5 ms·

Boris just says stuff day to day. best just to ignore him completely because the next day he’ll be saying something different.

• tobylane 6y ago
  Three days ago he said it would be inhumane to cancel Christmas. Today he said the data from the last 72 hours forced a change. Johnson is an oaf, but covid has kept him fairly serious. His waffling bumbling act was dropped.
  • AaronFriel 6y ago
    He thought it was however perfectly humane to cancel all of the other religious holidays, and though that doesn't speak to his bumbling act, it speaks volumes about his character.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    • nicoburns 6y ago
      Most of the UK is secular. Christmas has cultural significance (and everyone gets time off work), not just religious.
      • mhh__ 6y ago
        "We don't do God", as the saying goes, is a major difference between (say) the UK and the US.
        • randomsearch 6y ago
          Forgotten that quote, which was from the Blair government for those who don’t recall it. As other poster pointed out, monarchy and CoE would disagree though.
          • Veen 6y ago
            So would Blair. He is a committed Catholic.
            • mhh__ 6y ago
              It was said by Alistair Campbell to Blair when he started talking about (as you might guess) God.
    • tom_ 6y ago
      Christmas is a key Christian festival, and the UK is a Christian country, with the monarch as the head of its official church. So perhaps no surprises if it gets special treatment.
  • rweir 6y ago
    > covid has kept him fairly serious. no it hasn't, it's kept him doing what he always does, wandering from tactical decision to tactical decision. the March lockdown only happened when public pressure became unbearable, he allowed the treasury to subsidise people eating in restaurants, he continues, in month nine, to hand large contracts to unqualified mates, both wasting money and reducing the ability to deal with the pandemic, and despite it being a once-in-a-century pandemic, did not ask for an extension on the disorganised negotiations with the EU, meaning that in the middle of December, it's still unclear how trade with EU, including...food and medicine, is meant to work in 12 days. his entire career is just making the easy choice in the moment with no forethought.
  • mhh__ 6y ago
    I'm of two minds about this particular decision - Johnson is a crook and a fraud, but in this case I can't really blame him for making the decision (Our late decision to go into lockdown killed people, though).
    • pbhjpbhj 6y ago
      I don't get why people have to personalise this. Johnson's decision is easy, go with the expertise or ignore it and make something up. Things for some reason seem now always to have to be presented as the policy of one political "team" as if a country can be run by relying entirely on a small group of politicians to come up with all the ideas. We should be using statisticians, virologists, public health advisors, doctors, etc., to come up with suggestions. Maybe a few separate groups. Johnson's decision then is "shall I try and circumvent this expert advice or not". Seems like politicians have no idea how to delegate, and press are so poor at reporting they can't somehow cope with presenting things that aren't personality competitions. The best thing Johnson could do is sanction his advisors and make sure of the rule of law in their regard - he's used his father as a personal representative in governmental actions, but his father has been publicly and openly breaching the rules. Who could possibly honour "Johnson's" advice when he won't even hold his own personnel to that standard. It's beyond ridiculous and shows utter contempt for the British public IMO.
  • alexisread 6y ago
    I don't think anything much has changed wrt a strategy. The main pointer here is the allowance in the strictest tier for group worship, and allowing Christmas grottos to stay open- not exactly science led.
  • kergonath 6y ago
    Not a moment too soon...