Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[ddraig]

I immediately thought of this

View attachment 213991

really? you're sharp eh!

 

[Mation]

View attachment 213958

kittyP
One rolling
One bowling

 

[Mation]

The idea of carrying round three fridges with you is just impractical imo

Just lay them in a row across the bed and strap them down with bungee cords. Wheels (or skis) under the legs. Fasten yourself into a harness, and you're off!

 

[two sheds]

Just lay them in a row across the bed and strap them down with bungee cords. Wheels (or skis) under the legs. Fasten yourself into a harness, and you're off!

And the 2 benches and 4 chairs? You're just not thinking this through

 

[Nine Bob Note]

This is apparently real

View attachment 213975

Pick that for a game of soldiers.

 

[teuchter]

TfL re-instating bus fares in London from tomorrow apparently.

 

[little_legs]

As it is effectively a parody already, they didn’t really have any choice. It is hard to believe more than two minutes thought went into creating it tho.

And the original author isn't happy about it

 

[agricola]

Pick getting paid terrible money for days of backbreaking work.

Pick living in terrible accommodation and paying through the nose for it.

Pick getting treated like shit.

(Not personal experience but what I've heard from friends who've done this kind of work.)

Of the many things that do my head in with how the government have handled this crisis, this is probably the one that infuriates me the most. Daily / hourly references to Churchill, a PM that actually physically apes Winston, wartime rhetoric all over the messaging and yet two actual examples of how to solve exactly this problem are completely ignored.

 

[Petcha]

Jesus christ Priti Patel is so fucking useless. She's completely and utterly clueless. This press conference is painful. She's a fucking idiot. Nothing short of a fucking idiot.

That's all i got.

 

[Sue]

Of the many things that do my head in with how the government have handled this crisis, this is probably the one that infuriates me the most. Daily / hourly references to Churchill, a PM that actually physically apes Winston, wartime rhetoric all over the messaging and yet two actual examples of how to solve exactly this problem are completely ignored.

And fucking Prince fucking Charles going on about people needing to step up for 'hard graft' . FFS.

Coronavirus latest: a senior royal wants us to *checks notes* work harder | Joel Golby

With Prince Charles urging the public to pick fruit for Blighty, the problem isn’t so much the message as the messenger, says author Joel Golby

www.theguardian.com

 

[Petcha]

She's actually getting worse. She's not answered any question competently and not allowing any follow-ups as the other stooges they put up do. Why are the journos not calling her on it??

 

[little_legs]

Pick getting paid terrible money for days of backbreaking work.

Pick living in terrible accommodation and paying through the nose for it.

Pick getting treated like shit.

(Not personal experience but what I've heard from friends who've done this kind of work.)

It's fascist propaganda, suffering for the state is just another way to make ordinary people feel like heroes.

Why hasn't the government turned landlords into heroes is beyond me. I mean, heck, I would even clap for them on a weekly basis.

 

[weltweit]

She's actually getting worse. She's not answered any question competently

TBF none of them answer the questions.

 

[Petcha]

TBF none of them answer the questions.

She's certainly the worst of them all. The press office must cringe when they're forced to wheel her out. How did she get to such a high position? The science guy was basically forced to provide any form of sense there.

 

[weltweit]

She's certainly the worst of them all. The press office must cringe when they're forced to wheel her out. How did she get to such a high position?

The only thing I can think of is that she was loyal to Johnson going way back to the Brexit campaign and this position is her payback. Not saying it is right or even wise but Johnson seems to surround himself with the loyal rather than the talented.

The science guy was basically forced to provide any form of sense there.

Yes, you are right she did pass much off on Vallance.

 

[philosophical]

So the C4 person asked if quarantine for 14 days on arrival saves lives why not start now.
No answer, no follow up invited.
Incidentally Patel said 'obviously' twelve times in the Q&A session.
If it's all so obvious why have the briefings at all?

 

[weltweit]

from 21/05/2020 English death rate now at normal winter levels as coronavirus deaths fall

Speaking at the government’s daily press conference, Prof Chris Whitty said: “All-cause mortality has come down at the same time as the Covid deaths have come down and it is now at roughly the rate it is at in an average winter. So we are essentially having a winter … in terms of mortality, but in late spring and early summer.”

 

[BigTom]

Is this actually a real graphic? I'm not bothered about the face, it's obviously the back of their head. But how is 3 fridges a useful measurement to anyone? And benches? What size of bench? An unusually short one metre long bench like the kind of length of bench that you would pretty much never see? What are they on?

In the tory's mind all benches should be 3ft long to stop homeless people from sleeping on them.

 

[andysays]

That is surely what it’s based on. It couldn’t be an accident, could it?

It seems a bizarre choice if so, but equally it's hard to believe it's accidental.

really? you're sharp eh!

Sorry, I've let myself down, I've let the thread down, but most of all I've let Urban down.

I'll hang my head in shame for ever mentioning it...

 

[two sheds]

In the tory's mind all benches should be 3ft long to stop homeless people from sleeping on them.

There are exceptions mind with comfy benches:

 

[The39thStep]

Have we had this yet? Another i can’t believe it’s not on the joke thread.


