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UK PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson has faced questions about the UK’s approach after it was revealed yesterday that the UK has the highest death toll in Europe, and the second highest in the world.
Answering his first Prime Minister’s Questions since he fell ill, in a pared back House of Commons gallery, Johnson said that international comparisons aren’t helpful, when asked about the UK reaching a total of 29,427 deaths, surpassed only by the US at 71,078.
“At this stage I don’t think that international comparisons and… the data is yet there to draw the conclusions that we want.”
“We took the decisions that we did to save lives and to protect our NHS,” he added, and said it’s possible they could have taken different decisions.
New Labour leader Keir Starmer replied that the UK government couldn’t argue against international comparisons when its been using such comparisons for graphs “for weeks”, and that the conclusion people will draw will be that the UK was “slow on lockdown, slow on testing, slow on tracing and slow on the supply of protective equipment”.
The UK has overtaken Italy (29 315), Spain (25 613), and France (25 531), the former two of which have similar sized populations.
Starmer said that although the UK had reached its target of carrying out over 100,000 tests a day on 30 April, since then the number of tests have fallen below 100,000. On Monday, there were just 84,000 tests done, he said.
“What does the Prime Minister think was so special about 30 April?” Starmer asked Johnson.
The British prime minister replied that “capacity currently exceeds demand,” but added that they were working on that.
“A fantastic testing regime is going to be absolutely critical to our longterm economic recovery,” he said.
He praised the “amazing work of the NHS logistic team getting up from 2,000 tests a day to 120,000 at the end of April”, with the “capacity ambition is to get up to 200,000 a day by the end of May and to get even higher” after that.
Tom Newton Dunn / TwitterJohnson v Starmer Round One (of many) today. A fascinating clash of two powerful but very different styles - Roundhead v Cavalier. Starmer's calm and forensic jabbing, countered by Johnson's bombastic and rhetorical charm. But which will the voters prefer?
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) May 6, 2020
Nigel Farage / TwitterA points win for Starmer at PMQs versus Boris, who ummed and ahed — but no knockout blow.
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) May 6, 2020
Starmer said that a testing and tracing strategy was abandoned in mid-March, with the reason given that it was “not an a appropriate mechanism”.
Johnson replied that the difficulty in mid-March was “the tracing capacity we had in the containment phase, that capacity was no longer useful” since the transmission in UK meant that it exceeded the capacity then.
In a nutshell, it’s easier now that we built a team on the way out than when we headed in [to the surge].
He said that a “crucial part” of transportation services would be an increased service that allows for social distancing, adding that this could be a “golden age” for cycling.
Johnson said that he would announce the next phase of measures on Sunday, to be implemented on Monday, and added that the House will be given the opportunity to “interrogate the government”.
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Gay prods marrying Gay Catholics, Paisley just turned in his grave .
Peter Robinson will have another heart attack
Eating too much cake?
Mrs. Robinson playing away again?!!?
Well done, Belfast!
Good for them. Having a situation where your marriage can be legal in one part of the country and not in another part is lunacy.
Orange is the new pink.
Should be noted that it was 2 members of the SDLP that abstained, a third of their Councillors…
SDLP is divided to the core on this issue.
start of many countries following Ireland
The disputed territory “Northern Ireland” isn’t a country
Eh, sorry john but Northern Ireland is a country, regardless of the perceived political status prescribed by you. It’s not an independent sovereign state but Mick didn’t say it was.
So return those green thumbs to their owners post haste; eh, you can probably keep the red ones.
My understanding of language is that it functions using objectively verifiable rules of semantics that are entirely independent from the number of green or red thumbs a post receives on the journal.
“England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards and the UK’s Office for National Statistics, uses “country” to describe England, Scotland and Wales.[3] Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a “PROVINCE” in the same lists”
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_3166-2_newsletter_ii-3_2011-12-13.pdf
But it’s not really a province though is it? Ulster is a province. Otherwise we need to give them back Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan. I do accept that it’s typical for people to call it a province, a country and a region and that ambiguity is understandable given it’s unique status.
I know it’s complex mate, language is quiet difficult and can confuse mere mortals, but given it’s distinct geography, political status and the everyday use of this term to describe it, Northern Ireland is a country more than it is a “disputed territory”; I didn’t sign the good friday agreement but I know that much.
Carmo, your post was inaccurate. Just accept that you were wrong and move on. Northern Ireland is not a country.
@carmo. Northern Ireland is not a country. You cannot get an ni passport. It doesn’t offer consular services. Residents have a choice of passports – Irish or British
What is it then?
