It’s bound to rise a bit though....so what?
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Yeah, it's a case of sending a completely ambiguous, but strongly worded, statement to the nation. It is typically British, in a way.
I can see arguments as people start socialising because they no longer have to stay at home. I have had e-mails from companies since Friday declaring "The lockdown is lifted".
"Only go out for essential trips - including the garden centre and library". It's getting a little bit garbled - a bit like Johnson's answer to a Keir Starmer question on Wednesday. Make sense of this, if you can.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boris Johnson
It'll be genuinely interesting to see what happens in the countries that have begun to lift their lockdowns. If those that appear to have coped best with the first wave of the virus suffer significant second waves of infections and deaths, then the situation will become a lot clearer and some extremely difficult decisions will need to be made by the authorities.
Two things we know are that a vaccine could either be a long way off or may never arrive at all, and that the human race cannot and will not continue to function as it is currently for an indefinite period of time. Cracks have been appearing since the outset and they seem to be widening on a daily basis now, which is hardly surprising. Difficult times ahead for sure.
Please remember that here in Wales we are a devolved nation and therefore our slogan is still Stay Home, Protect The NHS, Save Lives.
The new "Stay Alert" slogan is an English one, not a British one. Our lockdown was extended (with minor adjustments) for three weeks 2 days ago
The first lockdown was ridiculously lax, in hindsight 4 weeks of draconian measures would have been more sensible. A slight 3 week relaxing then, allowing a bit of exercise etc would have been a psychological Godsend, that’d been 7 weeks gone. Another slight relaxing then to, say what the actual first lockdown entailed would have had us happier. As it is it seems as though people are beginning to think it’s business as usual, the second wave is quite probable. Are we cannon fodder? Is a population reduction the government’s plan to get back on its financial feet, there’s a few been wiped off the monthly state pension bill already.
It is probably something a politician will never say but I expect some of them may be thinking it:-
The aim is to keep the R rate below 1.
What percentage of deaths occur in care homes? The national R rate is allegedly 0.6-0.9 at the moment.
If you take care homes out of the equasion what would the R rate be then?
It is quite a calous exercise but care homes can be more eaily regulated and environmentally controlled which would give the greater population more breathing space.
That and ensuring that the most vulnerable continue to barricade (can't think of the word they use for higher level of self isolation) themselves might make lifting the lock down for the vast majority less problematic.
But of course, as I said, no politician would ever say it!!
I didn't have you marked down as a conspiracy theorist, Steve. You've surprised me.
I believe the truth is relatively simple: we have a government cabinet packed with hopeless, inexperienced incompetents who are desperately trying to deal with a situation that, despite clear warnings stretching back decades, they were almost totally unprepared for and they treated far too nonchalantly during the early stages.
Absolutely nothing in Boris Johnson's background suggested he was going to make a good Prime Minister and very little in the backgrounds of those he chose as his leading players in the cabinet suggested they were going to be any more competent than he is.
Still, at least we've taken back control......
My last paragraph was a bit tongue in cheek Dave but this lot in power do remind me of a film I saw years ago, can’t remember the name, it was a period piece and during a battle scene the toffs in charge were sat in armchairs on a hill overlooking the carnage below quaffing port, munching on hocks waited on by the luckier minions who weren’t involved in the fighting. I do think that Johnson is part of a set who don’t particularly give a shite about the masses. Hang on perhaps it wasn’t tongue in cheek:hehe:
You enjoy that butty?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ter-150-deaths
Do you really think it was that lax the first few weeks? Kin hell they was barely a person or car on north rd....no one was out at all.
I reckon Boris will say people can sit in a park etc like has been widely advertised this weekend, I guess people just did it a day early which isn’t right but whatever will be will be. Even if he does say today people can go out more, where will they go? Nothing is really open is it? Hearing a lot of independents are going to open up soon if they can, dog groomers etc....
Mediocrities were rewarded for their Brexit stance with high ranking Cabinet jobs - there may have been times when we could have got by with a Prime Minister and Cabinet who are so out of their depth, but this certainly isn't one of them. I've read a couple of articles saying that the Scottish people instinctively trust Nicola Sturgeon to take the right decisions on the virus because she has a sense of gravitas to her and doesn't speak to them as if they were idiots - I'll just say that their opinion of Johnson and his Government was quite different.
This article says so much about how out government is viewed oversees and I think the economic analyst who says "Johnson’s management of the pandemic has been almost Mediterranean in style, flippant and carefree,” is spot on in my book and I fear that it's beginning to look like he is right when he also says “You can’t help but think that people have been left to rot, that the interests of the economy were put before health.”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ter-150-deaths
I know Italy had it tough as you could only go 250m from your house, kids couldn’t go out in Spain at all which must have been a nightmare. Other countries didn’t even have a lockdown at all.....it will be very interesting to see what NZ does in the next 3 months as it relies heavily on tourism.
The amount of new alcoholics created by this lockdown is going to be frightening....it was bad enough before. People I know who barely drink usually have been drinking almost every night.
On a similar theme..
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...QTmzTt70n1RIYM
"The way the world is looking at the UK is not the way the UK is looking at itself".