The above chart is based on the weekly YouGov polling in which those sampled are asked to state whether they approve or disapprove of the government. As can be seen at the start of the lockout there was considerable backing for what Johnson had done and the policies that were being pursued. This has now moved from a net 26% to 7% in the latest survey in seven weeks.
Comments
Anyway, the problem with virus transfer in the homes is (I assume) primarily the staff, rather than the residents.
https://twitter.com/DrMattMcCarthy/status/1260213173975744513
It sounds like these care-homes are true examples of "God's waiting room"
It is very sad...
https://twitter.com/chriscurtis94/status/1260225676558372866
IIRC Both Blair & Cameron got a baby boost in the polls, although those happy occasions weren't during a pandemic.
The UK Is Taking Longer Than Other Countries To Process Coronavirus Tests — And That's A Big Problem For Contact Tracing
The government refused to reveal the average turnaround time for tests, but one Tory MP says they're taking five days or longer. Other countries can do it in hours.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/uk-coronavirus-test-trace-trace-results
Local town's high street "rammed" this morning apparently. Including groups of old folks staying around on the pedestrian area chatting and not doing social distancing.
One day they will also realise that Radiohead are beeeeeeeeeeeeepppppppp...
My elderly parents have been on the phone and think its ok to pop down the shops now. I had to tell them to get back in the bloody house.
If you are on a ventilator then that isn't an issue.
As I said this morning the nightingales are designed for people who don't need food or toilet facilities due to the level of illness. What you need is something like hotel rooms but with some nursing support available.
It is of the why should I go to work at risk to pay for others to sit on their arse till October?
A reasonable question, even if it obviously more complicated than that.
Almost none of the commenters seemed to realise you don't have a choice to be furloughed.
Much lazy, feckless bone idle, etc. This is dangerous territory for the Government if it takes hold.
I'm a lockdown sceptic in the sense that it should be questioned as a policy, particularly the view it should have been done earlier, when it is so hard for people to comply (and massive mental health issues). That is not to say it was definitely a bad policy, but there are worrying aspects like the model code being a 13 year old mess that is not consistent.
(Edit: yes, back to zero.)
--AS
BBC News - Google Search results topped by suspected scam gadget store
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52627272
It looks very nice, but doesn't solve the problem of the left- and right-most edges being cut off the comments (on my Android phone, anyway).
Just to reply but not kick it off again. I know the virus trumps Mrs T. Of course it does. It's alive for one thing. Very much so. Scargill was a menace. Mining was not a long term proposition at anything like the scale of the 'good old days'. Which they weren't anyway, since toiling half your life underground and getting your lungs full of crap is no way to live. Maggie was not to blame for any of that.
However she was the PM - a powerful one - who presided over these communities being trashed. It was an abdication of responsibility. Maybe it kept her up at night, but I suspect not.
Witch? I take that back because it's sexist. But IMO she was not a good egg.
Or at least, it would be if it didn’t affect my iPhone as well.
--AS
How many weeks in the last 520, 1040 has that been the case?
'sake, you're meant to be good at these sort of things.
Rishi is far sighted in his furlough programme as it gives the leisure, hospitality and hotel sectors a chance to survive, the total collapse of these sectors without this help would be far far worse
Probably 1/2 of the ministers day taken up by it.
No, that's not a unique observation I'm sure, and what the rating is is not nothing, but that headline is a tad excitable. I'd suggest the majority of people paying for have not yet been born, given how resistant the public will be to any measures to do so, and therefore the government scared to do so.
https://twitter.com/ian_a_jones/status/1260211297213349894
I reckon we'll need to drop from 3 to 2 on the Bozo-Cumstain Index before ending the shielding will even be considered.
However, election leads or poll leads of any kind are not relevant to winning a GE in 2024
That election will be won or lost on how this government deals with the financial burden covid has created on the economy
"Why should I (insert VIRTUE such as working or saving) while they (insert VICE such as lazing around or spending) ??" -
This sentiment typically drives much support for the Conservative Party, e.g. Osborne's zeal to cut benefits. If people who are prone to it turn on them, they could be in big political trouble.
https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1260104489824124928
Given the rapid expansion in testing its not surprising there are SNAFUs.....they'll need to get ironed out pronto if we're going to track & trace....
I had a guy on today who is on furlough wondering what when he might be returning. I suspect the answer is, 'whenever we cant claim the money' and that sums it up.
If you knew two things it might work
1. That you'd genuinely save a high percentage of the jobs in the long term
2. that the cost of the furlough versus the cost of the benefits, if they went on the dole.