Give them back cavan, donegal and monaghan? Its more a case of us getting back the six counties.
They can have Cavan.
Monaghan too.
We’ll keep Donegal though.
Oh no, the Westboro Baptist Church are going to kick off again.
We were promised that if we voted yes this would stop. For the love of god will it ever end?!
Careful now, your stupidity is shining through.
The beatings will continue until gay rights improve.
For the love of God would people who are not interested in gay related articles please stop reading them or you will be forced to right a complaint about it in the comments.
Where is the Save Ulster from Sodomy campaign?
It attracted some fine Christians like Big Ian.
Oh, right.
It went the way of the Dinosaurs.
Ah here! It’s unfair to lump the dinosaurs in with the bigots.
But where’s big roaring Ian now? Slowly but surely turning to dust
Nonsense click bait headline, everyone knows popolous seeking Sinn Fein and left wing alliance control Belfast city council (hence the flag fiasco) , it will be defeated in Stormont.
Not everyone wants to implement neo-liberal idealology
You view equality as neo-liberalism?!? Yeah, you probably do, actually!
John, neoliberalism revolves around economics and regulation of business and the like. It has nothing got to do with dragging Ireland out of the 1950s with its views to gay people.
@Were. SSM is only available to 2% of the worlds population, are 98% of the world in your view stuck in the 1950s? How self righteous of you.
SSM was manufactured by left wing liberalists, the notion of it was unheard of a decade ago.
The ancient Romans had SSM.
Nonsense. Prove it! The romans also practiced slavery, put people to death by lions in front of large audiences and practiced pedastry since you’re looking to the ancients for how to enligten our society.
The Netherlands has had marriage equality since 2001.
But sure don’t let that inconvenient fact get in the way of your myth that it was “unheard of a decade ago”.
@John
Cool yer jets! You said the SSM wasn’t thought of more than ten years ago. I responded that there was SSM inAncient Rome, no need to undermine the whole of antiquity because a couple of blokes could get married 2,000 years ago. Oh, you have a computer, check it out for yourself!
True, neo-liberalism is a economic philosophy couched in Marxist language but the definition has broadened in recent times. A better description would be pseudo liberals or illiberal liberals.
Actually, this is a really interesting historical perspective on the history of same-sex marriage from the Guardian…
-
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/23/-sp-secret-history-same-sex-marriage
Well The Guardian is the prayer book of choice of the pseudo liberals.
Says the pseudo-intellectual.
If an ability to see through the flak of pseudo liberalism and remain sceptical of the latest fad I will plead guilty to that attempt at an insult.
Holy smoke theo and John, your arguments and phrasing across this comment section is wholly inconsistent, I’m not sure but I’m guessing it’s troll logic.
It tells that the demand for homosexual couplings to be recognized was constant, has been substantiated legally before hand and is not a “modern”, decadent “choice”.
@John, you are confusing liberalism in the social sense with liberalism in the economic sense. Completely different things mate.
Yeah John. But we won. Oh yes baby. And middle Ireland told freaks like you that you now are in the minority.
I’m still undecided. There still hasn’t been enough debate.
The gays are just as bad as girls seeking equality…….who cares what a couple people vote on in Belfast as it means feck all as its not law!
Women seeking equality now are they? Well that will never happen.
Now what time is the next diplodocus to Bedrock? I have to return my wholly mammoth vacuum cleaner for re-bristling.
Kinda like the time SF held a united Ireland referendum in, wait for it……………South Armagh, a resounding yes vote too by the way, who’d have thought.
Yeah we know – the majority of unionist politicians are bigots, and wish to block two consenting adults from getting married.
Yeah and the fact SF agree with same sex marriage just excuses the 30 years of murder and maiming they were involved in doesn’t it. Never seen a bigger shower of populist hypocrites in all my life.
You haven’t met the aaa yet so..
Well done to my Party Colleagues, progressive politics at its best!
Orange you glad they’re on the way
I’m not an Ulster Unionist but it’s only fair to say that Jeff Dudgeon also spoke in favour of gay marriage. All you equal rights champions will remember that it was Jeff’s case in Europe that led to decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland.
The article doesn’t mention any Ulster unionist speaking in favour but Jeff Dudgeon is an Ulster Unionist councillor. And Jeff’s case was ten years before David Norris had to do the same in the south. So the decriminalisation of homosexuality across Ireland was achieved by a unionist and someone who until some time last month was dismissed as a West Brit revisionist by republicans.
And while everyone’s slagging the ghost of Ian Paisley clerics in the republic are attacking yes voters in their congregations.
More like belslow Amirite
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