So it looks like Scotland will be locked down longer than the rest of the uk

[frasersmummy]

Judging by Nicola Sturgeons remarks today Scotland will remain In lockdown as it is now till the end of May while England will start easing up

Given we have so many less deaths in Scotland does anyone else feel Nicola is just making an independence point now

Yes, doing different is England or announcing before Boris weighs more heavily than scientific evidence. After all she has an election to fight next spring. The idea of waiting for anything until a vaccine is found is fantasy - a vaccine may never be found. However she is going to find things significantly harder when things like furloughing stops and she doesn’t have the budget to do that independently. Also if businesses and trade starts picking up in England people will become more disgruntled.

In Scotland the numpties will decide to follow England

A significant portion do not even realise that Boris’s announcements don’t apply to the whole of the UK

No London has been badly impacted. The region i live in has been badly impacted too.

Byt reading your post you mentioned London a lot. Why should the highlands and Islands of Scotland suffer just because London was more infected?

The post was about Scottish Lockdown and I really don't see why London (and I do mean only London) should at a part in the Scottish government decision

Now if it was a UK wide response taking in the whole of the UK and that is what you had referred too my opinion may be different

And don't kid yourself that we think of others pas a nation. Brexit was the perfect examp

posted too soon.

And don't kid yourself that we think of others as a nation. Brexit was the perfect example where we did not give a fuck about our future generations that ain't changed in the last few weeks.

I am not a fan of NS or the SNP but I genuinely believe she’s doing her best. I think independence is probably the last thing on her mind just now! Obviously long term divergence with the U.K. stance might not work but I do think we need another 3 weeks of lockdown. Our peak was after England’s remember so it makes sense we need to stay locked down longer.

If you look at the trend in figures Scotland are clearly a couple of weeks behind the UK so I agree with the Scottish Government’s stance.

I’m not sure what people are expecting Boris to announce for England though, sounds like it’s not going to be a radical change for people. More like you can go and play a round of tennis and maybe sunbathe in a public park so long as you follow social distancing. We’re not exactly missing out on a lot.

I think that because we went into lockdown so quickly people anticipate things springing back into life as soon as the government gives the go ahead. It’s far more likely that it will be small incremental changes, all subject to everyone still being able to practice social distancing which will mean that even once the Scottish or UK government says that a certain sector (small shops for instance) can open not all necessarily will as it either won’t be safe to do so or they’ll calculate that it’s not worth them doing so. If you’re currently managing to work from home then I expect you’ll be encouraged to do so for many months to come. This is going to be slow and steady as everything comes out of hibernation.

I really don’t think we’re going to end up in a situation where people in England suddenly have hugely different freedoms to Scotland, it will barely be noticeable.

Had enough My mentions of London were in response to a poster who brought it up. Not me.

I came on this thread in support of Nicola's decision to protect Scottish lives and businesses. Not sure how or why you've interpreted that as me wanting Scotland to suffer.

"I think she would say the polar opposite to whatever the government advised. If they said they’ll reopen in June she’s say May."

Eh? That's the polar opposite, as you put it, to what she's already said

I think independence is probably the last thing on her mind just now!

😂

The North-East of Scotland hasn't even peaked yet and there was a massive spike there at the weekend. Scotland is at a different point completely from other parts of the UK.

The UK govt performance on this so far has also resulted in the highest death rates in Europe - even less reason to unquestioningly follow a centralised
response.

The North-East of Scotland hasn't even peaked yet and there was a massive spike there at the weekend. Scotland is at a different point completely from other parts of the UK.

The implication of this is not that we should continue lockdown but rather why has lockdown worked in the rest of the uk but not in the NE of Scotland?

Lockdown hasn't yet worked.

It's not yet safe to ease lockdown. The infection rate is still too high and any premature easing of lockdown will see an almost immediate rise in cases and deaths. Causing more damage to the economy.

Nicola Sturgeon has the brain to see that

The centralised approach needs to be her approach. For the sake of the whole of the UK.

We should extend lockdown another three weeks. And use that time to do what should've been done far sooner. Finally get more PPE, accurate tests, treat patients in time, etc.

But lockdown is working in England (albeit still too early to lift) so why not Scotland?

Toffee I agree we should be holding Nicola to account for the lack of testing, PPE, and treating patients in time. It is almost as if she has been let off the hook on this because it has been poor in England too.

