When will this shit end?

[Fuzzy Afro]

10 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

I think this week we will see a big announcement regarding some new restrictions, potentially a ban on mixing households and also possibly a u-turn on the whole university situation.

Without wanting to be too controversial on here, I actually voted for Boris (not because I thought he would be good- I just despised Jeremy Corbin- but equally I don't want Brexit- so didn’t know what to do really), but his handling of this pandemic has been absolutely diabolical. Labour and Kier have my full support now, and I especially admire them for standing up and voicing the issues regarding universities and once again the government dismiss people’s concerns and say that everything is fine. I hope and expect a big u turn and another major announcement within the next 2 days or so.

Good to have you over on the good side. I must admit I voted Labour, but that was more tied to their second referendum policy than actually thinking Corbyn was any good. And tbh, I’d have voted Lib Dem if they were any good in my seat. But I had to try and vote against the Tories because I was very anti Brexit. 

[FestivalJamie]

6 minutes ago, alfc7 said:

I also think this week will be a big university announcement. Most likely the option to go home and get your money back/ get out your contract. This will probably be paired with a household gathering ban. Could imagine it going along the lines of ‘next Monday household mixing will be banned if you wish to go home please go home before this date, if you stay at halls you run the risk of not being allowed to leave etc’

I hope so. And I hope we hear this tomorrow as I’m due to move in on Wednesday...

Although if I was given the choice I’d like to study my course online from home, so I hope that’s an option too, rather than just the flexibility to get out of the contract.

[Fuzzy Afro]

Thinking about the last 6 months in the life of a now fresher

 

1. School life abruptly curtailed in March, A-levels cancelled, stopped from seeing friends for months

 

2. Many will have turned 18 during lockdown

 

3. Come July, they’re allowed to see friends, allowed to buy alcohol in pubs for the first time in their lives, and have a month or so to celebrate finishing school, turning 18 and catching up with friends before going off to university. 
 

4. Then in September, mix them all together in student halls

 

No fucking surprise there’s huge infections. I see in Scotland now, 43% of infections are in the 15-19 brackets 

[alfc7]

3 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

I hope so. And I hope we hear this tomorrow as I’m due to move in on Wednesday...

Although if I was given the choice I’d like to study my course online from home, so I hope that’s an option too, rather than just the flexibility to get out of the contract.

Yeah sorry that’s what I meant they move all first year stuff online so no one has to feel like they do need to move and potentially be stuck away from family. Best of luck with your first year I’m sure it will all work out and will be sorted soon

[SheffJeff]

11 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

To be perfectly honest with you, it was just the anti-semitism issues and also having a second referendum and I was fed up of the whole Brexit thing going round and round in circles( it’s been going on for years).

Im young, I should have probably abstained from voting, although it wouldn’t make any difference as my local area has a labour council anyway. In a perfect world I would vote for Lib Dem’s as I am more for a middle ground approach rather than far left and far right, I just want everything to be balanced and everyone to be happy basically haha (I look up to Angela merkel a lot and wish we had someone like her).

My vote was probably naive, especially considering I want to potentially live and work in germany in the future and Brexit (especially a no deal!) screws me over with that a lot... so now I’m clinging onto hopes of a polish passport. But I was just so fed up of Brexit on the news every day (although I’m more fed up of the pandemic than I was of Brexit chat tbh).

But to be perfectly honest, Boris has handled this dreadfully, but from personal opinion Jeremy Corbin just seemed a bit crazy and chaotic and I can’t visualise him handling the pandemic *much* better than Boris has. No doubt I think kier would have handled it so much better than either of them but unfortunately he’s come along a bit too late. 

i thought the government were handling it better now than they did in March but this whole university and schools fiasco along with the testing problems just makes me realise how dire the situation is in this country, and now we’ve got Brexit to look forward to.. (stitched myself up on that one). I just hope we get a deal or something so we have a good relationship with the Eu and can freely travel and work and live in other countries, clutching at straws now.

 

 

I don't want to go over the whole anti semitism vs anti zionism argument but BJ is a blatant islamaphobe which is one of the many, many reasons he shouldn't be in power.

