Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[cupid_stunt]

Fines are being increased from £60 to £100, doubling with every ticket to a maximum of £3200.

He's now just said, doubling to a maximum of £3600.

So, we can add maths to the list of things he doesn't understand.

 

[Ms Ordinary]

OK there is a plan for TFL - and it has marshals, one-way systems, disinfection, sanitizer points, queue markings, etc all being rolled out over the next few weeks, some of it already started.

All good, just sounds like they were caught out by yesterday's 'back to work tomorrow folks!' messaging

They were shamefully slow with providing basic safety for bus drivers, but it looks they'd have been just about ready for around the time when easing of lockdown would have been sensible

 

[planetgeli]

Fines are being increased from £60 to £100, doubling with every ticket to a maximum of £3200.

Or £3,600 if you're following this on the BBC site, who seem to have 'Patelled' the number.

This will double with each repeat offence, he adds, up to a maximum of £3,600.

 

[elbows]

So pleased I am being shielded by these geniuses.

Yes I can only imagine how amazingly reassuring it is to observe the quality and capabilities of this administration to rise to these challenges.

Even the bit I quoted is full of it. Talking about 'further measures' but then giving an example which is simply continuing to do something they claim they've already been prioritising. Thats not new then is it? Except it is because the claim they've already been prioritising it is bullshit.

I'm referring to:

And the Government will bring in further measures to support those providing the shield - for example, continuing to prioritise care workers for testing and protective equipment.

 

[2hats]

A daily figure for R is an estimate derived from modelling. Those models are fed with various proxies (eg measures of mobility from phone companies and the dominant phone handset ecosystem vendors, surveys, analysis of sewage, results from, mainly, antigen testing). There is no direct measurement of current R on a given day.

The widespread serological antibody testing is currently still in a preparatory phase. As best as I know, there have only been small studies in the UK thus far.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I've been dropping of dozens of parcel in the last few weeks at the parcel post boxes.

Parcel postboxes

Sending your parcels is now easier with new Parcel Postboxes from Royal Mail. See a list of where they are here.

www.royalmail.com

Although you do need a printer for it.

My local post office is still open, I sent a Signed For last week, you'll have to check yours as some have closed.

First class is going well, few delays but nothing serious.

Gah, it seems I have one very close to my house. Why don't I have a bloody printer!!!!!

 

[sheothebudworths]

SAGE advise that the risk of infection outside is significantly lower than inside, so the Government is updating the rules so that, as well as exercise, people can now also spend time outdoors subject to: not meeting up with any more than one person from outside your household; continued compliance with social distancing guidelines to remain two metres (6ft) away from people outside your household; good hand hygiene, particularly with respect to shared surfaces; and those responsible for public places being able to put appropriate measures in place to follow the new COVID-19 Secure guidance.

Unless there's actually more detail than this it doesn't clear it up much - as someone asked yesterday does that mean one household can meet a single person from another - but if so, isn't the individual from the other household is breaking the rule then?

Either way, won't we then just have whole households 'individually' meeting up with other whole households individually - for eg, myself and my daughter could meet two friends from a different household separately but in actual fact meeting at exactly the same time and place - and that'd potentially be legitimate, cos there is nothing to say my daughter and I have to go out together etc. I mean that's an endless loophole, isn't it? It could incorporate many people from multiple different households meeting in the same place with a tiny bit of working out, too (SD party in the park!).

Maybe that's the point.

In which case they just as well say fuck it, meet whoever the fuck you like, just stay two metres apart.

 

[Mation]

If it turns up in the water supply? Wtf is this clown on about???

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Unless there's actually more detail than this it doesn't clear it up much - as someone asked yesterday does that mean one household can meet a single person from another - but if so, isn't the individual from the other household is breaking the rule then?

Either way, won't we then just have whole households 'individually' meeting up with other whole households individually - for eg, myself and my daughter could meet two friends from a different household separately but in actual fact meeting at exactly the same time and place - and that'd potentially be legitimate, cos there is nothing to say my daughter and I have to go out together etc. I mean that's an endless loophole, isn't it? It could incorporate many people from multiple different households meeting in the same place with a tiny bit of working out, too (SD party in the park!).

Maybe that's the point.

In which case they just as well say fuck it, meet whoever the fuck you like, just stay two metres apart.

It's very, very sillly and totally unenforceable. Would be better, at the appropriate time, which is probably in a couple of weeks' time, to say 'no public gatherings of more than x people'. Something nice and low so the coppers can count them without having to take their shoes off. Say, six.

 

[LDC]

Vaguely interesting political nerd point I noticed when reading this article...

Top experts not asked to approve 'stay alert' coronavirus message

Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance had no role in signing off advice, Guardian has learned

www.theguardian.com

"Speaking in a professional capacity, Prof John Drury, a social psychologist at the University of Sussex and a member of the scientific pandemic influenza group on behaviours (SPI-B), which feeds into Sage on issues including the best ways to communicate government strategy with the public, said the group had “considerable expertise” on health behaviour and emergency communications which had hardly been called on by the government. “Who is advising on the current messaging? Unfortunately it’s not us,” he said."

