International News Covid-19 .....

So cases are still on the rise, well Yes and No. Across the whole of the UK they are indeed on the rise. However in the areas that were placed in tier 4 one week before Christmas, where people were told to stay at home and forbidden from meeting up on Christmas Day, these areas have experienced a reduction in cases.

This pretty much shows that a lot of the current increase in cases is not down to the restrictions not being tough enough - it is down to the government's idiotic decision to allow half the country to mix on Christmas Day and spread their viral load. They should have placed the whole of the UK into a Tier 4 lockdown. Also the decision to allow children back to school for just one day wouldn't have helped either.
I thought that the whole of the country were allowed to mix on Christmas Day only?
 
I thought that the whole of the country were allowed to mix on Christmas Day only?

Nope. On the 20th December London, parts of the South-East and East Anglia were lobbed into Tier 4 which meant they couldn't mix with other households. Tiers 3 an below could meet on Christmas Day only.
 
So cases are still on the rise, well Yes and No. Across the whole of the UK they are indeed on the rise. However in the areas that were placed in tier 4 one week before Christmas, where people were told to stay at home and forbidden from meeting up on Christmas Day, these areas have experienced a reduction in cases.

This pretty much shows that a lot of the current increase in cases is not down to the restrictions not being tough enough - it is down to the government's idiotic decision to allow half the country to mix on Christmas Day and spread their viral load. They should have placed the whole of the UK into a Tier 4 lockdown. Also the decision to allow children back to school for just one day wouldn't have helped either.
If it is the case that cases are starting to fall in some areas, with others hopefully to follow shortly after, then that will be a great relief. These falls will still take a couple of weeks to work their way through the hospital and death counts, but at least it indicates there is some light at the end of the tunnel

Fortunately, a lot of schools have an INSET (In-service training) day on the first day of term, so in many cases children didnt actually get to go into school on that one day....
 
This pretty much shows that a lot of the current increase in cases is not down to the restrictions not being tough enough - it is down to the government's idiotic decision to allow half the country to mix on Christmas Day and spread their viral load. They should have placed the whole of the UK into a Tier 4 lockdown. Also the decision to allow children back to school for just one day wouldn't have helped either.

People still had a choice.

No one forced their hand.
 
People still had a choice.

No one forced their hand.
Well yes, but people will do what they can get away with, it was natural that many wanted to have as normal a Christmas as they could. It's the job of government to make laws and take unpopular decisions, and beyond that to set the tone - mildly saying 'use your common sense, be careful if you can' is going to be interpreted as 'do most of what you normally would'.
 
Well yes, but people will do what they can get away with, it was natural that many wanted to have as normal a Christmas as they could. It's the job of government to make laws and take unpopular decisions, and beyond that to set the tone - mildly saying 'use your common sense, be careful if you can' is going to be interpreted as 'do most of what you normally would by stupid people that have lived in a cave for the last 8 months.

Got that for you.

Had the Government "banned Christmas" those stupid people would have carried on anyway and still been stupid.

The difficulty of relying on common sense, which HMG have done plenty of, is that it isn`t very common.
 
Well yes, but people will do what they can get away with, it was natural that many wanted to have as normal a Christmas as they could. It's the job of government to make laws and take unpopular decisions, and beyond that to set the tone - mildly saying 'use your common sense, be careful if you can' is going to be interpreted as 'do most of what you normally would'.

So if Boris said you can go and jump off Beachy Head are your going to be screaming at him to be “locked in” because you can’t take responsibility for yourself ?

Or, do you assess the situation and think, bloody hell if I did jump it will probably kill me?

Or, do you decide, nope, I’m still going to jump because Boris said I can and I might still actually get away with it?

As I now see it, the problem isn’t just a clueless, bumbling government anymore, it is also people who can’t make a rational decision for themselves. They still have to be told what to do as if they are little children.

To get through this we have to take joint and collective responsibility and not try to “get away with it”. That doesn’t mean just working within the guidelines as set out, it also means risk assessing your own situation/circumstances and taking appropriate action.

We have all seen enough to now know how dangerous this virus is, but many are still not showing it any respect. Many still think they will be fine, and perhaps many will indeed be fine, but it feels pretty much like a game of Russian Roullette to me.

If so many people think this Government is so clueless and incompetent, why are they still allowing it to dictate what they can and can’t do?

Are these people also so clueless and incompetent that they are incapable of making the sort of decisions they are asking this very government to make?

Just take matters into our own hands and look out for family and friends. Time for people to stop waiting for the government to tell us what to do.
 
I agree with EY here, remember the amount of people saying they would see their families at Christmas no matter what?

There's sadly no vaccine against stupidity.
You think a government has no jurisdiction over or effect on people’s behaviour??
 
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Please don't fall for that one.

So Boris dragged people kicking and screaming to see their families did he?

We completely changed our plans at Christmas to protect family... f**k Boris, we didn’t need him to tell us what to do.

On Christmas Day you still had a choice QR. Given all of your comments on here, please don’t tell me you are still depending on bumbling Boris to make your decisions for you.
 
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So Boris dragged people kicking and screaming to see their families did he?

We completely changed our plans at Christmas to protect family... f**k Boris, we didn’t need him to tell us what to do.

