[COVID-19] General Discussion

[McTallshort]

Fair enough.

I'm just worried the success of the vaccine rollout will cloud people's judgement of how the government handled this pandemic, because overall it's been a shitshow. They should not be able to hide from their mistakes.

I doubt thats going to happen, the fall out from this will be massive, if Labour can get their **** together then the days of the Johnson government are drawing to a close, can also see Scotland becoming independent in the next 5-10 years

 

[Reiser99]

I doubt thats going to happen, the fall out from this will be massive, if Labour can get their **** together then the days of the Johnson government are drawing to a close, can also see Scotland becoming independent in the next 5-10 years

Me too.

Labour should be compiling all the evidence. The wasted money and cronyism with the contracts. Hell the billions on the test and trace app alone. The poor decision making that was within the governments control. Complete failure of test and trace.

 

[ncurd]

I doubt thats going to happen, the fall out from this will be massive, if Labour can get their **** together then the days of the Johnson government are drawing to a close, can also see Scotland becoming independent in the next 5-10 years

Sadly its not being reflected that well in polling currently but that could a minor bump due to vaccine rollout. It really matters is what happens when the crisis has finished, Scotland being becoming independent is really really bad for the chances of perpetual Tory rule.

 

[ncurd]

Me too.

Labour should be compiling all the evidence. The wasted money and cronyism with the contracts. Hell the billions on the test and trace app alone. The poor decision making that was within the governments control. Complete failure of test and trace.

They are at least trying



But you know moaning about trying to put forward being patriotic means the man has to go.

 

[McTallshort]

Me too.

Labour should be compiling all the evidence. The wasted money and cronyism with the contracts. Hell the billions on the test and trace app alone. The poor decision making that was within the governments control. Complete failure of test and trace.

They should be setting a vision of how they want to run the country, how they are going to invest in the NHS, reshape the Military to react to things like pandemics, tax the likes of Amazon, bin off crap like HS2 and invest in local transport infrastructure. Which they will hopefully do and not waste everyone's time with identity politics and trying to be a lesser evil than the tories.

 

[Which Tyler]

Getting ****** off with my specifics on the vaccination.
I'm Group 2 (Healthcare) so in theory I was supposed to be vaccinated a couple of weeks ago; along with regular "don't call us, we'll call you" messages.
No-one's called me yet, so I've been chasing it up today.
I can book in with the CCG, but they've only got 4 locations in Gloucestershire, the nearest being 12km away - which would be fine if I owned a car.
CCG suggest I try through the GP if I don't want to use one of their 4 locations.
GP "doesn't have the authority" to book vaccinations, they're all arranged by the CCG.

I'm not willing to get on a bus during a pandemic.

Are taxi's still working? It's been 14 years since I last owned a car, and this looks like being the first time I've needed a taxi.

 

[Reiser99]

Getting ****** off with my specifics on the vaccination.
I'm Group 2 (Healthcare) so in theory I was supposed to be vaccinated a couple of weeks ago; along with regular "don't call us, we'll call you" messages.
No-one's called me yet, so I've been chasing it up today.
I can book in with the CCG, but they've only got 4 locations in Gloucestershire, the nearest being 12 miles away - which would be fine if I owned a car.
CCG suggest I try through the GP if I don't want to use one of their 4 locations.
GP "doesn't have the authority" to book vaccinations, they're all arranged by the CCG.

I'm not willing to get on a bus during a pandemic.

Are taxi's still working? It's been 14 years since I last owned a car, and this looks like being the first time I've needed a taxi.

Uber still works near me. Need to wear a mask and sit in the back, but fine otherwise.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yeah, I've taken a taxi during the pandemic (was back in the summer but still) - Mask up, pay by contactless where possible (the taxi service I used had card readers and would only take cash as a last resort), or use Uber

 

[RedruthRFC]

Didn't say that did I.

But if you travelled from SA to the UK via another country then you should be prosecuted. If you did something similar from the UK to another country that had a UK travel ban then you should be prosecuted.

Governments and individuals should equally be held accountable for their actions.

