If only they would actually do something more substantial than applause. Like properly funding it.

@Jalnor We could do with tests and PPE

Indeed - for starters. Not to mention a few dozen thousand more colleagues, bigger facilities, an end to the "them and us" budget-hoarding system designed to encourage you not to spend money... and oh, yeah, a living wage.

If only they were that clear-headed.

I have known nothing else all my life...bar the first 2 which admittedly I cannot remember, because it was founded in 1947, and the best political decision ever made in the U.K...by a Labour Govt., of course,

Boris has just had first hand experience of the NHS!!

@Petter But why did he put himself up to make all the announcements? Surely it was a cabinet decision.

@Petter I just heard he has tested positive...proving to be a man of the people.

@Petter, @Mcflewster Showing leadership I expect!

@Marionville @Mcflewster His positive test result was what I was referring to as "first hand experience".
Also Matt Hancock, the health secretary, tested positive!!

@Petter I did realise that is what you meant...and yes him too now.

Marionville, the brexit clown is not a man of the people and he doesn't have a grain of true leadership in him. He's just a narcissist, he wasn't going to let someone else take the limelight when it's his decision who says it.
Besides, from the fact there was not one cough, a number of us are suspicious that this is actually just a ploy for him to hide in a fridge for 2 weeks and then miraculously reappear to a fanfare of headlines saying he beat the virus. Because publicity stunts are about the only thing this arsehole can do well... though even that's not consistent.

@Jalnor I must admit that I’m not an admirer of the man, but my cynicism levels are way lower than yours. I do believe he has the virus, as does Matt Hancock and the chief Medical Officer, and I do believe that he thought it was the correct thing to take the press conference each evening because he is the PM...which he is. At this present time I am pleased to see there is a degree of agreement and unanimity between all parties, and hope that tragic though this pandemic is, and I am sad at the thought of so many people dying, if it heals some of the glaring divisions caused by Brexit, amongst the general population, at least something good may have come out of it. We all must pull together and look after the vulnerable, because we have not really started to see the real impact of large numbers of fatalities yet.

Yeah... hopefully a few of the Tories that are just deluded will wake up to these facts, but the rest need to get out of the way. One way or the other. I mean, we had weeks of BJ knowing what was coming, we had scientists telling them "you have to do this, this and this or people will die," you had Corbyn saying "why is the government not doing this yet" on so many things... and you had BJ standing there saying "some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make." As Elbert Hubbard put it, men are not punished for their sins, but by them - if BJ really does have the virus, he made his own bed by deliberately squandering other people's lives.
Meanwhile half the media has a boner for him, claiming he's doing all the right stuff at all the right times. Literally every measure he comes out with is 3-5 days after Corbyn asks why they're not already doing it... and always with a catch that makes it more valuable to his rich friends than to anyone else. Sadly, unless something big changes, we're going to come out the other side of this with folk comparing him to Churchill. And not the side of Churchill that ordered massacres in Ireland and Glasgow, or that manufactured the public service collapse that gave Thatcher the opportunity to say privatising stuff was the way forward and get away with it. The winners write history and it currently looks like any situation in which the Tory leadership survives will be their win. Since they're likely to get the best of care, they're almost certainly going to survive in the literal sense, which leaves only the figurative sense. We definitely need everyone knowing just how badly they've handled this, no half measures, no "well, in fairness to the guy, he did the right thing." No, he did some of the right thing, once it was way too late. But mostly, he did nothing. That's how an objective history would judge him and that is absolutely how we have to judge him every time it's brought up or this will be turned into a victory to be trotted out at the next election after another 4 and a half years of killing poor people and asset stripping our country.

@Marionville Hmmm. I wonder if the doctor who diagnosed him was working for MI5...for the good of the nation, and all that...

@Red_Cat It’s his head that needs examining!

@Marionville Well yes, but the cynic in me has wondered of lately. Just a thought.

Absolutely correct!