What would you do if you were put in charge tomorrow

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Just that really. There seems to be so many conflicting views on everything. I don't think the government are doing a great job but whenever they do anything somebody somewhere is up in arms. Yesterday it was he night time economy lobby, earlier in the year it was the travel companies.

So what would you actually do to try and sort this utter mess out.

On the financial support side of things I would ban those under the school leaving age (18) in full time education from paid work, but instead pay them a universal £36.40 per week (equivalent to 8 hours at minimum wage). I would extend the furlough scheme in a number of particularly impacted sectors but not those that are unlikely to ever recover. As a first draft I would propose that the included sectors were; Nightclubs (and any bar that can prove more than 50% of turnover occurs past 11PM); Back Office, Catering and Security staff in professional sports; Conference, Concert, Weddings, and other events venues that are not typically open to the public outside of prebooked events, and rolls that spend the majority of their time organising such events in other venues (so to exclude the majority of staff in pubs or restaurants that have a small function room that makes up a small proportion of the overall business); retail and cafes located at transport hubs other than airports. For those made redundant from other businesses usual out of work benefits would be available, as they would for anyone whose doctors believed out of home work is unsafe.

@Afibtomyboy

If you are vulnerable, then shield and we will support you.

Otherwise... everyone else completely back to normal.

totally agree

and start a program to completely review the funding of the NHS and social services and how it's set up. Our main problem now is that we have a medical system that can't cope even in a normal winter, let alone a winter with Covid and flu - there aren't enough social services beds for the elderly which causes a backlog in hospitals as they can't discharge them

I would re open the nightingale hospitals.
Make them dedicated covid treatment centres.
Rest of hospitals and NHS services back to normal, start providing all elective surgery and cancer treatment etc.
Clear criteria for who is at risk.. And they can choose to shield, isolate etc with government backed delivery slots for food, medicines, etc.
Anyone in above category has to be allowed to wfh or their wages paid by government. So not financially damaged.

Everyone else back to work, play, sport.
With requirement for sensible precautions.
Table service in restaurants, etc.

Basically the Swedish model with increased support for people who are vulnerable but give population some self responsibility.
If your elderly you are capable of choosing not to see your family etc.

I would also immediately start a national support phone service.. A register of everyone isolating and they would get a daily call for chat, check in, make sure they have food, medicines etc. Company etc.
I'd also provide national pet service so isolating elderly can have their dogs walked etc.

I'd stop the scare mongering.. 50000 cases.. Yes but the majority of you will get better.. If you get ill at all.

We cannot control this.. We can keep a lid on things but as soon as you move the lid an inch it will be put like the genie out of the bottle...
Those citing nz.. Well yep but as soon as they open borders, they will be back with virus in their midst.. What then... Isolate the whole country for years?

A combination of what others have said-

Apologise
Fire Cummings
Investigate the awarding of PPE contracts to everyone and their dog
Pause (at least) Brexit
Two-week strict lockdown to get test and trace working properly
Schools open with temperature checks each morning
System for paying people who need to self-isolate.

@Afibtomyboy

If you are vulnerable, then shield and we will support you.

Otherwise... everyone else completely back to normal.

He explained why that wouldn't work in his message last night. That if we let most of the population get it that it wil inevitably get back into hospitals and care homes but on a much bigger scale.

@EssentialHummus
How do you propose we accurately test the temperatures of everyone going into a school, especially considering non-contact thermometer, which would be the only type that could be used on multiple children, are notoriously unreliable and many suggest that a lot of people are permanently hypothermic.

@Afibtomyboy

If you are vulnerable, then shield and we will support you.

Otherwise... everyone else completely back to normal.

This

statistical it’s what my child’s school is using and so far no hypothermic reactions. No it isn’t foolproof, but what I’ve seen seems reliable enough.

How many people would chose to retain Mr J and his crowd of hangers on/puppet masters?

Make sure labs are properly resourced for analysing Covid tests. Force banks to lend to them if they can’t get funds for expansion. As the lab interviewed on the radio described

@EssentialHummus
Then it's much better than the one in my workplace. On one particular day the average temperature recorded was somewhere around 32 degrees.

