Anybody else DISGUSTED at the anti lockdown protestors!?

[Duemarch2021]

It makes me so angry that people are protesting about lockdown... yes its frustrating but it's being done for a reason... to try and prevent as many deaths as there would be without a lockdown... they are selfishly spreading covid and yhe police have to put themselves out there and risk their lifes to stop the gatherings! 😠 What do they think will happen!? That government will say ok- ok you win... go wild, have fun and mingle lets just forget covid now!?.....Does this make anybody else absolutely fuming at the human race!!!?

A good friend of mine went to the protest yesterday. He has lost his business, 6 months behind on his mortgage payments and his marriage is all but over. Are you seriously saying he doesn't have a right to protest? I'm very worried he may be added to the suicide statistics.

I leave my job on Friday due to redundancy and I for one will be joining the next protest.

@Parky04

A good friend of mine went to the protest yesterday. He has lost his business, 6 months behind on his mortgage payments and his marriage is all but over. Are you seriously saying he doesn't have a right to protest? I'm very worried he may be added to the suicide statistics.

I leave my job on Friday due to redundancy and I for one will be joining the next protest.

I nearly lost mine, through redundancy survived for now.... So grateful to those attending protests and fighting for us

Not disgusted one bit, its high time more people stood up to this nonsense.

No, it makes my heart sing! It's about time people are starting to realise the destruction this nonsense is causing. Destruction to humanity and the human race for a virus with an IFR of just over 1% so good for them I say.

You wouldn’t consider an unchecked virus with an R0 of +3 and an IFR of over 1% destructive to humanity then? You don’t think that deaths on that scale would have a fairly negative effect on the global economy or the mental health of the population?

Twats.

@MakeItRain I imagine a lot of protesters have come from Kent. That's where I am, going from tier 1 to tier 3. We're a large county, my town has one of the lowest virus rates in the whole country. But we're now tier 3?? Because one area has the worst. But that area is quite far away from us, and is home to 3 prisons which are having mass outbreaks. I think a blanket tier system is wrong and it should be down to county leaders to decide the best way forward. I would like to see Kent's rates after the prisons and schools are removed from it, seeing as they will still be open and cases will still be spreading. What's the point of shutting the pubs and restaurants when there wasn't many cases linked to them, but keeping schools open spreading the virus. And I'm not advocating for schools to close, I want them to stay open, but i want those cases to be removed from the data determining our tier.
I agree with the protesters and the Tory rebels demanding more scrutiny. And I don't think a bunch of London based advisors know the individual counties well enough to make the decisions and constantly take away our freedoms. I don't want to be fined for having who I want in my house. It cannot be a criminal offence to have a friend visit my home. It's wrong

Some of these protesters are people who have lost their jobs and businesses in the interests of keeping people ‘safe’. No one appears to give a shit about their lives being ruined so I absolutely don’t blame them from protesting. No one I know is bothered about the virus anymore but are worried sick about the economic impact to come.

The people so keen on lockdowns and smugly witter on about caring about others are always the ones who aren’t financially affected, surprise, surprise.

What do you mean that "lockdowns don't work"? Data shows that lockdowns have had a massive effect, and our cases and death rates plummeted in spring following lockdown. A quick Google seems to indicate that lockdowns are really effective. (Eg look at Sweden's vast death rate per capita, compared with neighbouring countries that locked down)

Maybe make a comparison with Germany that has not had such tight restrictions? and has far less economic damage too.
The excess deaths, a more reliable indicator of the overall effects, puts UK at top in europe and one of the highest in the world.

The UK has managed to not only fail to protect its citizens from CV but also do the double and ruin its economy too.

The social and economic effects of LD are massive & over 100 tory MPs agree with the protestors, so their campaigns have not been in vain.

@BloggersBlog

Ruddy idiots. Look at other countries that have stuck to the rule like NZ and how low their deaths are in proportion.

Pathetic and an embarrassment that people in the UK just cant be told.

But I mainly feel sorry for the policemen and women who have to deal with these jerks

I’ve lost count of the number of times I have to point this out. New Zealand - population less than 10% of UK population. Size of country - the same. There is SOOOOOOOO much space there, you couldn’t spread the virus if you tried!

Bagamoyo agree it’s ridiculous to compare U.K. with NZ especially at this point when we’ve been dealing with lockdowns for 9 months or so and the economic hit is worsening.

The U.K. drastically reduced numbers in first and now even in second it is falling. People comply. And we started at a much higher level (NZ on about 102 cases at lockdown).

NZ also closed off the border.

No

Loss of the right to protest is the first step in losing our civil liberties for good.

@Tolleshunt

Because you can't train doctors and nurses overnight, perhaps?

Yes, I know that.

So why build the Nightingales, then? Colossal waste of money.

Or we could have recruited staff from overseas - either to directly work in Covid care, or to backfill those roles where staff have been moved from other depts to work on Covid wards. Ethical considerations abound with attracting staff from other countries, clearly, but then so are there massive ethical considerations in condemning cancer patients to die when they would otherwise have lived if they’d been diagnosed and treated within the usual timeframes.

