Coronavirus Thread (Off Topic, Politics) (194 Viewers)

clint van damme · Jun 2, 2020

Nick said:
People are queing for hours to get into IKEA just for day out to look around.

Reporter and camera man sent to interview people and all happy and cheerful.

Is lockdown over?

if you buy something from Ikea you're essentially in lock down until you finish assembling it so swings and roundabouts.

clint van damme · Jun 2, 2020

shmmeee said:
Well we’re opening sport and letting vulnerable people out so according to the government system we’ve got a vaccine and it’s all over?

Nobody knows WTF is going on.

Nick · Jun 2, 2020

Interesting how on good morning Britain it was all jokey and light hearted when two women said they wanted to go to IKEA for "something to do".

Wonder if they would have said the same if somebody was sat in a beer garden with hundreds less people around them?

This is the problem, political hypocrisy everywhere.

shmmeee · Jun 2, 2020

Nick said:
Interesting how on good morning Britain it was all jokey and light hearted when two women said they wanted to go to IKEA for "something to do".

Wonder if they would have said the same if somebody was sat in a beer garden with hundreds less people around them?

This is the problem, political hypocrisy everywhere.

Where’s the hypocrisy? IKEA is allowed to open by law, beer gardens aren’t. If that’s an issue blame the people making the law not the people following it or reporting on it.

Nick · Jun 2, 2020

shmmeee said:
Where’s the hypocrisy? IKEA is allowed to open by law, beer gardens aren’t. If that’s an issue blame the people making the law not the people following it or reporting on it.

Hundreds / Thousands of people inside idea... Yeah let's joke about Billy bookcases.

Something else, murderers who want to kill oaps.

Beer gardens are allowed to open too, selling takeaways.

Again, very naive to think the way things are reported don't have a massive influence on things.

PVA · Jun 2, 2020

One for Dom - you said nowhere has had a second spike after easing restrictions...

clint van damme · Jun 2, 2020

Nick said:
Hundreds / Thousands of people inside idea... Yeah let's joke about Billy bookcases.

Something else, murderers who want to kill oaps.

Beer gardens are allowed to open too, selling takeaways.

Again, very naive to think the way things are reported don't have a massive influence on things.

the government shouldn't have such a mish mash of policy then. As I posted in the graphic above, they've said at the weekend we were in transition from level 4 to level 3.
Yesterday they said we are still at level 4 to be they have relaxed lock down measures that only should have been lifted at level 1.
Don't know why people are so keen to deflect blame from them.

Grendel · Jun 2, 2020

I bet it was cold by the time they got home

Friends go on 250-mile trip to buy McDonald's | Metro News

ajsccfc · Jun 2, 2020

There's no way they made the trip home without having to stop at least once with the squits

PVA · Jun 2, 2020

From The Times

Would you rather be in Italy? The Italians would.

There would be many people, the prime minister boasted five weeks ago, "looking now at our apparent success". And yet that is not what most seem to think.

A combination of communication confusion, Cummings and goings, and a death toll that puts Britain at the top of the worst global league table has cast doubt on the government's entire strategy. Where once voters were willing to give the benefit of the doubt, they are now wondering why things went wrong.

International comparisons were fine in the early stages when Britain seemed to be comparing well with other countries. When the death rate spiked here, and other countries seemed to have the virus under much tighter control, we were told it was too soon to draw such scientific conclusions.

And yet people are drawing their own political conclusions. And in the international league table of public opinion, Britain is also faring badly.

Anew YouGov surveyacross eight countries asked people how they thought their own nation had handled coronavirus compared to others. Across Europe, people think Britain has done worse. And people in Britain agree.

As YouGov's Matthew Smith writes: "Britain is seen, literally, as the sick man of Europe. Every other European country surveyed believes the UK's coronavirus response to have been worse than their own – and by wide margins."

Even countries hard hit by the pandemic judge the UK to have done worse. Some 55 per cent of Spaniards think they have done better than the UK, while 73 per cent of Italians think they have outperformed us.

Likely to cause a political headache for the government are the findings for how Britons think the performance has been below par. Just 17 per cent of those in the UK think Spain has done worse, and 22 per cent think the same of Italy. In fact there is no European country which Britons think has done worse. Only China and the US have that honour (35 per cent and 72 per cent respectively).

Even among Tory voters, more think other European countries (France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Italy) have done better than worse. Partisanship does exist though. Leave voters are more likely to be positive about Britain's comparative performance than Remainers. Similarly in the US, Democrats are more likely to think other countries have done better than the US than Republicans.

Spain, which peaked a bit before the UK, reported no coronavirus deaths at all yesterday. The UK reported 111. It is true that the numbers are the lowest since the lockdown began on March 23, but some will be wondering why they are not lower. And the wisdom of easing the lockdown at a time when there are still thousands of new cases every day.

