Boris epitomises the decline of conservativism; he makes even Scott Morrison look good.

Is it only me or have others noticed the resemblance between Boris Johnson and Benny Hill's 'Fred Scuttle'?

It's uncanny: the look, the mannerisms, the speech. They're like peas in a pod.

Here's Boris (or Fred ..... I'm not too sure - they're just so alike) pushing Brexit to the upper limits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP1NvZyGGx0

Well, What did you expect from yet another power consumed conservative baffoon who like all the other conservative baffoons, clearly just doesn't understand, that a healthy economy requires a healthy workforce and equally healthy consumers. It's basic horse and carriage stuff!

It's sorter like not understanding the connection between a returning boomerang and the act of first throwing it? Rather than waving it all over the place then complaining, it just won't come back. It has to be a faulty boomerang?

Other than that, could it be the average goldfish has a higher IQ/attention span? Sorry, splutter, splutter, blurp, Boris.
Alan B.

Fair go Alan, no one has a clue how to handle this virus.
They are all guessing even the epidemiologists.
There is no one alive who has experienced a real epidemic.
Except perhaps for Ebola.
People such as Boris are being thrown in at the deep end.
At least he is prepared to change his mind when it looks like he made
the wrong decision. Not like others.

It will require a deep international debrief of everyone involved and
no "I don't remembers" will be allowed.
If all the data and records are kept intact then where it went wrong
and could have been avoided will be obvious.
It will take several years to achieve that

Conservative buffoon? Buffoon he might be, but he is no conservative!

Sorry, Bazz. You're wrong. The NZ PM took the expert medical advice and guess what? An almost entirely opposite result from the UK. Just as you cannot be half pregnant you cannot beat this extremely contagious by a half-done shutdown.

It's a case of doing it once and doing it right, then progressively reopening the economy.

What you don't need is this endless on again off again approach and the mindless bluff and bluster when it, as expected, goes pear-shaped yet again.

The blustering buffoons of the conservative right, have always been focused on the economy first approach and as the NZ outcome demonstrates to anyone with an operational brain, One needs healthy workers and consumer first, to have an economy!

I said and you may check that this was a pandemic going somewhere to happen and that the USA would become the global epicentre. And the way to deal with it was a total 14-day shutdown! Rather than the half-assed responses of the conservative right/moribund buffoons!

You folk of the self-deluded far-right/privileged elite can deny whatever you care to, even the factual truth!? But that'll change none of it. And given the cap fits?
Alan B.

See Alan, you are and others right and others are wrong !
New Zealand got it right and people in other countries say we got it right.
Perhaps you think it was not just blind guessing but some guessed
right and some guessed wrong.
New Zealand like us is an island country with small populations.
Perhaps the countries with large populations would have had the same
result no matter which way they guessed.
Anyone at this stage that says "This is the way" is just fooling
whoever listens to them.

What utter bull. One eyed garbage. If you people opened both eyes some time, you might start to understand the world.

The worst result in Oz was by a lefty ratbag in Victoria.

The worst result in the USA was down to a couple of lefties in New York.

See, what did I tell you, denial first then blame shift all over the joint, WTFU!

It may be a coincidence that in NZ. A left-leaning government got it right from the get-go and by implementing the very strategy I suggested way back when and you can check, cause I put in writing here on OLO!

Whereas in the world of Trump and the republicans, they as right-wing as you can get, presided over and still preside over the world's epicentre of this pandemic! Also predicted by yours truly.

Coincidence? Not bloody likely. Too many old fart hasbeens welded to a nonsensical far-right idealogy? Almost certainly? And given the outcome that they produced, with blood on their hands and they know it?

Moreover, they can and will blame shift to the enth degree! But none of the spluttering bluster denials and blame-shifting they are so famous for, will change none of it!

If you want to see how callous and indifferent they are almost to a generic man? Then look no further than the way that cohort trimmed the Christmas relief package, the package Trump just rubbished then refused to either veto or endorse!

As blameless folk/fellow citizens starve, during the height of a pandemic!

This package could have been delivered months ago instead as per usual, by the far-right, turned into a political football with lots of icing and jollies for the elite included before there was any far-right-wing endorsement!

These folk of the far-right, live in another universe and simply do not get, that by providing stimulus via those with the least. It goes straight back into the economy and the pockets of the better off! And in every way, far superior icing and jollies for the better off, via that route!

