Quote Originally Posted by lisvaneblue View Post
im not very anti-Drakeford, just pointing out that it was not factually accurate. Like you I am 'not died in the wool' attached to any particular party as TOBW is. Last time around I voted Boris in for no other reason than to get Brexit done. If an election was held tomorrow Starmer would probably get my vote.

As for the current situation under Boris, it's shambolic. Everyday we seem to be exposed to another mess and no end in sight. He is a delegator but his team is young and inexperienced and it shows. Sad thing is it doesn't seem to be getting any better
It is completely shambolic; he was caught in no-man's-land between saving people, retaining freedoms, and not trashing the economy. I have sympathy for him, I know I'd be completely incapable of managing the situation and would have run a mile. Maybe he should have done so too.

My view of him is that he is incapable of taking responsibility for past failings, there is nothing wrong in holding up hands and saying "sorry, we have got it wrong". The Cummings episode was the thread that led most of the previous hard work to unravel.

Allowing people to travel to Europe to holiday while, at the same time, stopping people from visiting relatives at home? Opening pubs before opening schools? No briefings giving people the impression this is "all over" (I have heard someone actually say this in Sainsburys), a necessary furlough scheme that has seen people refuse to go to work (neighbours are my anecdotal evidence), kids out in the street during April clamouring around an ice-cream van who was getting paid by the tax-payer precisely not to do that?

The lockdown was necessary, the speed at which England came out of it was not. We are still breaching the 1,000 cases limit on an almost daily basis, yes there is more testing meaning that we are recording more minor cases than previously but the 1,000 cases limit is based on those parameters.

It is shambolic. There doesn't seem to be any strategy, and the scientists seem to have become nodding dogs with more political than scientific answers (during briefings it was interesting to see scientists look at Johnson whilst giving answers).

We hear of upcoming unemployment figures, the cliff-edge that is the end of furlough but we still have the Brexit cliff-edge to come! I was never convinced that we were in a "strong bargaining position" when it came to the EU or anyone else worldwide, I am even less convinced now.

We are not hearing, though, of people on zero hour contracts. My partner works in a care home where some carers were placed on furlough on the last day of the scheme in June. When the burden of NI payments was passed back to the care home last month, they took the people off furlough. Guess what? Because they are on zero hour contracts, they haven't worked since meaning that the care home have jettisoned the NI burden and the wages.

Personally, I have taken a significant pay cut (supposedly my hours were cut) but my workload has meant I have continued working full time. I think there are probably many people experiencing the same thing, but nobody has mentioned this as a national problem yet - that we will have fewer people working, and those that are working will be on reduced wages or reduced hours.

I am not sure that I would vote for Starmer at this stage, although he impresses me the depth of "skill" in the labour party is particularly shallow, as it is in the Tory Party where incompetence caused by undying devotion to the leader seems to be a key requirement for getting to the cabinet. It is a terrible shame that most PMQs seem to retain attacks on party lines, although that tends to be more Johnson than Starmer with Johnson's answers insufficiently blaming Labour for "supporting going back to schools, but not supporting going back to schools" for example. Even though it is completely legitimate to support going back to schools, and to oppose the Government's plans for returning to schools.