General Chat

Have the EU agreed to ANY of the vaccines yet?

Just like to add, at the start of Covid :
"Senior Conservatives are questioning whether Boris Johnson will need a national unity government or emergency cross-party council to share responsibility for the coronavirus crisis if the situation worsens."

"New leader Keir Starmer has refused to rule out the idea of Labour joining a Covid coalition government in an interview"

Johnson wasn't interested - he decided to 'go it alone'.

Johnson also refused to take part in an EU scheme to procure much-needed medical equipment.

I wonder whose decisions they were?

Brexit was, and I quote 'Oven Ready' - so 'Oven Ready' he said he could (his own words) “Whack it in the microwave, gas mark… I’m not very good at cooking… gas mark four." :-S :-S
So according to himself it was signed, sealed, just had to be delivered.
The only problem, is that it wasn't 'Oven Ready', and the EU can do without Britain more than Britain can do without the EU. We no longer have an 'Empire', ir's a shame some MPs forgot that.
£Billions was spent Brexit - for such 'necessities' a a ferry company with no boats,

The government has also compromised itself, by giving £billions of taxpayers money to it's 'mates' for contracts they couldn't deliver - mainly because they /their firms had no experience, whilst firms WITH experience were sidelined.

Also, due to Brexit, there are millions of sets of PPE sat in Dover. It may be useless PPE, but we won't know until Kent Lorry Park clears.

This pandemic is so difficult for leaders, unless you are Trump.
Sweden went for the herd immunity and now admit to getting it wrong. Germany did so well in the first wave and now are having serious problems with the second.
It is so difficult to second guess what the virus is going to do. and therefore difficult to make decisions. Which might be right one day is wrong another.

There are now reports of a new mutation in south Africa which is hitting the young hard.

I am glad I am not a politician.

There's no pleasing some!

Boris should have handed the virus reins to the experts. Sure, it's a new one but he didn't need to make a total balls up of it!

Makes my blood boil Maggie.
Was Bozza's '5 days of Christmas' plan just to curry favour with the public? A distraction from brexit? Did anyone seriously think he had the power to put the virus on hold for 5 days?

Yes, like all virus', new strains develop - which need a vaccine to match so how much use are the current ones? I'm sure the new strain was mentioned more than 6 days ago? Anyone would think Boris wanted to kill us off.

I think we have to bear in mind that he was elected to deal with Brexit and to run the economy, both of which he is having to do while doing his best to keep the population safe from a pandemic.

Somehow the government has to sustain an economy, already severely compromised by Brexit for a time when we emerge from this pandemic and to keep some sort of calm in the populace. Having been suppressed for such a long time with no end in sight there is a real danger of civil unrest which also needs to be appeased.

I am so glad that I am not obliged to deal with it all.

What was 'eat out to help out'?
No, not 'boozing in the street', but an apparently 'civilised' way to spread the virus - the rates shot up after that fiasco.

As for people leaving London - what on earth did the Government expect?

6 days ago, a new strain of the virus was identified.
I'm not sure why this was a surprise to Johnson - he attended meetings with medical experts - didn't he? Or did he?
Flu is a virus, and most people know that flu developes different strains - it's what viruses do.

5 days ago, Kier Starmer said, Johnson was ‘ignoring medical advice’ over Christmas plans. Johnson's informed response? - He accused Starmer of 'trying to ruin Christmas' Starmer had looked at the medical advice - had Johnson, or was it too much of a faff, or did he hope it would all go away?

So then we had the fiasco yesterday - Christmas cancelled 6 days before the event, rather than 12 days before. Never mind, the extra 6 days enabled people to waste money on food they'll never manage to eat.

It wont end Barbra until we have a strong leader to pick up the pieces. Who? I have no idea. Boris will be gone once he's got the next disaster up and (not) running aka brexit.

Alright the Goverment decide what should be done but people haven't helped having street parties boozing in the street defying rules just to have a jolly time what would we have done society stinks you're not telling me what to do go away I will party to little to late maybe but lock down should mean just that people are leaving Londen now they will spread Covid more all over the Country very worrying time when will it end God Knows

Of course it's the governments fault! Not the root of the virus but the handling of it. Late to lock down at the start - who else was chomping at the bit for that to be decided? I certainly was! The Cummings fiasco - seriously, were people expected to 'obey rules' when the Hooray boys were breaking them and being excused but Boris?

New Zealand is where we can only dream of being thanks to a strong leader.

What happened to disaster contingency plans?

We're where we are because we have an utter buffoon and his mates in charge!

The press have a field day especially when there is tragic stories no body could see what was going to happen but the media will pounce on every word .Our PM must be very sad with the Covid pandemic he alone cannot make it right .the way it's spread just shows how & whatever is being done nothing can stop the spread of it it's an awfull situation so many people Dying families in a lot of pain ..lets hope lockdown & vaccines beat this horrible Covid .Try & be patient it's hard but stop blaming PM it's not his fault ..human race doing what it does ignore sound advise Barbara

Sharron - Spot-on. Well done!

Well said Sharron, too many people on social media politicising the situation.

I will not complain about the way the government are handling Covid. It is unprecedented and they were not ever elected to deal with one.There is no hidden agenda.

What I strongly object to is the media focusing upon individuals who are adversely affected by it and those demanding money from the government for their failing businesses

This pandemic is the fault of nobody, especially not the government, of any country, whatever party they might be.Nobody id benefitting from it and the government does not have surplus funds to bale out those industries not absolutely necessary to life, they had not been saving up for it!

We are all suffering and aware that others are too, we don't need the media to keep telling us about it.

Ann :-D

A sober Christmas Day for me as it seems I can go and get the son for the day (he doesn't drive) and OH will have to walk the daughters Christmas lunch down to her. Oh well! it could be worse.

Well I am on my own anyway and have food for me in the freezer. Husband is unlikely to be sent home from hospital. Grandson was supposed to be going to our daughter, his Mum's and his fiancee to her Mums in Somerset (they live in Hampshire. But they come under Havant and are now tier 4 so have to stay home. He said to his Mum (he is 28) 'I didn't realise how expensive turkeys are'. Quick reply "That is because you have never bought one"! :-D

Florence - if your brother lives in the same area as your mum and she lives on her own then she can still spend time with them on Christmas day. Single households can form a bubble with another household no matter what tier they live in (as long as the other household is in the same tier).

Kath. x

We've known for a couple of months that we would be on our own for Christmas, and it looks as though that will apply to many people here, as I'm almost certain that stricter rules may well come into effect here next week.

Just think .................. millions of people are all in the same boat, and as long as everyone behaves, we could be out of this by next summer.

I'm really not sure how anyone could really have expected Christmas anywhere near "normal" seeing what was going on in other countries in Europe, even in Australia where Sydney appears to be in trouble again.


Shirley ................. if you went to Australia for Christmas, you'd probably get bbq'd pork ribs for Christmas dinner. Nowt to sneeze at!


I love them, OH doesn't really like them. I take every chance I can get to order them.


We have a turkey breast in the freezer, OH bought it fresh yesterday but I've frozen it as I want to be sure it is good for next Friday. He's picking up a large turkey drumstick today to go with it, and I'll freeze that as well.