Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[elbows]

This is how the combination of what I pointed out Sturgeon said and what the treasury conveniently announced was turned into a neat, tidy, nothing to see here bit of coverage by the BBC within a larger article:

Ms Sturgeon said she would have tightened hospitality rules further with financial support from the Treasury - support that has now been announced.

Scots urged to limit socialising to three households

The new limits will not apply on Christmas Day, but people have been told to keep their celebrations as small as possible.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[elbows]

All the usual indicators are present of widespread new infections in some parts of the country such as London.

For example footballers as I've mentioned in recent days, but also MPs:

The latest to confirm he has tested positive is Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey

Earlier today, three of Labour's front bench - shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson and shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon - confirmed they were isolating after positive tests.

And a number of Tory backbenchers, including Darren Henry and Dean Russell, have also caught the virus.

Thats from the 17:10 entry of the BBC live updates. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-59651187

That page currently includes lots of idiot tories talking shit about the pandemic as usual. I will save some of their quotes and will bring them up if this wave reaches a horrible stage.

For now I'll just say that Miriam Cates mentioned that mandatory masks send a signal to panic, and quote this from fucking Drax:

In a pantomime-style performance, Tory MP Richard Drax lists the reasons he opposes the additional measures.

"Do we want new restrictions every time a new variant appears?" he asks.

No, is the response from many of his fellow MPs.

Do we want to see the hospitality and retail sector collapse because we're instilling the fear of god into their customers? No, is their response.

He finishes his speech by saying it is "time to put fear to one side, put our shoulders back and get on with our lives".

 

[elbows]

COVID-19: IMF tells UK to be ready to redeploy furlough if 'widespread' closures needed to tackle Omicron

A report warns of the risks to the economy from more virulent coronavirus variants, but also cautions the Bank of England against "inaction bias" when deciding whether it must raise interest rates to tackle rising inflation.

news.sky.com

 

[Supine]

Struggling to keep production lines running where i am. Lots of staff off with covid, big uptick this week.

 

[Weller]

Struggling to keep production lines running where i am. Lots of staff off with covid, big uptick this week.

This is the same where I am at the moment but has actually been an ever increasing problem for the last 3 months
imho the shite is going to hit the fan new year as everyone is giving up
Even the agencies have given up now attempting to get temps in to cover after increasing the hourly rate sometimes by 25% and a signing up bonus nobody useful comes
Rooms of incomplete orders that were stagnant already due to the pandemic parts shortage now have no staff to complete orders even when parts trickle through bringing fines from the big companies and any promised help from the gov pandemic loans after furlough ended to essential companies supplying gov etc isnt coming as they can only spend on cover staff what they bring in from orders out the door the previous month
Its a mess and with more good staff choosing retirement now too isnt going to help matters

 

[krtek a houby]

I've stopped watching BBC 'news' since they stopped employing adults

And when did this happen?

 

[_Russ_]

And when did this happen?

Aah one of my ardent admirers steps out from the collective, thanks for your continuing support.

 

[krtek a houby]

Aah one of my ardent admirers steps out from the collective, thanks for your continuing support.

Breaking news, non sequiturs to dominate this Xmas. Further variants to follow.

 

[prunus]

The 10 day run up to Christmas has started so anyone catching it from now on misses the “big day”. I wonder if there will be a drop off in testing rates as people will decide they don’t want to risk knowing?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Here we go again, another Downing Street Press Conference at 5 pm today.

Boris Johnson will holding a Downing Street press conference at 5pm on Wednesday to give an update on the Omicron variant.

The prime minister will be joined by England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, who will outline the latest data.

The PM is also expected to give updates on the speed of the booster campaign

Omicron: Boris Johnson announces Downing Street press conference about COVID latest news this evening

The PM is expected to update the country on the latest Omicron numbers.

uk.news.yahoo.com

 

[elbows]

Harries indicates that the doubling time is now less than 2 days.

 

[cupid_stunt]

BBC is reporting that Baroness Hallett will chair the independent enquiry into the handling of covid.

Heather Carol Hallett, Baroness Hallett DBE PC (born 16 December 1949) is a retired English judge of the Court of Appeal and a crossbench life peer. She was the fifth woman to sit in the Court of Appeal, and led the independent inquest into the 7/7 bombings.

Heather Hallett, Baroness Hallett - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[two sheds]

BBC is reporting that Baroness Hallett will chair the independent enquiry into the handling of covid.

Will be interesting to see the scope of the enquiry, so what exactly will be off limits.

 

[elbows]

I already have a template in my mind for how the establishment can tidy up certain aspects and eliminate the conclusions that are the most broadly damning of the establishment in general. They will still be left with a long list of 'lessons learnt' and damning failures, but they will be able to isolate them from the broadest of establishment failures and cold, calculated UK establishment attitudes.

A big chunk of my opinion about how good a job the inquiry does will boil down to stuff like how easily they buy intot he convenient narrative that the problem was we had a 'flu plan' rather than a SARS plan. And at what level of face value they take the idea that many of the faulty were due to innocent mistakes about the extent of asymptomatic transmission. Because those excuses are, if not quite a complete red herring, not the proper picture in all its horror, I've spoken of this before and I expect I shall do so again when the time comes.

 

[StoneRoad]

sorry for the link [not the daily fail]
details of who voted against ...

Full list of Tory rebels who opposed No 10's Covid pass plan

PLUS: Find out how your MP voted on the Covid pass rules with our interactive search tool below

www.telegraph.co.uk

I gave up reading the comments.

 

[Supine]

sorry for the link [not the daily fail]
details of who voted against ...

Full list of Tory rebels who opposed No 10's Covid pass plan

PLUS: Find out how your MP voted on the Covid pass rules with our interactive search tool below

www.telegraph.co.uk

I gave up reading the comments.