Genuine question. Does devolution give Nicola the power to arrange all of that for Scotland?

Sourcing and then purchasing accurate tests, implement the testing set-up, procure the PPE, decide on treatment protocols, etc?

If she does have that power then yes I agree she's as culpable as the Westminster government.

Then again at least she's now trying to mitigate the damage to lives and the economy by standing against premature easing of lockdown. Perhaps she plans to do as I suggest and use the next three weeks to put in place the measures required to protect lives and the economy.

It takes a special sort of twisted cynicism to look at Boris and his government's performance in all of this and then assume any conflicting/different action by Sturgeon is a purely political move. No government or leader wants this to continue and recovery will be just as heavily judged as actions during worst part of pandemic. Memories are also short. If you think she'd persist in crippling Scotland's economy for any longer than absolutely necessary you don't have your head on right, frankly. There is nothing to be gained - quite the opposite.

I'm no superfan but if the choice is Boris or Nicola, I know who I'd trust to make the right call and it's her - every single time.

@Aesopfable Not sure how big a part this plays in NE of Scotland figures, but I do know a lot of offshore workers have been medivac’d to Aberdeen from rigs and platforms. About 400 in the last six weeks.

Not all of those will test positive, but those who go will go in NE figures. There have been just under 1,000 confirmed cases there. So potentially the cases amongst offshore workers could be skewing those numbers.

Pretty difficult to maintain social distancing on an oil rig. Or on a helicopter flight on the way there.

BP came in for criticism as, even though it was testing people prior to sending them offshore, it wasn’t waiting for the results before putting people on the flight out.

There has been at least one case where someone tested before flying, received a positive result after making the journey. And therefore spent a prolonged period of time in close quarters in a confined space with other people, both on the helicopter and on the rig.

And all the people getting tested by oil companies before going offshore will go into NE of Scotland figures. They could come from anywhere in the country.

Then you have all the people in the North-East who do oil facing work, either on the rigs or coming into contact with those people.

I really don't think any easing of lockdown in the UK will be that significant. Maybe a few more retailers will be able to able to open, so a few more people travelling on public transport. They haven't met their 5 tests to release much more.

It's just spin talking to make people feel like we're coming out of this when we're only at the beginning.

Of course she is point scoring.

She made a really pointless statements about face coverings. Which came down to 'if you want to wear one, you can. If you don't want to, you don't have to'. Which was already the state of play.

She did this because of the growing public pressure regarding making face coverings mandatory.

She was talking about 'we will have adult conversations with you about coming out of lockdown' except she has really said much about it.

Because things are changing a the time. No one knows the exact way coming out of lockdown will work. Things may change which means the plans need to change.

She keeps saying things based in what Westminster are being critiqued for, but then not actually giving lots of information that she says she will.

I personally think she's doing a great job. She hit the nail on the head for me when she said "We can repair an economy, we can't bring people who die back to life

So the people whose deaths are the result of the broken economy can be brought back to life? Or don't their deaths matter?

Again, something she said, that matches what the public are shouting...but spectacularly misses the facts.

I can't find the same level of detail for Scotland as exists for NHS England. So the graphs with the breakdown by age, pre existing conditions and by gender, and date that deaths occurred rather than date reported. Does anyone know if this is available for Scotland as I find it rather interesting for England , and helps to give a much more detailed picture of the facts ?

I honestly believe if lockdown is eased in england and not scotland that there will be riots..

No. Scotland's health system is devolved. I'm convinced We went into lockdown in the first place because Scotland (and Wales) said "Fuck this stupid "herd immunity strategy " shit, this is a devolved matter and we aren't having it".
There weren't riots in NI when the stupid idiots in NI decided now was the time Not to have an All-Ireland strategy on something affecting the whole of Ireland.

I'm glad I started this thread there are loads of interesting points being made in a calm manner

www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/weekly-and-monthly-data-on-births-and-deaths/deaths-involving-coronavirus-covid-19-in-scotland
@rookiemere These might be a starting point for you. There are previous iterations on the website and more raw data.

To previous points; I don’t think lockdown hasn’t worked in NE Scotland, the numbers suggest the opposite.
We have a lower % population who have tested positive.
Oil Industry aside, we are looking at a largely agricultural / fishing area, with fairly sparsely populated areas, so social distancing has been relatively easier than, for example Greater Glasgow, or other Scottish hotspots.