Wetherspoons are actually bringing in beer goggles.

Goggles for their staff to wear. Who says Fuckwit Martin doesn’t understand immunology?

JD Wetherspoon pubs to reopen with staff in goggles post-lockdown

Blueprint includes daily health checks for staff and protective screens between tables

www.theguardian.com

Does he mean visor type protection ? That’s worn here by staff in supermarkets and some bars.

 

[DexterTCN]

They stick a swab in your nose and one in your throat.

That's counted as two tests.

 

[Sunray]

Pick getting paid terrible money for days of backbreaking work.

Pick living in terrible accommodation and paying through the nose for it.

Pick getting treated like shit.

(Not personal experience but what I've heard from friends who've done this kind of work.)

I was listening to a very interesting discussion on why people didn't take up the work. There are loads.

It was this LBC discussion,

LBC discussion on fruit picking

interesting from about 13 min in.

Some things I didn't realise. The work is piece work, not minimum wage, so if you're good at it its possible you can make 500-600 a week. Berries are often on tables so bending down is less of a thing.

The reasons were varied, off the top of my head....

• Its generally live on, because it's geared around migrant workers. The accommodation isn't free, but if you're already living somewhere, you don't want to pay twice. Its somewhere to sleep, but not great shared static caravans or alternatively camping. I don't do tent camping anymore, its not great when its for leisure. When your working and all you have to go back to after a hard day is a cold tent. No no no.
• There isn't transport apart from driving, the farms are really in the middle of nowhere, no car, no work picking. Your colleagues live on so not getting a lift.
• Clearly your not going to be doing anything like 500 a week at the start. So your transport is eating into your pay. Plus the time, crack of dawn in the summer is like 5am so you'd need to be up at 4am.
• If you've got any responsibilities, it doesn't really fit around them very well.
• Seasonal work is all well and good but it has a hard end.
• If you are furloughed then who knows when you might be able to go back to your job?
• Some farms aren't taking UK workers, not enough space for live-in due to distancing.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

It's bloody hard work and does take a while to get up to speed. I did it in Australia when I was much younger and it was hard then. Fuck that it the UK. Although you probably wouldn't be working with people who shot up crystal meth every weekend.

 

[kalidarkone]

Not asking you or anyone to answer this personally obvs but I’m preoccupied with the parental hug question, because they keep asking me (theyre both mid seventies & not in UK). If staying away from them for the greater good / increased chance of a vaccine being developed means staying away for five years that’s too much, imo. Two years is long. Etc. It’s not without massive costs is all I mean, as we all know.

There are ways to manage it. For example if you were planning on seeing them, then you could both isolate beforehand to make sure.

 

[bimble]

There are ways to manage it. For example if you were planning on seeing them, then you could both isolate beforehand to make sure.

Yep. For me I’d have to fly to see them (or drive for days which would be safer but still not safe) so for now anyway it feels impossible. What I’d like to figure out is some marker (for myself) that would mean that the risk I’d pose them by going to see them is worth it, iykwim.

 

[kalidarkone]

Yep. For me I’d have to fly to see them (or drive for days which would be safer but still not safe) so for now anyway it feels impossible. What I’d like to figure out is some marker (for myself) that would mean that the risk I’d pose them by going to see them is worth it, iykwim.

I guess you would have to quarantine when you got to wherever they are. As long as you quarantine first and as long as you dont have symptoms-I think that's all you can do.

So a work friend of mine (a nurse) has just gone back to Spain. Her parents have both driven their cars to Gibraltar so that she and her bf can take one car and they can go back to Cadiz in separate cars. Then they are going to quarantine in her bf parents summer house before them both going separately to their parents.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Pressure on Dominic Cummings to quit over lockdown breach

Exclusive: PM’s adviser was with parents away from London home when he had coronavirus symptoms

www.theguardian.com

 

[bimble]

I guess you would have to quarantine when you got to wherever they are. As long as you quarantine first and as long as you dont have symptoms-I think that's all you can do.

So a work friend of mine (a nurse) has just gone back to Spain. Her parents have both driven their cars to Gibraltar so that she and her bf can take one car and they can go back to Cadiz in separate cars. Then they are going to quarantine in her bf parents summer house before them both going separately to their parents.

This kind of thing, it’s how it’ll have to be done. Good to hear about an example like that. No summer house option but there’ll be a solution, does mean a quick visit will take a looong time.

 

[two sheds]

Pressure on Dominic Cummings to quit over lockdown breach

Exclusive: PM’s adviser was with parents away from London home when he had coronavirus symptoms

www.theguardian.com

A member of the public is understood to have seen him and made a complaint to the police.

Nice to see public spirited members of the public still around

Breaking lockdown rules has been a resigning issue for senior officials.

Prof Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist whose modelling prompted the lockdown, quit as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) for flouting physical distancing rules when he was visited by his girlfriend.

After he stood aside, senior Tories insisted he had done the right thing.

Hancock said he was “speechless” and added: “I think he took the right decision to resign.”

The former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said Ferguson’s behaviour “risks undermining the government’s lockdown message”.

Scotland’s chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, was also forced to quit after making two trips to her second home during the coronavirus lockdown.