On Christmas Day you still had a choice QR. Given all of your comments on here, please don’t tell me you are still depending on bumbling Boris to make your decisions for you.
How short is your memory??

It's so much more than just Christmas prior to which the majority of scientific advisors were tell him to go to full lockdown immediately. But do I have the time to list it all here for you to blindly dismissive it. No.
 
You think a government has no jurisdiction over or effect on people’s behaviour??

Very little over the stupid "do what they please" types.
The majority are sensible enough to make their own judgements guided by HMG.
However if 90% comply then that still leaves 10% (nearly 7 million folk) trundling around spreading to all and sundry.
If R is 1.4 then that 7 million rapidly becomes 10 million and then, very quickly, you have a big problem.
 
So if Boris said you can go and jump off Beachy Head are your going to be screaming at him to be “locked in” because you can’t take responsibility for yourself ?

Or, do you assess the situation and think, bloody hell if I did jump it will probably kill me?

Or, do you decide, nope, I’m still going to jump because Boris said I can and I might still actually get away with it?

As I now see it, the problem isn’t just a clueless, bumbling government anymore, it is also people who can’t make a rational decision for themselves. They still have to be told what to do as if they are little children.

To get through this we have to take joint and collective responsibility and not try to “get away with it”. That doesn’t mean just working within the guidelines as set out, it also means risk assessing your own situation/circumstances and taking appropriate action.

We have all seen enough to now know how dangerous this virus is, but many are still not showing it any respect. Many still think they will be fine, and perhaps many will indeed be fine, but it feels pretty much like a game of Russian Roullette to me.

If so many people think this Government is so clueless and incompetent, why are they still allowing it to dictate what they can and can’t do?

Are these people also so clueless and incompetent that they are incapable of making the sort of decisions they are asking this very government to make?

Just take matters into our own hands and look out for family and friends. Time for people to stop waiting for the government to tell us what to do.
Agree totally - reminds me of when Iived in Frankfurt and went to cross a road - a long boulevard of 400m and no cars within 100m either way - yet 50 people standing on the curb on both sides of he road waiting to cross. Why? Because the little green man was red. I crossed to wails of disapprovement - what sort of an example was I setting to the kids and my "Benutzen Sie ihre Augen!" fell on deaf ears. An hour later on my return the man was still red but I managed to push myself through the same crowd, waiting patiently but now looking at their watches in frustration and doubtless wondering what time they would get home. Reducing ourselves to being sheep, blindly following other peoples rules and guidelines rather than our own using common sense will surely lead some of the herd off the cliff edge.

We are in many ways a nanny state but there is no magical solution to this without people taking personal responsibility and stepping up to the mark. As with climate change and many other man made issues, the general public seem to think governments have a magic button to fix things, without them then having to be part of the solution. The evidence suggests otherwise.
 
Very little over the stupid "do what they please" types.
The majority are sensible enough to make their own judgements guided by HMG.
However if 90% comply then that still leaves 10% (nearly 7 million folk) trundling around spreading to all and sundry.
If R is 1.4 then that 7 million rapidly becomes 10 million and then, very quickly, you have a big problem.
Yeah, there’s a sensible group and a stupid/selfish group, but in between there are people who are susceptible to influence and are looking for clear guidance - which they haven’t received.
 
Agree totally - reminds me of when Iived in Frankfurt and went to cross a road - a long boulevard of 400m and no cars within 100m either way - yet 50 people standing on the curb on both sides of he road waiting to cross. Why? Because the little green man was red. I crossed to wails of disapprovement - what sort of an example was I setting to the kids and my "Benutzen Sie ihre Augen!" fell on deaf ears. An hour later on my return the man was still red but I managed to push myself through the same crowd, waiting patiently but now looking at their watches in frustration and doubtless wondering what time they would get home. Reducing ourselves to being sheep, blindly following other peoples rules and guidelines rather than our own using common sense will surely lead some of the herd off the cliff edge.

We are in many ways a nanny state but there is no magical solution to this without people taking personal responsibility and stepping up to the mark. As with climate change and many other man made issues, the general public seem to think governments have a magic button to fix things, without them then having to be part of the solution. The evidence suggests otherwise.
And - on climate change, it’s great if individuals recycle, fly less, etc, but the issue is too large to be dealt with that way. It needs strong and decisive action by government, ideally by a number of governments working together - which is why organisations like the EU are a good idea and one reason why isolationist Trump was such a disaster.
 
And - on climate change, it’s great if individuals recycle, fly less, etc, but the issue is too large to be dealt with that way. It needs strong and decisive action by government, ideally by a number of governments working together - which is why organisations like the EU are a good idea and one reason why isolationist Trump was such a disaster.
It also needs a general education to the general public on how local government works. I think we look too much for a national solution. The public need to make sure they know their councillors and how important it is to participate in local elections to get anything positive done locally. We need to vote out the dinosaurs and newer members who vote for projects such as Spaceport (here in Cornwall. £12m of public Cornish money invested and yet to launch). Instead we look to Boris and other world leaders for solutions - when they have failed us for eternity. Change has to come from grass roots levels. Name and shame those climate deniers following a "yes" agenda to further their own careers. There is no point Hallam calling for a citizens assembly if local authorities are full of fat old me with a business as usual agenda.
 
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