All Governments incompetent?

[Thomas]

My post was merely a generalisation Toots, but it is true I am no admirer of Boris, or many of those around him.
I do have some sympathy for him getting caught up in this terrible Covid, situation. It is true to say any administration would be in a very difficult place right now ,regarding that issue.
Regardless of that , the policies , that were followed by Tory governments , in the previous ten years , which were not strictly needed in the severity used over such a long period., have now bitten Boris, on the back side.
The lack of facilities , contributed to by constant cuts over the whole period , across the board.  Are now playing no small part in this governments inability to respond fully to many of the problems thrown up by Covid.

...and why did we have tory austerity i the first place?

After thirteen long years of labour incompetence and profligacy when your heros were in power , left the incoming tory/liberal administration with a mess to clear up.

What was it , you left a note saying there is no  money left?

Then went on to try and hide youtr profligacy when in power behind the "banking crises"?

You left generations of scottish children in  debt up to their eyeballs with eyewatering PFI debt and needlessly expensive build costs for new schools and hospitals , which the snp government have constantly highlighted for the last decade.

The tories and snp have had to spend years tidying up the economic mess profligate labour left behind.

...and now you try and tell us its austerity that is to blame for the covid crises?

You labour cants are beyond belief in the lies and spin.

Every issue affecting the uk today you bleat about can be laid right at your door when you were in power.

[T00ts]

It%u2019s save to say . No government is perfect. All governments have moments of incompetence . It%u2019s just some have more moments of incompetence than others.

So your assessment is that this government is more incompetent than.........?  How many modern governments have dealt with pandemics which have been transmitted world wide in quite this way? How many have withdrawn from the EU? Surely we are in uncharted territory. Someone commented yesterday that they could see no-one to take over as PM on the Conservative benches, I would go further and include the whole of HoC. BJ is not ideal in many ways but he is the only one who was brave enough when chosen. I would imagine the current situation could not have been in his worst nightmares. 

It does raise another question for me. Is it the men/women in Government who are incompetent or is it the machine of Whitehall/quangos/organisations that has become entrenched in practices that do not allow the speed of function demanded by the modern world?

My post was merely a generalisation Toots, but it is true I am no admirer of Boris, or many of those around him.
I do have some sympathy for him getting caught up in this terrible Covid, situation. It is true to say any administration would be in a very difficult place right now ,regarding that issue.
Regardless of that , the policies , that were followed by Tory governments , in the previous ten years , which were not strictly needed in the severity used over such a long period., have now bitten Boris, on the back side.
The lack of facilities , contributed to by constant cuts over the whole period , across the board.  Are now playing no small part in this governments inability to respond fully to many of the problems thrown up by Covid. The point being that they would have struggled with any sort of major problem, and that should have been given far more attention when the cuts were applied year after year.
I think we all know why he was chosen . He promised an easy brexit with no more hassle. It is only my opinion but that is where he in danger of coming unstuck with his own party., long before he would face a GE. And the fact that he has the problem  of Brexit, to deal with is totally down to him.
There is not a perfect system for governance. But our system is to tuned to the preservation of party needs  being put above ,what very often might be a very good idea for the general good. It applies to the left as well as right.
This invariably leads to claims of incompetence , as the ideological constraints of the party prevent action were it is needed.
We all just want what we conceive as competence from our politicians. The  fact that they are brave enough to try and impress us , does not take away from them the need to actually impress us ,no matter what fate chucks their way.

I can agree with a lot of what you have posted here. However when we had massed voices shouting against party policy we had mayhem in Westminster with what looked like mutiny to many outside. There comes a point I feel when there must be unity - this is why coalition governments can be so disastrous. Our voting system flawed as it is at least doesn't throw us into the situation often found say in Italy where there is no government for months while they hammer out a workable mix or face repeated elections.

[Good old]

It%u2019s save to say . No government is perfect. All governments have moments of incompetence . It%u2019s just some have more moments of incompetence than others.

So your assessment is that this government is more incompetent than.........?  How many modern governments have dealt with pandemics which have been transmitted world wide in quite this way? How many have withdrawn from the EU? Surely we are in uncharted territory. Someone commented yesterday that they could see no-one to take over as PM on the Conservative benches, I would go further and include the whole of HoC. BJ is not ideal in many ways but he is the only one who was brave enough when chosen. I would imagine the current situation could not have been in his worst nightmares. 

It does raise another question for me. Is it the men/women in Government who are incompetent or is it the machine of Whitehall/quangos/organisations that has become entrenched in practices that do not allow the speed of function demanded by the modern world?

My post was merely a generalisation Toots, but it is true I am no admirer of Boris, or many of those around him.
I do have some sympathy for him getting caught up in this terrible Covid, situation. It is true to say any administration would be in a very difficult place right now ,regarding that issue.
Regardless of that , the policies , that were followed by Tory governments , in the previous ten years , which were not strictly needed in the severity used over such a long period., have now bitten Boris, on the back side.
The lack of facilities , contributed to by constant cuts over the whole period , across the board.  Are now playing no small part in this governments inability to respond fully to many of the problems thrown up by Covid. The point being that they would have struggled with any sort of major problem, and that should have been given far more attention when the cuts were applied year after year.
I think we all know why he was chosen . He promised an easy brexit with no more hassle. It is only my opinion but that is where he in danger of coming unstuck with his own party., long before he would face a GE. And the fact that he has the problem  of Brexit, to deal with is totally down to him.
There is not a perfect system for governance. But our system is to tuned to the preservation of party needs  being put above ,what very often might be a very good idea for the general good. It applies to the left as well as right.
This invariably leads to claims of incompetence , as the ideological constraints of the party prevent action were it is needed.
We all just want what we conceive as competence from our politicians. The  fact that they are brave enough to try and impress us , does not take away from them the need to actually impress us ,no matter what fate chucks their way.

