Coronavirus

[biffer]

51 minutes ago, phart said:

Looking at BBC how is this even a story of consequence???

Readers' stories: Extra Christmas food 'will go to waste'

Martin DorrellCopyright: Martin Dorrell

Martin Dorrell, from Essex, had planned to travel to Lincolnshire to see family for four days with his two children before the Christmas rules changed.

They had "all been looking forward to it", he says.

But now with parts of Essex in tier four, they will no longer be making the journey.

He says their family had bought more food to cater for their visit but "that will go to waste".

"I had to go out and spend over £300 on food and drink to see us through for the Christmas period," he says.

1. Does he not have a freezer

2. There are plenty of charities that will take it.

 

it doesn’t have to go to waste.

[Orraloon]

5 minutes ago, Dave78 said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-55385989

"Mr Livingstone said the increase in Covid alert levels from midnight on 26 December amounted to a "blanket ban" for mainland Scotland.
But he added: "I remain clear I do not consider it appropriate or proportionate for officers to establish check points or road blocks to simply enforce travel restrictions
"These restrictions are a preventative measure to halt the progress of Covid and Police Scotland will support this approach with a strong operational profile to deter those who would put others at risk.
"Today, I have authorised the doubling of our operational presence in the border areas of Scotland."
He said the force's experience throughout the pandemic was that the "overwhelming majority" of people had "demonstrated personal responsibility to do the right thing". "

 

 

So self-policing essentially.

Looks like it. 

[86glebestreet]

2 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Sounds like loads of folk are trying to get out of London while they still can. Doesn't sound like much attempt is being made to try to stop them. More countries looking at banning travel to or from the UK. This isn't going to end well. As you say, selfish cunts. 

Maybe they are going home after a days shopping in London 

[vanderark14]

17 minutes ago, biffer said:

1. Does he not have a freezer

2. There are plenty of charities that will take it.

 

it doesn’t have to go to waste.

A local foodbank down here is asking for fresh stuff on the 23rd or xmas eve to give to local struggling families. There will be plenty more doing the same.

[Orraloon]

13 minutes ago, 86glebestreet said:

Maybe they are going home after a days shopping in London 

Terrible behaviour.

This just shouldn't be allowed.

[Orraloon]

1 hour ago, phart said:

Looking at BBC how is this even a story of consequence???

Readers' stories: Extra Christmas food 'will go to waste'

Martin DorrellCopyright: Martin Dorrell

Martin Dorrell, from Essex, had planned to travel to Lincolnshire to see family for four days with his two children before the Christmas rules changed.

They had "all been looking forward to it", he says.

But now with parts of Essex in tier four, they will no longer be making the journey.

He says their family had bought more food to cater for their visit but "that will go to waste".

"I had to go out and spend over £300 on food and drink to see us through for the Christmas period," he says.

This would be a much better story for them to print

 

[phart]

54 minutes ago, biffer said:

1. Does he not have a freezer

2. There are plenty of charities that will take it.

 

it doesn’t have to go to waste.

Exactly £300 for 4 days he "had" to buy. That must be perishable as well or unfreezable, i'm wondering what he bought now.

[phart]

 

[ThistleWhistle]

 

Edited December 21, 2020 by ThistleWhistle

[exile]

"Boris Johnson has a habit of delaying tough choices. In a pandemic, it's lethal" - Rafael Behr

 

[Hertsscot]

11 hours ago, phart said:

 

Fair enough but still doesn't affect the criminal handling of the crisis by UK Government.  Certainly in England we came out of lockdown far too early, schools forcibly kept open despite them knowing that there was this new variant that was more contagious.  All that has contributed to the spread at a time of year that we were warned was going to be difficult.

[phart]

 

[phart]

The jump up in new variant wasn't as pronounced as i said earlier so the above twitter thread is a correction to that and anything else I might have got wrong.

[phart]

Not great news

[ParisInAKilt]

Seems odd that ikea is able to stay open 

[phart]

 

[Saint4805]

8 hours ago, ParisInAKilt said:

Seems odd that ikea is able to stay open 

 

The definition of 'essential shops' is clearly more loose than it was during the spring lockdown. I have heard that the two main contributors to the recent R rate spike were schools and Christmas shopping but the Govt can't come out and say it because they'd have been facing calls to shut everything down. Schools are now on holiday anyway and given Christmas shopping is almost over I expect a big shutdown in January of more shops and potentially schools.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Saint4805

[killiefaetheferry]

4 minutes ago, Saint4805 said:

 

The definition of 'essential shops' is clearly more loose than it was during the spring lockdown. I have heard that the two main contributors to the recent R rate spike were schools and Christmas shopping but the Govt can't come out and say it because they'd have been facing calls to shut everything down. Schools are now on holiday anyway and given Christmas shopping is almost over I expect a big shutdown in January of more shops and potentially schools.

Not all schools on holiday yet. Pupils not physically returning to schools until January 18 at the earliest.

[exile]

There's a hypothesis that new variant could spread more easily among children.

[Saint4805]

15 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

Not all schools on holiday yet. Pupils not physically returning to schools until January 18 at the earliest.

I really don't get why they have kept schools open until the last minute when the last couple days before Christmas involve watching Christmas movies and doing other less essential things. May as well let the virus spread a bit more before the Christmas bubbles form. 

[killiefaetheferry]

19 minutes ago, exile said:

There's a hypothesis that new variant could spread more easily among children.

But schools are safe. John Swinney says so.

[Saint4805]

2 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

But schools are safe. John Swinney says so.

Closing schools will translate into peeved parents voting elsewhere at the next elections. The reality is that keeping schools open jacks up the R rate and costs many lives. I'm sure the Tories would love to close public schools but keep private ones open but they can't. 

[phart]

I'm undecided on schools as I can't find a strong coherent set of evidence one way or the other. Although for me personally it seems to make sense that of course keeping them open will spread it.

This new variant isn't cut and dry either. It's just a correlation effect so far with regards to driving infections could easily be causually driven by human behaviour rather than any biological properties of the new variant. Wales is actually the place with the highest rate of change and their lighthouse testing facility doesn't test for new variants as par for the course so they're a bit behind in seeing what variant is prevalent there, although i'm sure they're rushing to secure samples and find out. A lot of people working a lot of hours for months on end aren't going to get christmas off really either.

 

It's time like this you wish you had spent less time playing World of Warcraft and more time taking Biology courses!

[Lairdyfaeinverclyde]

I feel so confident off and encouraged by the home secretary. 

 

Priti Patel Reckons The Government Has Been 'Ahead Of The Curve' In Its Covid Response (msn.com)

Edited December 22, 2020 by Lairdyfaeinverclyde

[Orraloon]

4 hours ago, phart said:

I'm undecided on schools as I can't find a strong coherent set of evidence one way or the other. Although for me personally it seems to make sense that of course keeping them open will spread it.

This new variant isn't cut and dry either. It's just a correlation effect so far with regards to driving infections could easily be causually driven by human behaviour rather than any biological properties of the new variant. Wales is actually the place with the highest rate of change and their lighthouse testing facility doesn't test for new variants as par for the course so they're a bit behind in seeing what variant is prevalent there, although i'm sure they're rushing to secure samples and find out. A lot of people working a lot of hours for months on end aren't going to get christmas off really either.

 

It's time like this you wish you had spent less time playing World of Warcraft and more time taking Biology courses!

There is always the chance that this new strain could be more infectious but much less lethal? Just trying to stay a wee bit positive in the midst of so much bad news.