[Chapple12345]

I can see them waiting an extra few weeks to see if the restrictions work, I know it would be unpopular but the government would hate to be seen u-turning on what is a major factor for people such as socialising, I believe we need to see if restrictions work before going into harder measures 

[Fuzzy Afro]

1 minute ago, SheffJeff said:

I don't want to go over the whole anti semitism vs anti zionism argument but BJ is a blatant islamaphobe which is one of the many, many reasons he shouldn't be in power.

It’s pretty wrong that this is the case, but islamophobia would never be treated as seriously by our media as anti Semitism and these attitudes would bleed into society. There are many many people out there who think islamophobia is a good thing. 

[stuartbert two hats]

6 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

To be perfectly honest with you, it was just the anti-semitism issues and also having a second referendum and I was fed up of the whole Brexit thing going round and round in circles( it’s been going on for years).

Im young, I should have probably abstained from voting, although it wouldn’t make any difference as my local area has a labour council anyway. In a perfect world I would vote for Lib Dem’s as I am more for a middle ground approach rather than far left and far right, I just want everything to be balanced and everyone to be happy basically haha (I look up to Angela merkel a lot and wish we had someone like her).

My vote was probably naive, especially considering I want to potentially live and work in germany in the future and Brexit (especially a no deal!) screws me over with that a lot... so now I’m clinging onto hopes of a polish passport. But I was just so fed up of Brexit on the news every day (although I’m more fed up of the pandemic than I was of Brexit chat tbh).

But to be perfectly honest, Boris has handled this dreadfully, but from personal opinion Jeremy Corbin just seemed a bit crazy and chaotic and I can’t visualise him handling the pandemic *much* better than Boris has. No doubt I think kier would have handled it so much better than either of them but unfortunately he’s come along a bit too late. 

i thought the government were handling it better now than they did in March but this whole university and schools fiasco along with the testing problems just makes me realise how dire the situation is in this country, and now we’ve got Brexit to look forward to.. (stitched myself up on that one). I just hope we get a deal or something so we have a good relationship with the Eu and can freely travel and work and live in other countries, clutching at straws now.

Thanks for your reply.  Those aren't the conclusions I reached, but it's useful to know how things came across at the time.

[SheffJeff]

3 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

It’s pretty wrong that this is the case, but islamophobia would never be treated as seriously by our media as anti Semitism and these attitudes would bleed into society. There are many many people out there who think islamophobia is a good thing. 

The fact that there's 'acceptable' racism in any society highlights how fucked we really are.

[Fuzzy Afro]

2 minutes ago, SheffJeff said:

The fact that there's 'acceptable' racism in any society highlights how fucked we really are.

Yeah you’re totally right, but a lot of society still hate Muslims after the tabloids blamed the entire religion for 9/11 and 7/7. It’s pretty horrible that this is the case tbh. 

[FestivalJamie]

5 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Thanks for your reply.  Those aren't the conclusions I reached, but it's useful to know how things came across at the time.

To be honest as well I really used to try and avoid political discussions as much as possible, as I just wanted to try and get on with and enjoy my life.

The pandemic has changed that a lot, when I see how awful our countries response (and other countries like France Spain netherlands) has been in comparison to countries like Italy and Germany, it really does upset me a lot. And that’s made me look at a wider spectrum of issues with inequality, racism, homophobia, gender imbalance etc etc and made me realise why we need to fight for change to make our society the best it possibly can be. I didn’t really have that perspective before, but the pandemic has really altered how I think and who I spend my time talking to as it’s genuinely made me realise that a lot of people are ignorant and selfish but also a lot aren’t, and those who aren’t, we need to work together to fight for change and make our society a better place.

Sorry it’s a bit of ramble, but the whole situation has changed my perspective on life a lot. It’s been a bit of an eye opener really.

[FestivalJamie]

27 minutes ago, alfc7 said:

Yeah sorry that’s what I meant they move all first year stuff online so no one has to feel like they do need to move and potentially be stuck away from family. Best of luck with your first year I’m sure it will all work out and will be sorted soon

Thanks, I hope it’s ok as the last few days I’ve had really bad anxiety and been really nervous about everything.

[Fuzzy Afro]

7 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

To be honest as well I really used to try and avoid political discussions as much as possible, as I just wanted to try and get on with and enjoy my life.

