Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[The39thStep]

sure, but places like the Port Street Beerhouse and The Castle and whatnot were doing artisan pickled eggs for a time - just wondering if that was sustained, or if they're back to being backstreet boozer barsnacks only again.

I'll have to ask my future son in law he hangs around upmarket artisan places

 

[xenon]

Wales pubs have to shut from 6pm from Friday! eek
Hope it works

Covid: Alcohol ban for Welsh pubs and restaurants from Friday

Pubs and restaurants will have to shut at 6pm and will not be able to serve alcoholic drinks.

www.bbc.co.uk

Is this because there's no central funding for businesses that have to close? As on the face of it, it's a fucking stupid idea. Nobody goes to the pub for an orange juice and pie. Alright I know loads of people do but not enough to actually make a business viable. Stinks of we can't trust the prolls not to get pissed and fall all over each other, as well.

 

[ddraig]

Is this because there's no central funding for businesses that have to close? As on the face of it, it's a fucking stupid idea. Nobody goes to the pub for an orange juice and pie. Alright I know loads of people do but not enough to actually make a business viable. Stinks of we can't trust the prolls not to get pissed and fall all over each other, as well.

Maybe
People do give far less of a shit when in pub pissed mind

 

[Teaboy]

No vegan option though

Covid-19: Drinkers in tier two 'could order Scotch egg' as substantial meal

They would count as a "substantial meal" under new rules for parts of England, a minister says.

www.bbc.com

This is what I was getting at when I said I thought it was a stupid rule and it will likely invoke a stupid response. This is a very imperfect situation where very difficult decisions are having to be made with a fine balancing act but when you're attempting to legislates what constitutes a meal its probably time to take a step back because you should know you're not in a good place.

It just strikes me as muddled thinking because they are being told they should shut the cafes, pubs and restaurants but they don't want to. I'm on several pubs mailing lists and the emails regarding reopening have been carefully worded but also quite cryptic. They seem to be putting the responsibility onto the the customer.

 

[killer b]

If the old tier three rules (now more or less the tier 2 rules) proved to be an effective enough dampening of demand and behaviour to bring infections under control - as it looks like they were - then it seems reasonable enough to me to allow pubs to open serving food. I'm not sure why they're being so coy about how a substantial meal should be defined though - perhaps it's to give the councils who're enforcing it a bit of leeway on what they allow and don't allow, I dunno.

 

[cupid_stunt]

The trade should be well versed in what a 'substantial meal' is, considering 16 & 17 year olds have been allowed alcoholic drinks with such meals for years.

No doubt a few will try it on, but I doubt most will risk the fines TBH.

 

[Teaboy]

The trade should be well versed in what a 'substantial meal' is, considering 16 & 17 year olds have been allowed alcoholic drinks with such meals for years.

No doubt a few will try it on, but I doubt most will risk the fines TBH.

I don't think there is any risk of fines unless you completly and utterly take the piss because its virtually unenforceable. And besides throughout this action has only been taken against the most obvious and consistent of rule breakers.

 

[The39thStep]

The trade should be well versed in what a 'substantial meal' is, considering 16 & 17 year olds have been allowed alcoholic drinks with such meals for years.

No doubt a few will try it on, but I doubt most will risk the fines TBH.

Isnt the 16/17 year old thing actually at the landlords discretion?

 

[Artaxerxes]

Beginning to wonder if our great leaders actually want to save the nation from covid.

From here, it doesn't look like it !

Once in a lifetime chance to solve the pension crisis and just kill the elderly off.

 

[killer b]

Isnt the 16/17 year old thing actually at the landlords discretion?

everything served in a pub is at the landlord's discretion isn't it?

 

[The39thStep]

everything served in a pub is at the landlord's discretion isn't it?

or everyone yes.

 

[cupid_stunt]

The fucking LibDems are going to join with Tory rebels in not voting for the new restrictions tomorrow.