So many if these things people have suggested would bankrupt the country and the economy
Comparing nz measures , a country similar size with about 6 million people to one with 67 million ??

The taking temp thing is great but trouble with this is that so many are asymptomatic thats why its so hard to control

Fire Cummings
EVERYONE to wear masks
Invest in PPE and NHS
Limit furlough

Furlough for anyone who needs to shield.

@randomer

How many people would chose to retain Mr J and his crowd of hangers on/puppet masters?

I'd put Bojo and his circus up against a wall. They instructed hospitals to discharge vulnerable elderly patients to care homes without first having negative test results. This should be recognised as an act of gross criminal negligence. But I couldn't be arsed to bother with the bureaucracy. Its exceptional circumstances! just as they thought exceptional circumstances allowed them to cause thousands to die.

I don't think the government are doing a great job but whenever they do anything somebody somewhere is up in arms.

Yes they are wrong regardless. The main thing that showed me this was the xmas thing..not even sure if Boris did say anything about this or if it was just press. But a load of my FB friends were happy that the 6 person limit would be removed for xmas day. I figured this was finally something they could do that was universally ok...but no, the next day, people started kicking off, saying that by letting people see families at xmas, that was a death sentence to the vulnerable, Boris clearly doesn't give a shit about the elderly, etc etc.

I don't have the answers. I wish I did. But it appears that regardless of what the government do, half the population will hate them for it. Its brexit all over again!

Quit again

I wouldn’t want the role, too much responsibility and too much unknown or out of your control.

I’d close schools and colleges and have teachers work remotely, close the borders, entice businesses to let staff to work from home somehow where they are reluctant, put more money into the nhs frontline and cut it from other areas, have the army enforce the SD, mask wearing etc and have harsh penalties for those that break it rather than just fines.

I would stop all travel. Only allow a few people in shops at a time depending on the size of the shop.
Carry on with face masks, keep on enforcing to people they must wash their hands regularly. Only allow a certain number of people in restaurants ect must only be from one family at each table.
Also stop anyone importing food from China. They would be heavily fined if they get caught. I would also try to get something in place with China about the animals they kill And eat. It needs to be made illegal.
Also any boats coming in with people in need to be turned straight around and sent back, not put up in hotels, who knows what inoculations they've had and what germs they are bringing in. No one in or out of the country unless vital. (Parent Ill or something).All business deals done via internet ect.
Anyone who can work from home do so until further notice and only a few people in an office at one time if can't work from home. Everyone only go out if going to work, shops or restaurant ect but must go straight there and back not out all day. I know people will stay how do we know how long people are out. But anyone with any morals will stick to the rules. That should help. Z

@Mistlewoeandwhine

Part time schooling - one week online, one week In school so that class sizes can be halved. The same for universities. Some sort of universal income to be given to everyone with a non essential business so that they can close down until next spring without going bankrupt. Improve track and trace (and stop referring to it as an NHS organisation). Fines for anyone at all who breaks the rules. Minimum of 3k to put the fear of God into people, especially the Covid deniers. Two week’s isolation if you want to enter this country and by that I mean armed escorts off the plane and housed in a hotel for two weeks until testing clears you. No holiday makers in or out without rigorous testing. Clear rules in multiple languages.

Who teach the online lessons?

People always come up with suggestions like this without a proper plan.

They say things like "get in lots of teaching assistants" and there's no thought about where from.

And the people advocating closing all schools what about the mental effects not going to school has on kids. Setting up teaching online would take weeks. And how long should schools stay shut for? Any vaccine isn't going to be anywhere near fully rolled out till this time next year.

But yes fire Dominic Cummings. Although the damage has largely been done. So many things could have been managed better weeks ago. Even though it's an unprecedented situation in our lifetime, there's been wilful cock ups like handing out non competitive contracts to government cronies.

I don't think the government are doing a great job but whenever they do anything somebody somewhere is up in arms.

What do you think they have done well?

Sack Cummings
Sack Dido
Sack Serco and anyone else who has failed to deliver what was promised
Apologise
Put local NHS and public health teams in charge of testing, track and trace
Start being straight with people about Brexit

Exactly the same as @Afibtomyboy