Mark Drakeford dismissed the evidence showing the worst of the Omicron wave has passed and vowed to keep tough restrictions in place in Wales for the foreseeable future. He attacked Boris Johnson for being too weak to introduce the Covid measures his scientific advisors have recommended and said England was an “outlier” among the four nations of the United Kingdom – the only one not to take action to protect its citizens. MailOnline has more.
Mark Drakeford launched an astonishing tirade at Boris Johnson over Covid restrictions today as he vowed to ignore clear evidence that the worst of the Omicron wave has passed in order to keep tough restrictions in place in Wales.
The First Minister branded England an international “outlier” in resisting tighter curbs and accused the PM of overseeing a ‘politically paralysed’ administration that had tied his hands.
It came as he used a press conference to insist that Wales’s tough Covid restrictions on bars and mass events must stay in place due to an Omicron “storm” breaking over the nation.
As the rest of the U.K. eases restrictions he warned of “a difficult month ahead”, despite admitting that the variant may not be as severe as previous waves.
But then, in a rant at Mr Johnson, he added: “In England, we have a Government that is politically paralysed, with a Prime Minister who is unable to secure an agreement through his Cabinet to take the actions that his advisers have been telling him ought to have been taken.
“And even if he could get his Cabinet to address them, he can’t get his MPs to agree them.
“The outlier here is not Wales. Wales is taking action, as is Scotland, as is Northern Ireland, and as are countries right across Europe, and right across the globe.
“The one country that stands out as not taking action to protect its population is England.”
But his outburst came as a senior disease expert said a surge in the number of severe Omicron cases and deaths is unlikely to be seen in the current wave.
Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, Chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, University of Cambridge, said: “The big severing is between really severe outcomes and that there’s still no sign of a serious increase in intensive care, and ventilation, and in deaths.
“We would have expected to see that by now in London and elsewhere – so that is the really reassuring thing.
“I think we can guarantee that over this wave, as we endure the next few weeks, what we’re not going to see is a big surge in very severe outcomes.”
Worth reading in full.
The Telegraph points out that the additional restrictions in Wales have not led to a reduction in the spread of the virus, with reported infections in the country growing three times faster than in England since Christmas.
Despite the measures, the country’s Covid cases have almost doubled since Dec 26th, with an overall increase of 94%, according to the latest government data. In comparison, England’s cases have increased by only 34%.
Meanwhile, the daily Covid cases across the U.K. have fallen for the second day in a row:
Britain’s daily coronavirus cases fell for the second day in a row today and there early signs NHS admissions are peaking in England – as Sajid Javid reiterated that Omicron is up to 90% less likely to cause severe illness.
There were 178,250 new positive Covid tests across the U.K. over the past 24 hours, Government dashboard data shows, down 6% on the figure last week.
The two-day dip in new infections puts an end to nearly a month of solid growth following the emergence of the ultra-infectious new variant.
Worth reading in full.
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Who will pay for the loss of tax and and unempoloyment benefit and other costs the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland governments have caused by these extra ineffective restrictions? Once again of course it will be the English. What a disaster devolution has caused for the English while the devolved parts of the UK can manage their areas badly because they don’t need to pay for the costs they cause, we do. I think part of their incentive to generate these costs is because it will be another burden that England must carry. Its time we told Dakeford and MCKrankie if their actions cause extra costs they must be paid for by their taxpayers.
i tried to go to the link at change.org to sign the petition against twitter and my provider three refused saying i had a block on adult content and i had to confirm to be over 18 – this cannot be a mistake change.org is obviously not an adult site and there must be a decision by three to close down democratic debate, really quite surprised and quite sinister.
Drakeford is a grey totalitarian who will hopefully share a prison cell with his son when the perpetrators of all of this nonsense are finally brought to book.
The man’s a KNOB simple really.
They are NOT ”cases”, for crying out loud!
The Moronic variant is not to be feared, but welcomed as “Mother Nature’s booster shot”, destined to bring the pandemic bandwagon/vax gravy train to a belated screeching halt.
Hallelujah!
https://www.globalresearch.ca/dr-peter-mccullough-omicron-could-mark-end-halt-vaccine-rollout
If the panicdemic has taught us anything at all, it is that devolution was a mistake. If Covid is a national emergency, how on earth have we allowed four different policy responses? We are supposed to be a United Kingdom. If it is legally possible to rescind the powers of the devolved assemblies (including NI) over the handling of health emergencies, the UK Government should not hesitate to do so. The only hope now is that the voters of those areas will see that they are being kept prisoners for no material benefit and take it out on their oppressors at the ballot box.
”The ballot box”? There’s optimism!
Tells me that Tony Blair’s work is truly paying off. His breakup of the UK by devolution has now produced three pro Brussels First Ministers who are determined to follow the Socialist dictatorship of Mainland Europe. Boris is also pro Brussels but knows the Tory Party will be torn apart if he backs down and allows England to be controlled by Germany and France……historically our biggest adversaries.
Perhaps Mr Drakeford should take a look at Florida!
