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Boris’s Christmas U-turn ain’t going to be good for his popularity – politicalbetting.com
Boris’s Christmas U-turn ain’t going to be good for his popularity – politicalbetting.com
The real political problem with this afternoon’s announcement is that it comes only a few weeks after he had announced a relaxation for five days over Christmas. At the time this was widely criticised and thought by many to be taking too much of a risk.
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Neville Chamberlain, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher all raise eyebrows.
Those thinking he'll pay a big political penalty for this are misreading it.
Meanwhile, at least the Northerners will be (relatively!) happy...
As in missing them
I am out of the market.
It is March all over again.
All within five years of each other.
I think Eden and Disraeli would also request honourable mentions on that list.
https://twitter.com/SteveBakerHW/status/1340345462050713600?s=20
https://twitter.com/SteveBakerHW/status/1340345536331853829?s=20
https://twitter.com/gregsmith_uk/status/1340341804273700869?s=20
https://twitter.com/Mark_J_Harper/status/1340347145027801088?s=20.
Carswell on the libertarian Brexit right also not pleased
https://twitter.com/DouglasCarswell/status/1340362324130099200?s=20
But I am irresistibly reminded of my Bernard Cornwell:
‘You made Lord Robin look like a bloody idiot, Captain,’ said Berrigan. ‘But that ain’t difficult on account of the fact that he is a bloody idiot.’
We need the AZN/Oxford vaccine, yesterday.
What is it with these numpties & their denial of reality?
Although as nobody was going to be able to use it anyway I suppose the point is moot.
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1340360672736100354
If it is substantively different, can we be confidence the vaccines will still work?
Divine providence?
https://twitter.com/SBuschova/status/1340361279614103553
So I hope none of them spread antivax nonsense.
On a more cheerful note, I was surprised to hear Torsten Bell (ex-Darling adviser) and a former adviwser to George Osborne on R4 predicting a tremendous ecvonomic boom next year once people feel it's safe - they were predicting enormous built up enthusiasm for restaurants, travel, etc., and a hiring spree by the hospitality sector. I hope they're right, though I personally think people will be quite cautious for a long time.
Regardless my point was about the new variant being seeded all over the country.
Today its a mutant strain. In the spring it will be some other reason. For authoritarians, there is always a good reason. If you think the people who lord it over our lives are going to give up that power so easily, well I have a bridge to sell you.
We are in this for the duration. We are in it until this government is replaced by one that realises that rule by 'not overwhelming the NHS' is destroying our country. Its culture, its economy, its mental health, its future, its liberty. Almost irretrievably.
I mention the numbers Johnson is racking up, and all I get is insults. Presumably you don;t want to face them either.
A competent test, trace and /isolate/ program that had been operational since the summer might also have worked, but it’s clear that this government is not capable of implementing it, despite the £billions thrown into the Serco’s gaping maw.
Next year there will be desire, but there won’t be much spare cash floating around.
Meanwhile my brother and sister-in-law in Aberdeenshire are taking stock of the fact that my sis-in-law's daughter won't be able to travel up with her Grandparents who she is living with in Manchester (15, refused to leave her school when they moved up a year ago)
The news channel has moved on and it isn’t a point they have yet come back to. But it might explain the apparent government panic.
There will be those who have lost their jobs or taken pay cuts. Then there will be large numbers* who have maintained their income but have not been spending: on holidays, entertainment, eating out, etc.
The latter group will be spending big-time.
My only worry is that a majority of those I know who are either at university in London or work there post-university stayed in London because Tier 2 rather than their "home" which was in Tier 3, and only returned "home" within the last few days.
(In case you missed it that was a compliment by the way.)
If I posted this six months ago you would have said - you seriously think these restrictions will be in place in December 2020?
and
It doesn;t really matter what's in place in 2024. The damage is being done now.
I repeat how do we get from a 400bn deficit to balancing the books?
How do we convince businesses they won't be arbitrarily shut down in the future if something Chris Whitty doesn;t like turns up? ask yourself, would you open a pub? start any people to people business whatsoever?
This is for keeps mate. Your sunlit uplands are not coming back. Not next year, not for decades. Have you not seen the numbers FFS?
The wonderful thing is that if we both keep posting, we get to see which of us will turn out to be right, and which wrong, in real time. Exciting, isn't it?
It is not clever or respects another poster's view
And it is unnecessary
Stand up and make your own statement
Guess what! We were lucky & the vaccines worked extremely well; far better than anyone dared to hope. Depending on how fast the vaccine rollout goes, we might well be out of this by the end of March.
Nobody will care about the debt - it’s owed to a lender who isn’t about to call it in after all. They will care about the deficit & that’s going to be impacted by Brexit, but we’ll also have a post-Covid bounceback boom, so maybe that’ll be lost in the short term bounce, who knows.
He then U-turned two days later.
So spare me the bullshit for once, thanks.
But anyone who thinks his instincts are authoritarian on this is simply not looking at the facts.
On the contrary, he’s been far too relaxed for far too long far too often.
Truthfully, that is a positive about him as a person. I prefer my leaders not to be fascists. But it isn’t helpful right now. May or Brown with their controlling instincts would have done better.