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Rail services to be increased as travel restrictions ease

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52584983

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I agree. Unbelievably inept and dangerous.

Further, almost anything Johnson says in Sunday will now feel negative because I cannot believe there will more than a token easing.

But, for balance, the media must shoulder some responsibility for several weeks of growing clamour for answers on the way out of the restrictions when it should have been blatantly obvious that the focus needs to be on crushing Covid-19 first.

I completely agree, Peter.

For all that the government has handled this crisis really, really badly from the outset, many sections of the media, including some BBC journalists IMO, have hardly helped matters either with their repeated questions recently regarding the easing of the lockdown.

Like everyone, I fully realise that there will come a point when we will have to try to restart the economy in some way. At the moment though, the situation in terms of the battle against the virus is still far too precarious for any of the restrictions to be lifted at this time, in my opinion.

If we have made some more meaningful progress against the virus by the time we reach the end of this month and the early part of June, then maybe things might change. It is too early at the moment though.

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The media seem to be accountable to no one, that's the problem. It seems the only time this happens is if someone has challenged them in court over a story, but in the meantime they can destroy that person. How often they report things for days on end which aren't true, but when they should be holding their hands up apologising, they just move on.
While freedom of speech is good on the most part, I feel the media have too freer role. In the updates they hang on every word. Peston was like a vulture when the guy mentioned green shoots. Others alongside knew that wasn't words you should be feeding the gutter press and tried to focus on our current precarious position. Didn't stop them using them words though. Absolute vultures and they cannot be trusted.

Someone should be calling the press out. They should not be exempt from scrutiny. Perhaps it would clean up their act somewhat. Write factual things instead of maybe's and could's.

I agree. Unbelievably inept and dangerous.

Further, almost anything Johnson says in Sunday will now feel negative because I cannot believe there will more than a token easing.

But, for balance, the media must shoulder some responsibility for several weeks of growing clamour for answers on the way out of the restrictions when it should have been blatantly obvious that the focus needs to be on crushing Covid-19 first.

I think the media have handled this badly from the start and have played a huge part in giving mixed messages.  I understand they need to report news but every little snippet is grabbed and blown out of proportion.  This is a serious global situation and they’ve milked it badly.

I thought the idea of the daily briefings was to provide the media with the facts but it seems that’s not enough.  Furthermore, some of the journalists have shown their lack of understanding and common sense when asking stupid questions repeatedly.  I guess we’ll know what the next stage is when the PM announces it!

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I just hope someone has the balls to raise this and the media's 'contribution'.

 

If a slot was created for incompetence in the Guinness Book of Records, these incumbents would walk it!

Yes, but in true Trumpland style most of the plebs think the Government is doing a great job !

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The media seem to be accountable to no one, that's the problem. It seems the only time this happens is if someone has challenged them in court over a story, but in the meantime they can destroy that person. How often they report things for days on end which aren't true, but when they should be holding their hands up apologising, they just move on.
While freedom of speech is good on the most part, I feel the media have too freer role. In the updates they hang on every word. Peston was like a vulture when the guy mentioned green shoots. Others alongside knew that wasn't words you should be feeding the gutter press and tried to focus on our current precarious position. Didn't stop them using them words though. Absolute vultures and they cannot be trusted.

Someone should be calling the press out. They should not be exempt from scrutiny. Perhaps it would clean up their act somewhat. Write factual things instead of maybe's and could's.

On the contrary. The journalists at the briefings are way too supine and let HMG get away with giving the impression it is doing a good job in difficult circumstances.

No difficult questions are asked. All they ever want to know about is when the lockdown is going to end, FFS. And yet more than 50,000 people have died because this government has f4cked this up so badly.

I despair of some of my colleagues. Peston is the worst - he actually said "it's good to have you back, Prime Minister" when Johnson took his first briefing after recovering from CV19.

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I despair of some of my colleagues. Peston is the worst - he actually said "it's good to have you back, Prime Minister" when Johnson took his first briefing after recovering from CV19.

Isn't that simply being polite.
Would you rather he said we wish you had died but I see you're back.

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There are two main narratives on my Facebook feed at the moment...

One of which is that the Government are doing a terrible job and their failings are responsible for many deaths. 

Another very prominent narrative is that the media are the problem, and are consistently being too critical of the Government, who are actually handling a very difficult situation relatively well.

The relationship between our political system, the media, and crucially - social media channels, through Brexit and now this crisis is fascinating. 

I honestly think HMG are going to get away with any apparent failings. The left wing media and associated commentary is now the bad guy according to many. 

Here are a couple of examples of posts I’ve encountered over the past 48 hours .. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157475088334682&set=a.10151963272369682&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/658774210/posts/10157449046349211/?d=n

 

 

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I completely agree, Peter.

For all that the government has handled this crisis really, really badly from the outset, many sections of the media, including some BBC journalists IMO, have hardly helped matters either with their repeated questions recently regarding the easing of the lockdown.

Like everyone, I fully realise that there will come a point when we will have to try to restart the economy in some way. At the moment though, the situation in terms of the battle against the virus is still far too precarious for any of the restrictions to be lifted at this time, in my opinion.

If we have made some more meaningful progress against the virus by the time we reach the end of this month and the early part of June, then maybe things might change. It is too early at the moment though.

Unfortunately it is not within the power of Government to make people immortal.

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On the contrary. The journalists at the briefings are way too supine and let HMG get away with giving the impression it is doing a good job in difficult circumstances.

No difficult questions are asked. All they ever want to know about is when the lockdown is going to end, FFS. And yet more than 50,000 people have died because this government has f4cked this up so badly.

