Sorry to keep doing this ..... but here's another fantastic rant from Jonathon Pie that is absolutely on the money (imo) and very funny....mostly about Covid but the utter incompetence of this government generally. Go on! 3 minutes well spent! Enjoy
https://youtu.be/JXdd8WzaK-Q

"Populist c0ck wombles"

And now we have the latest imagineering.

Coronavirus at its worst grew at about 4 - 7%. This was without social distancing measures and limits on gatherings to give this some context. Packed public transport, mass gatherings, unrestricted movement and pubs rammed to the gills.

The graphs presented today assumed a 10% rise and near exponential growth. Not the expected rate of 4 - 7% seen as a maximum before. Slightly disingenuous?

Now we do have coronavirus doubling every seven days and sitting at ~4,000 cases. However 4 - 7% produces a linear growth rate rather than exponential eiger shown.

The current rise is in no way related to all the kids going back to school and many workers returning to the office. It's ~ 2 weeks since this happened so any correlation with this is foolish speculation and is not an expected rise.

Its the fault of you and I for being too foolish to follow the clearly briefed rules. Shame on us

In terms of slogans it's time to GET BORIS OUT for me now. Lazy, Incompetent, indecisive and unfortunately confirming what Michael Howard and Max Hastings predicted.

More Chamberlain than Churchill

People might argue, give him a chance, but I fear If he stays any longer we're toast

Does anyone truly believe that with Boris at the helm we have any hope of getting on top of things before the country and the economy is reduced to rubble?

A Coronariddle

As I got to the alehouse gates I met up with five best mates
Each best mate had five mates more That they’d drunk with the night before
Each best mate had made a list of mates free tomorrow to go get ‘merry’.
Best mates and mates and their mate’s mate The numbers soon accumulate.
Excuse my rhymes (I am no Ovid)
But how many ‘mates’ are passing on Covid?

In terms of slogans it's time to GET BORIS OUT for me now. Lazy, Incompetent, indecisive and unfortunately confirming what Michael Howard and Max Hastings predicted.

More Chamberlain than Churchill

People might argue, give him a chance, but I fear If he stays any longer we're toast

Does anyone truly believe that with Boris at the helm we have any hope of getting on top of things before the country and the economy is reduced to rubble?

It is slightly off-topic, but the million-dollar question would be ... who would honestly want the mantle of being PM right now? Watching him cut the figure he's become, I'm of no doubt that he's disillusioned with being PM and realised it isn't the job he thought it would be, and given a half-decent chance to leave the post and save face, he probably would. And I'm sure there are politicians in the Cabinet and on the back-benches who would happily raise a leadership challenge if the opportunity arose, but I'm sure none of them want to take over right now, with the Government's response to Covid a mess (and not forgetting the dog-dinner they're making of Brexit).

Nope, while Labour are so close in the polls, there'll be no chance of there being an election. And while we're in this sh*tstorm right now there's no chance of there being a leadership challenge. We're stuck with Boris for the foreseeable future, I'm afraid.

Anybody see PMQs yesterday? It was toe-curlingly awful even by Boris's standards. He is routinely humiliated by Keir Starmer to such an extent it's painful to watch and makes you (almost) pity him. Starmer has all the icy logic of a top class QC and Boris ends up babbling stuff that is, at best, totally irrelevant and at worst incoherent nonsense....How he must miss Corbyn.

Starmer started by pointing out that three months ago the prime minister had said the test-and-trace system could be a real game-changer for the country. Yesterday he had said the opposite: that test and trace had very little or nothing to do with the spread of transmission of the disease. Both statements couldn’t be correct, so which one was he standing by today?

Boris's response was something about errrrr....human-to-human transmision is the important thing not the t-and-t but errrrr.....t-and-t is vital for our brilliant localised errrrrrrr...t-and-t system..... Eh? WTF is he saying?

Starmer tried again, speaking s-low-ly and using words with fewer syllables but Boris was even more baffled.

