— realmattlucas (@RealMattLucas) May 10, 2020
We in the UK are lucky. No matter how much our Prime Minister screws things up, we can always look to Brazil and the USA for leaders who are more incompetent. And while the government has got some things right (such as sourcing ventilators and building the Nightingale hospitals), and may be right in the long term when it comes to the policy of herd immunity, it has got many things wrong, an example of this being PPE.
In hindsight, we could say that the government should not have built the Nightingale hospitals but at the time, this of making the decision, based on the information available, this was the right thing to do. Also, while letting the public know how measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 were to be put in place in advance, we can now say that the 'leak' about how lock-down measures were to be loosened before this bank holiday weekend was a bad idea. Let alone how alcohol appears to have resulted in worsening social distancing measures on VE day.
But last night, the television address by the Prime Minister was a shambles. Letting employers know that people are to return to work literally the night before the change comes into effect was insane. It would have been far better to let employers know about this before the bank holiday weekend so that they would have had more notice along with employees. Saying that, while we were told that the changes are to take effect today, it now appears that they are not. And the advice on who we can or cannot meet now, or is it in the future, is also unclear.
A good thing about the performance of the Prime Minister is that it has taken our attention away from the message to Stay Alert. The message to stay at home to protect the NHS was been a simple one and due to this it is to be kept by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The change in message indicated that lock-down measures are to be relaxed, but due to the incompetence at which the message was changed to this unclear form, we should have been warned that the message would be shared in as incompetent a manner.
There are ways to present a message to the nation. This is one of them. Boris should learn from this message how to present himself as a Prime Minister. It is a shame we have a buffoon in charge when the man who should be Prime Minister is not.
