Didn't Rishi Sunak 'accidentally' vote against the plan to gut British agriculture in person?

FTFY

After the last few PMQs Boris might be glad of a couple of weeks of isolation.

Prorogue Parliament
Dissolve Parliament for an early election
Christmas
Half February on holiday
Off sick
Baby
Whitsun break

Yeah why not. I think he's going for the 'fewest PMQs' record anyway.

The travel industry is up in arms about the proposed quarantine:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/worl...ost_type=share

I guess it comes down to whether ground crew jobs are more important than lives.

And finally:

It wasn't done in March because the UK government has never been "steered by the science" and instead has lurched from promoting/hoping for herd immunity and suppressing the disease to stop the NHS from being overwhelmed. It's also like a cushion, it bears the impression of the last person to sit on it and so changes its mind regularly about what course of action to adopt with regard to the chosen strategy. They're also feckless and lazy and because not implementing quarantine is easier than implementing it, they chose that option. :mad:

There are alternatives to mandatory quarantene.

First of all, it can be cut to two days, followed by a test. If the test is negative you're free to go. This obviously requires free testing capacity UK lacks, but could perhaps be mitigated with saliva antigen tests. These work just like antibody tests, but look for the virus antigen. They aren't as reliable as RT-PCR, but are about ten times cheaper to perform, require minimal equipment and simple training. They can be done in basically unlimited volume. Saliva is comparible to a nasolaryx swab as a virus donor. It's not ideal but it might be good enough for the summer. The virus is less contageous in warm and sunny weather, after all.

Second of all, you can couple that to a list of safe destinations. If you spend holidays in a destination that has been determined to be Covid-19 free, then you don't need to treat that person in the same way as you'd treat an arrival from Brazil.

Right now I suspect there are two stronger factors at play. The first is BJ might be inclined to maintain the holiday pounds in UK for the season, to help the domestic economy. Beggar thy neighbor is a tactic dear to him. The second issue is that right now, disease-bearing British tourists aren't all that welcome to begin with.

That too is at least partially his fault.

McHrozni

I don't see why we are doing this silly quarantine thing at all. We have a world leading Test, Track and Trace system. Other countries who don't have a world leading Test, Track and Trace system would need to think about it but thankfully we are not a nation that has pathetically prepared for Covid .

What we, with our world leading Test, Track and Trace system can do is: -when people land the are given a world leading Test, to see if they have Covid. They must download our world leading tracking app. They will probably get a world leading Test result before clearing Customs. They must then for the next 5 days report to a world leading Test centre to get another world leading Test. If at any point they fail then our world leading Tracking app will trigger the world leading Trace system and automatically inform everyone that they have been in contact with to into world leading lock down.

What is wrong with that as a plan?

Compared to actual government plans? It would be genius! :D

Which would you open first?
Ikea, to buy rubbish you don't need in an enclosed area,
Schools, with the enormous logistical nightmare of educating all those kids but maintain social distancing, or
Zoos - which are open air, can easily manage social distancing, will educate, and contribute to conservation.

Duh!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...yside-52875282

I think you'll find that it's not just world leading, it's world beating.

On an unrelated note, my late father used to to refer to an old and dilapidated car as "A Beater".

In order to support the track and trace system, Mrs Don is keeping a record of everyone outside our household she has had exposure to so that it will help the tracers. So far, after 1 week, there are zero names on that list :o.

Meanwhile the government give the Daily Mail money to advertise how well they're doing.

Welcome to 1984

https://mobile.twitter.com/carolecad...75710586712067

Sweden has kept day care centres and primary schools open without any significant deaths among either students (only one single dead child, that is someone under the age of 18, has been recorded as dying from or at least while infected by the virus) or teachers.

As far as I know, only one teacher has died from covid that they are known or suspected to have been infected by their colleagues. Two or three other teachers have died but they are known or suspected to have been infected outside of the school.

While it's difficult to organize and manage the teaching with regards to the amount of teachers and other staff members that are on sick leave, because they are either sick or a part of a risk group, it's surprisingly not a very dangerous environment as long as the adults do not infect each-other.

"Known or suspected" is good! Sweden does so little testing and contact tracing that it's hard to say who infects whom.
Yesterday Sweden overtook France in number of coronavirus deaths per million and is now #7.

I wouldn't expect any significent deaths among the kids (although there is evidence that a tiny % could be affected).

It is the spreading to the wider population that concerns us. I've heard reports of 5-6 year olds going back in teh UK, and having strict rules to follow. However, parents have dropped them off and then met up to chat, and not followed social distancing rules on school grounds!

