What's Wrong With The Meeja....?

[ToraToraTora]

https://news.sky.com/story/rishi-sunak-refuses-to-apologise-six-times-for-trusss-economic-turmoil-12748038
..why should the incumbent apologise for the activities of a predecessor? All this apologise yada yada yada balearics is getting out of hand.

[ToraToraTora]

Roy "Well you didn't appear to be defending Truss." - nope what gave you that idea? I was mainly having a go at the media with their continual, calls for apologies for just about everything over the last 1000 years
"Furlough had more holes in it than a Swiss cheese. " - no doubt it was not a perfect implementation but given that we had a lock down it was necessary. What is your alternative suggestion?

[Peter Pedant]

because..... the alternative to say
that was then and this is now and it is nothing to do with me

this sounds very very bad, and does extensive reputational damage. Often on police lips for past cack-ups, Such as the twenty y continuing cack up over Daniel Morgan - Cassandra Dick saying - "look this started before I was born for chrissakes"

Or Lord Peter Taylor who wished he could have hanged the IRA non bombers 1976: "it is nothing to do with me if the police choose to lie" 1992 - righto m'lud, that makes it all right !

or Callaghan 1967 devaluation
" [devaluation] is due to 13 y of Tory mis-rule"
Robin Day for it is he: oh come on you cant keep on saying that!
Callaghan - but it is true!

or windrush -British afro caribbean version of
" and the Mandarins after the war worked very hard to prevent the heroes who had won the war, getting what they had promised them"

[Peter Pedant]

Woy "Well you didn't appear to be defending Twuss."

oh dont damn poor old Twussy ! - either Woy or Twora
she did her best - hey and I liked the Sidney Johnson look alike who did a turn as Chancellor,
am I allowed to say that?

[New Judge]

// I can reliably inform you that there was a point where 2 large hospitals in W Yorks were almost swamped.//

I don't doubt it. But can you reliably say that lockdown prevented that swamping? If so, what do you base that on?

[Zacs-Master]

A period of stabilisation (of the number of patients being admitted with COvid) Fairly rapid decline numbers in hospital thereafter. And a much happier wife ;-)

[davebro]

//The NHS is on it's last legs as it is. Can you imagine what state it would be in if there hadn't been a lockdown?//

What if they had used the Nightingale white elephants to isolate covid patients from the general hospital population?

[Zacs-Master]

There weren't enough nurses to run them, dave. So it's a good job they were never needed.

[davebro]

//There weren't enough nurses to run them, dave. So it's a good job they were never needed.//

If that's the case (and auxiliary staff couldn't have been recruited) why go to the expense of setting them up at all?

[Zacs-Master]

I've no idea, dave, you'd have to ask Messrs Johnson and Hancock that.

[New Judge]

//A period of stabilisation (of the number of patients being admitted with COvid) Fairly rapid decline numbers in hospital thereafter. And a much happier wife ;-)//

But did the lockdown cause that? If so, what do you base that on?

//If that's the case (and auxiliary staff couldn't have been recruited) why go to the expense of setting them up at all?//

Because it looked good, Dave. It gave the impression that the government was on top of the virus (which it never was, nor was any other government). They had to be seen to be "doing something" because the population expects the government to protect them from everything that's nasty.

This was the governments "Covid Action Plan", published just three weeks before lockdown:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-action-plan/coronavirus-action-plan-a-guide-to-what-you-can-expect-across-the-uk#responsibilities-pandemic-preparedness

It is not until you get to three quarters of the way down that you read this:

"Action that would be considered could include population distancing strategies (such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, reducing the number of large-scale gatherings) to slow the spread of the disease throughout the population, while ensuring the country’s ability to continue to run as normally as possible."

Even then, there is no inkling that the entire non-essential (and a good bit of the essential) economy and services might be closed down. So what changed in those three weeks that wasn't predicted earlier (whilst the action plan was being compiled)?

[Togo]

//So what changed in those three weeks that wasn't predicted earlier (whilst the action plan was being compiled)?//

The misleadia media went into full hysteria mode to ramp up the fear factor, just to show that they could, that forced the Elected Government to take action if only to head off riots and civil unrest. We all know who the major player was in this action here in the UK.

[Togo]

It is also the leading player in trying to force apologies out of people, you and I included, who had no part in the events that seem to affect themselves so deeply.

[Old_Geezer]

Maybe he should apologise, after all it's clearly his fault that he wasn't popular enough with the members to win the first contest. And again his fault he was so popular with the MPs that he took one on the last two places meaning the members didn't had a decent option to vote for at the time.

[Zacs-Master]

‘ But did the lockdown cause that? If so, what do you base that on? ’

I base it on the facts that pre lockdown, hospitals were almost swamped and after lockdown things improved. Quite dramatically. It’s, as the common phrase goes, not rocket science.

I know you’ve got some weird notion about it being a major unnecessary infringement of our civil liberties but it worked.

[jourdain2]

I'm another who was anti-lockdown and furlough - and I said so at the time to general disbelief and howling down - because I and OH could see very clearly the appalling consequences. It would have made more sense to tell people at risk (us and our age group) to isolate as far as possible -- and to facilitate that e.g. by setting aside 'quiet times' in supermarkets. The rest of the country (not at risk of dying) should have just taken care. My impotent fury at the damage being done to children caused me stress issues. No I'm not being wise after the result.

OP I don't see either why a newcomer should apologise for the sins of the predecessor.

[douglas9401]

Could these almost swamped hospitals not have used the Nightingale facilities that were so desperately underused?
Some say we were played after the initial panic

[gness]

Must have been so hard for your wife, Zacs and for you worrying about her. I was the same with my nephew on his knees from treating COVID patients and hand holding so they didn’t die alone. Holding up his phone so family could say goodbye.
Still, those against lockdown and refusing to wear a mask knew better.
As for the damage done to children. Poppycock. The children I know and see around the village and town are fine.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm unconvinced that nations that locked down did better re controlling the pandemic than those that didn't. Generally speaking the virus evolved to become a less severe strain, and many folk got natural immunity from having caught Covid, pushing us rapidly to herd immunity status. Vaccine Beta testing may have helped get us there, but at the risk of possible medium to longer term consequences to those who succumbed to pressure and had them. The major effect of a lock down, aside from the serious removal of personal rights against every freedom we in the West believe in, was a massive hit to the economy, and, in an attempt to compensate for the error, a massive hit to the public purse trying to keep some businesses afloat. Which we all now have to pay for to replenish the kitty. (And now the Chinese population are having to endure the same error, but they have little say in getting it lifted.)

[royfromaus]

Not 'Poppycock' for one of my kids who now has myocarditis...but hey...he saved his granny and the NHS

[jno]

Cameron apologised for Section 28


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jul/02/david-cameron-gay-pride-apology