Doing anything that creates unnecessary risk should be a criminal offence. Risking exposing the UK to a new variant should be a serious one. Given that track and trace doesn't work, I don't hold out much hope of tracking the source of these kind of breaches. Prevention must be better than cure in this situation, having quarantine hotels in place would have prevented this problem from arising.

In the past 4 days, I've heard a couple of stories of incredible stupidity / selfishness. I was meant to be meeting a plumber on Friday who couldn't make it because he was having to self isolate because he was on site with a painter who had a "cold" which turned out to be covid. Yesterday I learned that a mate of mine was just getting over covid, which he caught from his father (who he lives with). His father thinks he caught it from someone at work who casually mentioned that his immediate family had the virus, but evidently didn't feel the need to self isolate!

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Uber still works near me. Need to wear a mask and sit in the back, but fine otherwise.

that's the beauty of Uber, contactless payment and traceable later if needs be

 

[saulan]

Didn't say that did I.

But if you travelled from SA to the UK via another country then you should be prosecuted. If you did something similar from the UK to another country that had a UK travel ban then you should be prosecuted.

Governments and individuals should equally be held accountable for their actions.

Just to clarify this, direct travel is banned. Indirect travel and re-entry if you have a British passport or residency permits is allowed.

There is nothing illegal nor anything that can be prosecuted for flying back indirectly. It's quite an odd system really.

South Africa travel advice

Latest FCDO travel advice for South Africa including on entry requirements, safety and security and local laws and customs

www.gov.uk

Also get ready, I believe all the French, Swiss and Qatar based routes between the countries are getting booked up this weekend prior to the restriction kicking in on the 15th.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

The British government doesn't leave loopholes so much as it just does this:

 

[duncanb]

The British government doesn't leave loopholes so much as it just does this:
View attachment 9238

Great picture but this is local council ineptitude , don't get me started on local councils or CountyCouncils.

 

[Reiser99]

Nice to know our borders are secure.

'Disgrace!' No border virus checks

THE lack of border Covid checks were branded a "disgrace" yesterday when a traveller from South Africa entered unchallenged.

www.express.co.uk

 

[RedruthRFC]

Nice to know our borders are secure.

'Disgrace!' No border virus checks

THE lack of border Covid checks were branded a "disgrace" yesterday when a traveller from South Africa entered unchallenged.

www.express.co.uk

This ties in with what @saulan says a few posts ago. I wonder if the checks were lax because she had flown via somewhere else or whether they would have been just as bad if she'd flown direct.

Out of interest, I checked Sky Scanner for flights on the 16th from SA to the UK and didn't see a single flight that didn't put down outside SA before landing in the UK. A Google search tells me that BA, Virgin and SAA do fly direct though. If the clowns in charge aren't planning to count arrivals from SA that have made a layover as an arrival from SA (90+ at a guess) it's a scandal, but hey, they don't matter any more do they?

 

[saulan]

This ties in with what @saulan says a few posts ago. I wonder if the checks were lax because she had flown via somewhere else or whether they would have been just as bad if she'd flown direct.

Out of interest, I checked Sky Scanner for flights on the 16th from SA to the UK and didn't see a single flight that didn't put down outside SA before landing in the UK. A Google search tells me that BA, Virgin and SAA do fly direct though. If the clowns in charge aren't planning to count arrivals from SA that have made a layover as an arrival from SA (90+ at a guess) it's a scandal, but hey, they don't matter any more do they?

Indirect is the only way. SAA is basically a dead horse, they aren't operating, BA has stopped all direct flights until the 16th of April at the earliest, Virgin I think are the same.

They've also said they are implementing prison time for up to 10 years for trying to hide flying to a red list country.

 

[McTallshort]

Jesus did anyone watch that Tory MP on Channel 4 news

 

[Reiser99]

Jesus did anyone watch that Tory MP on Channel 4 news

No, what happened?

 

[McTallshort]

No, what happened?

Well the Government is Vile and irresponsible because its telling people not to book holidays...

 

[RedruthRFC]

Well the Government is Vile and irresponsible because its telling people not to book holidays...

On the same day that Matt Han(don)cock told the 1922 committee that that he'd booked a staycation in Cornwall apparently!