Talk about lame brain central! You're in good company, Hasbeen.
Alan B.

Calm down Alan, you said;
the package Trump just rubbished then refused to either veto or endorse!

What you didn't say was Trump sent it back because the relief package
for individuals was not enough. He wanted it raised from $600 to $2000.
That is the reverse of what you alleged.

Anyway Alan stop copying the ABC. When their news reported Trumps
refusal to accept the measures they did not say why either so you are
in good, whoops, bad company !
Anyway happy New Year.

How on earth can anyone claim success in beating COVID-19 ! We're only a couple of months from the next Flu season & I predict it will be worse than this year.
I am perplexed at the rules & regulations re Air travel. Just spent two nights in North Cairns directly under the final approach path & I was amazed how many planes came in, one every 10 or so minutes for much of the day. Are these domestic flights or international too ?
I'd have thought I'd be lucky to see more than two flights a day !
Then, after returning home this arvo, I see these morons in the park in Sydney on TV. I think stupidity from within is by far the greatest threat to Australia !

Conservatism is not going away anytime soon. On the contrary, the indiscipline & greed of the progressives will sway a return to Conservatism.

There are none so blind as those that will not see. Except the willfully blind!

Those that think greed and its handmaiden, individualism, is any part of any answer but rather, the central part of our every pandemic related problem and none of the answers whatsoever. As they scream conspiracy/just the flu and on and on ad Infinium ad Nauseum!

Will never ever own what they contributed to with their blanket stupidity!

Just bury the head, the conscience and any remaining semblance of genuine humanity! Think to a generic man, like it's ok to sacrifice a thousand lives so their tinpot little business can stay open? And charge all who disagree with their take as having a chip on their shoulder.

Well maybe, mine is against unmitigated greed and injustice! And I've seen far too much of it to stay shut up or allow the soulless inhumans amongst us to blame shift away from what they have inducibly wrought or contributed to/allowed!

If they truly wanted to save the economy/their piddling little business interests? Then we would have done far, far better to go in hard and early!

And I say, if we would change this then those holding the nation's reins must be completely replaced by real humans able to put their fellow man ahead of some Idiotic ideological imperative/greed, nepotism and cronyism, so rampant as to take the breath away/beggar belief!

If we cannot change flawed thinking, then we must change the flawed thinkers, an oxymoron if ever there was one!?

What won't work is more of the same, then more of the same, then more of the same time after time, after time, after time! All while expecting a different result!
Alan B.

Alan B,
I trust you include the Tinpot Public service in your assessment ? Those bureaudroids who get paid no matter what whilst others have to rake their brains as to how to make it through the day ?

"On the contrary, the indiscipline & greed of the progressives will sway a return to Conservatism"

I would love to believe that, individual, but it is the ex-conservatives who are out-socialising the socialists and slinging free money around on a scale never even contemplated by the left.

Apart from you and me, and other people who have no power, there are no Conservatives remaining. It's easier to buy votes than offer good policies.

ttbn,
The sway will come from necessity rather than ideology !

Here's the thing. Clearly, the conservatives with a hard right mindset are more focused on blaming anybody else than owning their own behaviour. And has been thus for as long as there has been upright humans/since this peculiar individualism has focused the minds of lazy greedy folk who seem to believe, they and their peculiar mindset are superior to the old collectives/tribalism/cooperative capitalism.

Trump said he wanted the Cheques to be $2,000.00. If he was sincere rather than full of it, as is his custom? He would have vetoed the bill and sent it back with his instructions!

The Democrats would have obliged with alacrity! And the Republicans would have cried tears of blood, pulled their hair out, rent their garments, but would not have gone against their President!?

The very well fed President claimed he wanted more then walked away from his opportunity to do so! Instead, went to play golf as millions joined the hospital queues and the food queues!

Apart from that, he seems to have gathered a bunch of sycophantic crazies who prosper by telling him he won or could still somehow steal the election?

I get that the usual hardcore right-wing/birds of a feather, commenting here are completely ok with that/or as is their usual practice, deny and or blame shift! Think that the only thing that matters is appearances! Factual outcomes? Who among the aforementioned gives a shite?

As for my up to date, minutes old, information, got it from the mainstream media rather than the ABC!
Alan B.

Trump said he wanted the Cheques to be $2,000.00.
Alan B,
So, why exactly did these cheques not eventuate ? Who changed what & how ?