Never read the comments!

 

[Sasaferrato]

I have noticed a large increase in Covid scepticism on Facebook over the last couple of weeks, in all the groups I look at.

The span of group interests is large, military, military humour, anti Scottish independence, photography and a number of site specific groups such as CMH Aldershot, BMH Rinteln, Hannover and Berlin.

The only sites where there is zero scepticism are the medics groups.

The government has lost the people, both in England and Scotland. A goodly number of people in Scotland are conflating Covid measures and SNP dictatorship, which is absolutely bonkers.

I used to give a reasoned argument as to why no government is going to cripple their income and balloon their outgoings simply to inject you with Microsoft's trackers... I've given up, there are too many now.

This shit is going to extend the pain for everyone.

 

[Artaxerxes]

I have noticed a large increase in Covid scepticism on Facebook over the last couple of weeks, in all the groups I look at.

The span of group interests is large, military, military humour, anti Scottish independence, photography and a number of site specific groups such as CMH Aldershot, BMH Rinteln, Hannover and Berlin.

The only sites where there is zero scepticism are the medics groups.

The government has lost the people, both in England and Scotland. A goodly number of people in Scotland are conflating Covid measures and SNP dictatorship, which is absolutely bonkers.

I used to give a reasoned argument as to why no government is going to cripple their income and balloon their outgoings simply to inject you with Microsoft's trackers... I've given up, there are too many now.

This shit is going to extend the pain for everyone.

People are fed the fuck up and frankly bored. I'm probably on the extreme end but it really does feel like life is on fucking hold for the last two years and coupled with this shower of cunts doing what they feel like and the frankly schizophrenic messaging throughout I can very much see why people are willing to just stop listening any more.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I find this a bit surprising, TBH...

Although Downing Street insists no further coronavirus measures are planned, it appears that the British public backs the idea of a two-week national lockdown over Christmas.

A survey by Savanta ComRes found that 51 per cent of adults backed the proposal as a means of stemming the spread of the omicron variant.

Just under a third of respondents (32 per cent) were opposed to the introduction of a new lockdown.

Various stats on different restrictions are in the full article.

Most people in UK support two-week lockdown to combat omicron, poll suggests

British public ‘braced for another Christmas of disruptions and restrictions’, says pollster

www.independent.co.uk

 

[elbows]

I havent spent a vast number of hours studying polling all throughout the pandemic but the above doesnt strike me as especially surprising given what we've seen from polls during past moments of great woe in this pandemic. And I expect that some groups that would lean in a different direction are underrepresented by polling.

Also if we form our opinions of others based on what we hear people say on the telly instead, the medias version of 'balance' means we've ended up hearing a disproportionate amount from business owners etc. At least in past waves, though I've tried to avoid hearing that stuff so far in this one so maybe the telly balance is a bit different this time for all I know.

 

[SpookyFrank]

The span of group interests is large, military, military humour...

People who kill people for a living in 'not that bothered about people dying' shocker.

 

[Sue]

I find this a bit surprising, TBH...



Various stats on different restrictions are in the full article.

Most people in UK support two-week lockdown to combat omicron, poll suggests

British public ‘braced for another Christmas of disruptions and restrictions’, says pollster

www.independent.co.uk

I'm not that surprised tbh. I think a lot of people feel that we need some stronger measures now in the hope this won't keep dragging on and on and on. (Certainly folk I know are anticipating a lockdown of some sort sooner rather than later.)

ETA Though obviously I've no idea how typical or not they are. They're all pro-vaxx and pretty sensible.

 

[Sasaferrato]

People who kill people for a living in 'not that bothered about people dying' shocker.

I know you are not quite the sharpest knife in the box, however, I would have thought that the word 'medics' might have alerted you to the fact that these are not 'killing' soldiers, they are 'saving' soldiers.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I'm not that surprised tbh. I think a lot of people feel that we need some stronger measures now in the hope this won't keep dragging on and on and on. (Certainly folk I know are anticipating a lockdown of some sort sooner rather than later.)

ETA Though obviously I've no idea how typical or not they are. They're all pro-vaxx and pretty sensible.

I think the problem is that we have had stronger measures, which we were assured would solve the problem. It didn't, and after two years, people (or a fair number of them) have moved into 'fuck it' mode, and are not listening anymore.

 

[Sasaferrato]

People are fed the fuck up and frankly bored. I'm probably on the extreme end but it really does feel like life is on fucking hold for the last two years and coupled with this shower of cunts doing what they feel like and the frankly schizophrenic messaging throughout I can very much see why people are willing to just stop listening any more.

Well put.

 

[cupid_stunt]

And, here we go.

UK reports its highest number of daily coronavirus cases since pandemic began, with 78,610 people testing positive

Covid: New UK cases record as Whitty warns worse to come

Prof Chris Whitty says Omicron is moving at a phenomenal pace, after 78,610 people test positive in a day.

www.bbc.co.uk

That's up 19.1% in a week, hospital admissions up 10.4% too.

Boosters jabs - 656,711, which is daily record, so well done all concerned.

 

[Sue]

I think the problem is that we have had stronger measures, which we were assured would solve the problem. It didn't, and after two years, people (or a fair number of them) have moved into 'fuck it' mode, and are not listening anymore.

Were we assured those measures would solve the problem? I'm not sure we were.

 

[Wilf]

78k positive tests today. On course to beat the January highs in the next couple of days then.

 

[Wilf]

That's 78k with a largely vaccinated population.

 

[cupid_stunt]

78k positive tests today. On course to beat the January highs in the next couple of days then.

It's already has, over 10k more than on the 8th Jan.