Mandelslime is back

[SueEllen]

Surely that is what an opposition is supposed to provide alternative ideas to the government, this then shows they are a good candidate to rule.

Unless they have most of the media on side then what they suggest e.g. price caps for gas and electricity are spun as being so socialist it harms their electoral chances.

[SueEllen]

I have been keeping up. As far as I can tell:

Starmer has agreed with every HMG action in the House voting, criticised those actions in PMQs and not offered any alternative solutions. OK, not his job perhaps, but criticism for the sake of it is not helping anyone.

You clearly haven't as you would be aware the Covid measures are not completely new laws but statutory instruments. This means the bills can't be amended. If all the opposition parties including Labour voted against them then would have no legally enforceable Covid measures. Then we would really be like Brazil and the US.

[vetran]

There is plenty Starmer can talk about.

Test and not trace.
Hospital acquired infections.
Care homes ravaged by hospital acquired infections.
Airports not being closed.
Schools being opened then closed.
Online learning.
Furlough without retraining.

etc. There are so many open goals they may as well have shot the goalkeeper!

[malvolio]

There is plenty Starmer can talk about.

Test and not trace.
Hospital acquired infections.
Care homes ravaged by hospital acquired infections.
Airports not being closed.
Schools being opened then closed.
Online learning.
Furlough without retraining.

etc. There are so many open goals they may as well have shot the goalkeeper!

Yeah yeah yeah - and we all know about them and they were covered in the list of things I wrote about if you care to look properly.

But given most (not all, admittedly) of these are reactive as the pandemic has evolved, it's a bit pointless railing about them now. Leave that to the public enquiry that will chew up several millions for the lawyers and not come to any useful conclusions.

Of course, everybody is ignoring PHE's input, which was to cock up their own anti-pandemic planning, which is why we couldn't react when it all went tits up in February. They were in charge of PPE provision and all the other care-based stuff after all. Basically HMG had to re-invent something that should been written down and tested but was neither.

[malvolio]

The reason the opposition (of any colours) have stopped giving their own solutions is because the party in power nicks them.

And why is that a problem exactly? Parliament is there to govern the country in an emergency, not take their ball home if the big boys don't play properly.

[ladymuck]

The reason the opposition (of any colours) have stopped giving their own solutions is because the party in power nicks them.

I don't really see why that's a problem. There should be more collaboration between the parties with a good flow of ideas and viewpoints rationally discussed.

Saying, "your plan is crap and I've got a better one but I'm not sharing it with you cos you'll just nick it and claim it as your own" is childish and immature. If that's the reason why Labour haven't come up with anything constructive to add then they're simply not fit to run the country.

[vetran]

I don't really see why that's a problem. There should be more collaboration between the parties with a good flow of ideas and viewpoints rationally discussed.

Saying, "your plan is crap and I've got a better one but I'm not sharing it with you cos you'll just nick it and claim it as your own" is childish and immature. If that's the reason why Labour haven't come up with anything constructive to add then they're simply not fit to run the country.

Hear hear!

MO Im not copying but amplifying your list. The current Labour party have shown themselves to be incompetent, at least B'ruin and B'liar between invading countries and exploiting cheap labour have actually mentioned where the Tories are going wrong.

[Scoobos]

This just isn't what I'm seeing , I think its incredible that some people think that no alternatives were given, because they were.

"you cannot ease lockdown without a plan and without a test and trace function in place, can you guarantee that will be in place".

It will be world beating and there by June 1st, dont you worry.

That's one prime example, but there are literally tens of them. But if we are just going to deny them and use the old "captain hindsight" argument then all is lost.

Hindsight was used as a conservative excuse in April - this was 3 clear months after the WHO called a public health emergency of international concern (30th Jan) and 2 weeks and 2 months after the famous - BUILD TESTING CAPACITY - test test test.

We did neither, then said that anyone who criticised the decision makers, was doing so under the illusion of hindsight.

If anyone truly believes that British intelligence services didn't know full well what Covid-19 was and that it was coming , by Jan 30th, they are kidding themselves.

The 3rd Feb Greenwich PM speech outlines his plan, and it's what he enacted, until we started looking at 100k+ deaths.

Christmas, knowing we had a variant almost half as contagious, was utter stupidity. Starmer said we couldn't do it, Boris called it "inhumane" - despite cancelling many other religious gatherings.

I suppose this just shows how varied and interesting human behaviour is, when we can all so passionately see completely conflicting views.

[AtW]

There is plenty Starmer can talk about.

Cutting taxes
Cutting taxes
Cutting taxes

FTFY