The pandemic has changed that a lot, when I see how awful our countries response (and other countries like France Spain netherlands) has been in comparison to countries like Italy and Germany, it really does upset me a lot. And that’s made me look at a wider spectrum of issues with inequality, racism, homophobia, gender imbalance etc etc and made me realise why we need to fight for change to make our society the best it possibly can be. I didn’t really have that perspective before, but the pandemic has really altered how I think and who I spend my time talking to as it’s genuinely made me realise that a lot of people are ignorant and selfish but also a lot aren’t, and those who aren’t, we need to work together to fight for change and make our society a better place.

Sorry it’s a bit of ramble, but the whole situation has changed my perspective on life a lot. It’s been a bit of an eye opener really.

Are you suggesting that Italy have had a good response? 😬

[Mr.Tease]

5 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

Are you suggesting that Italy have had a good response? 😬

They've been doing much better lately - the initial hit was brutal, but they were ground zero for Europe so that's understandable. They've definitely done better than we have overall

[Fuzzy Afro]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Tease said:

They've been doing much better lately - the initial hit was brutal, but they were ground zero for Europe so that's understandable. They've definitely done better than we have overall

Fairs. I’d say Germany are the poster boys for best response in Europe, but Italy made a total mess of the first wave. Fair play to them for doing better now though. 

[FestivalJamie]

8 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

Are you suggesting that Italy have had a good response? 😬

I think Italy’s response has been pretty good. They were hit very badly at the start, but I would argue it wasn’t their fault as they were hit first in europe and had no warning of the incoming wave, whereas we had warnings from Italy and Spain and didn’t react.

They are doing a lot better with it now, at least it seems that way. Good mask rules, good testing and also utilisation of 30 min rapid test for airport arrivals rather than blanket quarantining. They also have a good testing programme and quick turnaround time. UK are actually sending tests over to Italy and Germany right now for processing. On the whole they are holding cases pretty stable and only experiencing small increases, unlike the huge jumps we are seeing in the UK right now.

Not a perfect response by no means, but it’s certainly got better as the pandemic has progressed, whereas the UK’s has become very questionable over the last couple of weeks.

Germany are definitely the ones who have dealt with this the best from the start though looking at the whole picture.

 

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

52 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

To be perfectly honest with you, it was just the anti-semitism issues and also having a second referendum and I was fed up of the whole Brexit thing going round and round in circles( it’s been going on for years).

Im young, I should have probably abstained from voting, although it wouldn’t make any difference as my local area has a labour council anyway. In a perfect world I would vote for Lib Dem’s as I am more for a middle ground approach rather than far left and far right, I just want everything to be balanced and everyone to be happy basically haha (I look up to Angela merkel a lot and wish we had someone like her).

My vote was probably naive, especially considering I want to potentially live and work in germany in the future and Brexit (especially a no deal!) screws me over with that a lot... so now I’m clinging onto hopes of a polish passport. But I was just so fed up of Brexit on the news every day (although I’m more fed up of the pandemic than I was of Brexit chat tbh).

But to be perfectly honest, Boris has handled this dreadfully, but from personal opinion Jeremy Corbin just seemed a bit crazy and chaotic and I can’t visualise him handling the pandemic *much* better than Boris has. No doubt I think kier would have handled it so much better than either of them but unfortunately he’s come along a bit too late. 

i thought the government were handling it better now than they did in March but this whole university and schools fiasco along with the testing problems just makes me realise how dire the situation is in this country, and now we’ve got Brexit to look forward to.. (stitched myself up on that one). I just hope we get a deal or something so we have a good relationship with the Eu and can freely travel and work and live in other countries, clutching at straws now.

 

 

What is this schools fiasco? Kids need to be back at school - they have lost 6 months of learning. They are only at school for 11 years anyway. 

 

[ace56blaa]

50 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

Thinking about the last 6 months in the life of a now fresher

 

1. School life abruptly curtailed in March, A-levels cancelled, stopped from seeing friends for months

 

2. Many will have turned 18 during lockdown

 

3. Come July, they’re allowed to see friends, allowed to buy alcohol in pubs for the first time in their lives, and have a month or so to celebrate finishing school, turning 18 and catching up with friends before going off to university. 
 

4. Then in September, mix them all together in student halls

 

No fucking surprise there’s huge infections. I see in Scotland now, 43% of infections are in the 15-19 brackets 

Yeah it sucks so much, I mean the general quality of life sucks for a lot of people now. But it is clear that's peoples health and happiness has now become a complete afterthought to the economy. - 

But students man, there summer between a levels and uni was the best for me, because you are saying goodbye to a lot of friends you may never see again or only see sometimes and i can't imagine being locked down, I wouldn't wanna go without a proper send off, and then if I was in first year now, I wouldn't be able to just go home if this happened I would have to stay, I imagine many people might not have family in country to go back to, or want to go back and stay with family. 

