RDQ 15/12 - will the government hold its nerve on Christmas?

The childcare bubble is mildly preposterous in that case.

What risks ?, the bit about the new mutation that’s actually been in circulation for over 3 months and in that time has not proven itself to be any more contagious ?

Thank the Lord for Jeremy Hunt our MP for Waverley who is the chair of the Health and Social care commitee. It means the pubs been open all weekend and Ive taken advantage of that. Can't see us lasting much longer then this week in Tier 2 as our numbers are escalating. 

To be honest, I have zero clue what the current status is right now. Not one bloody clue.

Nearly everyone I've spoken to so far yesterday and today was strongly of the view that the government was over-egging the danger from a new strain to mask their late and screeching U-turn.

And I suspect that, unfortunately for Boris, whether that's actually true or not is almost certainly moot at this point in the court of public opinion.

Almost nobody who isn't a Tory party member trusts anything this PM or any of his hopeless and hapless ministers does any more.

And this isn't a left-wing or right-wing thing. I don't know many left-wingers. Most people I know are natural Tories. But they know incompetence when they see it.

It’s worked so well the whole world has cut us off!

I wasn’t going to mention Jeremy Hunt was the Waverley MP....

Old Carthusian, nice house in Farnham and a very nice chap. Political factions and their relationship with media should be held up as an example of what a horrid species we can become. 

Well, scaring us all by stating that the new strain was highly contageous and that thevirus is "out of control" has backfired totally:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55389505

Port of Dover closed for min of 48 hours to France, Kent filling up with trucks that want to cross to France, possibility that no "foreign" truckers will want to come to the UK in case they get stranded here

Priti Patel must be kicking herself for not thinking of this idea earlier.

I can't help but feel that France was overjoyed at the thought of cutting off the UK and they couldn't wait to be first. For a Govt Minister to state that the virus is out of control is total madness. It's the kind of statement that would/could/should end a Political career - unless of course this is similar to telling everyone that a huge asteroid is going to hit the earth in the next 24hrs and we are all doomed in any case. I certainly hope that isn't the case and this was just more incompetence. We should all worry though that all the political alternatives available to us in the UK are just as equally incompetent.

I see they are suggesting now that they might vaccinate all teenagers to stop them spreading the virus. Make up your mind boys! Maybe the SAGE scientists are just as clueless but I reckon you could come up with better policy around the average kitchen table.

Hancock isn’t backing down though is he, tier 4 until Easter (at least)

It’s worked though, it’s scared the trousers off my in laws and Christmas will now involve no hugging, no presents and lunch only (apparently).

My suggestion of cancelling completely and having a rational Christmas with a curry has fallen on deaf ears.

I am sure that who knew what when and who said what to whom when will no doubt carry on for days about this new strain that may or may not be more infectious and that may or may not be more dangerous. It appears that the new strain is already on other countries. Plus the fact we identified it does not mean t started here. 

I'd really like somebody to stand up and have the courage to say that really, even after all these months, there is more that we don't know about Covid than we really do know. And that all decisions are based on some interpretation of possibilities rather than certainties. But I doubt that will happen - from ether the government (who can't appear to not know everything...) or the opposition (who just see the opportunity to grandstand any decision). Our trouble is that all western civilisations seem to suffer from "the Government must do something" disease. Which is far worse than Covid. Way too many people have come to expect the government to be able to "do something" about anything and everything. And that there is no problem that can't be solved by a combination of "do something" and large amounts of other people's money. And to misquote Thatcher, we will eventually run out of other people's money.   

And people may rile against the UK government but tell me anywhere that is doing any better in Europe? They all suffer from the same disease. Lockdowns pretty much everywhere. Even Germany, heralded by the UK press as how it ought to be done, now have rising cases, lockdowns, curfwes and and rising internal argument about what to do.   

My take after 9 months of this is that to admit the virus is out of control is a moment of rare lucidity from Matt Hancock. Probably purely by chance the truth has slipped out. He's not bright enough to have thought about it. We've had lockdown 1; lockdown 2; tiers 1-3 and now tier 4 etc etc. Yes we have vaccines now available but the logistics of rolling it out - and to whom - mean that it will be months (I fear) until we get any sense of a way ahead. 

My take is that more and more of the country will be in tier 4 over the next two months. And as locking down does not really work I can't see anything being better until we vaccinated a lot of people. 

Then the bill will arrive. And like a large party of diners who all thought that somebody else would pay, that will be when it gets really ugly......  



   

I have to think, being pessimistic, that there's no way out of this if we continue to view hospitalizations and deaths as we do now. There is no evidence to suggest that the vaccines prevent transmissions and if so then (elderly) sick people with multiple health conditions will still be admitted to hospital with Covid and continue to die with Covid, but not necessarily of Covid. We could see a situation where the majority of the population test positive for Covid and the hundreds of deaths that occur daily as part of the natural process will all be recorded as Covid deaths. Which Government is going to say that it will no longer record a death within 28 days of a positive test as a Covid death? Cue press and opposition outrage. I think we'll see a natural fall in the deaths recorded through the summer and then they'll start to pick up next autumn and we'll be back on the cycle of lockdowns through to 2022 and beyond.

WTAF!! What would have to do to be expunged? Murder somebody? Be found with questionable images on his laptop?