 

[existentialist]

The headline also mentions visiting relatives, and the background to the photo is a christmas tree in some kind of ostentatious living room. They are clearly not in a laboratory, nor do they appear to be doing any kind of serious work, so I don't see why anyone would assume they are scientists. It seems much more likely that they are relatives who have recieved a chemistry set as a christmas gift.

It seems that some people really are focused on finding controversy where there is none.

Oh, I wouldn't go as far as "controversy". I don't think laughing at clumsy representations of stereotypes is necessarily controversial. But yes, your explanation sounds eminently plausible, and I am grateful to you for opening my eyes to that alternative viewpoint.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Are we all sitting comfortably?

Covid press briefing is about to start.

 

[elbows]

The fucking LibDems are going to join with Tory rebels in not voting for the new restrictions tomorrow.

I havent looked into this yet but maybe they are bitter that the R for number of Lib Dems in parliament has been below 1 for quite some time.

 

[elbows]

Are we all sitting comfortably?

Covid press briefing is about to start.

Not sure if I will get through the whole thing today, since its Hat Mancock and General Giant Pockets.

 

[prunus]

The fucking LibDems are going to join with Tory rebels in not voting for the new restrictions tomorrow.

Surely doesn’t make any actual difference? There can’t be more that what, 6, 7 of them. Let them have their fun.

 

[elbows]

Oh its not General Giant-Pockets at the press conference, I got my pandemic military bods mixed up.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Surely doesn’t make any actual difference? There can’t be more that what, 6, 7 of them. Let them have their fun.

I thought that, but it's actually 11 now, almost enough to fill a mini-bus.

But, yeah, it'll not make any actual difference, just gives us another excuse to point and laugh at them.

 

[elbows]

Powis answered a question about what proportion of hospitalised people who test positive for Covid-19 are in hospital for a non-Covid-19 reason by doing the usual dance around the subject of hospital infections without actually drawing attention to that possibility.

 

[elbows]

The use of Liverpool to demonstrate that mass community testing/testing of asymptomatic people was a great success is unsafe, since that was not the only change in measures/behaviours taking place there at the time. And I say that as a fan of mass and asymptomatic testing, or as the government now want it to be referred to, community testing.

 

[frogwoman]

The fucking LibDems are going to join with Tory rebels in not voting for the new restrictions tomorrow.

Lol what's their justification for this

 

[cupid_stunt]

Lol what's their justification for this

Getting some media attention.

 

[andysays]

Lol what's their justification for this

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey

has said his party is prepared not to back the government's "arbitrary" and "chaotic" new tier system for England in a vote on Tuesday.

He wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to say his party's 11 MPs would not support the plan unless a number of demands were met, including publishing the scientific evidence behind the system, setting out a clearer exit strategy and providing extra financial support to pubs.

In a statement, Davey added: "As it stands, we cannot in all conscience vote for this unsafe plan."

But mostly what cupid_stunt said

 

[StoneRoad]

Some stuff from the beeb
Coronavirus: Government publishes data behind stricter tiers - BBC News

which references this report
Analysis of the health, economic and social effects of COVID-19 and the approach to tiering (publishing.service.gov.uk)

I would like to get members of that group of tories in a corner.
They seem immune to the loss of life, and are only concerned for loss of £££s by their "mates".

 

[LDC]

Labour abstaining from supporting the new Tier restrictions?!

 

[elbows]

I havent read it yet but I was looking for that, so cheers for the links.

A BBC article late last night accidentally referred to those MPs as the Covid Research Group instead of the Covid Recovery Group, which is not surprising given the various similarities to the European Research Group. They've since fixed that error.

 

[elbows]

Labour abstaining from supporting the new Tier restrictions?!

They probably want to be in a position to criticise the new tier system if it falls well short of what's required, without it being pointed out that they voted in favour of it.

It wont stop it getting through will it?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Labour abstaining from supporting the new Tier restrictions?!

Sounds like both the LibDems & Labour don't want to upset their voters that are against the tiers their local areas are being placed in, whilst having the cover that it'll make no difference to the outcome of the vote.

Basically playing politics, instead of doing the decent thing.

 

[Mation]

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey

Who?

(Please don't waste any time answering this question.)