ADs and their pampered poodles

[BogRollBOGOF]

Here we are again, gaining sequels even more rapidly than the Fast and the Furious...

Locally our numbers peaked at the end of October, and tailed off through November, but that trend began before the lag time of being contagious, symptomatic and tested would have shown a week or so later.
Restrictions probably accelerate the decline, also they affect how far over the line people tip-toe. I saw no additional risk in DS1's best friend coming over for his birthday given that they were spending all day at school together 2 days earlier, but that situation is different at present. (Our amount of sicial interactions is pretty minimal, and friend is a low-risk household, that illicit interraction was a lot less than the average as we have no bubbles or work away from home)

By the time you can "justify" a lockdown to the public, you're probably towards a peak of it anyway. It has been suggested that late March was the natural peak for 2020, and numbers would not have risen and risen through April and May as the weather significantly improved compared to the wash-out of the first three months.

The problem is they cause an undulating effect on people catching up on things they need. In June, the DCs needed new clothes and shoes. In December, I ended up buying a properly fitting pair of trainers in the shops after my emergency blind buy (because the old ones were causing blisters) failed to be the most comfortable style. The "non-essential" shopping quickly banks up.

@NastyBlouse

Bear with me on the ONS thing

But in the meantime, oooh this is interesting.

This recent study from Stanford University (5th January) has found no significant benefit to what they're calling 'more restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions' (lockdowns/stay-at-home orders and enforced business closures) in terms of reducing case growth, over and above 'less restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions' i.e. the approaches taken by Sweden and South Korea.

The conclusion reads as follows:

While small benefits cannot be excluded, we do not find significant benefits on case growth of more restrictive NPIs. Similar reductions in case growth may be achievable with less restrictive interventions.

In the framework of this analysis, there is no evidence that more restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions (“lockdowns”) contributed substantially to bending the curve of new cases in England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, or the United States in early 2020.

It's quite dense academic language but well worth reading the full report, it's very interesting.

That's my reading for this evening sorted then! Thanks @NastyBlouse

I like the suggestions of Freddie Mercury breaking free as a sign of resistance, but it says something about how cowed we are when we are afraid to express an opinion openly. 'Open up the bloody country, Boris you berk' would be my choice.
Along those lines, I came across this, which I find alarming - and which has made me angry all over again.
www.ukcolumn.org/article/covid-coercion-boris-johnsons-psychological-attack-uk-public

And this is a more recent take on the same subject (which is actually the one I wanted to show you)
www.ukcolumn.org/article/psychological-attack-uk

Loving the phrasing on sky news right now:

Boris Johnson says he is 'looking at the potential of relaxing some measures' before mid-February - but Number 10 immediately clarifies this is not what he meant

The subtext of "PM talks shit and is corrected by his own staff yet again" is making me giggle. A bit.

Thanks, @Reedwarbler. V interesting and why I won't trust psychologists or psychiatrists again any time soon unless one of you lot are either of those.

My “fuck Boris” sticker has fallen off my car. Am tempted to replace it with this which I think got to number 5 in the charts at Christmas.

justasking111
You are correct there. I had a chap who died because of injuries sustained in road traffic accident, who caught covid in hospital, then was counted in the covid figures.
Tbh I've sort of 'got over' missing shopping or restaurants but having our beautiful outdoors taken away from us by loitering policemen just seems crazy.
The play parks seem to be safe of police at the moment, maybe the sand dunes.
I absolutely refuse to believe I could catch covid (again!) From having a wander to the beach to watch the seals.

@TrustTheGeneGenie

thank you *@Curlygirl06* !! i go in and check on him just before i go to bed on a night and it is usually an hour or two after that so i will give it a go!

poor boy, we thought they would have stopped by now!

@TrustTheGeneGenie

Goodo, make sure you do it for at least a week, that's what we did with our grandson though he was only 4 at the time. It started again a year or so afterwards; our son and dil started shaking him awake straight away and continued for a week, even though he'd stopped doing it after the first night. Please let me know how you get on.

