That figure still includes deaths from other causes beside Covid 19. I haven't seen or heard anyone quote even an approximate death toll that EXCLUSIVELY relates to Covid 19.

In Whitehall the bodies are stacking up like an episode of Inspector Morse. Five permanent secretaries, including the UK’s most senior official, have been dispatched. The organisation responsible for public health is being dismembered. The head of the exams regulator has gone following a fiasco over A-level grades.

This is the “hard rain” that Dominic Cummings, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief strategist, promised would fall on the “blob” — his name for the civil service which he says resists real change. The blob is this government’s equivalent of the illuminati: an all-powerful force to be blamed for all failures.

Allies will argue that Boris Johnson's poll rating is only a little lower than it was at the election. When one considers the stumbles on track and trace, the shambles over quarantine, the terrible death toll, as well as a number of other retreats, those who voted for Mr Johnson are still fairly forgiving of errors. But that forbearance will be tested. One politically sympathetic former cabinet minister worries: “We have a government which is great at campaigning but can’t run anything.”

Boris Johnson was drawn into a row today as he claimed people are “returning to the office across the country in huge numbers” but then failed to back up the claim.

No 10 were unable to provide any evidence to back up the Prime Minister’s confident assertion which he made in an address to Cabinet colleagues. Mr Johnson’s official spokesman said: “It is too soon for us to be able to share figures with you on people returning to work today.

Despite Mr Johnson’s words, many trains, platforms and Underground services were empty after the morning peak today, offering little sign of any major surge of people going back to offices in central London.

In colourful language, Mr Johnson addressed criticism of the Government for carrying out a string of U-turns on face masks, exam grading and other topics, and he blamed the pandemic.

“In the last few months we’ve been sailing into the teeth of a gale, no question,” he said. “I am no great nautical expert but sometimes it is necessary to tack here and there in response to the facts as they change, in response to the wind’s change.”

He forecast more “turbulence ahead” but said “calmer days, brighter days and calmer seas” would follow.

The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

Boris Johnson fails to back up claim people are 'returning to the office across the country in huge numbers'

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/poli...-a4537611.html



BJ's learned to lie like Trump, leaving his "aides" to 'cover his ass' .....



Now BJ turns to Churchill for inspiration .....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_w...ir_finest_hour



If BJ fought a war like he "fights" a pandemic then we'd all be under the jackboot within weeks - his ineptitude has already cost the country 66,000 lives - more than the Lufwaffe killed in the UK throughout World War II .....

Johnson has been accused of breaking the Government’s own social distancing rules after at least 50 Tory MPs packed into a room ‘cheek by jowl’ to hear him speak. The Liberal Democrats have demanded an investigation after Mr Johnson addressed the MPs in a committee room on Wednesday night, despite a sign on the door warning only 29 people should be in the room to stop the spread of coronavirus. Bloomberg news reported the prime minister even quipped that he wanted people packed in together in the same way – ‘cheek by jowl’ – in time for Christmas.

People who were at the meeting said attendees initially followed social distancing rules by taking seats that were spaced one metre apart. However, later arrivals ‘crammed’ together at the back of the room to hear Mr Johnson speak, three witnesses told Bloomberg. Just 40 minutes after the meeting finished, the prime minister’s office tweeted a warning that gatherings of more than 30 people were banned under social distancing rules.

Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse wrote to Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg demanding an inquiry and action be taken if rules were broken. She said: ‘There is no end to the Tories’ hypocrisy. Gatherings of more than 30 people are currently banned. The prime minister and his ministers have already evaporated the public’s trust in them with their shameless defence of Dominic Cummings, but it appears they have not learned their lesson.’

Gatherings

Gatherings of more than 30 people are banned.

There are exceptions for specific events, and for things like schools and workplaces.

Boris Johnson ‘broke his own social distancing rules after meeting with 50 MPs’

https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/04/boris...-mps-13222855/

BJ will escape the £10,000 - the Met say:

https://www.met.police.uk/advice/adv...rules-england/

Nevertheless, not a good example set by the PM .....

Funny how certain elements of society seem able to get away with breaking these distancing rules:

- anarchist marches
- muslim meetings

Just two recently reported examples.

The police (or their bosses) seem to have quite flexible rules.

Hi

The Police have become Politicised.

This is not good, the Law should apply to all.