I despair of some of my colleagues. Peston is the worst - he actually said "it's good to have you back, Prime Minister" when Johnson took his first briefing after recovering from CV19.

I think that should be the job of the opposition to call out the govt in live q&a's. Truth is how things are in these daily updates, we wouldn't miss the press's contribution, they just want someone to slip up. The govt has slipped into defence mode. All we want to hear are the numbers, what we should or shouldn't be doing, and wait patiently for instructions how to get out of this thing. Just keep it simple. With too much flying around, it only has created more noise on everything with too many voices.

 

I think that should be the job of the opposition to call out the govt in live q&a's. Truth is how things are in these daily updates, we wouldn't miss the press's contribution, they just want someone to slip up. The govt has slipped into defence mode. All we want to hear are the numbers, what we should or shouldn't be doing, and wait patiently for instructions how to get out of this thing. Just keep it simple. With too much flying around, it only has created more noise on everything with too many voices.

The press is there to hold power to account. Particularly when those who hold power are incompetent and deceitful. 

You would probably be better off living somewhere fluffy like China where the media is there to parrot the official line and issue instructions to the masses.

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There are two main narratives on my Facebook feed at the moment...

One of which is that the Government are doing a terrible job and their failings are responsible for many deaths. 

Another very prominent narrative is that the media are the problem, and are consistently being too critical of the Government, who are actually handling a very difficult situation relatively well.

The relationship between our political system and the media through Brexit and now this crisis is fascinating. 

I honestly think HMG are going to get away with any apparent failings. The left wing media and associated commentary is now the bad guy according to many. 

It is complete paradox.

The government has to be seen to be taking action to contain and mitigate the effects of the virus but by threatening the NHS, closing the borders, destroying the economy and getting rid of the old, the sick, the poor and ethnic minorities, the virus is actually fulfilling policy aims and delivering on manifesto pledges.

Do we actually need the government any more? We could get, "what we voted for", by letting covid-19 run the country.

PS. It's even creating internal borders within the Union.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-cops-ready-turn-away-21993410

 

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The press is there to hold power to account. Particularly when those who hold power are incompetent and deceitful. 

You would probably be better off living somewhere fluffy like China where the media is there to parrot the official line and issue instructions to the masses.

If they are there to 'hold power to account', it seems they are not qualified, not capable of doing that so whose benefit is it them being there. Theirs? Are they running the country?

 

On the contrary. The journalists at the briefings are way too supine and let HMG get away with giving the impression it is doing a good job in difficult circumstances.

No difficult questions are asked. All they ever want to know about is when the lockdown is going to end, FFS. And yet more than 50,000 people have died because this government has f4cked this up so badly.

I despair of some of my colleagues. Peston is the worst - he actually said "it's good to have you back, Prime Minister" when Johnson took his first briefing after recovering from CV19.

50,000? Can't even get the figures right, classic British journalism. 

Most journalists are biast agenda driven..  especially the press and those news stations that rely upon advertisements, and big businesses for money to operate!

 

50,000? Can't even get the figures right, classic British journalism. 

Most journalists are biast agenda driven..  especially the press and those news stations that rely upon advertisements, and big businesses for money to operate!

Go and look at the ONS figures for excess deaths before you start spouting your usual drivel

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Go and look at the ONS figures for excess deaths before you start spouting your usual drivel

You lay blame of 50,000 deaths on the government- that's drivel

 

It is complete paradox.

The government has to be seen to be taking action to contain and mitigate the effects of the virus but by threatening the NHS, closing the borders, destroying the economy and getting rid of the old, the sick, the poor and ethnic minorities, the virus is actually fulfilling policy aims and delivering on manifesto pledges.

Do we actually need the government any more? We could get, "what we voted for", by letting covid-19 run the country.

I agree with the sense of both your comments - but I think that something deeper underlies all this. Without being too wordy about it, we have 2 schools of thought that are fundamentally incompatible. Science is a quest which owes everything to what has gone before, standing on the "Shoulders of Giants", and accepts that all knowledge is subject to review, error, discovery and change. Thus the mind set of every scientist is, or should be humility and willingness to change their mind on better evidence and understanding.

The politician and the journalist are good for each other, because the adversarial atmosphere in which they thrive acts as a counterbalance, so sometimes they can be right. However, they are both "Gnostics" in the sense that they believe in their policies or perspectives as Fact and, despite what they say, they always think they know best and the other side is wrong. They tend not to do "humility" and never feel, as a sane scientist should, that a fair critic is your best ally. They are just plain "wrong".

The Yogi and the Commissar (1945) is a collection of essays of Arthur Koestler, exploring why people of belief [The Yogis] and people of objectivity [The Commissars] don't even speak the same language and their concepts are as mutually repellent as oil and water.

In his book "The Black Cloud" (1957) Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle explores that same idea in his splendid science fiction romp. Still a good read.

Koestler is a bit heavier going!

You can spend the rest of your life trying to reconcile the two sides - good luck.

Roger

 

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You lay blame of 50,000 deaths on the government- that's drivel

 

I'm certainly proportioning much of the blame in their direction. Something about being slow to react, relaxed attitude to border control, a criminal lack of protection for NHS workers, increasingly mixed messages to a bewildered public, manipulation of scientific data...

 

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I'm certainly proportioning much of the blame in their direction. Something about being slow to react, relaxed attitude to border control, a criminal lack of protection for NHS workers, increasingly mixed messages to a bewildered public, manipulation of scientific data...

 

Also allowing Cheltenham, Stereophonics and the Liverpool match to go ahead. I wonder if their will ever be a study on those events. It’s clear that there was a massive surge in cases soon after.

The government has been next to useless. 

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