary.
At this point people had died in the west, Wuhan was in lockdown and people were walking the streets in hazmat suits spraying disinfectant.
Nobody has any excuses for thinking it was a trivial thing.

Then Sage issues its advice against shaking hands on the same day BoJo shakes hands and he didn't know? Possibly, but that begs the question what does he know? He is our esteemed leader after all, finger on the pulse and all that...

We could give him the benefit of the doubt right up until the point where when questioned when he did know about the advice he bragged about shaking hands with those infected.
The collective groans of the population were so loud it was like a zombie awakening...
Now *that's* stupidity.

Well, plenty of us are stupid then. I went to a seminar a couple of days before everything went pear-shaped. It was about plant health, it was in March, it was the last 'normal' work thing I did, it was partly run by a university, it had some international visitors and plenty of PhDs etc. Everyone shook hands and lunch was a buffet.... nobody was really that concerned.. Ahh halcyon days! Apart from the truly prescient perhaps it took everyone a while to adjust...

[kwackers]

Well, plenty of us are stupid then. I went to a seminar a couple of days before everything went pear-shaped. It was about plant health, it was in March, it was the last 'normal' work thing I did, it was partly run by a university, it had some international visitors and plenty of PhDs etc. Everyone shook hands and lunch was a buffet.... nobody was really that concerned.. Ahh halcyon days! Apart from the truly prescient perhaps it took everyone a while to adjust...

Were the people you shook hands with infected?
Back then the numbers in the UK were small, I think most of us felt fairly safe.

Would you have shook hands with them if you were in a place with folk who had the virus?
Having shaken hands and then asked would you then have dismissed the virus by bragging loudly about shaking hands with everyone and insisting you were going to continue?

It's the dismissal and the bragging that marks him as stupid in my book.

[Oldjohnw]

Today we have street by street tests in some places because of the SA variant but travellers can still arrive from SA without either tests or quarantine.