See these alternatives to the "look him in the eyes" posters.

From Private Eye.

Coffey is to tackle the looming unemployment crisis by reviving a privatised welfare to work scheme from 2011 that was marred by poor results corruption , exploitation of the unemployed and the collapse of leading providers. Under Coffeys £2.9 billion Restart scheme contractors will help unemployed people on UC into work using job coaches training and work placements on a paid by results basis.

And having seen the real "look him in the eyes" posters, do I feel a pang?

Nope. I just think "God, Saint Boris is becoming even more desperate, I think he realises the game of keeping the public docile and terrified will soon be up".

And if any of those posters start coming to a bus stop near me, they will soon be amended.

@wanderings

I think I could put the “Boris : waste of space” poster in my window, though. A more subtle way of showing resistance to lockdown. I’d love to put the sheep in masks in my car window, but I don’t dare.

I was thinking at the weekend that wearing a ‘Hello Fellow Sheeple’ or ‘this mask is useless’ face mask, would likely wind people up more than not wearing a mask at all.

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/25/france-bans-homemade-covid-masks-public?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_b-gdnnews&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1611595572

Had the misfortune of seeing one of those awful adverts when watching normal TV the other evening. Just annoyed the living daylights out of me to be honest. Most people are doing their best and the ones that aren’t really won’t give a shiny shit about “looking people in the eye”

@Worldgonecrazy I like "Hello, fellow sheeple". My usual mask (the only one I have: I will not invest in the face nappy industry) references 1984. I wear it on the underground, with pride. (Ugh - that slogan "wear your poppy with pride".)

Here are my alternative suggestions to the "look them in the eyes" posters:

I look you in the eyes, and swear that war in Iraq was the right thing to do. (Bliar)

I look you in the eyes, and swear that my journey to Barnard Castle was essential. (Scummings)

I look you in the eyes, and swear that the Brexit referendum was the right thing to do. (Cameron, in the style of that "I'll cut the deficit, not the NHS poster)

I look you in the eyes, and swear that I am God. (Any of Saint Boris or his merry men, take your pick)

Oh, and here's another one: you mustn't hug your granny, but you can hug a hoodie.

Just made the big mistake of looking "over there". Crikey. Don't do it. Especially if you want to get any sleep. Apparently Us4Them (not sure if that is the precise name, but I know of the group and their campaign) is backed by far right extremists. Utterly fucking mad "over there".

Extremists piggy back on things don`t they. Any large group of people who organise something get infiltrated.

I was thinking the other day when drying my legs after a shower, hairy they are. What is happening to women all over the UK who pluck, wax, shave from head to toe normally. On Facebook I see friends bemoaning their nails but no-one talks about their body hair. Are their husbands seeing them a la natural for the first time are they attempting DIY methods or are they like me thinking sod it. Never been one for clearing the lady garden but in normal times in the summer take care of underarms, legs and I have had my eyebrows done now and again.

I'm more tolerant of my inner yeti in the winter. Extra thermal properties under my long johns

While I'm no loss to the beauty industry anyway, how many women have tealised that they don't need it and would rather save their money?

I haven't seen a slug eyebrow on ages
In my last school, half the girls looked permanently mardy, although a fair proportion of them were

@justasking111

Extremists piggy back on things don`t they. Any large group of people who organise something get infiltrated.

Pissed-off parents is a change of scenery for them.

I'm not convinced that wanting your children to go to school is an extremist point of view (beyond Afghanistan), but who knew how differently others would feel about such a "contraversial" belief.

Ha! The far right, famously pro education are they?

@SirSamuelVimes

Ha! The far right, famously pro education are they?

To be fair... "Whoever has the youth, has the future," said a certain political figure of the 20th century. So probably he wouldn't have closed the schools. But for rather different reasons!

Is the BBC starting to change their tune? (Maybe they've been infiltrated by the far right and their keenness for education?)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55801099