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Three Mistakes – politicalbetting.com
The mood music has changed. It seems that Step 4 – the lifting of the remaining legal restrictions – will no longer be happening on June 21st. Indeed, there are some advisors (mostly health professionals of some kind or other) who seem to think that these (social distancing, in particular) should continue indefinitely and for all sorts of reasons: to deal with flu, the backlog in cancer care, other respiratory diseases etc. Quite what sort of society or life they think this will mean for humans who are, par excellence, social beings is not explained. It’s like having the nerdy, spotty teenager who lives almost entirely in his bedroom decide that everyone else in the family should live like that too. Normally, this would be met with derision and a firm command to get washed, downstairs and showing some manners to Auntie Pamela who’s come for tea. We are not in normal times, alas. It is less the presence of Covid and more the apparent absence of any sort of courage and basic common-sense which makes this so.
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And now we have over 6 million of them sitting in a warehouse doing nothing, while people turn up at drop in centres and told to go home by mid morning as they have run out.
Government sources have told the BBC most current rules will remain for another four weeks after this date. It means nightclubs will stay closed and people will be encouraged to still work from home where possible. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to confirm the delay later at a press conference. The extension will be put to a Commons vote this month and could trigger a sizeable Conservative backbench rebellion."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57464097
herus up....Lockherus up....Lockherus upIf you do want to go down the close the borders route you have to do what Australia did and bar citizens/residents from leaving the country in the first place. Either that or abandon citizens abroad to their fates in COVID hot spots with failing healthcare systems.
Yes, the hotel quarantine system was set up a year too late and yes the “isolate at home” has been a joke - but not because we’ve let “foreigners” in, but returning Brits.
I do find it hard to have sympathy with people travelling voluntarily during a pandemic though. I’m staying put for a few months longer.
https://twitter.com/bob_wachter/status/1404151502864883713?s=21
To the extent there is a supply problem with some vaccines and excess stocks of others, perhaps we could make a virtue of necessity, given evidence that mixed vaccinations can be even better.
And this is most amusing in a very bitter-sweet way:
'It’s like having the nerdy, spotty teenager who lives almost entirely in his bedroom decide that everyone else in the family should live like that too. Normally, this would be met with derision and a firm command to get washed, downstairs and showing some manners to Auntie Pamela who’s come for tea. We are not in normal times, alas. It is less the presence of Covid and more the apparent absence of any sort of courage and basic common-sense which makes this so.'
I've said ad nauseam for the past month that we should have offered 24/7 clinics especially in every University town and city. Students would, without question, have rolled up their sleeves in the early hours for jabs.
Cyclefree is right: complacency set in. Which is typical Johnson I'm afraid.
It is possible to support and admire someone whilst still acknowledging their mistakes.
Making the same blindingly obvious mistakes repeatedly because the people concerned are totally incompetent is not.
35 voted against renewing the Coronavirus Act.
Keep an eye on the difference between those two figures. That’s one place Johnson really will care about his core support.
The header makes some good points though I still am unsure how we could prevent our fellow Brits from returning to their homes in the UK, having visited family in India, without freezing them out of the Country for months as per Australia
The public enquiry is years away sadly, so we can all speculate and have our views and it is without doubt that mistakes have been made, sometimes more than once.
I know this is a trigger for some but GBNews are reporting that Rishi is not going to extend furlough
This could be the most important announcement today as furlough has to be the biggest reason why the populace are content to accept lockdown, and indeed have become risk averse , aided and abetted by the zero covid zealots led by independent sage and lapped up by the media
And on the G7 it just underwhelmed in every way leaving the impression it was just a long photo shoot with beach bbqs and no social distancing
I do not agree with Gordon Brown often, but for the G7 to struggle to promise 1 billion vaccines to the world when 11 billion is needed was poor, and Joe Biden's commitment of just 500 million doses was far too low from the onset
Furthermore, I have no idea what they agreed on climate change and of course Macron put his foot in it over the NI protocol and ensured a bitter dispute followed. Of course the EU favour Russia and China just when Joe Biden is seeking support in dealing with them causing more division
All in all a depressing weekend but at least the weather is good and of course England won
It seems to me that there have been at least 3 elements to our comparative failure to jab enough over the last month.
