BS: UK politics. Last ditch attempt

Subject: RE: BS: UK politics. Last ditch attempt
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Mar 20 - 02:02 PM

Good article about how industry is pulling out the stops to produce respirators. No mention of BoJo being decisive or otherwise.

Subject: RE: BS: UK politics. Last ditch attempt
From: Iains
Date: 22 Mar 20 - 01:29 PM

No messing about with Boris!
Clear, decisive action in response to a crisis.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-extraordinary-uk-effort-to-produce-thousands-more-ventilators-11961559

Subject: RE: BS: UK politics. Last ditch attempt
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 22 Mar 20 - 12:28 PM

Couldn’t agree more, DMcG. Johnson is slowly becoming an irritant and an irrelevance - he certainly is not displaying the qualities we have a right to expect of a Leader.

Methinks his time is drawing to a close.

Subject: RE: BS: UK politics. Last ditch attempt
From: DMcG
Date: 22 Mar 20 - 12:18 PM

And mine. I think a current article by Andrew Rawnsley is worth a read as well. Picking a couple of paragraphs out for people who don't want to read the whole thing:


For government and voters alike, this crisis is a rushed tutorial in the case for the active and well-resourced state. Only government can take the exceptional measures required to curtail human activity in the hope that it will curb the spread of infection. Only government has the capacity to effectively perform as an insurer of last resort for the huge number of companies facing extinction unless they receive state aid. Only government can provide a safety net for workers deprived of the ability to earn their living because they are ill or trying to do the right thing by isolating themselves or because their employer is in trouble.
Welfare is bad. Balance the books. It is not the role of government to bail out failing companies. All those beliefs long worshipped in the churches of conservatism are being sacrificed in the fierce urgency of the now

….

While it is far too early to make any confident predictions about the longterm ways in which this crisis will reshape society, it has already upended many of the assumptions that have governed politics here and elsewhere for decades. It is hard to believe that a once-in-a-century event will not have some once-in-a-century consequences.



The actions that Rishi Sunak is taking are in many ways things you would expect from a left-wing stable, not a right-wing, or even a centralist one.

Many predicted the death of Labour after the last election (for good or ill). It is possible that the state of politics after this will be one where, for a time at least, the old labels mean nothing, and we end up with two quite different parties to the ones we are used to. (As long as FPTP continues, it will be essentially two parties.)

Subject: RE: BS: UK politics. Last ditch attempt
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 22 Mar 20 - 12:14 PM

I agree too about Rishi Sunak. I see a PM in the making there. Hopefully very, very soon.

Subject: RE: BS: UK politics. Last ditch attempt
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Mar 20 - 12:08 PM

Not just your opinion. It's mine too. And it's well worth reading Marina Hyde's Guardian article, the one that BWM referred to. It's fine to defend Johnson, but the groundswell I'm picking up on this is a general feeling that events constantly overtake him and that he's doing a very shoddy and indecisive job. That compounds the terrible damage that ten years of Toryism have done to the NHS, and that will come back to bite him in the weeks to come.

Subject: BS: UK politics. Last ditch attempt
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Mar 20 - 11:57 AM

This is the last thread I will start on this subject. If those intent on shutting down any such discussion succeed in closing this one too, well done. You will have won and I hope you will be happy with that hollow victory.

To everyone else I can only repeat the previous advice. Don't troll. Don't flame bait. Don't respond to trolls and baiters. Politicians are fair game for criticism as long as it is not hateful, racist or sexist. Not that anyone in power will take notice of or even read a minority interest tiny forum. Other Mudcat members and others interested in folk music do read it though so be civil with each other.

Ok. That out of the way, let us begin.

I am quite impressed with the way Rishi Sunak comes across. Ok, I know he is a Tory and as such is probably against what I support but at least he comes across as professional and caring. I think Boris needs to watch out. Beside Sunak he looks like a 5 year old playing at being a statesman. Just my opinion of course.