Nah my impression is that more than half of tories think “ok, sure, mistakes were made, but mistakes were made everywhere, it’s an unprecedented situation” and, more often, “I don’t think anyone could have done any better, imagine if Corbyn got in” or “just look at the vaccination campaign, I don’t see those Europeans doing any better all things considered”.
e.g. just a couple of days ago
The reality is the Tories have gained more popularity while the pandemic was top of mind for most, so many people take the view that they are doing the best they can, far away from the view that they've done much, much worse than we should expect.
Taken out of context - this was a response to Cummings And what he was going to say.
In terms of the govt handling - I’m sure there will have been lots of mistakes, as there were and will be in almost every country.
not excusing it - and am sure that more detail will come out in time.
but when Cummings is the ‘whistle blower’ - it’s pretty difficult to believe a word he says.
The bolded is what I wrote in full. Which is what I stand by.
simply put, anything Cummings says needs to be taken with a massive pile of salt. this is a man who is blaming everyone else, despite being in a position of “unprecedented” (yes that word) influence for someone who was not elected.
that’s not to say, he’s not telling the truth... but frankly how would we ever know. Have we forgotten Barnard Castle?
I’ve not said they were doing “the best they can” - which is by the way, a bit of a strange bat to beat a govt with - as yes clearly they would be doing the best they can... (that’s irrespective of whether the govt. is blue or red) unless we subscribe to conspiracy theories Of course. I would make the same assumption with every democracy in Europe - each govt is doing their best, despite varying results.
Have they done worse that we should have expected? Probably. But what did we expect? We still know very little.
I certainly haven’t said look at the vaccination campagne or imagine if Corbin was in charge... it’s a futile exercise to imagine how another govt. would have reacted, with so many variables, it’s clearly impossible to hypothetically postulate what Corbin, Starmer or anyone else would have done.
as for the vaccination rollout, that looks to have been quite successful. Is there an issue in acknowledging that? I certainly haven’t been celebrating it
It doesn’t make up for other areas that should have been done better - track and trace being the most obvious example.
in respect of comparing our actions/ decision making/ death rates to our European counterparts, thats a somewhat petty political response from anyone that does so.