So Starmer took a different line reminding him last week he admitted there were problems with t-and-t. Dido Harding (the unelected Tory peer he put in charge of t-and-t) said this was due to a lack of capacity, but the health secretary had said the problem was over demand. Which was it?

Boris didn't even attempt an answer. He huffed and blustered and got very indignant about "unseemly snd unjustified" attacks on saint Dido who is doing a marvellous job and soon will be delivering 500,000 tests a day .....or was it 5 million a minute? who knows? Who cares what b0ll0x this clown says anymore?

The silence is deafening on here, in terms of support, from all those that voted him in.

It’s weird how the government’s news content keeps changing. First it was our death rate was better until it wasn’t and got dropped. Then it was all about the R rate, then it wasn’t and got dropped and now it’s back again. Then it was all about having a world class test and trace system in place which is still nowhere in sight. Then it was all about introducing targeted quarantine and now we don’t hear about that. And as for the rules and guidance that seems to change on a daily basis no wonder people don’t know whether to stick or twist. Yet still there are loads of people especially up North who think Boris is marvellous, the type of person who wants to leave the EU but sees nothing wrong in buying a French/German etc car. I give up.

Anybody see PMQs yesterday? It was toe-curlingly awful even by Boris's standards. He is routinely humiliated by Keir Starmer to such an extent it's painful to watch and makes you (almost) pity him. Starmer has all the icy logic of a top class QC and Boris ends up babbling stuff that is, at best, totally irrelevant and at worst incoherent nonsense....How he must miss Corbyn.

Starmer started by pointing out that three months ago the prime minister had said the test-and-trace system could be a real game-changer for the country. Yesterday he had said the opposite: that test and trace had very little or nothing to do with the spread of transmission of the disease. Both statements couldn’t be correct, so which one was he standing by today?

Boris's response was something about errrrr....human-to-human transmision is the important thing not the t-and-t but errrrr.....t-and-t is vital for our brilliant localised errrrrrrr...t-and-t system..... Eh? WTF is he saying?

Starmer tried again, speaking s-low-ly and using words with fewer syllables but Boris was even more baffled.

So Starmer took a different line reminding him last week he admitted there were problems with t-and-t. Dido Harding (the unelected Tory peer he put in charge of t-and-t) said this was due to a lack of capacity, but the health secretary had said the problem was over demand. Which was it?

Boris didn't even attempt an answer. He huffed and blustered and got very indignant about "unseemly snd unjustified" attacks on saint Dido who is doing a marvellous job and soon will be delivering 500,000 tests a day .....or was it 5 million a minute? who knows? Who cares what b0ll0x this clown says anymore?

I've started taking a keener interest in politics in past 12-18 months, especially so since the GE and I've watched PMQs most Wednesdays (sad, I know, but then I am unemployed now so there's not much else to do), and Starmer has had Johnson on toast almost every week, something that Keir Starmer has said to LBC is that Johnson continuously avoids answering most of his 6 questions as leader of the opposition and on the sixth question he routinely takes the opportunity to attack Starmer/the Labour party for something usually ridiculous knowing full well there will be no reply and that this seems to be the same tactic every week.

It's embarrassing that a man chosen to lead our country cannot justify his government's actions when under the slightest questioning; not exactly the qualities of competence.

Edited: Seeing as how I'm taking my first venture in to the world of talking about politics, if anyone could explain to me what's meant by the left, the centre, the right of the political spectrum, what defines what, and which party is historically where that would be amazing, it confuses the life out of me when people talk about it

Anybody see PMQs yesterday? It was toe-curlingly awful even by Boris's standards. He is routinely humiliated by Keir Starmer to such an extent it's painful to watch and makes you (almost) pity him. Starmer has all the icy logic of a top class QC and Boris ends up babbling stuff that is, at best, totally irrelevant and at worst incoherent nonsense....How he must miss Corbyn.

Starmer started by pointing out that three months ago the prime minister had said the test-and-trace system could be a real game-changer for the country. Yesterday he had said the opposite: that test and trace had very little or nothing to do with the spread of transmission of the disease. Both statements couldn’t be correct, so which one was he standing by today?