Its very possible number 2 isn't bad, but number 1? That to me is the huge risk.
In my post earlier I cited three villagers who were today railing against Boris. I know that they were in favour of going into lockdown when we did - no earlier, no later - which was in accord will the polls (populism). Now that they have belatedly twigged the economic consequences - highlighted today by Sunak`s extension announcement - they have turned 180 degrees against lockdown and now say that it was a bad idea all along!
As I say, a fickle bitch that populism.
Follow the majority view of sheep who don`t know a scooby and you get what you deserve I suppose.
I could say "Brexit anyone"? but I won`t cus that will light the blue touch paper. So I won`t mention that.
They need to reduce these daily events
Even so, its a snapshot of what the government will face when the bill does come in.
and Sunak has a veto at the end of August. He can set the employer contributions to the prevailing mood if he wants.
https://www.iiss.org/blogs/survival-blog/2020/05/the-uk-and-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR0g9Dj2X6k-doHiCTQdGnjSaVotWL4b81ert60layFPMEXMiaHZ98Vq5ac
Gordon Brown was "forensic" off the end of the spectrum - got pumped at the polls.
The short version: he studied the issue, studied how other medical organisations worldwide used the same machines. He wrote up his thesis. The response - an attempt to have him thrown out of his university...
It will have a positive mental effect on many to get out
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-52625025?intlink_from_url=&link_location=live-reporting-story
It's clear a lot of these jobs are going in the medium term regardless of what happens. It seems like the worst of all possible worlds for the taxpayer to subsidise them for several months before that happens.
Good Science Is Good Science
For the sake of both science and action in the COVID-19 pandemic, we need collaboration among specialists, not sects.
http://bostonreview.net/science-nature/marc-lipsitch-good-science-good-science#.XrrGUCxIJYc.twitter
...In my ideal public health world we’d have a lot more good sense like that proposed by Adami and Trichopoulos, acting not only on the strength of the evidence we have but on the relative harms of being wrong in each direction. And whether waiting or acting, we’d work hard to get the evidence to meet the challenges of skeptics and improve our decision-making, all with an eye to the possibility of criticism and modification Medawar describes....
Worth reading the whole thing, particularly for those who think there is some singular thing we can label "The Science".
There's no joy in giving people rules and just expecting them to obey them.
Il.5.302-304:
ὃ δὲ χερμάδιον λάβε χειρί
Τυδείδης, μέγα ἔργον, ὃ οὐ δύο γ’ ἄνδρε φέροιεν,
οἷοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσ’· ὃ δέ μιν ῥέα πάλλε καὶ οἶος·
'... And in his hand a boulder
The son of Tydeus seized, a mighty load, that no two men could bear
Such as mortals are now. But he brandished it easily, even alone.'
Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.
A relative received a large 6 figure sum in compensation when her husband died unnecessarily and the NHS admitted liability. My mother went through years of at times unbelievable bungles and incompetence including 2 years of misdiagnosis followed by 3 cancelled operations once they had eventually decided what was wrong, and and then to top it all off a district nurse accidentally removing an implant without her knowledge when she finally had it implanted at the 4th attempt. This resulted in her in the end having to have her leg amputated below the knee.
And my daughter has regular physio and associated appointments for a minorish ailment but i have lost count of the number of missed, cancelled and incorrectly booked (yet yawningly widely spaced) appointments over the last 3-4 years. Left hand and right hand are unacquainted, even my teenage daughter asks "why do i have to repeat myself and seemingly start from scratch every time i see a new doctor"
I could go on. Suffice to say, mainly lovely people (clearly with some excellent ones) but a frankly crap system. indeed a system which literally no other country on earth has chosen. I know it is now our national religion, but religions are based on faith and not facts it seems to me.
To what extent is our high death rate down to the NHS being a bit rubbish? I genuinely don't know the answer .
Now, the key challenge facing the government is to replace this lockdown with a package of public health interventions involving mass testing, surveillance and real-time data to identify clusters of the virus and quarantine those who are infected. This will mean providing adequate PPE to those who need it, enforcing border controls and instigating a phased relaxation of social-distancing measures. Rather than putting everyone under lockdown, these measures would give health authorities information about the spread of the virus, allowing them to identify hotspots and target interventions where they’re needed.
Without these measures in place, the past seven weeks of lockdown will have been completely pointless....
And overseas aid is coming up again too of course.....
The griping has started. and its going to get much, much, much louder.
Boris 3
Brown 0
As for referendums...
But in seriousness people should not be obliged to hold a high opinion of or feel affection for an institution.