End of the beginning

I agree, but the blame for this lies entirely with Govt.

 

The Conversation generally gets experts to write opinion pieces on subjects, it's not really a news source, it's more of a magazine covering a broad range of interests. The writers have to disclose any conflicts of interest they may have. This isn't a criticism of it, I like it, but it's not as agile as a news source such as any newspaper, because of the way the articles are written and collated. However it does aim to not have a political agenda.

 

It's important to get the hard facts though, not purely government spin or government bashing. I agree with you that the government are to blame, but it's important to get all sides.

 

If they were transparent and forthcoming with the truth they wouldn’t be able to trip them up.
The questions are designed to get behind the bjather of the govt not trick questions .
If they hadn’t t done this we would still be being fed that they are in control and no ones slipping through the net and there’s plenty of PPE and no deaths in care homes with Covid .

 

I just find it a bit concerning that suddenly the press are in the wrong for asking questions about ppe etc. That is their job in a democracy, in a war it would be different because you couldn't give away strategy to the enermy but we are not in a war.

Can you honestly say if Corbyn was at the helm you wouldn't want questions to be asked because I would.

 

Same here - watch the first 10 minutes of News at Ten for an update and then avoid every other programme that is about Covid 19.

 

I see your point Marlon but have to disagree, when I want local news I watch Calendar as Look North has too much of a Leeds Utd bias for me, when I want political debate I watch Question Time or Andrew Marr, the newspapers are too politically biased to take much notice of. The daily update will of course be presented with the current governments slant. But I would find it more useful if it was purely giving of information and advice. There are plenty of other outlets for politicians to be taken to account, if I want that type of programme I can tune in. When all I want is information the daily update should be there to provide that and nothing more.

 

Only thing I think we could have done differently, and I still question it to this day why anyone that came from abroad (including those who are returning to the UK) wasn't subject to controls and self-isolating to start with

It was obvious as the day is long that the spread was very easy. We could see it passing from country to country at an alarming rate.

We continued to just let anyone get off aeroplanes and walk through passport check ins etc without so much as a sniff. Hardly anyone was checked for any symptoms.

And as the saying goes, the rest is history. Too late now, but just react to it, rather than try and contain it getting into through our borders in the first place

 

If it’s just the govt you want hear just turn it off after he’s given his update before he asks for questions .
But imo that’s not getting a balanced view and the questions are from a variety of news outlets whether pro govt, hostile govt or middle of the road . And most are balanced and fair questions asking why certain measures are being introduced or left out .
The govt have acted upon questions, ideas or suggestions from the media . I just can’t see how someone can get a balanced view without istening both sides tbh .

 

Thats what I do when I watch it, listen to the speakers then switch off when the questions and accusations start. As I say when I want that I’ll watch a programme made for it.

 

Tbh you can’t get a programme more made for it than a govts briefing and q and a than the one that’s on .
If it questions you like to hear only then your wanting and getting a bias view which is fair enough that’s your prerogative but don’t mistake with a balanced view .

 

Surely it was the job of the Secretary of State for Health (Hancock) on hearing of the lockdown in Wuhan in January to urgently find out what stocks of PPE were available to the NHS, to check production sources and to increase levels if required in preparation? Also, to find alternative sources if the majority of that needed for the NHS came from the affected parts of China.

However, there is always more than one way to skin a cat. If you are concerned about limited supply of PPE, hospital beds, etc, you can try to increase supply (Nightingale hospitals, although underused were a good example of this for beds), but you can also reduce the need.

Perhaps enforcing a mandatory quarantine for anyone entering the UK from a country with a certain level of infection from January - not just China, but at the time Japan and South Korea, with Italy, Spain and France (and many others) falling into that category as the infection spread would have helped to slow the spread into the UK. As would stopping large gatherings earlier - Cheltenham, Liverpool v Atletico, Stereophonics gigs, etc that all were linked to big infection clusters - and introducing the lockdown earlier would have significantly reduced the community infections as well as saving a lot of lives - just 3 days would have saved around 4-5000 people and a lot more hospitals adminissions. And sadly, it looks like the care homes were left undefended and open to significant numbers of infections for far too long.

 

You do realise that Question Time has a significant pro-right bias in terms of invited studio guests and panel guests (how many times was Farage on compared to any other MEP?) from the production staff and Andrew Marr isn't known for his centrist or left-wing viewpoints? You want your political debate from sources that agree with your politics,forming your own unconscious bias and reinforcing your own viewpoints.

 

I don’t want any questions Marlon. Plenty of programs to hold the government to account whether its news programmes or political ones. Thats my whole point. Lets have a daily update on where we are not who’s to blame.

 

But that’s trusting the govt to be always doing the right thing Which they havnt been and indeed have changed or started new process because of the questioning .
Sorry but I don’t trust any govt Labour or Tory to have free reign unchecked by the public or even media . That’s a dictatorship . There’s more people watches the update for information than watches these political programmes of which there are many so that’s the time to question them imo.

 

Two things Scoff; firstly I agree with your previous post on PPE and measures to reduce the virus getting here in the first place. I do however think it would have gotten here anyway perhaps via freight shipping/airlines but agree we could have done much more much sooner. Secondly I have the opposite view on bias on those two programmes than you. I think that the BBC is well known for its left wing bias. Obviously I want to hear an unbiased view hence my first post in response to the OP. I don’t just want to hear the argument from one side and I’ll decide on each sides merits for myself. All I’m saying is that the daily update should be just that, leave the baiting and debating for other times.

 

Well it looks like you’re getting what you want then Marlon. For me I’ll listen to the briefing and switch off after, if I want to watch folk debating with ministers I’ll watch one of the many other programmes available.

 

The briefing could be stuffed full of half truths though?

So they could for example say we are targeting 100000 tests and you think that sounds good great. If you turn listen to the follow up questions and answers you realise that is way off the mark.