Robert Shrimsley in theFTreports: "Ministers admit privately they thought the numbers would be in the low hundreds by now."

Cases are coming down though. FascinatingTimesanalysisof Public Health England shows that over the past two weeks new daily cases have halved nationally compared with the two weeks before. Between May 17 and 30 cases rose in only 6 out of 148 local authorities that report data.

In Torbay and the City of London there have been no new cases in the past fortnight. Kent reported the highest number, at 441. This is still lower than the 621 it reported in the previous two weeks. Birmingham and Manchester had cases halve in two weeks, with 128 and 119 diagnoses respectively. In Luton, however, cases doubled to 70 in the past two weeks.

"The data show that we are winning the battle against coronavirus," declared Matt Hancock yesterday, with the confidence of someone who could look at any data and declare it showed we were winning.

The "world-beating" track and trace system is beating the world by, um, not doing very much work. Many of the 25,000 tracers aretwiddling their thumbsbut officials argue that this is because most people who test positive have barely left the house. Apparently this is proof of success.

Yet this is a crucial moment. It is hard to resist the feeling that lockdown is being eased earlier than pure science would suggest. In particular the decision to lift restrictions on the most vulnerable who had been told to "shield" seems to owe more to improving the nation's mood than health.

The five-stage alert system, launched byBoris Johnsonfive weeks ago, is already subject to confusion. The prime minister had wanted to announce that the level was being reduced from 4 to 3 to coincide with yesterday's partial relaxation. However, this was resisted byChris Whitty,the chief medical officer for England, who insisted it remain at the second-highest level. The level is supposed to be set by the new Joint Biosecurity Centre, announced almost a month ago, which is still not up and running.

There is a real risk that easing the lockdown will cause the rate of infection to rise. (Otherwise why not have done it much sooner?)

"It is our position," the prime minister's spokesman said yesterday. "That if people follow the social-distancing guidance then the measures that we've taken are unlikely to push the R above one." This seems to be a formulation designed to put responsibility for new outbreaks on the public for not being careful enough.

Yet the polling suggests the public thinks it is the responsibility of the government to deal with this. And they think that far from world-beating, the UK has been beaten by much of the world.

Sumo the Micky Quinn · Jun 2, 2020

pipkin73 said:
Thought you were at the same phase as us in GC? We are still in phase 2 with the 8th June Phase 3.
Canarias pide que el resto de las islas pasen el día 8 a la fase 3
Not sure where your wife got her info from mate.

Yes you are correct we enter phase 3 next week. Its El Hierro, La Gomera and La Graciosa (some national press group them up as canary islands) who entered phase 3 yesterday.

However even though it's the final phase we are still under restrictions until the lockdown laws are ended, which at the moment is 7th June.

Deleted member 5849 · Jun 2, 2020

Grendel said:
I bet it was cold by the time they got home

Friends go on 250-mile trip to buy McDonald's | Metro News

Ryan had the roof down on his convertible Fiat 500, blasting out Lady Gaga, which he said turned the queue into a ‘mini rave’.

Bet the queue just loved them...

PVA · Jun 2, 2020

All above board I am sure...

AI firm that worked with Vote Leave wins new coronavirus contract

"Faculty, which has links to senior Tory figures in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office....

The latest contract was awarded directly to Faculty without other firms being given an opportunity to make a competitive bid."

SkyBlueDom26 · Jun 2, 2020

Deleted member 5849 said:
Bet the queue just loved them...

A guy driving a fiat 500 loool

hill83 · Jun 2, 2020

SkyBlueDom26 said:
A guy driving a fiat 500 loool

My mate had one a few years back. Picked us all up from the skydome after a few beers on the way to scholars.

fernandopartridge · Jun 2, 2020

Deleted member 5849 said:
Bet the queue just loved them...

a nation of consumption obsessed morons

fernandopartridge · Jun 2, 2020

SkyBlueDom26 said:
A guy driving a fiat 500 loool

I think he's a bloke who is good with colours, he's wearing make up in that picture isn't he?

Skybluefaz · Jun 2, 2020

clint van damme said:
View attachment 15259

Where is that graphic from? I've seen it banded about but with no source of origin

clint van damme · Jun 2, 2020

Skybluefaz said:
Where is that graphic from? I've seen it banded about but with no source of origin

A lot of governments are using them. To be fair the one on the government website does not have the same information next to each level as the one I posted so I'm not sure where that originated from though the information on the one on the government website is even more ambiguous.

Skybluefaz · Jun 2, 2020

Most people on here will not be surprised by this.

fernandopartridge · Jun 2, 2020

Skybluefaz said:
Most people on here will not be surprised by this.

