Posted on 01/26/2021 10:07:21 PM PST by Cronos
For Boris Johnson this was his darkest hour. A moment for sombre reflection, as haunting as the sounds of muffled drums and Chopin's funeral march.
The grim news that had broken just moments before – that the death toll from the pandemic had surpassed 100,000 Britons – had left the Prime Minister visibly shaken. His face was flushed, his hair seemed whiter than ever.
This terrible milestone had, of course, been some time coming. Yet even this accomplished wordsmith struggled to summon the mots justes for the occasion.
He intoned how hard it was 'to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic; the years of life lost'.
He had simply 'exhausted the thesaurus of misery' to describe the tragedy that coronavirus had unleashed on the country.
He was humble and dejected – and, unlike many politicians, he was also willing to apologise.
'On this day, I should just really repeat that I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost,' he said.
'And, of course, as Prime Minister, I take full responsibility for everything that the Government has done.'
He went on: 'What I can tell you is that we truly did everything that we could.'
For us watching it too was a particularly queasy moment. The numbers of the departed now exceed the capacity of most football stadiums.
Less than a year ago, as those of us in the Press pack attended the first of these briefings, we were warned deaths could reach into the tens of thousands, Some of us thought it all sounded a bit over-dramatic. A whole other time that now seems a whole other world.
... Boris rather hopes we'll be out of the woods before the summer of 2022.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Testing at the start of the pandemic was grossly inadequate. Failure to stop the virus being imported from abroad – ironic, given Mr Johnson was elected on a pledge to take back control of the nation’s borders – has also been instrumental in Britain’s high case numbers.
Britain has 273 people for every square kilometre – more than twice the European average of 108. One study, by the George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, predicted that population density accounts for 84 per cent of the difference between infection rates in different areas.
Britain has one of the worst obesity problems in Europe, with one in every three children and two in three adults overweight. Some 7.6million people suffer from heart disease. Five million have diabetes.
Boris’s darkest hour was when he decided to let his significant other run his office.
BoJo = BoZo.
Frankly little could be successful at stopping this pandemic......it’s doing what they do....spreading across a nation.
When this ungrateful lowlife was potentially dying of Covid, Trump sent a team of the best doctors to the UK to aid him and he recovered. Should have let nature take its course.
Compare and contrast to Churchill, who never even flinched during two years of never ending military disasters between 1939-1941.
Does the Conservative Party have anyone of stature who can replace Johnson before the next election?
Scott Adams thinks that leadership is one of the least important variables in how a nation suffers from this pandemic.
Much more important are other variables: health, obesity, age, Vitamin D, density, sunshine, being an island. . .
Scott Adams thinks that leadership is one of the least important variables in how a nation suffers from this pandemic.
Much more important are other variables: health, obesity, age, Vitamin D, density, sunshine, being an island. . .
As soon as this guy got better he turned his vitriol on Trump.
The UK uses the same corrupt statistical methods as the US, if not worse. So, there is that to begin with.
But, the main problem is caused by a dense population with many comorbidities. Nothing the Government could have done about that. In the US hard lockdowns did not alter the statistics in any meaningful way. See NY, NJ, Mass and Cali, who have the same problems. They still have the worst deaths per 100,000, despite all the media BS about Republican states who fared better with less restrictive lockdowns. Boris did not affect the result.
It doesn’t help matters that they have an inefficient government run health care system.
Well, there is that. Never having lived in the UK I have never understood the affection the Brits have for the NHS, which strikes me as terribly inefficient and unnecessarily rations care in a wealthy Western country. Stockholm Syndrome?
Churchill was a good wartime leader. He was a bad peacetime leader.
many people - even quite wealthy people - will use the NHS in preference to private care in the UK and do so for good reason.
Many people in well paying jobs, such as in the city, have healthcare insurance as part of their employment package. Since most needs are covered by the NHS, additional insurance is quite cheap here. What would surprise many people in the US is that even if you have this insurance and can use fancy private hospitals, the NHS is often better.
On the whole I think the NHS delivers better healthcare than insurance driven private care and part of the reason is that NHS specialists are better at working as a team. Private care encourages silos - with each specialist working in isolation with an eye on their billable hours.
The NHS works pretty well for the UK -- it won't translate well to a continent-sized country like the USA.
For the USA the best would be to allow individual states to deal with this as they see best -- if Mass wants to have single-payer and a MassHS then let them.
But what works in Mass or RI won't work in Texas and vice-versa.
How touching. A build back better “great Reset” commie feels bad about the virus he’s using to drive his country to hell...
Why do you call BoJo a commie? He’s a lot of things, but never pegged him for a commie.
His mum never combed his hair. Tragic!
To be fair, I don’t believe that ever actually happened. President Trump made a generous remark to this effect during a press conference, but more or less the same day BJ was out of intensive care and improving. There was a polite British public diplomatic response to what Trump had said, but the offer was politely declined as no longer necessary.
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