That kind of thing won’t do Teestub. This forum’s posters demand blame to be ascribed. Never mind strength or evidence. Blame!
Much of this discussion seems to have ceased and become one sided criticism of the conservative party.
Quote from: TobyD on May 01, 2020, 08:59:30 amMuch of this discussion seems to have ceased and become one sided criticism of the conservative party.Well they are the ones in power and making all the decisions. Or have I woken up in 2025 and missed an election?
I thought this was quite an interesting read. Essentially the government are making it up as they go along, but that's not really the fault of any individual actors, more a systemic failure because of what the role of the state has become after 40 years of neoliberalism.https://www.thefullbrexit.com/covid19-state-failure
Trouble is, the call not to use comparisons is doomed to failure as everyone is using them to try amd illistrate their own point. The Times editorial today feautured a comparison with Sweden which seemed to be implying that they had nailed it and we havent. Cant have it both ways surely!
Teestub - yes, that’s the article that Patrick Vallance recommended people read in yesterday’s press conference.Pete - as an oft defender of this government but also a critic of comparing deaths with other countries when the facts aren’t known, what’s your opinion on why the government’s top scientific advisers have chosen to include a graph of global death comparisons as part of their daily slides up until the point we start looking a bit shoddy compared with other countries, at which point they spend a considerable amount of time rubbishing any comparison?
ideological soap boxing about austerity endlessly helps noone. Arguably, reducing the defecit was one of the most valuable pieces of preparation they did actually do.
Quote from: TobyD on May 01, 2020, 09:39:27 amideological soap boxing about austerity endlessly helps noone. Arguably, reducing the defecit was one of the most valuable pieces of preparation they did actually do. Is this a joke Toby? So running down public services (including NHS capacity), slashing funding to local government infrastructure which is now vital in contact tracing, avoiding stockpiling PPE for this exact scenario due to costings etc is valuable preparation?Having a reduced deficit is unarguably a good thing. Achieving that by imposing a decade of reduced funding to vital public services (which just happens to align with your ideological aim of a reduced state) is quite another.
It's certainly been pretty negative in some ways, but if the government didn't have a large financial buffer then the furlough scheme wouldn't be possible
So if we had a socialist utopia we'd have a great plan of action for every pathogen pandemic, asteroid impact, terrorist strike, and nuclear war?
...if the government didn't have a large financial buffer then the furlough scheme wouldn't be possible, and you'd already have had redundancies on a huge scale.
Quote from: ali k on May 01, 2020, 10:09:07 amQuote from: TobyD on May 01, 2020, 09:39:27 amideological soap boxing about austerity endlessly helps noone. Arguably, reducing the defecit was one of the most valuable pieces of preparation they did actually do. Is this a joke Toby? So running down public services (including NHS capacity), slashing funding to local government infrastructure which is now vital in contact tracing, avoiding stockpiling PPE for this exact scenario due to costings etc is valuable preparation?Having a reduced deficit is unarguably a good thing. Achieving that by imposing a decade of reduced funding to vital public services (which just happens to align with your ideological aim of a reduced state) is quite another.It's certainly been pretty negative in some ways, but if the government didn't have a large financial buffer then the furlough scheme wouldn't be possible, and you'd already have had redundancies on a huge scale. It's possible that they're delaying the inevitable but the treasury has done pretty well in supporting people in what must be an unimaginably complicated situation.
The furlough scheme would still be possible via money printing regardless. Which is in large part how they are doing it anyway.
This ongoing assumption that the national economy must somehow be managed like a household must be one of the tories' most successful bullshits.