Of course this issue wouldn’t have been so severe in the UK of governments hadn’t deliberately underfunded the NHS over years. We’ve consistently spent around 2% less of our GDP on health compared to other comparable countries like France and Germany for years. Imagine what capacity we could have had in ICU units and other wards up and down the country if we had been investing at a similar rate to our peer countries! For that, blame lies squarely with government.

Everyone I know who works (or worked) as a doctor or nurse in the NHS knew full well that the Nightingales were a bloody charade and that they would never have enough staff with the necessary skills to staff them. ICU is a specialist field, as is renal dialysis, which many Covid patients need.

Overseas medical staff from non-EU countries have to undergo a fairly complex and time-consuming process to ensure that their qualifications and experience meet UK standards, or undertake a course that is, iirc, a minimum of 6 months. EU medical staff were needed in their home countries and, in the early days at least, travel from many countries was banned.

But on your final point, we are in agreement. Underfunding generally, and the requirement for nurses to fund their own training via loans at 6% interest, has led to the NHS being fully stretched at the best of times and unable to cope with an outbreak of serious infectious illness.

In normal times, without a world wide pandemic, peaceful protests should be allowed. Peaceful protest

However, during a pandemic it’s the most selfish, arrogant #%^#}. ,#}~>% shit thing to do. I feel as though they’re spitting on the graves of all those NHS people who died of covid who caught it trying to save the lives of the public. Totally disgusting

All these people should be locked up together for 2 weeks, at their own cost with not a pence from public funds, and given no medical treatment for covid.

Germany have just gone into tighter restrictions the number of deaths in the last few weeks has gone up considerably and higher Daily numbers than in the first wave. They acted faster but they still had lockdowns and have increased the restrictions (high school children now have to wear masks) that are not that different to ours.

Isn’t it Germany that have led the call for Ski resorts to be closed this coming ski season ?

So why build the Nightingales, then? Colossal waste of money.

Just so that Johnson and Co (especially the incompetent Hancock), could stand up at the daily sermon and say "look what we have done". Completely obvious from the minute they did it.

YANBU OP, they’re absolute scum.

I’m pleased. Also happy that there is a group of mps standing up for our rights. I know they probably won’t win but gives me hope that there is more and more each time and at some point they might win!

I agree, this virus has cost us our livelihood and will cost us our home. It's time to open up the economy again and look at this differently. It's time to think about ALL vulnerable groups in our society.
Media needs to stop scaremongering and politics need to stop picking and choosing what they think we want to hear.
I get that this virus is unpredictable it could kill me tomorrow. But so is the financial survival of millions of people, companies and institutions (such as the NHS) who will be crippled and die much slower deaths.

When you say it has been removed - what do you mean? A law passed or guidance etc
@MarshaBradyo yes, a law has now been passed so protesting is now illegal

"Loss of the right to protest is the first step in losing our civil liberties for good." Yes this.

I am not disgusted at the protests at all.

I have been going to protests since August as I am fed up with government's lies, manipulation of medical statistics, destruction of economy and society.
Pandemic was over in June.
People die of various diseases but because they tested positive with useless PCR tests their deaths count as Covid deaths.
This fraud by our government has to stop. That's why we have to protest.

@Smellbellina

I don’t agree with them but I stand by their legal right to protest

They are allowed to organise protests and marches but must submit plans to be agreed. They only get challenged when they deviate from them. These people weren’t protesting they were provoking and fighting with the police. Who are not responsible for any of this.

They do this so they can substantiate their claims of living in an authoritarian police state. Because otherwise the response to their rule breaking would be a pc having a bit of a chat with them.

This is agitation not protesting.

@Neron

When you say it has been removed - what do you mean? A law passed or guidance etc *@MarshaBradyo* yes, a law has now been passed so protesting is now illegal

Oh right thanks I googled to see specifics. It’s (potential) removal of the word protest in an exemption clause.

Pandemic was over in June

Where did you get that information from Lunar ?

Here:
The clause in effect permitted individuals to gather in a group of more than six for the purposes of protest as long as the following rules were satisfied:
The gathering has been organised by a business, a charity, a benevolent or philanthropic institution, a public body, or a political body.
The organiser of the protest has carried out a risk assessment that meets the requirements of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
The organiser has taken all reasonable steps to limit the risk of transmission of coronavirus, in line with the risk assessment and with any relevant government guidance.
But while the clause remains in the new lockdown regulations, which were published late on Tuesday, the explicit reference to “protests” has vanished.

The Guardian

Seems unclear what would happen, they say it was to simplify, as right to protest should exist in democracy

Yes, LakieLady, requiring nurses to pay a loan back from fairly low pay, instead of giving a grant, was utter folly and incredibly short sighted. As if they’re somehow not a public good as well. Tory policy, of course.

I hadn’t realised there’d be a six month lag for staff, I had thought there’d be a list of countries deemed equivalent, so qualifications could be recognised, as with other professions.

So test and trace done properly across the population, to catch asymptomatic cases, becomes the only solution if we want a functioning economy, then. Which you would have thought we would..... but the government don’t appear to have prioritised its.