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Coronavirus - the new strain VII

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It was a mistake that probably cost most of the 50,000 or so excess deaths we have seen so far as a result of the pandemic. The failure to consider the obvious alternative of a TTI regime and instead to go for managed herd immunity was not just a failure of the scientific advice: I still find it incredulous that a prime minister can be told of a strategy that will see tens of thousands die and not demand that alternatives are investigated.

The result of their initial failure is not just tens of thousands of lives unnecessarily lost, but also a longer lockdown with greater damage to the economy. The longer a country takes to go into lockdown, the longer the lockdown must last to bring cases down to a level that TTI can manage. Herd immunity will be remembered as one of the most costly mistakes a UK government ever made in peacetime.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/11/britain-economy-coronavirus-deaths
 
Here was a familiar Tory voice of impatience and condescension, once again breaking through the patina of solidarity with the public. There were echoes of an infamous passage of the free-market manifesto Britannia Unchained, written by five Tory MPs, four of whom are now ministers: “Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world.” Whatever its recent feints towards communitarianism and economic activism, the Conservative party seems unable to shake off its attachment to a vision of go-getting utopia, and its resultant contempt for a public that looks to the state for help and fails to match up to its ideal.
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This credo, of course, took hold in the Conservative party during the leadership of that era-defining grocer’s daughter, Margaret Thatcher. Under David Cameron and George Osborne, the same basic beliefs endured, while the party once again chose its leaders from the ranks of the wealthy and entitled. The result was Thatcherism taken away from its petit bourgeois roots and revived by public schoolboys whose determination to hack back the state was made all the more zealous by both arrogance and ignorance of how most people live.
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The results are now plain to see: after a decade of austerity we went into this crisis in a state of disastrous social fragility; and the innate Tory distrust of collectivism and state intervention – which Johnson shares, whatever his rhetoric – has surely been a big part of the reason it has been so badly handled. So too has been the classic officer-class trait of inattention to detail. As George Orwell put it back in 1941: “Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/11/bunting-britain-covid-19-crisis-nationalist
 
^ because the right course of action needed early, decisive communication with colleagues/the public; and clear, effective policies around TTI.
It is no surprise that lazy, self-indulgent BJ chose the easy option of going on holiday and missing the first 5 Cobra meetings.
Zero leadership when it really mattered. BJ fluffed his Churchill moment. WW2 had about 70,000 UK civilian deaths and Covid will be more than that.
The MSM will try hard to spin it but it is truly appalling. It will scar the UK for years.
 
^ Or was there a quick and easy 'back-of-envelope' (but nothing written down of course) plan ? Not to save lives but to save political careers.
Did BJ miss the Cobra meetings to absolve himself of responsibility ? After all PMs don't miss Cobra meetings do they ? Not 5 in a row.
And get Covid on purpose as his 'Get out of Jail Free' card ? After all he did waft around shaking every hand he could. "Everyone gonna get it sooner or later"...
Too Machiavellian ? For Cummings ?
That would be worse than appalling. Can't think of the right word at the moment.
 
“Use good solid British common sense, PM tells public”. (The Terriblegraph)
“Spelling Pinocchio? That requires a degree of literacy which I think the Great British public doesn’t necessarily have.” Stanley Johnson
 
ALERT

hey brexit obsessives, this is yet another thread you are f*cking up. you may not have noticed, but there is a serious decline in non-UK participation on the forum.

very bad.

not good.
 
And here we are in Scotland in a more remote situation not being able to take to water, because Kranky is milking the Independent angle for all it's worth.
2 weeks ago she got ass kicked for hinting she may open sooner than England. Now she is being contrary again. She has turned Scotland into a cesspit of poisonous fish farms and gaelic loonies.
 
Are we there yet?

Health board Cases / Change from previous day

Ayrshire and Arran 912/ 8
Borders 292/ 6
Dumfries and Galloway 255/ 0
Fife 813/ 2
Forth Valley 839/ 11
Grampian 1,078 / 28
Greater Glasgow and Clyde 3,479/ 30
Highland 322/ 2
Lanarkshire 1,693/ 33
Lothian 2,380/ 21
Orkney 7/ 0
Shetland 54/ 0
Tayside 1,497/ 0
Western Isles 6/ 0
 
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vuk said:
hey brexit obsessives, this is yet another thread you are f*cking up. you may not have noticed, but there is a serious decline in non-UK participation on the forum.

very bad.

not good.
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Really? I think it depends on which thread you are reading. The political threads on here certainly polarise thoughts and opinions. Caution is advised when contributing to them IMHO. But other subjects seem to have had very fair and balanced responses/contributions.
 
Andrew C! said:
Really? I think it depends on which thread you are reading. The political threads on here certainly polarise thoughts and opinions. Caution is advised when contributing to them IMHO. But other subjects seem to have had very fair and balanced responses/contributions.
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I'm surprised at vuk's comment, because while there's plenty of anti- government sentiment on this thread, which is not unwarranted IMHO, I hadn't connected it with Brexit to any significant degree.
 
kendo said:
Are we there yet?

Health board Cases Change from previous day

Ayrshire and Arran 912 8
Borders 292 6
Dumfries and Galloway 255 0
Fife 813 2
Forth Valley 839 11
Grampian 1,078 28
Greater Glasgow and Clyde 3,479 30
Highland 322 2
Lanarkshire 1,693 33
Lothian 2,380 21
Orkney 7 0
Shetland 54 0
Tayside 1,497 0
Western Isles 6 0
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I don’t think anywhere in the U.K. is there yet Kendo. The distinguished epidemiologist, Professor David Hunter writing yesterday-

“So let me make a prediction. If we take the prime minister’s advice and return to work in large numbers now – and without the ability to test, trace and isolate – then virus spread will increase, there will be super-spreader events and local or regional lockdowns will have to be reconsidered”.

Government’s first responsibility is the safety of its citizens.
 
TheDecameron said:
“Use good solid British common sense, PM tells public”. (The Terriblegraph)
“Spelling Pinocchio? That requires a degree of literacy which I think the Great British public doesn’t necessarily have.” Stanley Johnson
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Good old British sense. Yeah, right the people who stockpiled toilet paper as they thought it was made in China, or the people who rang 999 when KFC ran out of chicken
 
billo said:
Good old British sense. Yeah, right the people who stockpiled toilet paper as they thought it was made in China, or the people who rang 999 when KFC ran out of chicken
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That always surprised me. The rumour was that bog roll was made in Wuhan and would run short due to factory closures. I had thought that in this era of burning down phone masts because they spread Coronavirus, the lieges would have been reluctant to over up an item to their bottom that had been touched by hands in Wuhan.
 
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