Letter: Whinging About Government Efforts Against Covid-19 is Unhelpful

Published on: 21 Apr, 2020
Updated on: 21 Apr, 2020

Zoe Franklin and Angela Richardson MP

From Stuart Band

In response to: Our MP Seems Removed from Reality on Virus Issues

I am sure that I am not the only person fed up with constant whinging from various quarters.

If we want negative and unhelpful comments regarding the efforts by our government to fight the coronavirus then all we have to do is to listen to or watch the BBC, Channel 4, Sky News, etc. Please do not bring it on to The Dragon as well.

It would make more sense, if blame is to be assigned to any one or group, to direct fire at the communist party of China

Responses to Letter: Whinging About Government Efforts Against Covid-19 is Unhelpful

Marilyn Strange Reply

April 21, 2020 at 10:06 am

Excellent reply.
Howard Moss Reply

April 21, 2020 at 10:27 am

When did questioning the actions of government becoming whinging? Surely holding government and elected officials to account is democracy in its finest form.
George Potter Reply

April 21, 2020 at 10:35 am

If we never criticised our governments during a crisis when they were getting things done then we’d have spent the entirety of the Second World War with Neville Chamberlain as our Prime Minister rather than Winston Churchill.

And, unlike WW2, this time we don’t need to worry about the enemy listening into what we’re saying. Scrutiny, as opposed to blind deference to authority, leads to better results.

George Potter is a Lib Dem borough councillor for Burpham
Jim Allen Reply

April 21, 2020 at 11:34 am

At this time working together is preferable to constant verbal or keyboard fault-finding.

Making observations with suggestions of how to rectify the perceived fault is one thing. Just saying ‘I can do it better’ without explanation or saying ‘you are not good enough’ when there is no other option – is simply absorbing time of those who are doing the job on time-wasting responses which do not move the problem forward.

Let’s all work together and then dissect what went wrong when it is all over.

Only if there is a proven better way should commentators intervene during this crisis.
David Wragg Reply

April 21, 2020 at 5:56 pm

Stuart Band makes some good points. The real problem is that this is a new virus about which little is known and there is no previous experience to draw on.

To give one example, there was, at the outset, the hope of “herd immunity” being created, but that now seems an impossible hope, as is the hope that people who recovered would be safe from future infection.

We have a lot to learn.