When will this shit end?

[Zoo Music Girl]

1 minute ago, Sdsm123 said:

So this thread should be named the left wing slag off the government thread NO TORY SCUM allowed 

Has anyone said you can't say you love the Tories in here? Go for your life but don't expect everyone to agree with you - it's a discussion mate.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Sdsm123 said:

So this thread should be named the left wing slag off the government thread NO TORY SCUM allowed 

How did you get that from my post? I even said support the government but there’ll be other views. You seem to have a lot of hate inside you, I hope you are ok. Join in the discussion, maybe you can show some of us why you support the government and potentially change opinions. Because posts like yours just now certainly won’t.

[Ryan1984]

Apparently it’s Hancock doing the briefing on his own (no scientists) today.

I’d have thought with the death rate lower than for a long time, Good News Boris would be back.

Or does he just send Trump-style tweets to tell off the country now?

[Homer]

5 minutes ago, Sdsm123 said:

So this thread should be named the left wing slag off the government thread NO TORY SCUM allowed 

I reckon the Tories did pretty well with the furlough scheme if that helps.

[Homer]

1 minute ago, Ryan1984 said:

Apparently it’s Hancock doing the briefing on his own (no scientists) today.

I’d have thought with the death rate lower than for a long time, Good News Boris would be back.

Or does he just send Trump-style tweets to tell off the country now?

Must be a mistake - Boris Johnson is officially in charge now, so surely he will be doing all the briefings?!

(Another fun fact about Jacinda Ardern - she hosted every single one of their daily briefings. Imagine that - mental work ethic! And she gave herself a 20% paycut for six months too.)

[zahidf]

Museum is reopening in bermondsey next week. I've booked a slot for next week! No idea what it'll be like, but will be nice to go to something after so many months.... https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/cerith_wyn_evans_bermondsey_2020

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Ryan1984 said:

Apparently it’s Hancock doing the briefing on his own (no scientists) today.

I’d have thought with the death rate lower than for a long time, Good News Boris would be back.

Or does he just send Trump-style tweets to tell off the country now?

I get the impression they are winding these daily briefings down. 

[zahidf]

Just now, Ozanne said:

I get the impression they are winding these daily briefings down. 

Ignore the problem and people may forget...

[Northtim]

5 minutes ago, Homer said:

I reckon the Tories did pretty well with the furlough scheme if that helps.

[Cream Soda]

3 minutes ago, Ryan1984 said:

Apparently it’s Hancock doing the briefing on his own (no scientists) today.

I’d have thought with the death rate lower than for a long time, Good News Boris would be back.

Or does he just send Trump-style tweets to tell off the country now?

I can't help feeling for Hancock a bit, he seems to have been shafted by Boris.  I know he's Sec. of state for health, but Bozza is PM and Hancock has really done the lion's share when it comes to facing questions etc.  

[Homer]

2 minutes ago, zahidf said:

Museum is reopening in bermondsey next week. I've booked a slot for next week! No idea what it'll be like, but will be nice to go to something after so many months.... https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/cerith_wyn_evans_bermondsey_2020

The problem for London is that they can open things up, but as long as we can't go on public transport they are still going to be screwed...

[Sdsm123]

6 minutes ago, Homer said:

I reckon the Tories did pretty well with the furlough scheme if that helps.

Very true! Thanks for that

[zahidf]

9 minutes ago, Homer said:

I reckon the Tories did pretty well with the furlough scheme if that helps.

Every other element of govt fucked up but rishi and the treasury didnt.

[Homer]

3 minutes ago, zahidf said:

Every other element of govt fucked up but rishi and the treasury didnt.

I thought Sunak was starting to look pretty plausible - until he tweeted his support for Cummings.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Cream Soda said:

I can't help feeling for Hancock a bit, he seems to have been shafted by Boris.  I know he's Sec. of state for health, but Bozza is PM and Hancock has really done the lion's share when it comes to facing questions etc.  