Firstly, and possibly most importantly, there have been supply issues. Vaccines that the government were counting on have not arrived. Our governments have been a bit more grown up about that than the EU were. We have simply accepted that that is what happens and there has been no overt criticism of the suppliers. But we have not reassessed our priorities in terms of what we have. In particular we have not mixed vaccines (probably increasing their efficacy) and made use of the AZ available. So I got a second pfizer on Saturday because that is what I had had the first time. Pfizer is needed to vaccinate the younger people sharing the queue with me, I didn't need it.
Secondly, there is clearly more vaccine resistance than the government has been willing to admit. Again, not really the government's fault but how to respond? The answer to me seems obvious: if vaccinations are the way to freedom incentivise their uptake by giving those freedoms. If you are a masochist and want to watch England play cricket or go to a football match or a night club show you are vaccinated or have had a very recent lateral flow test. If you want more than 30 at your wedding there should be no limit provided they are all double vaccinated. Instead we are doing the opposite. In Scotland this has reached insane levels: I have no evidence that I have been vaccinated. I can write for a letter but only if I am travelling abroad in the next 14 days. In England it seems a bit better but the government runs scared of vaccine passports and the threat of discrimination against minorities who are less keen to be vaccinated. I say to hell with that. We should be discriminating in favour of those who have done the right thing and got vaccinated. That is how we drive uptake of the vaccine and complete this program.
Thirdly, I agree with those who say we should have had 24 hour clinics, smaller more accessible clinics, outreach programs at Universities, schools and work places. There is simply nothing more important in terms of recovering our freedom. I am not sure I would put this down to complacency but there has been a clear and obvious lack of urgency and this needs to be addressed.
We have lost another month as a result of these failings. We really do not want to lose any more.
Surreal really
Yes, he would win it easily but as we saw with May, a large rebellion could still hole him below the waterline.
If you’re (well, GB news is) right about furlough not being extended, that’s going to damage him as well.
Rebellion on any vote extending the restrictions is quite another matter.
The restrictions extension meanwhile, not so much.
We now wait to see how loud the murmurings about the forthcoming autumn/winter spike will be to see if the new date will be pushed back further.
But added to that, had the government gone for the full AUS/NZ option, then I think the media would have kicked off big time. Just listening to Kay Burley question a minister about not shutting the border with India. Remember, this is the silly cow that f***** off to Africa after she got suspended from Sky News for breaking lockdown rules.
Did the cricket management fit over old tweets have any material impact?
I have been travelling a lot by train over the past days and have noticed increased mask disobedience and police patrols, the £6400 fines are looking increasingly disproportionate. Perhaps an extension to lockdown might be worthwhile if people rediscover an interest in their ancient liberties as a result of this brief experience of being in a police state.
Nice to get Big G's reports from GB News!
Time for Johnson to get a grip on his advisors.
Two week delay to vaccinate all over 50 and give them two weeks to get immunity up to speed and then do step 4.
The solution can only be vaccinations — and quickly, as it has been all along.
The remaining hold-outs in the higher age categories cannot be all "anti vaxers". Some of them might simply be reluctant and until it's made incredibly easy for them to just rock up and get one, they probably won't. Especially if they work long hours or have other commitments.
So. Long hour, 7 days a week, walk-in vax centres are needed everywhere. We also need more public health campaigns.
"Vaccine passports" will probably work as part of nudge theory, but it wont be quick. People will just start getting vaccinated only when they need to, depending on their plans.
Switched on GB News and the studio seems awfully pixellated. Looks like they've got an SD camera instead of an HD one in the studio. Oddly the on the road presenter looks better.
Quite frankly its pretty unwatchable. Why the hell invest in a new TV channel, new studios, new broadcast, and well known names for broadcasting - but not invest in a decent studio and decent cameras?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/boris-johnson-scored-an-own-goal-over-brexit-at-g7-despite-favourable-conditions/ar-AAL07JY?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/13/orwellian-britain-lockdown-perpetual-sickness-health/
And, for some reason, importing 'stuff' is difficult now!
These things are pretty damn basic things to get right.
Particularly - actually, particularly all three, so that doesn’t help.
I think they got complacent with how well the unlocking was going, decided that we’d won and just needed to play it out, and took their foot of the throttle on all levels.
