When will this shit end?

[Homer]

2 hours ago, DeanoL said:

I looked into this and there are some details here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-vat-treatment-of-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-from-1-january-2021/changes-to-vat-treatment-of-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-from-1-january-2021

It seems kinda fucked to be but would be interested in your thoughts. I also don't get how they'll enforce it - I guess they could just return goods that don't have the VAT pre-paid to the seller. There seems to be some sort of talk about putting the obligation on the importers. It does seem like the old clunky system won't exist any more, at least for goods under £135.

I admit the current system is clunky and something of a rip-off, but it also meant anywhere could sell to the UK, and shipping to the UK was simple, so most companies would do so. I could buy something from the US and I'd have to deal with paying VAT and an admin charge when it arrived but I could buy it. Whatever I wanted. I had access to pretty much any shop around the world. I'm not sure that will be the case any more. While I like to think there will be a solution, I can also see the UK being added to that list of countries a lot of places don't ship to, because of the requirements. And I also wonder if that's part of the intent (to force the public to buy from UK retailers).

In those cases, the obligation to collect the VAT is on Ebay or Amazon, not the individual seller. If you're a private person making a sale ("not a business", whatever that means) you're also exempt.

I think the Brexiteer line will be that the UK finally needs to stand up and become self-sufficient in growing our own novelty TJ Hooker stitch on police badges.

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, st dan said:

Wasn’t implying they weren’t, it just explains the sudden huge spike we saw a few weeks ago when the private testing of universities came into play (e.g. Northumberland Uni having 1000+ positives). Now that has eased up, the figures have started to dip, to move in line with the situation across the entire population of the cities (which is still too high). 

what I was also implying is that although these numbers were initially high and dropping which is fantastic the issue we get is that they won't drop to levels that are reasonable levels ( and im not sure what this level might be now ) there will have been some community spread as a result ... with the best will in the world whenever these outbreaks have been contained and isolated there will have been numbers of students out and about in shops on busses , in taxis , in bars etc in the meantime establishing a base community level outbreak 

[Crazyfool01]

12 minutes ago, jannybruck said:

A huge portion of those positive students were locked away and isolating in various halls around the country (some still are), so they were coming into contact with barely anyone outside of that massive infected bubble.

It's absolutely shit that it had to happen in the first place, but it's interesting to see cases drop now they've passed through those stats.

dependant on lockdown timing ...  huge portion ? wasn't it specific accommodation blocks ?

Edited October 19, 2020 by crazyfool1

[steviewevie]

 

[Ozanne]

11 minutes ago, jannybruck said:

A huge portion of those positive students were locked away and isolating in various halls around the country (some still are), so they were coming into contact with barely anyone outside of that massive infected bubble.

It's absolutely shit that it had to happen in the first place, but it's interesting to see cases drop now they've passed through those stats.

You are right that that would’ve been isolating. However I wouldn’t say that cases have started to drop for the country as a whole. Figures show they are rising still.

Unless you meant cases dropping in those cities with students then fair play!

[st dan]

3 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

what I was also implying is that although these numbers were initially high and dropping which is fantastic the issue we get is that they won't drop to levels that are reasonable levels ( and im not sure what this level might be now ) there will have been some community spread as a result ... with the best will in the world whenever these outbreaks have been contained and isolated there will have been numbers of students out and about in shops on busses , in taxis , in bars etc in the meantime establishing a base community level outbreak 

But in that case and it were real cause for concern, you would an exponential growth in the cities as a result of this (the interactions you mention above) and the number of positive cases therefore to continue at a similar/increased rate.
The article shows this isn’t the case, and rates are actually falling, which is good news indeed - and shows hopefully this was mainly contained within the student halls, and was not a true representation of the spread within the general population of these cities. 

[jannybruck]

1 minute ago, Ozanne said:

Unless you meant cases dropping in those cities with students then fair play!

Yep sorry that's what I meant – studenty areas have all seen drops. Hopefully that continues in Liverpool as well.

[Fuzzy Afro]

14 minutes ago, Ted Dansons Wig said:

How likely is Scotland to follow the Welsh lead. Surely it makes most sense to co-ordinate?