It's a good letter. Mr Forensic on the opposition benches should no doubt follow up on this.

PVA · Jun 2, 2020

fernandopartridge said:
It's a good letter. Mr Forensic on the opposition benches should no doubt follow up on this.

He will.

But the questions won't be answered, as always.

And it'll get brushed under the carpet and forgotten about, as always.

And they'll get away with it again, as always.

shmmeee · Jun 2, 2020

hill83 said:
My mate had one a few years back. Picked us all up from the skydome after a few beers on the way to scholars.

When my ex passed her test and we could only afford/need one car she chose a Fiat 500. Two years I drove that bloody thing around (actually quite fun to drive but still).

SkyBlueDom26 · Jun 2, 2020

Corona deaths at lowest for 7 weeks & hospital fatalities now BELOW average

Good news, coming right down

Ian1779 · Jun 2, 2020

SkyBlueDom26 said:
Corona deaths at lowest for 7 weeks & hospital fatalities now BELOW average

Good news, coming right down

That’s gone from a daily average of 544 a day to 370 a day. A pleasing improvement but a) nothing like the government ‘published’ daily figures b) further evidence that coming out of lockdown now is still way too early.

Skybluefaz · Jun 2, 2020

Just had an email from my Daughter's school confirming they won't be able to bring non key-worker children back until the 15th June at the earliest.

Sky_Blue_Dreamer · Jun 2, 2020

David O'Day said:
Critics round on No 10 over 'ridiculous' rules for 14-day quarantine

Might as well not have any inbound quarantine then.

Brought in two months too late and now they want to get rid of almost before it's begun.

Apart from a couple of places admittedly we're more likely to take in somewhere else than a foreigner to bring it in now, but it's still a sensible thing to do to get the infections, and therefore deaths, lower.

It's almost like they're not trying to keep the virus down......

PVA · Jun 2, 2020

But but Grendel and the other Tory fanboys said herd immunity was never the plan (despite everything before the pandemic took hold here and everything since pointing towards it)

"Boris Johnson told his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, in early March that the UK was aiming for “herd immunity” as part of its approach to coronavirus, a TV documentary claims.

Channel 4’s Dispatches spoke to the Italian health minister,Pierpaolo Sileri,who said this is what was said in a conversation between Johnson and Conte on 13 March. Sileri told the programme:

I spoke with Conte to tell President Conte that I’d tested positive [for coronavirus]. And he told me that he’d spoken with Boris Johnson and that they’d also talked about the situation in Italy. I remember he said, ‘He told me that he wants herd immunity’.

I remember that after hanging up, I said to myself that I hope Boris Johnson goes for a lockdown."

fernandopartridge · Jun 2, 2020

SkyBlueDom26 said:
Corona deaths at lowest for 7 weeks & hospital fatalities now BELOW average

Good news, coming right down

Yeah, only at around 125k averaged out across the year which is about where the government wants them, given the lockdown reduction.

chiefdave · Jun 2, 2020

Few stats updates from the FT.

chiefdave · Jun 2, 2020

SkyBlueDom26 said:
Corona deaths at lowest for 7 weeks & hospital fatalities now BELOW average

Good news, coming right down

Is that article right? The ONS report 12,288 deaths in England and Wales for week 21. The 5 year average is 9,940.

Think they're just comparing non-covid19 deaths which are down 2.4% below the 5 year average this week but that's not usual. Before we recorded our first covid19 death we'd only had 2 weeks so far this year where the rate was above the average.

RegTheDonk · Jun 2, 2020

Skybluefaz said:
Just had an email from my Daughter's school confirming they won't be able to bring non key-worker children back until the 15th June at the earliest.

Grandkid's school are not opening to non key-workers either. They will try and have a special day apparently for the year 6 leavers to say goodbye.

PVA · Jun 2, 2020

So the Chief Medical Officer vetoed going from Level 4 to Level 3, yet the government went ahead and eased lockdown anyway.

So much for being led by the science. Only when it suits them.

Chris Whitty 'vetoed lowering of coronavirus alert level'

SBAndy · Jun 2, 2020

The news came as Downing Street announced it was winding down its programme of daily coronavirus press conferences from daily to five a week, with those on Saturday and Sunday stopped.

“In terms of the weekends, it is just a fact that the numbers who are viewing at weekends do tend to be significantly lower,” Johnson’s spokesman said. The prime minister would lead one press conference a week, he added.

Good old lazy Boris.

PVA · Jun 2, 2020

SBAndy said:
Good old lazy Boris.

Can't expect him to work more than one day a week, poor bloke.

Coronavirus Thread (Off Topic, Politics) (194 Viewers)

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