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This is a problem now that BoZo has proclaimed testing is the only way out of lockdown
https://twitter.com/janemerrick23/status/1245386383851732994
https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1245387257865031685
truth is, we’ve all got a bit of a bias, it displays your own bias to seek to batter or belittle 🥚 when you want to shut down discussion, Rather than engage in thoughtful discussion I am offering. So here goes, can you properly rise to the challenge. That is, what is it’s work...
The nub of it I will explain like this. Sky Q. Go to a movie. Go parental advice. It gives you ratings as warning for what is deemed vices in it, profanity, sex nudity, violence, consumerism.
Consumerism? Are you wondering why this is on the list, something to shield children from?
https://images.gamewatcherstatic.com/image/file/7/74/104087/Crusader-Kings-3-0.jpg.
If you are wondering what on earth consumerism is doing on the warning list, it is not your bias I am calling out, after all we all have bias. But your ignorance. I call you out as being behind the times. Claim you are lacking a consciousness of the garden you have been sitting in.
What Corona crisis teaches us, it is mindfulness, sacrifice, and community our civilisation boils down to when faced with such a threat. But nothing stays the same in this world. where the garden around you changes for worst you need to appreciate your own soul to see this, and act to allow the mindfulness, sacrifice and community to flourish.
And never is the lack of conscious awareness more stark on PB than when we all thrash around, being defensive, deflecting blame to others, in the abuse we give and names we call each other we come close to calling corona virus evil. Ask yourself, do you wish to excommunicate Coronavirus from the kingdom of heaven? what is your case for excommunication?
Truth is, when it dies Coronavirus goes to heaven. And God thanks it for its work. Doesn’t he?
And it's not anti Chinese. It's anti the communist Government of China.
You need to prise open your eyes and look at what's in front of you.
Well let’s hope that this is a one off but the tone and invective tonight is off putting. Are people Just letting their shutdown pent up frustrations out ? I hope so but it’s not a pleasant debating forum for some reason at the moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a82ogrzfNM8
While I agree with much of what you say, what we are dealing with in terms of anger is an expression of anxiety, and that anxiety is driven by fear. There is a lot to fear at the moment. Loss of income, of freedom, of jobs, of lifestyle, of home, of family, and of life. A lot of that anger will be displaced onto convenient targets. I understand that, it is counterproductive but very human.
Plus ca change ...
There is nothing racist in pointing that out and demanding that China changes its ways.
Not sure the media attacks are backed by the public. Of course, all that could change in the next few weeks.
A temporary field hospital which is being converted from a huge facility in Glasgow is to be named after a World War One nurse, the Scottish Government has announced.
Glasgow's SEC Centre, Scotland's largest exhibition centre, a huge 64 acre site, which has a seating capacity of around 15,000, will soon be known as the NHS Louisa Jordan.
https://www.itv.com/news/2020-04-01/work-begins-converting-several-uk-facilities-into-temporary-coronavirus-hospitals/
"For transient interactions that violate the rule of maintaining six feet between you and others, such as paying a cashier at the grocery store, keep them brief — aim for “within six feet, only six seconds.” "
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/opinion/coronavirus-viral-dose.html
It is probably the monumentally worst...I mean worst, most inept policy shitshow, act of Govt incompetence....to try and get your head around that lack of judgement is like figuring how the universe was created...
When I saw that figure I almost choked on my lentil curry...
Does "sceptics" fit the bill?
https://twitter.com/Tobias_Ellwood/status/1245371987851165698?s=20
How much are either governments or people in control in their countries and how much is under control of 'bureaucratic management' ?
And is this exposed under a crisis such as what we have now ?
Trotsky wrote about this issue:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerated_workers'_state
I defended resolutely North Wales police action and that it has wide support here in North Wales
FWIW...I used to be a raving anti police lefty (during the miners strike)...but after many years working with the police in different guises, I have really come to respect them....
China is the most technologically advanced totalitarian state in the history of the world. They can manipulate information in the interests of perpetuating the power of the state.
It is different to Western countries where citizens and even foreign governments can challenge and scrutinise official information.
The information that comes out of china should be taken with a massive pinch of salt; it is potentially subject to unlimited political interference. People get continuously fooled by this situation because it is unlike anything they have known. I was fooled myself for many years.
It is a situation which we are basically powerless to do anything about.
https://twitter.com/AmbassadeChine/status/1242011628608118786
These people are saying explicitly that it's all China's fault, we ourselves are free from blame.
I've been supportive of Boris and the Government so far but the lack of clarity on testing (2,000 out of 550,000 NHS staff??) is very friustrating, even to the Mail and Telegraph and their readers. Boris is in danger of losing the confidence of the public. If he does the lockdown is over in practice.
"Bolsonaro, Isolated and Defiant, Dismisses Coronavirus Threat to Brazil
President Jair Bolsonaro, who has called the virus a “measly cold,” is the sole major world leader continuing to question the merits of lockdown measures to fight the pandemic." (NY Times)
Virtually everybody thought "it's another SARS or MERS" and would soon blow over.
I had a horrible dream the other night... I'd woken up to no TV or radio broadcast signal and no internet, no phones, nothing. Then I woke up for real in a blind panic - not nice!
Most people don't engage with politics, even in a crisis. Of course it doesn't help that most of the criticism is also coming from the usual places - unresolved Remainers and journos who seem to tweet first and then retract later.
I've spoken to about 25 people today (I was deliberately ringing around to check in with people and see if they needed anything) - all I encountered was people concerned about how this was affecting them, personally.
Just like during an election, most people don't share even 1% of the engagement that most on here do.
FWIW, I wouldn't be satisfied with relying on test results for NHS staff. Not only do tests suffer from a lag, but what about false negatives, and positives (where the medic concerned thinks it has conveyed immunity). Belt and braces, for them and those they treat - self isolation for the recommended period.
I was stranded in Canaerfon one evening...this was years ago...but it was an indication of what was coming (like Ibetha uncovered)...I had to walk back to our campsite after I lost my friends..and kids were literally shagging all over the place....
But its also possible that the civil service IS to blame.
Is the civil service a lumpen mass which continues rolling along doing the same things unless forced to change from above or ignored from below ?
Or is it capable of its own initiative and doing things on its own and if so by what process and for whose benefit ?
I've been trying not to be critical in the middle of a national crisis, but it's just embarassing that politicians try to evade responsibility for failures by vaguely pointing at China. They should bloody well get on with the job of testing and curbing the virus and giving CLEAR guidance to the population on what we should and shouldn't do, and they can tell us later what they think about how other countries handled it.
And last week it was all: the Germans are definitely cheating on their death figures.
Is there any actual evidence for these tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths?
The Government can plausibly get away with the current three week period of restrictions, and another three weeks seems reasonably likely after that (because the review of the first three coincides with the peak in deaths currently forecast by the scientists.) That gets us to around the end of April. After that you'd think that some kind of relaxation would be on the cards, even if it's gradual.
People, and especially businesses, need some glimmer of hope that a state resembling normality will be restored over the next few months, and that we're not going to be enduring this exact same miserable slog for years.
For example current events reveal the unsustainability of the Osbrowne consumer economy which amazingly is something I've been pointing out for years.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8170895/Britons-told-prepare-blackouts-keeping-torches-warm-clothes-nearby-coronavirus-crisis.html
The value of the tests for NHS staff, particularly those with symptoms, is not just peace of mind, but the ability to get back to work if they are negative.