I read yesterday that Boris might want to get replace Hancock but he won't do it during a pandemic. Would seem very harsh considering he has been the Health Secretary through all this. Easy to forget he's been ill too.

[MEGABOWL]

31 minutes ago, Sdsm123 said:

Yes I did but it gets constantly shut down as I’m supporting the government this country voted for.

You’re allowed to support who you want. Others are allowed to disagree. That’s how it works

[Cream Soda]

33 minutes ago, Sdsm123 said:

Yes I did but it gets constantly shut down as I’m supporting the government this country voted for.

Not sure what's been said as I haven't been in this thread from the start, but I have no allegiance to any particular party and I welcome all views.  I think its a good thing for a discussion to have some different perspectives.

As someone with a neutral standpoint I find it interesting to see how those who have a preferred party see things sometimes in relation to something like the virus, it can definitely get in the way of objectivity.  Although I realise this can't be helped sometimes as the science and politics do overlap.

[MEGABOWL]

3 hours ago, DeanoL said:

There absolutely is. There's no way we can't. If we hit the emergency trigger point in terms of % of ICU beds in use we will absolutely have to. Because the next step is people dying in their homes/streets. 

It's possible we now have enough immunity and we can track and trace well enough that wouldn't happen even if everything was opened back up again. But the notion we wouldn't go back into lockdown, regardless of what happened, is the government attempting to give confidence to industry. But it's bollocks. Once people start getting ill and the hospitals start saying "sorry we're not treating anyone over 40" or whatever the next step was, people are going to start staying indoors whether they're asked to or not!

I don't think it's happening that much, and it's extremely dangerous. The furlough scheme is costing the government a small fortune, once we come out of this on the other side and companies start to do well again, there will be many, many audits and companies found breaking those rules will be on the hook for every penny.

That's an economic argument though. If we closed our borders early it would certainly fuck up transport for a hell of a lot of countries. But we still could have done it. Honestly I don't feel like the government would have had the strength to go against the airlines and pull it off. But we are an island. We could have shut down. We could have argued that those using the UK as a travel hub from A to B shouldn't be travelling from A to B during a global pandemic anyway. Ultimately, we'd probably have been doing the world a favour!

1. With this Government in charge it would take something absolutely incredible. A second wave far worse than the first given we have better capacity now and people are Social Distancing etc. And even then you’ve got to allow for them simply fiddling the figures. 
 

2. In the Grand scheme of things if a few small firms are fiddling the Furlough (fnar) Scheme and it keeps some low paid people in jobs does that really matter?

3. Closing our borders would have been almost impossible. A remarkable amount of Freight comes in and out of this Country in Passenger Planes. And not just frippery, I mean Medical Equipment and especially Food. Realistically, not an option.
 

 

[MEGABOWL]

37 minutes ago, Sdsm123 said:

So this thread should be named the left wing slag off the government thread NO TORY SCUM allowed 

Nobody has said that except you. And you’re the one downvoting someone else. 

[MEGABOWL]

 

[Homer]

1 minute ago, MEGABOWL said:

 

Nice to see the Chinese leading the way there.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, MEGABOWL said:

 

I saw that just now, pretty interesting. Were Vietnam one of the countries hit really early on then got it under control through testing/tracing?

[MEGABOWL]

3 minutes ago, Homer said:

Nice to see the Chinese leading the way there.

😀 Naturally

[Ryan1984]

37 minutes ago, Cream Soda said:

I can't help feeling for Hancock a bit, he seems to have been shafted by Boris.  I know he's Sec. of state for health, but Bozza is PM and Hancock has really done the lion's share when it comes to facing questions etc.  

He’s going to be the fall guy, isn’t he? Thought Cummings and BoJo would have made it less obvious...

[Homer]

2 minutes ago, Ryan1984 said:

He’s going to be the fall guy, isn’t he? Thought Cummings and BoJo would have made it less obvious...

Agreed - Hancock is going under the bus first surely. I guess Johnson is just considering who from his crack squad of top political talent to promote.

Hancock is doing the briefing today - weird as I thought Johnson was taking charge!