[Thomas]

So your assessment is that this government is more incompetent than.........?  How many modern governments have dealt with pandemics which have been transmitted world wide in quite this way? How many have withdrawn from the EU? Surely we are in uncharted territory. Someone commented yesterday that they could see no-one to take over as PM on the Conservative benches, I would go further and include the whole of HoC. BJ is not ideal in many ways but he is the only one who was brave enough when chosen. I would imagine the current situation could not have been in his worst nightmares.

Exactly toots.

Labour supporters like good old rely on the voting public having short memories , tribalistic voting , ( vote labour cause yer da did)and throwing non stop smears and mud at the tories over everything they possibly can while remaining silent on what they would do different.

If you listen to john of gwent in wales , the devolved welsh government hasnt handled covid 19 any better than the tories in london , in many cases they have been worse , so we know a labour government in london wouldnt do better.

On top of that , as you rightly point out , we wouldnt be withdrawing from the eu. A labour government would not in any way have respected the will of the people who voted leave in 2016 , and if they couldnt blatantly stop the uk leaving , they would certainly be signing the uk up to a BRINO behind closed doors.

Can you imagine keir starmer dealing with all this at the minute?

I mean the guy goes missing in action for long periods , you barely hear a word from him on the major issues of the day , so how on earth could anyone think labour with keir starmer at the helm could successfully lead these islands through the current storm of a pandemic and brexit , whilst trying to run the day to day things on top?

[T00ts]

It%u2019s save to say . No government is perfect. All governments have moments of incompetence . It%u2019s just some have more moments of incompetence than others.

So your assessment is that this government is more incompetent than.........?  How many modern governments have dealt with pandemics which have been transmitted world wide in quite this way? How many have withdrawn from the EU? Surely we are in uncharted territory. Someone commented yesterday that they could see no-one to take over as PM on the Conservative benches, I would go further and include the whole of HoC. BJ is not ideal in many ways but he is the only one who was brave enough when chosen. I would imagine the current situation could not have been in his worst nightmares. 

It does raise another question for me. Is it the men/women in Government who are incompetent or is it the machine of Whitehall/quangos/organisations that has become entrenched in practices that do not allow the speed of function demanded by the modern world?

[Good old]

It's save to say . No government is perfect. All governments have moments of incompetence . It's just some have more moments of incompetence than others.

[johnofgwent]

Well, as I have said a few times, I fear the issue is not so much incompetence as unaccountability. At least round here. On several genres of policy responsibility is devolved allowing London to wash its hands and wales to claim the failure to deliver is down to london not throwing enough good money after bad.

[papasmurf]

naively believing the masses would behave responsibly,

There was and is no chance of that without enforcement.

[HDQQ]

No government can please all of the electorate all of the time. Over time any government will displease a growing number of voter groups. So in the end all governments become unpopular, which is why they lose elections.

Having said that, the current government is particularly incompetent. It was shaped by the lunacy of Brexit, which was the vehicle for the personal ambition of the man who's now prime minister. Then came covid-19 and this government handled it very badly to start with but belatedly did the right thing with lockdown.  Since then they have mishandled the easing of restrictions, naively believing the masses would behave responsibly, but that's equally true of other countries like Spain and France.

[papasmurf]

The cats would be, for sure.
I think Dynamis has it right, we must be close to the end.

The catsarsetrophy is awarded to the person who had the biggest non injury disaster on the way to a motorcycle rally.

[T00ts]

If there is a major catsarsetrophy in Britain I suspect most of population would be dead within a month.

The cats would be, for sure.
I think Dynamis has it right, we must be close to the end.

The end?

[Barry]

If there is a major catsarsetrophy in Britain I suspect most of population would be dead within a month.

The cats would be, for sure.
I think Dynamis has it right, we must be close to the end.

[papasmurf]

Ah right, so it's like doc martin meets mad max meets the goonies over there?

More like Clochmerle without the comedy plus the mechanic from the last of the Summer Wine.

[T00ts]

Pretty much.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

Luke 2:1

Can you imagine it? No one likes paying taxes at the best of times, but just to make the idea even more fun than usual you have to take your heavily pregnant girlfriend to the other side of the country, sleep in a cowshed and then pay the government for the privilege. The level of tax dodging must have been heroic. And there is no record of even such a decent chap of Joseph slipping off to settle up with HMRC (Jerusalem branch).

I bet he paid up like a really good citizen! They were very good at keeping records that really mattered but I get your drift.

[Borchester]

Pretty much.

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

Luke 2:1

Can you imagine it? No one likes paying taxes at the best of times, but just to make the idea even more fun than usual you have to take your heavily pregnant girlfriend to the other side of the country, sleep in a cowshed and then pay the government for the privilege. The level of tax dodging must have been heroic. And there is no record of even such a decent chap of Joseph slipping off to settle up with HMRC (Jerusalem branch).