United Kingdom VI: Summer Lovin'

[MartyG]

This is mixed messaging again though - you must stay at home, unless you're going to work, but work from home. But go to school and college. If people are still congregating at these places then it's a partial lockdown and is only going to be partially effective.

I have the car booked for an MoTd on Friday and atm I've no clue from this announcement whether that's still going to be possible.

I'm watching the grocery delivery slots slowly decreasing in numbers, give it an hour and they will all be gone. Edit, give it 10-15 minutes now.

[Blobcat]

Mine is booked on the 10th which is my expiry date for my MOT so god knows what I'm gonna do.

[cutmymilk]

I went over recently. I ran out of tax too and couldnt pay for it without an MOT. Lockdown is a perfectly acceptable reason if anything happens.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I'm watching the grocery delivery slots slowly decreasing in numbers, give it an hour and they will all be gone. Edit, give it 10-15 minutes now.

I've just come back from my local supermarket where many shelves are already totally spotless. It's almost like a forewarning of people being complete and utter Charlie Uniform November Tango Sierra for the month ahead, all because we have a massive Charlie Uniform November Tango as our current PM.

[Hirst]

Garages will stay open, they only closed briefly during the original one.

[Neon Ignition]

Lots of unrest from various sectors about the late timing of the lockdown and furlough. Regarding the latter:

Embedded Tweet

A common reaction, but a falsehood one in terms of protecting jobs.

Despite the announcement of the lockdown apparently it requires a vote on Wednesday and Tory anger is so strong there's a chance Boris will need Labour to push it over the line.

[Neon Ignition]

So, given the Tories are going with the pre-Xmas second lockdown. My guestimate would be:

01 - Possible extension to the second lockdown by 2 weeks if case numbers don't show enough evidence of falling by 01 December.
02 - No lockdown over Christmas and New Years or in January
03 - Around 03 March, almost exactly a year on, announcement of the third national lockdown which could potentially last through till June/July again

[Nu-Eclipse]

Speaking to family down in Wales it seems like people just don't care anymore and are being rather flexible with the lockdown rules. It's all good and well treating people like adults and asking them to take measures to help themselves and others but plenty just aren't bothering hence the surge in infections being reported recently.

It's all well and good blaming the public and accusing them of not being bothered, but what do you expect when Gov't advisers like Dominic Cummings are allowed to openly break the rules in the first place?

[Jaz]

Sorry this is happening to you all. Life is basically normal here in NZ. No restrictions, no masks. Hell, you can even watch rugby with 50,000 others. Very easy to forget the rest of the world is still ****. And, we need the rest of the world.

[Nu-Eclipse]

NZ have a leader who took this seriously from the very beginning - what REAL leadership looks like.

[Dogg Thang]

Sorry this is happening to you all. Life is basically normal here in NZ. No restrictions, no masks. Hell, you can even watch rugby with 50,000 others. Very easy to forget the rest of the world is still ****. And, we need the rest of the world.

Must be weird being in a country where it’s totally under control when most of the rest of the planet shrugged its shoulders and decided that we just have to live with it. A very good mate is in Auckland and it’s life as normal for him. When they needed to go into a second lockdown, they did what they were told because that trust was already there. And then back to normal again.

[Jaz]

Yeah Auckland had a second, but much less restrictive, lockdown. I'm In Christchurch and we didn't. Its been normal since end of April.

[Jaz]

NZ have a leader who took this seriously from the very beginning - what REAL leadership looks like.

The government said stay home, do what you need or the elderly die. Everyone has a parent, Grandparent or neighbour who is elderly. So, we all listened.

[Nu-Eclipse]

The government said stay home, do what you need or the elderly die. Everyone has a parent, Grandparent or neighbour who is elderly. So, we all listened.

Which underlines my point perfectly - Jacinda Ardern and NZ Government took it seriously from day one.

Over here, Boris Johnson and his cabinet didn't. It took threats from leaders of other nearby countries before he moved to do anything. Before that, he stood up in front of the British people and told them that they'd just have to take it on the chin if their loved ones died. He and his cabinet also tried to advocate for letting the virus rip through the country on account of unfounded herd immunity.

[Neon Ignition]

Which given the UK is an island nation underlines how much our Government has utterly failed with handling the pandemic. We could have been in that position.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/31/covid-job-losses-lead-mps-to-call-for-trials-of-universal-basic-income

In the face of the second lockdown a large cross party group of mps renew calls to run trials of Universal Basic Income