Covid is being used as an excuse

[Kettler]

To mask Brexit, & the imminent fallouts from it? Other countries are closing their borders against us - all supposedly due to this new strain of the virus but it’s odd coincidence all this is occurring now, within sight of Brexit.

I smell bullshit. There may indeed be a new strain of the virus but all viruses mutate - we all know that. Brexit is causing deep changes which we’re just beginning to see and the new strain is forcing us into desperate lockdown measures, harsher restrictions likely for the next few months. We won’t be thinking about Brexit & the shit hitting the fan. We’re too worried about the highly transmissible new strain.

I think the Govt’s behavioural psychology dept. is due a payrise.

So what are the rest of the world masking?

For those saying hospital admissions are high please go to NHS and check your facts. I will post again the government’s own figures which show that HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS ARE LOWER THAN AT THE SAME TIME LAST YEAR. 0.000216% of the population is currently hospitalised! The rise in positive cases is as a result of the mandatory testing of children (80% of whom are asymtomatic even with the virus). As I said before if only 1.8 elderly people are dying per week in one of the worst hit boroughs, therefore, a far lower amount of people are dying elsewhere. Add on false positives, flu put together with covid and you have the bare facts- a small amount of elderly people are regrettably dying but for the majority covid will mean mild symptoms. We are being lied to despite being able to google the real figures. There is no justification for Tier 4 at all. Nightingale is empty. It’s not out of control at all. Recognise when you are being lied to, check the figures yourself. Write to your mps and demand that they get the government to explain we we are having our civil liberties removed for under two deaths per week- those being of elderly and frail people. It’s a disgrace.

So no, the pandemic is not being used as an excuse to mask Brexit and its fallouts. It will be used as an excuse for why everything they've touched has turned to shit, but that's another question entirely.

I think you’re right that the pandemic will be used as an excuse ad nauseum. But, whilst I don’t think that the government has deliberately handled the pandemic badly in order to distract from the shitshow that is Brexit, I do think there is some deliberate malice there. Whatever you think of Brexit - leaver or remainer - surely the one thing everyone can agree on is the fact that now is a terrible, terrible time to crash out without a deal. When leavers voted to leave in 2016, I doubt any of them envisaged a no-deal crash out during the worst economic crisis since the 40s and the worst public health crisis for a century.

I just think any vaguely responsible government would have sought to extend the transition period in light of what has happened this year. But they haven’t. And the only explanation I can think of for that is that they have deliberately decided to use the pandemic to disguise what a disaster Brexit was always going to be - pandemic or no pandemic.

Hanlon's razor :)

I smell bullshit

I smell it too...it's coming from you OP

"I just think any vaguely responsible government would have sought to extend the transition period in light of what has happened this year. But they haven’t. And the only explanation I can think of for that is that they have deliberately decided to use the pandemic to disguise what a disaster Brexit was always going to be - pandemic or no pandemic."

I agree, and this is not even a remotely responsible government. This is a collection of individuals promoted beyond their competence and indulging in groupthink; manoeuvred into place by part grandees who give not one shiny shit about the country and its people but are under the delusion that they are returning us to some mythic pre-EU Utopia where they sip tea and the rest of us tug our forelocks and know our place.

People voted for this, believing that those promoting Brexit had already worked out the details of how to bring it about. It all reminds me of the old IT joke (cartoon appended).

ohgetoveryourself

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

I'm taking my figures about 2000 daily covid admissions directly from the government website. Case numbers may have increased because of changes in testing strategy but we have been conducting,on average, 300k daily tests or more since mid October and increasing hospitalisation rates are tracking increasing case numbers. 2000 daily C19 admissions (and rising) with a total bed capacity of 170,000 should give anyone with an appreciation of what exponential means pause for thought.

The nightingales are a reassuring back up but do we have staff for them?

Reduced hospital admissions compared to this time last year is not surprising given that at the moment many hospitals have suspended elective admissions.

If the pandemic hadn't happened, I expect they would just have blamed 'Brussels' like they've been doing for years. Or 'the French'. Anything but themselves.

The majority of people who have an interest in what is going on in the country will possess the ability to read and understand news about both Covid and Brexit.

The majority of people can't manage critical thought beyond "Brexit means Brexit".

Think they’ve tried to cause panic with the mutant version to excuse ‘cancelling’ Xmas only to miscalculate other countries would take it at face value. So now banned by the entire world

I do find it odd that this has been known abut since september, and only becomes an issue now, when Boris wants to Uturn again.

I think the situation is basically, he overegged the pudding in order to scare people into listening to him, not realising that this could well be the result.

As for question, nah I don't think its about Brexit. But it is a snapshot of what brexit could potentially do!

Mind, its all a convenient cover for Brexit shite also. Now, Brexit didnt cause problems, it went down great, we were right! Unfortunately, covid fucked everything, else we would be walking on clouds right now with how great Brexit was! Booooo

Re 2000 daily admissions- how many are then released. The data (from the same source) suggests that about 17000 are currently hospitalised and that there are about 1100 working hospitals in the uk. So that’s about 15 people in each hospital then . Meanwhile, people with cancer, Diabetes, Heart disease etc are not getting proper treatment due to said elective procedures not being done. Hardly overrun is it?

No it is not.
Brexit is a separate coming soon disaster.

Very true Emerald- so all the more essential that we have a strong economy. The FTSE has fallen dramatically due to Tier 4 being introduced.

tbf we were pretty quick to ban travel from Denmark, when they had the mink related covid strain, as was the rest of Europe - so could just be par for the course with worrying new strains.

You're not alone in thinking it.
If any country announces a new strain far more contiguous they'd be shut off too.
The Airport/Train station photos were probably enhanced but the message stay at home isn't working other countries will toughen up their border to prevent visits.

Ds is a journalist for national media. The thinking in there is that this has been hanging round for quite a while. And the government decided to panic about London and Tier 4 as they realised they should have done it earlier.

So they blamed it on a new strain which has actually been around for a bit.