What would you like the govt to talk about in daily briefings?

[zafferana]

Since MN is something that is read by journalists and, I presume, people who work in government, what issues have you been waiting impatiently to hear about in the daily briefings?

Mine are, in no particular order:

• a proper plan for the reopening of schools in Sept for ALL children
  
  
• child care/holiday clubs and activities for the summer holidays
  
  
• outdoor sports clubs - things like cricket, football, rugby, outdoor swimming pools and lidos
  
  
• ditto gyms, health clubs and pools
  
  
• hair salons and barber shops
  
  
• playgrounds and other outdoor leisure equipment
  
  
• holidays - in particular UK holidays of the SC kind what would allow for social distancing.

[conveniencestore]

@StayAlert - I know, those 233 certainly includes deaths from the weekend when a very low figure of about 30 was being celebrated in the media etc. Thank you for educating me, but we can't escape the very poor comparison with almost every comparable country. The total death toll is enormous and it is still very high after 3 months of lockdown. The figures should not just be compared to March and April and May in the UK, but to what has happened in other countries. We did not have a different virus that was worse and that is why we fared worse. We managed and are managing it worse.

[Youneverknowwhatyourgonnaget]

I want them to guarantee all kids go back in September full time

[Goatymcgoaty]

Why was 31st October chosen as the “final end date, scheme winding down” for furlough, announced by Rishi Sunak back in May? Seems a very accurate date given it was 6 months in advance. Random guesswork?

Why are the restrictions easing even though we still have a massively high rate of infections and deaths? They don’t even seem that bothered any more at the daily briefings.

Or, are they determined to roll out the vaccine starting in September. That would sort the job, and all of the above would suddenly become clear. Boris would get his kudos from the UK being the world leader in producing a vaccine, and the 50 thousand deaths could be quietly written off as collateral damage.

Or maybe I’m just a conspiracy theorist!

[zafferana]

It didn't have to be like this.

I agree, but to be fair the countries that are most like us were either deep in the middle of their epidemics and really struggling when we entered ours (Italy and Spain), or not much ahead of us (France and Germany), so I'm not sure we could've learned much from them at that stage.

As for comparison with New Zealand - I don't find that a helpful comparison at all. NZ has a population of 3 million (vs. our 66 million), and its geographically remote location, coupled with it not being a major transit hub, made it a relatively easy place to lock down and isolate in a pandemic. I'm not trying to belittle the great job that Jacinda Ardern and NZ did, but aside from it being a fellow island nation, its similarity to the UK ends there. Heathrow is the 7th largest international airport in the world, Auckland isn't even in the top 50.