O/T. The Government's handling of Covid

[Geoff Parkstone]

It does surprise me but it does prove that even the most extreme anti Tory firebrand does have a human side after all

I didnt even know prince William had it until you mentioned it. To be expected when associating with a BAME person perhaps, but youd have thought hiding out in Canada or wherever would have left him unexposed.

[ramAnag]

It does surprise me but it does prove that even the most extreme anti Tory firebrand does have a human side after all

I didnt even know prince William had it until you mentioned it. To be expected when associating with a BAME person perhaps, but youd have thought hiding out in Canada or wherever would have left him unexposed.

William...not Harry! I don’t think he’s been doing as you suggest.

[mistaram]

GP...this might surprise you but, although I continue to think that Johnson is a bumbling buffoon and arguably the worst PM of all time, I actually felt quite sorry for him this morning...and I never thought that would happen.
What the Tory party are playing at at present I have no idea, but arguing against the proposed lockdown on the basis that it impinges on civil liberties seems absurd to me. I’d expect such nonsense from the likes of Esther McVey but Graham Brady should surely know better.
Of course lockdowns impinge on civil liberties...totally inevitable but...equally necessary.

P.S. Glad they kept Prince William having Covid a secret so as not to ‘alarm the nation’. I’d have lost sleep over that one.

P.P.S. See Farage wants to ‘rebrand’ the Brexit Party as ‘Anti-Lockdown Reform UK’. If anyone needed confirmation that he is nothing but an opportunist tw@t...there you have it.

I bet Tricky is the first to join . RA I had to smile when you mentioned Ester Mcvay when she worked For Duncan Smith . It was when he brought the bedroom tax in . A chap in Liverpool asked her how he was supposed to be able to afford it I swear this is true she said " it's easy you knock two bedrooms into one then your absolved from paying it "

[MadAmster]

Anti lockdown R us?

[Ram59]

As with a lot of government actions regarding covid, this is a difficult one. Last month, I was in favour of a lock down over the half term holidays, but after taking further considerations into account, I'm not so sure.

Arguements against the national lockdown are as follows;

Vast areas of the country still have relatively low figures of cases and hospital admissions and people in these areas can have some justification in asking why they should suffer because of other parts of the country not behaving. The figures, as high as they are, have been showing signs of levelling off, with the R figure reducing over the last few days.

The heat maps are really severe for the north west, yorkshire and the north east, the west and east midlands are not far behind, but the rest of the country's are still quite low.

It'll be interesting to see how the figures are in the next 2 weeks, before the lockdown will have any affect on them.

[ramAnag]

I may be wrong on this Ram, because the rules are confusing...but as I understand it, there is nothing to stop people from the worst hit areas travelling to the less badly hit areas (Wales sensibly apart).
I know my elderly neighbour receives regular visits from her daughter and two young children who live and go to school in a ‘badly hit’ area of Manchester.
I totally understand the compassionate reasons why...but, imo, that is just going to risk spreading the virus, and so long as people travel from one (bad) area to another (less bad or good) area, which is almost impossible to police, then I believe we do need a national lockdown.

[Ram59]

I may be wrong on this Ram, because the rules are confusing...but as I understand it, there is nothing to stop people from the worst hit areas travelling to the less badly hit areas (Wales sensibly apart).
I know my elderly neighbour receives regular visits from her daughter and two young children who live and go to school in a ‘badly hit’ area of Manchester.
I totally understand the compassionate reasons why...but, imo, that is just going to risk spreading the virus, and so long as people travel from one (bad) area to another (less bad or good) area, which is almost impossible to police, then I believe we do need a national lockdown.

Yes, I appreciate that RA, that's what makes the whole scenario so difficult. Many areas are feeling that they're being punished for other areas' misbehaviour. There are going to be people losing jobs and having businesses close down all over the country when their neighbourhoods are complying with restrictions and are keeping the numbers down.

Compliance is difficult to police whatever the measures are and there always going to be those who, for whatever reason, do not comply.

[MadAmster]

We got given stronger measures 3 weeks ago today. The turnaround to figures dropping only started 2 or 3 days ago and new cases have dropped from a max of almost 11K a day to just over 8K yesterday.

However, hospitalisations, transfers to the ICU and deaths are expected to continue to increase for another 2 to 3 weeks. over 60% of ICU beds are already in use and we have sent about 50 patients to ICUs in Germany. "Regular" care for cancer and heart issues and knee/hip replacements etc have already been scaled back by 25%.

We will be told this evening what the next set of additional measures are.

[Geoff Parkstone]

William...not Harry! I don’t think he’s been doing as you suggest.

Oh, well I'm less of a royalist than you it seems. Hope Windsor and Slough NHS Trust looked after him well. Must be interesting to check into a hospital named after you - or was he named after the hospital?

[Geoff Parkstone]

I read someplace else that his Dad said he still has not recovered his sense of taste. One wonders given his relationship with Camelia if he ever had one.