John Drury, almost certainly the same one as involved in Aufheben butchersapron and others.

 

[William of Walworth]

I'm not sure whether this particular link's been put up yet, I don't think I've seen it in the pages above.
Apologies if I'm repeating though.

For what it's worth , this is the summary** of the more detailed and England-specific stuff on the gov.uk pages :

Guidance : Staying alert and safe (social distancing)
Published Monday 11 May 2020

**summary, as opposed to the 67 page extended version that elbows was quoting from.

 

[William of Walworth]

If it turns up in the water supply? Wtf is this clown on about???

Please explain where this is coming from??

 

[philosophical]

The cunt is going on about common sense, like the other cunt who went on about common sense over Grenfell.

 

[planetgeli]

Please explain where this is coming from??

Johnson says, if Covid is detected in the water supply of a town (presumably he means in the sewage), new restrictions could be imposed locally.

 

[Mation]

Please explain??

An MP asked whether the 'plan' was flexible enough to reintroduce the full lockdown (that hasn't been lifted) in 'hotspots' of covid-19 that might spring up. Bojo The Clown said yes, absolutely, they'll be able to re-introduce restrictions in places "where it turns up in the water supply, or ... whatever".

Wtf is he trying to do? (Yes, I know this is a stupid question.)

The utter contempt in which he holds our lives.

 

[tim]

There's an ice cream van in my street

There's been one foreverblowingbubbling down my street at some point in the afternoon for at least the past week.

 

[William of Walworth]

planetgeli Mation : Thanks for that information -- sounds bonkers
This is surely the first we've heard of the chance of anything turning up in the water?
I've missed something big if this has come up before ...

 

[cupid_stunt]

Johnson says, if Covid is detected in the water supply of a town (presumably he means in the sewage), new restrictions could be imposed locally.

Perhaps we should all go and have a dump outside the Downing Street gates, and let him deal with our shit, instead of us having to deal with his.

 

[Mation]

Johnson says, if Covid is detected in the water supply of a town (presumably he means in the sewage), new restrictions could be imposed locally.

Presumably. But that's an appalling error.

 

[pesh]

just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water

 

[Wilf]

I didn't see johnson's address and am a bit behind on this thread, so no doubt just repeating what others have said. Anyway... hearing the various things announced seems like a perfect psychological strategy to end the lockdown. All the bits of uncertainty, along with the weakening around seeing family members, driving, exercise and going to work (especially) come close to being a death by a 1000 cuts. Bound to be more people out, more people on public transport... a country with many bits of 'normal life' reviving, while millions of elderly, poor and disabled remain stranded and anxious. Some are saying the messaging is awful (it clearly is) but it feels part of an actual strategy, where the government seek to get rid of the thing they never wanted in the first place. I suspect there's some cognitive dissonance as well. Not even our government actually want the disease to flare up further, as it clearly will. But not surprisingly, their neoliberalism has come to the fore. I don't ignore how much this is costing the treasury (and who will pay for that), but these announcements are a clear example of the limits on health and life under capital.

Edit: the above is just a rant, but the key and obvious point is: DON'T EVEN FUCKING THINK ABOUT LOOSENING THE LOCKDOWN TILL YOU'VE SORTED TESTING, CONTACT TRACING AND PPE!

 

[planetgeli]

Presumably. But that's an appalling error.

Add it to the list.

 

[Mation]

Add it to the list.

Most of the things on that list are not errors. They're policy.

 

[planetgeli]

Most of the things on that list are not errors. They're policy.

Frightening isn't it?

 

[Mation]

Frightening isn't it?

Yes. Terrifying.

 

[elbows]

An MP asked whether the 'plan' was flexible enough to reintroduce the full lockdown (that hasn't been lifted) in 'hotspots' of covid-19 that might spring up. Bojo The Clown said yes, absolutely, they'll be able to re-introduce restrictions in places "where it turns up in the water supply, or ... whatever".

Wtf is he trying to do? (Yes, I know this is a stupid question.)

The utter contempt in which he holds our lives.

Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water? Invisible commie muggers are trying to impurify our precious bodily fluids.

 

[Pickman's model]

An MP asked whether the 'plan' was flexible enough to reintroduce the full lockdown (that hasn't been lifted) in 'hotspots' of covid-19 that might spring up. Bojo The Clown said yes, absolutely, they'll be able to re-introduce restrictions in places "where it turns up in the water supply, or ... whatever".

Wtf is he trying to do? (Yes, I know this is a stupid question.)

The utter contempt in which he holds our lives.

'the plan' is infinitely flexible, being as it doesn't exist

 

[miss direct]

Are there any more details about the quarantine?

 

[planetgeli]

Are there any more details about the quarantine?

Yes. If you come in via France you're cool to infect.

I haven't made that up.

 

[maomao]

So if this does kick off a second wave, or breathe new life into the first wave when would we see that in numbers? First few days of June?