Why should he? He’s only a useful idiot, after all. Hardly an ‘alpha male’ like the Governor of Florida.
Selling fear strengthens tribal bonds and brings power to the leader. This guy knows what he’s doing.
This is not about health or science but fuelling an anti England xenophobia. This image is of him dancing in a Diwali party a few weeks ago. We have a crisis of health in Wales and although Park Runs are going ahead in England the <‘50 allowed to gather in the fresh air has effectively stopped it. We got dragged into devolution by Tony Blair on a 30+% turnout and desperately need to get rid of this one party state
All of those people at their Diwali Disco seemed to enjoy having Mark amongst them – none of them criticised him for having no face mask on. And they themselves clearly don’t believe in the ‘pandemic’ as they too are all without face masks.
They are guilty of carrying on this fraud.
Another good example of the pointlessness of devolved government. We just get an extra layer of madness. As for Drakeford the ‘mumbling sociologist’ history will not be kind
My first thought was was who is mark drayford? You really have to ask yourself what person in their right mind would not want to get back to normalcy asap. Schools open, businesses open and thriving, no mandates, no lockdowns. Bought, threatened, both? By whom?
Is Wales ‘thriving’? The coal mines are closed, and it’s mostly a bit of hill farming and trying to get tourists on the little steam railways, and scouring the shores for seaweed from which to make laverbread. And a bit of sitting at the spinning wheel in a black hat making lace.
Drakeford. Or as I prefer. The noncefather.
Banana Republic.
They test for the flu since they’ve never isolated Covid-19. Which makes me wonder how they can tell there is a delta variant. They never isolated the virus but they use a test to show the damage of a solution does on monkey kidney cells then show the cellular debris as proof of the virus. So, they can use this method to claim an UNENDING! amount of variants. A lot of cancers and “viruses” are probably just different forms of parasites. Since the tests can’t differentiate between cold and flu and covid then doesn’t that mean ivermectin cures both the cold and the flu? Welcome to “they’ve been lying to us our entire lives about everything”. Get your Ivermectin while you still can! https://ivmpharmacy.com
How’s his son doing?
He’s barking mad.
Just like fuel prices, rapid to rise and an eternity to fall again. Yet another politician trying to save his ass. He won’t of course.
Depends who’s pulling his strings. He was probably chosen because he is ineffectual and small-minded – wouldn’t do to have a thinking person in the job. Just a useful idiot.
He is correct.
England, and Sweden, Florida, SA, Japan&co, are now the outliers.
They stick, mainly, to the evidence when making their decisions.
Wales and the others don’t.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” – CS Lewis
All that happens is that they then demand more money from the English to clear up the economic mess they’ve caused. I get Welsh news where I live (near the border) and it will be shamelessly said on a regular basis, and has been for years, “we are calling for more money from the British government to [insert nonsense]”, like it is just a normal thing for them to expect. These glorified county councils should never have been created.
Yet they bang on about how they want to be independent countries and god bad the English are.
Thank you Bliar.
Spot on !
A rapist’s father mentally abusing a nation and being a massive cunt to boot.
Don’t give his son ideas , he’s in enough trouble putting his todger in ! never mind his boot 😉
Come the legal action and trials, these comments and the actions, restrictions and harms made and caused by various advisors and politicians will form a large part of the case against them.
If the whole covid situation has shown anything, it is that public health and politics really do not mix. There is too much politicising in the public health community and not enough public interest in the political community. I don’t know what the solution should or could be, but I do feel we’ve all been badly served by so many people since January 2020 and that there has to be a better way to handle this in future.
There about ‘about 40’ people in ICU with Covid in the whole of Wales- you can bet many of them are in there primarily for something else. It’s incredible that he brought back in his ridiculous restrictions with such low numbers. He’s clearly loving the power.
To give you an idea of how poorly Wales looks after it’s citizens:
The pandemic in England in 2020 had a LOWER mortality that 18 of the last 20 normal years in Wales. Source: ONS
Drippy Drakeford clearly hasn’t read the piece in the Telegraph pointing out that the increase in cases in Wales since he introduced more restrictions has been 3 times that in England!
Not wishing to give him ideas but if he stopped all the testing, the positive cases would plummet and he could claim victory !
Let him destroy the Welsh economy.
Just don’t come cap in hand to the rest of the UK when Wales needs a bailout.
And any hardworking people in Wales are welcome over the border as refugees.
Drakeford looks like someone’s barmy Grandma. There’s is nothing manly or assertive about him. Blair did so much harm to the UK & his policies on devolution allowed useless specimens like Drakeford to exploit anti-English feeling that has simmered for decades.
& Krankie north of the border !
I’m really starting to doubt whether the Welsh are worth it.. Drakeford’s obviously got something to hide..
.
Well, he certainly loves screwing the sheep! And, it seems, the sheep seem comfortable with it.
The Welsh only re-elected Drakeford last year for another 4/5 years. I just don’t want to see any English taxes bailing out his socialist paradise after he has succeeded in closing down the private sector.