Doing everything they could to accelerate Novavax.
Ensuring everyone coming in from India self-isolated (and getting nice hotels available, laying on the transport to them (and requiring those coming out of passport control to go directly there, funding the hotels, and paying any salary for those self-isolating would have cost negligible amounts in comparison to the cost of not doing it.
Saying again and again that vaccines work great, but only after they’ve been given, that whilst the younger are less vulnerable, this doesn’t equate to not vulnerable, and that when the vax programme is complete, we’re opening up anyway because we can’t eradicate the damn thing completely.
Why didn’t they do those things? I mean, it’s easy to say after the event that “they should do something”, without being specific, but these are specific and obvious things that many here were saying all along.
Unforgivable stupidity.
Of course the schools will have broken up and therefore it should be easier to just let us get our lives back
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=ltla&areaName=Cheshire East
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=ltla&areaName=Cheshire West and Chester
They're further out from the Bolton epicentre but encouragingly look to have a smaller rise of less duration.
If they continue to 'flatten the curve' then it suggests that the Indian variant will have progressively less effect as it moves through the country and the overall numbers might soon stabilize.
Anything is better than Burley
Which is why the government will continue to be a clown car full of liars doing stupid. You always get the correct result in elections and this is what people (in England) voted for.
In the words of angry Brexiteers, suck it up.
Not surprised. Also not pleased.
F1: slightly weirdly both the French GP and drivers' title markets aren't up on Ladbrokes any more. I checked my Twitter list but nothing dramatic appears to have happened. That I can see, anyway.
Gloat!
Shouldn't of course; wrong to do so.
But!
If getting them to receive one dose is hard then getting them to receive the second will likely be impossible if they have any sort of reaction to the first.
There is an interview in yesterday's Sunday Times which inadvertently highlights everything that is wrong with modern news (and from that an awful lot)
Robert Smith of the Cure once wrecked a hotel room in New Zealand. That was a big enough story (and the Cure a big enough band) that a 1980's newspaper editor thought it was worth reporting which meant his parents found out and told him off
Nowadays sneezing in public might be enough to end up appearing on an internet "News" website. And that desperate attempt to make everything and anything into a story means a lot of things aren't reported with any prior thought or care - static / pixels need to be filled come what may even if it means writing articles based on very incomplete data.
Just looked at the tv and saw Isabel Webster presenting and thought the tv had defaulted to Sky
I seem to be the only person on here who doesn't think quarantine would have done much if any good. It's a massive denial of civil liberties for people, 99% uselessly since most people aren't infected, and it's not entirely effective, even in Australia, where it's imposed globally. Here, there's a lot of evidence that people simply fly through third countries, there would be a big rush just before it is imposed which would get you lots of new cases, and the crowded airport arrival halls where people have to stay longer are perfect for spreading diseases. And it would only buy you a little time anyway as the virus would arrive through other sources.
Vaccines are the answer at this stage. Neither lockdowns nor quarantine matter compared to that.
The big question now is what they do with furlough and other support. Supposedly they are both not letting sectors reopen and ending furlough. Knowing the current polity the people who lose their jobs and their homes will be expressing their outrage by voting Tory.
There will be an audience I suppose. Some people watch any old drivel.
Just a shame its unwatchable from the awful production standards.
PS I'm under 40 and they're saying that under 40s shouldn't get AZ anymore for the first, but I believe my second will still be AZ. Any reason to be concerned from this or ask for something else instead?
We're behind now because of the large number of delta variant seedings that took place.
https://stopfundinghate.info/2021/06/14/gb-news-advertisers/
The left is often - and fairly - criticised for mistaking Twitter for real life. On first view, it seems GB News has as well.
We will see if GB tv follows the trend....
Anyone who wants to come in - two weeks in hotel quarantine. No ifs, no buts.
If people really want to go and enjoy experiencing the 3rd world during a pandemic, fine - let them. But we could have made it fairly explicit that this would be entirely their problem - it's two weeks at your expense in a quarantine hotel if and when you decide you want to come back.
Either are clear signs that bollox is being pedalled.
The vaccines are working. Its stupid to be extending lockdown.
Travel restrictions are thr foundation of a zero covid strategy.