The idea that we could get all teh kids back in school, and maintain social distancing is ambitious to say the least.

We are the worst effected in Europe by some measures, and a PM who is proud of his track reord on this. Many of us are less than postive on this whole idea.

Boris Tweeted

Let’s continue to fight this virus by staying alert, keeping 2 metres away from others, and regularly washing our hands.
#StayAlert

How is Alok Sharma doing Boris ? Just asking.

Is it rare for kids to go to school on their own?

I still don't know what he means by "staying alert". I'm not sure he does either.

Question: Does the zoo have bats, pangolins and a suspiciously cheap cafe?

For younger kids you have to take them to school. I forget the cut off age where they can go on their own.

They do have bats! I am confident they're not the menu, even though one did find my daughters head when we went.

Around here you have to take your one or two children to school in a 4x4 because the streets are too dangerous due to being full of 4x4s, each taking a child to school.....:rolleyes:

From 15 June, face coverings (not clinical masks) will be mandatory on all public transport in England. Passengers who refuse to comply will be refused travel or fined, which will be enforced by staff and British Transport Police

Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy says he does not foresee workers having to police the new rules, saying: "This is about people being sensible - people do what they're asked as long as what they're asked to do is sensible."

So it's going to be chaos then.

He doesn't get out much I take it?

Which is based on scientific advice....

Nothing to do with trying to make people think they are safe on public transport once we all have to be crushed in together again.

It’s like theatre security at airports.

He doesn’t know Cummings.

Either way it should be doable without incurring unacceptable levels of risk of spreading the infection. It's especially important for the schools to open because the continuing negative effects especially with regards to the most disadvantaged children and communities.

In that regard it comes off as utterly selfish and inconsiderate when some teachers demand that schools stay closed until they face little to no risk of being infected.

“.... The NHS coronavirus test-and-trace system designed to prevent a second deadly wave is not expected to work at full speed until September or October, the Guardian has learned.

Tony Prestedge, the chief operating officer of the NHS scheme, admitted in a webinar to staff that the programme would be “imperfect” at launch, adding that he hoped it would be operational at a world-class level within three to four months....”


Oh dear.....


https://www.theguardian.com/society/...e_iOSApp_Other

Covid-19: how a virus is turning the world upside down

If you catch it, it's your fault for not washing your hands (of the situation) enough:rolleyes:

If they're admitting to 4 months, it could easily be a year if my experience of large government projects are anything to go by.

Or 'forever' if my experience of Boris is anything to go by.

I am beginning to suspect that "world-class" means something different in British English than it does in American English.

Is this an ironic usage that everyone there understands as satire?

Serco admits track & trace not likely to work for months but chief exec says he wanted to 'cement the position of the private sector' in the NHS supply chain. Rage-inducing story

https://theguardian.com/society/2020...er-coronavirus

It's depressing to see a global pandemic being used as a catalyst to achieve the key objectives of Brexit:

• Privatising as much of the NHS as possible - ideally to US corporations
• Lowering food standards to allow the US to flood the UK market with the likes of hormone-fed beef and chlorinated chicken
• Abandoning worker and environmental protections
• Lowering taxes and hollowing out the welfare state to further facilitate the transfer of wealth from the poorest to the most wealthy

That over 50,000 had to die to achieve it is just deplorable. :mad:

I watched the Channel 4 documentary on the government's (mis)handling of the Coronavirus crisis. If I hadn't already been out for a run with Mrs Don and done a spin class, the effect that programme had on my pulse and blood pressure would have counted as that day's 30 minutes of cardio.

I am surprised it has taken so long for Silver Swan to leak. This was an exercise that the Scottish Government (the current one) did, modelling a coronavirus pandemic. It identified issues with lack of PPE, testing and contact tracing. No action taken on lessons learned.

(FWIW lessons learned were shared with NERVTAG UK based scientific advisory body, not sure whether shared with Westminster government.)

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson_MP/...893489664?s=20

https://twitter.com/SpanishDan1/stat...539534336?s=20

It's interesting how the Swedish and UK eugenists suddenly have bleeding hearts towards 'disadvantaged children and communities' (for Sweden: read Somalis in Stockholm, for the UK: read people on benefits and low-paid BAME). Who cares if 'these people', as they are invariably referred to, go down with Covid19.

There's a link to https://bylinetimes.com/2020/05/13/s...of-journalism/ "strangling-democracy-millions-paid-to-corporate-press-at-the-expense-of-journalism"
******* hell. What's the best way to support independent journailsm?