 

Scotland is already doing their version of a circuit breaker! It’s less strict than the Welsh one but they’re in week 2 of it now 

[Crazyfool01]

2 minutes ago, st dan said:

But in that case and it were real cause for concern, you would an exponential growth in the cities as a result of this (the interactions you mention above) and the number of positive cases therefore to continue at a similar/increased rate.
The article shows this isn’t the case, and rates are actually falling, which is good news indeed - and shows hopefully this was mainly contained within the student halls, and was not a true representation of the spread within the general population of these cities. 

student rates falling - smaller growth in other areas = rates falling overall ? hopefully they isolated them early enough but I unfortunately dont think some of the numbers generated community wide won't be as a result of student outbreaks ... 

[squirrelarmy]

I wonder how much pressure the big retailers are putting on the Government not to lock down at all on the run up till Christmas? I bet the big fear is that any circuit break won’t just be a two week affair. 
 

I don’t see any break happening until January to minimise profit losses. 

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, squirrelarmy said:

I wonder how much pressure the big retailers are putting on the Government not to lock down at all on the run up till Christmas? I bet the big fear is that any circuit break won’t just be a two week affair. 
 

I don’t see any break happening until January to minimise profit losses. 

which will likely be when the numbers begin to drop from winer  flu anyway ... 2 weeks now should do less harm ... as people haven't yet got totally into present buying  and one after xmas when the shops die ... leave it much longer however there are issues 

[st dan]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54598728

The other terrible side effect of COVID .. 26,000 excess home deaths this year is quite an alarming number. Obviously not all of these would have been saved, but you’d have thought that many potentially could have been in ‘normal’ circumstances, and the usual access to doctors/hospitals etc. 

[zahidf]

Just now, st dan said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54598728

The other terrible side effect of COVID .. 26,000 excess home deaths this year is quite an alarming number. Obviously not all of these would have been saved, but you’d have thought that many potentially could have been in ‘normal’ circumstances, and the usual access to doctors/hospitals etc. 

ommenting on the ONS figures showing that there have been 25,000 excess deaths registered in private homes in England this year (see 12.14pm), Sir David Spiegelhalter, chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, said that most of these deaths were deaths that in normal circumstances would have occurred in hospital. He said:

Non-Covid deaths in hospital have correspondingly declined, suggesting most of these deaths would normally have occurred in hospital, and people have either been reluctant to go, discouraged from attending, or the services have been disrupted.

He added that it is “unclear how many of these lives could have been extended had they gone to hospital”

[steviewevie]

[Crazyfool01]

2 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

limited to 40 ? keeping the elderly out ?  

[zahidf]

 

[Homer]

Has anyone claimed 'Tiers of a Clown' yet? If not, I reckon I could work it up into some pretty hard-hitting anti-BoJo improvised street theatre and possibly even a localised leafletting campaign.

[priest17]

3 minutes ago, Homer said:

Has anyone claimed 'Tiers of a Clown' yet? If not, I reckon I could work it up into some pretty hard-hitting anti-BoJo improvised street theatre and possibly even a localised leafletting campaign.

The Tiers puns roll round every 50 or so pages, so although this was covered it'll be back soon enough.

[ClementsMike]

7 minutes ago, Homer said:

Has anyone claimed 'Tiers of a Clown' yet? If not, I reckon I could work it up into some pretty hard-hitting anti-BoJo improvised street theatre and possibly even a localised leafletting campaign.

On Twitter, yes. Backed up with 'Tracks - and Trace- of my Tiers'

 

[foolee]

I thought this was a good little read. 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-19-kills-but-so-does-lockdown

[steviewevie]

8 minutes ago, foolee said:

I thought this was a good little read. 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-19-kills-but-so-does-lockdown

Maybe "Stay home, Protect the NHS" wasn't such a good slogan after all.

[steviewevie]

Germany.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/19/germany-covid-second-wave-virus

[steviewevie]

Does Wales have in place a furlough type scheme for businesses that have to close for their lockdown?

[ace56blaa]

7 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Does Wales have in place a furlough type scheme for businesses that have to close for their lockdown?

I guess they'll have the actual furlough scheme for for 8 of the 17 days, duhnno about after that, maybe just the 67 percent thing

Edited October 19, 2020 by ace56blaa

[steviewevie]

China

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/19/china-economy-covid-crisis-beijing