Democrats and I think the Republicans decided that $600 was the amount.
Trump wanted $2000.
Thats the way their "system" works.

The Democrats wanter $2000 and would vote for it tomorrow, the Republicans wanted zilch, Trump sat on the side lines and said nothing. Now the grub is grandstanding whilst millions of American go hungry! And of course he plays golf, Trump thinks golf fixes everything.

Are there any actual quotes by Trump where he reneged on the deal ?

What the ultra-right-wing geniuses commenting here just refuse to understand, if Trump wanted changes, he had to first veto what was presented then sent it back! He had just two options sign-off or veto. That's how their system and his power functions.

If he wanted changes!? Then he needed to veto and then demand those changes and less pork! He may have gotten some of that when the bill was once again on his desk? And if he was satisfied? Then sign off!

If not? Then apply his power of veto until he was! Understand geniuses? He cannot draw a red line under this or that! It's either the whole enchilada or none!

Instead, he did neither, went and played golf wasting precious time where he could have forced election watching republicans to come to the table and agree to all his changes, much to the glee of the spineless democrats! He is the most inept, dishonest and stupid President ever, I believe?

And he's in good company, I believe, with Bazz, ttbn and Hasbeen. All of who are in permanent denial about stuff they as a collective of typical right-wing geniuses know SFA about the American system or medicine or economic realities!
Alan B.

Here is the economic reality some lame brains just cannot fathom!

If you first put all your stimulus money in the hands of those with the least! Then they as the poorest of the poor and downtrodden have no choice but to spend it on the necessities of life. thus flowing to the merchants, then to the wholesalers, as the merchants restock. then the manufacturers as the wholesalers replace their inventory.

Long story short.

The entire stimulus package eventually swells the bank balances of the privileged elite after having improved the lot of the less fortunate/ moderately well off/rich and powerful, all the way back up the socio-economic ladder!

Not everybody works for their income. there's lots of welfare for the rich, Fully franked dividends for folk who don't pay the tax that would entitle those fully franked dividends, and tax breaks for (I'm alright Jack) foreigners the rest of the taxpayer cohort pay for along with sports rorts and pork barrelling!

It's not their money they redistribute/hand out! But that of their employers!
Alan B.

Alan for a bloke who claims not to have a huge chip on their shoulder, you sure are a misery queen.

Do try to have a Happy new Year, if you can.

Well, Hasbeen, thank you for your good wishes! And the backhanded compliment! You have a happy, prosperous and healthy new year!
Alan B.

OK Alan we know all that (2posts back) now what are you trying to tell us.
Never make assumptions about what people know or don't know.

Happy New Year to all, but make a new resolution;
Try not to insult others when you disagree with them.
We could do with a lot less of that.

What the ultra-right-wing geniuses commenting here just refuse to understand,
Alan B,
I don't believe it's a refusal to understand. it's trying to make sense of the largely ultra-left-wing media's convoluted, devoid of fact reporting that's brought it all on. They're responsible for most of the social & economic mayhem of our days. I'm no fan of Trump but I still have to see & hear him say that he didn't want to sign the cheque. With a Demographic like the US I'm surprised they still exist !

A SINCERE HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred,_Lord_Tennyson Britain’s Poet Laureate (1850-1892) wrote more than "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854).

Prolific Tennyson also wrote an earlier poem "Ring Out, Wild Bells" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Out,_Wild_Bells (published 1850). Now days it rings out the old year and rings in the new, on New Year's Eve.

The words http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Out,_Wild_Bells#The_poem have deep meaning.

Also bringing the poem to life is a sad and moving musical version by Canadian singer Alana Levandoski http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alana_Levandoski.

Alana sings it here http://youtu.be/dbnsIydaYYg

The sad tone has special poignancy for a year of bushfires here and COVID everywhere.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

First Verse/Chorus

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

First Verse/Chorus

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Pete

At the risk of sounding like a Trump supporter, can anyone provide a link that shows him saying "I'm not signing that Biil" ?

Not sure what the process is. It might be that he sends it back to the
senate. The news used the word "veto" but that would not be right.
Here I think if the senate does not pass a bill I think the clerk of
the senate gives it to the clerk of the house. Something like that.

After all this who would vote for a republic ?
Elect a President and you generate a third power centre.
That just asks for trouble.