So What Was Boris Doing?

[diddlydo]

When he should have been leading strategy in the early stages of the coronavirus catastrophe?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/19/michael-gove-fails-to-deny-pm-missed-five-coronavirus-cobra-meetings

[andy-hughes]

One of the great things about the human experience is 20/20 hindsight, which we all have.

We can sit at our keyboards and look down on those who make decisions and wonder why they didn't do this or that, based on what we - including them - now know has turned out as a result of doing or not doing something.

Fortunately, the PM does not have the time to wonder what every keyboard numpty is busy doing judging him with that hindsight, he has more important things to do.

Come to think of it, said keyboard numpties aside - so do all the rest of us.

[lankeela]

Can we hold on for a while to give gulliver a chance to catch up?

[sp1814]

diddlydo

As has been previously mentioned - the PM doesn't normally chair COBRA meetings. Looking back, perhaps he should, but that's the value of hindsight. If we all knew then, what we know now - maybe alot of difference choices would've been made.

Sidebar - you're perfectly free to try and score political points. It's the backbone of the News section on AB.

[poorclare]

Perhaps the simple answer is HE IS NOT WELL

[sp1814]

poorclare

The question relates to the COBRA meetings that occurred before he got sick, not now.

[diddlydo]

Exactly - these meetings were before he was ill. He issued the command for an "emergemcy" Cobra meeting on a Thursday for the following Monday - what sense of real urgency did that give and was that one of the ones he didn't attend - god knows but he wasn't doing a good job before he was ill and his stand-ins (apart from Rishi) have been abominably inept.

[poorclare]

and do we really know when he actually became sick ?

I am going to watch the Concert.

All this bickering is giving me a headache.

Have a nice evening everyone.

[weecalf]

I’ve said it before I’ve said it in Brighton .......

[diddlydo]

Apologies for typo - emergency.

[ToraToraTora]

diddly: As has been previously mentioned - the PM doesn't normally chair COBRA meetings.

[diddlydo]

Yet in the early days of this fiasco we were told "The PM chaired a Cobra meeting today blah blah"

[TheWholeTruth]

"Not trying to score points at all. Just wondering why the PM wasn't leading from the front when faced with such a serious situation."

disingenuous at best outright lie at worst....

and as for you comment about the guardian that sums up your blinkered views

[ToraToraTora]

the PM gets involved when it's serious enough. Most cobra meetings do not involve the PM. When you are in a hole diddly, the traditional advice is to stop digging.

[TheWholeTruth]

"Yet in the early days of this fiasco"

do tell us oh unwise one how you would have handled it or even better how that non party you worship , that really is a fiasco in the truest sense of the word would have handled it....

[TheWholeTruth]

"When you are in a hole diddly, the traditional advice is to stop digging."

said to a person that claims to be of a higher intelligence than most others on here... :) :) :) :)

[Togo]

Boris was engaged in much more important matters....Matters that will be having an impact on Britain when a bit of a virus is but a minor footnote in the history books. He was busy telling the EUSSR to get stuffed and that Britain, categorically, will not ask for an extension to the Brexit transition period, nor will it grant the EU an extension if it asks. The mentally ill Remainiacs, of course, have done their worst to try to take advantage of this little medical blip and delay further our rebirth. A re-invigorated Prime Minister coupled with a re-invigorated Free Britain will be an unstoppable force of nature.

[sp1814]

Togo

Are you high?

[ToraToraTora]

bang on togs, ignore the doubters.

[TheWholeTruth]

"The mentally ill Remainiacs, of course, have done their worst to try to take advantage of this little medical blip and delay further our rebirth. "
and still are by all accounts....

[jno]

sp1814, the point was that though a PM wouldn't normally have to chair Cobra meetings, they customarily do so during emergencies. Some would have thought during February (when the meetings were missed) that coronavirus constituted an emergency but the government doesn't seem to have thought so until March.

The Sunday Times quoted an (unnamed) adviser as saying Boris didn't do weekends.