Boris's response was something about errrrr....human-to-human transmision is the important thing not the t-and-t but errrrr.....t-and-t is vital for our brilliant localised errrrrrrr...t-and-t system..... Eh? WTF is he saying?

Starmer tried again, speaking s-low-ly and using words with fewer syllables but Boris was even more baffled.

So Starmer took a different line reminding him last week he admitted there were problems with t-and-t. Dido Harding (the unelected Tory peer he put in charge of t-and-t) said this was due to a lack of capacity, but the health secretary had said the problem was over demand. Which was it?

Boris didn't even attempt an answer. He huffed and blustered and got very indignant about "unseemly snd unjustified" attacks on saint Dido who is doing a marvellous job and soon will be delivering 500,000 tests a day .....or was it 5 million a minute? who knows? Who cares what b0ll0x this clown says anymore?

Agree with all you say here, although in Johnson’s defence every PM I can remember has used the sixth question to put the boot in knowing there can’t be a response. What I find most annoying is that when extracts from PMQs appear on the BBC news, the need for balance results in it appearing an equal contest when, as you say, every week Starmer is wiping the floor with him.

A Coronariddle

As I got to the alehouse gates I met up with five best mates
Each best mate had five mates more That they’d drunk with the night before
Each best mate had made a list of mates free tomorrow to go get ‘merry’.
Best mates and mates and their mate’s mate The numbers soon accumulate.
Excuse my rhymes (I am no Ovid)
But how many ‘mates’ are passing on Covid?

Tell your mates, there's a good chap, that no one will know lest they download the app.
Though once they do their lives will change as the govt can follow wherever they range

Edited: Seeing as how I'm taking my first venture in to the world of talking about politics, if anyone could explain to me what's meant by the left, the centre, the right of the political spectrum, what defines what, and which party is historically where that would be amazing, it confuses the life out of me when people talk about it

This debate was had on here a few months ago, and lead to some heated exchanges.

There is no short definition, but in general the more right wing politics tends to head towards unfettered capitalism, and in its extremes survival of the fittest, leading to nationalism and beyond.

Left wing politics tends to head towards unfettered socialism and in its extremes state control and curtailment of individual freedoms.

The centre which most balanced individuals would tend to place themselves would believe in a mixed economy that avoids the extremes.

Edited: Seeing as how I'm taking my first venture in to the world of talking about politics, if anyone could explain to me what's meant by the left, the centre, the right of the political spectrum, what defines what, and which party is historically where that would be amazing, it confuses the life out of me when people talk about it

To answer your question Liam.

This debate was had on here a few months ago, and lead to some heated exchanges.

There is no short definition, but in general the more right wing politics tends to head towards unfettered capitalism, and in its extremes, survival of the fittest, leading to nationalism and beyond.

Left wing politics tends to head towards a more caring society, but unfettered socialism, in its extremes, leads to state control and curtailment of individual freedoms.

The centre, which most balanced individuals would tend to place themselves, would believe in a mixed economy that avoids the extremes.

Edited: Seeing as how I'm taking my first venture in to the world of talking about politics, if anyone could explain to me what's meant by the left, the centre, the right of the political spectrum, what defines what, and which party is historically where that would be amazing, it confuses the life out of me when people talk about it

I don't know if you've seen it, but this Wiki article explains very simply - and easily - the history behind, and what is generally perceived as, "left" and "right" politics.

Edited: Seeing as how I'm taking my first venture in to the world of talking about politics, if anyone could explain to me what's meant by the left, the centre, the right of the political spectrum, what defines what, and which party is historically where that would be amazing, it confuses the life out of me when people talk about it

I don't know if you've seen it, but this Wiki article explains very simply - and easily - the history behind, and what is generally perceived as, "left" and "right" politics.

Thanks Quinny but I had always assumed that some posters were always right whilst the rest of us were left wondering where they got their facts from?