COVID19

[kukushkin88]

The bragging has got a bit much. Sam Coates just shredded him.

https://twitter.com/10downingstreet/status/1245820428020584450?s=21

That's a tweet from April 2nd, kuku.

Evening mate

It’s because it confirms they were aiming for 100,000 people tested, not 100,000 tests.

[Marky147]

Definitely seems worth bringing up.

Maybe I'm too apathetic, though.

[Jon MW]

they include tests sent out in the post but not returned yet.

Obviously it was an ambitious target, and there has been a big ramp up in testing

the actual "reaching the target" is a bit smoke and mirrors though for PR purposes

The setting the target to start with was for PR so it's not too big a surprise that the meeting the target is all about PR as well.

Although I suppose it would have got a bit tedious if the government had announced that their target for testing was "as much as possible", followed by journalists asking "but how many tests are you aiming for?" every single day and the government replying "as much as possible to it". At least this gamified it a bit

[kukushkin88]

Definitely seems worth bringing up.

Maybe I'm too apathetic, though.

You might have noticed that dishonest politicians is one of my things 😉? Great that they’re doing a lot more tests though, hopefully the start of some real progress.

[kukushkin88]

Early indications that them missing the target will get more balanced/accurate coverage overseas:

https://twitter.com/billneelynbc/status/1256265426935431169?s=21

[Marky147]

They're all dishonest, but you seem to have a special affinity for anything the current gov do.

I'm not a Tory, but it even gets tiresome for me

[arbboy]

They set the number far too low.  They gagged up on the bridle.  25000 in hand.  Should have made it a quarter of a millball and made the government put a shift in the last month.  Give them a proper challenge.   Typical government setting tiny targets which were a piece of cake to reach and taking all the credit.

[youthnkzR]

Borris Johnson
Killed. His. Country
Whacked 'em

[kukushkin88]

Borris Johnson
Killed. His. Country
Whacked 'em

I didn’t write any of those words, of course. Can someone delete that?

[kukushkin88]

They're all dishonest, but you seem to have a special affinity for anything the current gov do.

I'm not a Tory, but it even gets tiresome for me

I thought that the fact that they missed their target and lied about it would merit discussion, no worries if that’s not the consensus view. You don’t seemed so worried when Trump is criticised for doing it.

[Pokerpops]

They're all dishonest, but you seem to have a special affinity for anything the current gov do.

I'm not a Tory, but it even gets tiresome for me

I thought that the fact that they missed their target and lied about it would merit discussion, no worries if that’s not the consensus view. You don’t seemed so worried when Trump is criticised for doing it.

The only people fretting about whether or not 100,000 tests were done on Thursday are those who want to make political or personal capital from it. It makes sense for each side to fudge the numbers in some way or another, but for most of us the fact that we are now testing at a rate that is close to 100,000 a day is impressive in itself.

[kukushkin88]

They're all dishonest, but you seem to have a special affinity for anything the current gov do.

I'm not a Tory, but it even gets tiresome for me

I thought that the fact that they missed their target and lied about it would merit discussion, no worries if that’s not the consensus view. You don’t seemed so worried when Trump is criticised for doing it.

The only people fretting about whether or not 100,000 tests were done on Thursday are those who want to make political or personal capital from it. It makes sense for each side to fudge the numbers in some way or another, but for most of us the fact that we are now testing at a rate that is close to 100,000 a day is impressive in itself.

Every single Conservative MP that I follow is tweeting about it. There’s absolutely no fudging at all needed to see that they missed it by a very long way.

[Jon MW]

They're all dishonest, but you seem to have a special affinity for anything the current gov do.

I'm not a Tory, but it even gets tiresome for me

I thought that the fact that they missed their target and lied about it would merit discussion, no worries if that’s not the consensus view. You don’t seemed so worried when Trump is criticised for doing it.

The only people fretting about whether or not 100,000 tests were done on Thursday are those who want to make political or personal capital from it. It makes sense for each side to fudge the numbers in some way or another, but for most of us the fact that we are now testing at a rate that is close to 100,000 a day is impressive in itself.

Every single Conservative MP that I follow is tweeting about it. There’s absolutely no fudging at all needed to see that they missed it by a very long way.

Why are you following Conservative MPs on twitter?

[kukushkin88]

They're all dishonest, but you seem to have a special affinity for anything the current gov do.

I'm not a Tory, but it even gets tiresome for me

I thought that the fact that they missed their target and lied about it would merit discussion, no worries if that’s not the consensus view. You don’t seemed so worried when Trump is criticised for doing it.

The only people fretting about whether or not 100,000 tests were done on Thursday are those who want to make political or personal capital from it. It makes sense for each side to fudge the numbers in some way or another, but for most of us the fact that we are now testing at a rate that is close to 100,000 a day is impressive in itself.

Every single Conservative MP that I follow is tweeting about it. There’s absolutely no fudging at all needed to see that they missed it by a very long way.

It’s not only a propaganda issue either. It compromises accurate record keeping of the testing process going forward. There’ll be thousands of tests that will never be seen again, not easy to account for these going forward. Will they be subtracted out of the total number, if so when and what will that decision be based on?

[Jon MW]

And as I alluded to before the 100,000 doesn't mean anything.

It's not quite as random a figure as Blairs 50% should go to university but it still never related to any diagnostic standard or capability.

If the government had said we aim to reach 80,000 a day by the end of April does anybody think the government critics would be saying well done at this point?