[ace56blaa]

6 minutes ago, RobertProsineckisLighter said:

What is this schools fiasco? Kids need to be back at school - they have lost 6 months of learning. They are only at school for 11 years anyway. 

 

The fiasco is they acknowledged kids need to back in school, effed up their results, then u-turned on it. 

When school actually opened they didn't have track and trace running, then the testing system collapsed meaning schools have kept being interrupted due to kids getting symptoms and not being able to get a test, so who classes and year bubbles have had to isolate sometimes. 

Kids have lost less than 6 months too if you count summer holidays and the fact that a lot of kids have been doing work at home, yes a lot probably haven't done enough and they do need to be back at school.

But the governments handling of it has led to more problems 

[Leyrulion]

1 hour ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

Do we think something might happen this week re restrictions? Are we two weeks out from rule of six starting now? Or longer?

I do think household mixing might be the next thing to go, although I hope they have sensible allowances for non-cohabiting couples, childcare etc. Whether people would stick to it is another thing entirely, though.

We've not had household mixing in the north since the end of July, and our rates have kept going up. I struggle to see it having much of an impact elsewhere.

[Fuzzy Afro]

Just now, Leyrulion said:

We've not had household mixing in the north since the end of July, and our rates have kept going up. I struggle to see it having much of an impact elsewhere.

What is the compliance like where you are? From what I’ve heard they’re being widely ignored because a lot of locals feels singled out by the policies, whereas it may be higher if it was a national policy. 

[Fuzzy Afro]

The Welsh government briefings are becoming a daily game of “which county is getting added into local lockdown today?”.

 

Thats 50% of the local authorities accounting for 2/3 of the population locked down now. 

[FestivalJamie]

9 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

The Welsh government briefings are becoming a daily game of “which county is getting added into local lockdown today?”.

 

Thats 50% of the local authorities accounting for 2/3 of the population locked down now. 

Certainly an interesting approach for "local" measures when it affects 2/3 of the population... surprised they haven't just opted for national measures instead.

[Leyrulion]

9 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

What is the compliance like where you are? From what I’ve heard they’re being widely ignored because a lot of locals feels singled out by the policies, whereas it may be higher if it was a national policy. 

It's difficult to say really. I think people are being a bit more careful about not having loads of people over regularly. We've definitely been meeting more friends in restaurants and outside where it's allowed rather then have them over. 

But I'm sure it's not 100% compliance in the two months it's been in force. The problem is it's hard to understand why it applies to your home but not a restaurant (or work etc). So people I know are using their best judgement, trying to stick to the spirit of it, maybe only see the same 1-2 other people from a different household (usually family etc). 

We had a friend who needed the loo before driving home so let them in to use our toilet, technically that was illegal with a £100 fine. But we weren't going to not let them in, they're less likely to catch it in our bathroom then the toilets in a spoons. 

 

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

32 minutes ago, ace56blaa said:

The fiasco is they acknowledged kids need to back in school, effed up their results, then u-turned on it. 

When school actually opened they didn't have track and trace running, then the testing system collapsed meaning schools have kept being interrupted due to kids getting symptoms and not being able to get a test, so who classes and year bubbles have had to isolate sometimes. 

Kids have lost less than 6 months too if you count summer holidays and the fact that a lot of kids have been doing work at home, yes a lot probably haven't done enough and they do need to be back at school.

But the governments handling of it has led to more problems 

Exam results is a separate issue to 'schools crisis' the work kids have been doing at home is no substitute for time with you know a professional teacher rather than a parent who may or may not also be trying to do a full time job as well. Bubbles isolating was always the plan in the same way it if I get told by the app to isolate I isolate, it's not get tested!

The schools also don't rely on track and trace, they have direct access to local authority and public health England resources for managing positive cases - and contrary to some posts schools aren't insisting kids get tested when their bubble is sent home. 

Kids are suffering a lot with this situation, and they need to be back at school which in turn need to effectively manage the risk. 

Sensationalism like 'schools crisis' is completely counter productive. 

 

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by RobertProsineckisLighter