Liz Truss

[UxbridgeR]

Everyone seems to have forgotten how Sunak kept people afloat during the Pandemic. Also, he doesn't come from a wealthy family. His mum was a pharmacist and his dad a GP. They worked hard and made sure their kids got a decent education. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want the job at this point in history. At least he can count which is better than The Truss who was, apparently, an accountant. I hope he does well for all our sakes. And he's become PM on Agincourt Day.

I thought he did well in getting money out to people in need quickly, and he was popular for it at the time, but he was the Chancellor, that was his job. He wasn't funding it personally, and pretty much every other country affected by Covid did the same thing. You make a fair point about him not being from a particularly wealthy family, but Winchester College, Oxford and then Stanford amounts to a bit more than "a decent education".

[WA Hoop]

Everyone seems to have forgotten how Sunak kept people afloat during the Pandemic. Also, he doesn't come from a wealthy family. His mum was a pharmacist and his dad a GP. They worked hard and made sure their kids got a decent education. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want the job at this point in history. At least he can count which is better than The Truss who was, apparently, an accountant. I hope he does well for all our sakes. And he's become PM on Agincourt Day.

I thought he did well in getting money out to people in need quickly, and he was popular for it at the time, but he was the Chancellor, that was his job. He wasn't funding it personally, and pretty much every other country affected by Covid did the same thing. You make a fair point about him not being from a particularly wealthy family, but Winchester College, Oxford and then Stanford amounts to a bit more than "a decent education".

Ux, I think some tend to forget from where this money comes, it comes from the honest, hard working UK taxpayer (less so from the tax evading corporations / wealthy individuals, and no I won't mention Ms Murty ). The CJRS (furlough ) scheme cost £70 Billion alone, add on the balls up that was 'Test & Trace' and all the other COVID associated costs, apparently you arrive at £300 - 400 Billion of taxpayer funds, albeit conjured up out of nowhere by the then Chancellor. That's somewhere between £4,600 - £6,100 per person!

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/re ... /cbp-9309/

The great British public is now being asked to believe that one of the chief architects of this financial mess is going to sort it out, whilst being asked to endure the sort of pain not seen in a very, very long time. I simply don't understand why there isn't a deeper more widespread level of fury in the UK (and beyond) at the sheer incompetence that has brought us to this point.

[dm]

WA Hoop, that's an excellent and accurate post on Sunak's supposed financial acumen. The public perception of him is entirely skewed by the utter incompetence - and criminal incompetence in Johnson's case - of all those Tories who've had a play at being Govt, not least of all Truss and Kwarteng. Compared to that lot, a garden slug would have done a better job running the country.

[Montag]

What was he sposed to do, though?

[WA Hoop]

WA Hoop, that's an excellent and accurate post on Sunak's supposed financial acumen. The public perception of him is entirely skewed by the utter incompetence - and criminal incompetence in Johnson's case - of all those Tories who've had a play at being Govt, not least of all Truss and Kwarteng. Compared to that lot, a garden slug would have done a better job running the country.

Thanks DM, just calling it as I see it from afar.

[WA Hoop]

What was he sposed to do, though?

Montag, I think the real and pertinent question is "Was the response to COVID a proportionate one?"

By not strategically focussing on protecting those most at risk from COVID then shutting down large parts of the economy led to all that followed in the UK and across most of the planet.

[QPR_John]

What was he sposed to do, though?

Montag, I think the real and pertinent question is "Was the response to COVID a proportionate one?"

By not strategically focussing on protecting those most at risk from COVID then shutting down large parts of the economy led to all that followed in the UK and across most of the planet.

Surely there was an urgent need for some kind of help. To set up a targeted system would of necessity taken longer than a universal approach. You can bet had Sunak taken that approach Labour would have been quick to accuse him of wasting time in a crises.

[Systemsguy]

Didn't Dominic Cummings at the beginning of the pandemic want us to follow the "herd immunity" plan with the charming analogy "its only a few pensioners"....

Isn't this the plan now?

I know some who have had a fifth jab and most others who are unwilling to have any more than the two that will ensure they can travel to europe for holidays...

We all got sucked into the severity of the issue by the so called experts and their modeling of millions of deaths... Labour would likely to have done a lockdown in the same situation

[Nw6ranger]

Didn't Dominic Cummings at the beginning of the pandemic want us to follow the "herd immunity" plan with the charming analogy "its only a few pensioners"....

Isn't this the plan now?

I know some who have had a fifth jab and most others who are unwilling to have any more than the two that will ensure they can travel to europe for holidays...

We all got sucked into the severity of the issue by the so called experts and their modeling of millions of deaths... Labour would likely to have done a lockdown in the same situation

I was furious with his coments back then. Pure evil in my eyes.
However the current strain has evolved into a limp biscuit ( to most people) compared to the first strain , So much so that even at my old age I don't plan to have any more needles Into my arms.

[WA Hoop]

What was he sposed to do, though?

Montag, I think the real and pertinent question is "Was the response to COVID a proportionate one?"

By not strategically focussing on protecting those most at risk from COVID then shutting down large parts of the economy led to all that followed in the UK and across most of the planet.

Surely there was an urgent need for some kind of help. To set up a targeted system would of necessity taken longer than a universal approach. You can bet had Sunak taken that approach Labour would have been quick to accuse him of wasting time in a crises.

Indeed John, but the urgent need was to help those individuals for whom COVID was a real concern. There's a strong school of thought from many within the medical fraternity that no-one under the age of 40 should ever have received a single jab. Taxpayer expenditure on a 'scatter bomb' vaccination program has massively benefited Pfizer, Moderna et al who have reaped immense profits from a vaccine (for which they have complete indemnity) that neither prevents the transmission or contraction of the virus. Last month Albert Bourla (CEO, Pfizer) had the audacity to be a 'no show' at the European Parliament Special Committe enquiry into the pandemic. All I'm saying is that a significant (unecessarily large?) chunk of the UK debt attributable to the pandemic has been simply transfered into the hands of Big Pharma, that's taxpayers money into corporate hands. No humanitarian principles were ever applied by these pharmaceutical companies, just ask the African nations. I wonder how many conservative MPs, if and when they're booted out of office, will find themselves serving on the boards of pharmaceutical cmpanies?!

[Montag]

In hindsight, many, many mistakes were made, some are understandable, some not. We were in uncharted waters so IMO the government seemed right at the time to err on the side of caution. What was absolutely ridiculous was the fact that we couldn't go out of the house without due cause yet international travel continued across the Western world, in particular in and out of the UK. The bailing out of the Airline industry was also confusing with the climate thing and all that.