Two week circuit breaker - who's in favour?

[zafferana]

Keir Starmer is in favour - so are you?

If they did it over the next two weeks I actually wouldn't mind that much, as it's half term.

i'd only be in favour if was guaranteed to be only two weeks and if at the end of it EVERYTHING was re-opened as it was pre-covid

@beachdays123

No! SAGE advice is the medical advice, Govt also have to take into account broader advice in terms of the economy and general social wellbeing.

Exactly this! It's easy for sage or Chris whitty to say what needs to be done from a medical perspective to limit the virus, but the government's job is far more complex as they need to balance that advise with the economic impact. We need a functioning economy. It's a tough balancing act.

I don't think we can afford another lockdown. Let's face it, it wouldn't be for two weeks. How many more would lose their job, and struggle to feed their families and put a roof over their head? There is hardly a day goes by without another firm announcing redundancies.

@MJMG2015

Yes. 3 weeks now INCLUDING SCHOOLS & 4 weeks over Christmas.

Fire Dido & get someone competent in.

Get numbers down, T&T actually working
And allow parents who want to, to keep their kids home without a fine or without losing their place until the Spring term.

With remote schooling or part time and let the ECV and CV teachers provide the home learning whilst keeping safe themselves.

I'm absolutely against it, but then I'm in an area that barely saw a first wave and we're not really seeing a second. It's really difficult to understand what difference it would make and I can't imagine people would comply, but I know in other parts of the country it's probably what's needed and perhaps the mood there is different.

Haha of course not! the people who want lockdown just want it announced so they can book their Waitrose/Wine club delivery!!

Sure. If we were Norway and had a sovereign wealth fund big enough to pay every citizen 50k to sit on their arse for a year. But we're not. So no.

How's Keir going to pay for it?

Fuck this fucking shit and fuck all fucking politicians. All as bad as each other.

We need a functioning economy.

Health or economy is a false dichotomy. The economy will be fucked by the virus not being controlled. Plus the healthcare costs of rising cases are enormous.

Controlling the virus will reduce the economic damage.

Nope.
The only way I'd even consider accepting any rolling lockdowns was if the "free" time was 100% normal, no social distancing, no fucking useless one way systems, no masks, weddings on, nightclubs open etc. Then I'd actually have something to look forward to during it.
Otherwise no.

Everything but supermarkets and doctors/ hospitals closed.

That reminds me when MNers tried to list all the "essential" workers in March-April. It was about half of all people who have any employment.

Chemical factories can close down, right? Oh, except maybe those making special chemicals for PCR tests. Clothing retailers should close! Oh, except those making HCP scrubs. Dentists? So many of us have had problems due to no dentists for months. Cleaners stay home? Yeah, why shouldn't the police scrub their own office bogs? Washing machine repairmen? I guess that's fine until the nurse needs to wash her uniform in the broken machine. (etc) How much did furlough cost the first time?

Yes

Its coming anyway

Everything but supermarkets and doctors/ hospitals closed.

And everything in the supermarkets will be produced by fairs and delivered by unicorns.

Nope.

Time to bite the bullet and let everyone get it, treat what can be treated, and do business with the leftovers.

I'd back a complete 2 week lockdown but it would have to be as strict as we could possibly manage i.e. no schools, no universities, no retail, 1 food shop a week. If the government could somehow guarantee it would only be 2 weeks I think most people would be willing to do it.

TBH my own life wouldn’t be affected by a circuit breaker (small pre school child and pregnant so not going out and working from home) but I don’t believe they’ll be able to resolve the problems with test and trace in a fortnight given the absolute fuck up they’ve made of it so far and I just don’t see the point. People have lost all faith in this government and won’t follow the rules, so all it will do is fuck the economy even more. We locked down for three months and bought six weeks. It’s never going to work.

So let’s close everything except when the great and good of MN deem it ‘necessary’

i think if it could be done in 3 weeks with some more sensible restrictions in key areas following that I would be all for it. It seems complete lunacy to continue to punish the North after months whilst the growth of the virus is clearly increasing before our eyes everywhere else.

I work in retail so no break for me. One thing I'm not looking forward to is the panic buying again and it's going to be interesting to see how people cope with queuing now the weather has changed. If we do have a second lockdown please be kind to retail staff, we've had to work throughout and it's been mentally draining being abused day in day out.

It does seem strange, with half term approaching... Strict 2 week lock down, and 4 weeks at Christmas.

Seems obvious?
Both dd separate schools, year groups have cases. One dd has to isolate.

@HelloMissus

So let’s close everything except when the great and good of MN deem it ‘necessary’

This.

Honestly, we are now in the situation where we have no choice, we have to let the virus do its thing. Keep suppressing it and it will just come back. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I keep thinking of that Robert Frost poem that goes “the best way out is always through” and can’t help thinking that’s where we’ve got to with this bloody thing. We’ve screwed it up too badly to try and actually get on top of and eradicate it (and no one in the government/scientists actually seems to be suggesting that is the goal anymore. They’re just vaguely delaying.

There are plenty of countries who have managed to keep it suppressed. The idea that no government could ever possibly manage this is letting ours off the hook a bit.

They cannot move towards wholescale mass testing as they don't have the capacity

Ah yes, I missed that one off my list of government failure ... the months they could have spent sorting this, but (as Helena correctly said) instead spent picking which incompetent mate would get which contract. Does anyone really imagine it would be different this time?

And speaking of spending, isn't it odd how few ever answer how all this will be paid for? The best we usually get is an unproven "more Covid would be worse", and like PPs I sometimes wonder just how many lockdown supporters have secure jobs ... especially publicly funded ones, where there's sometimes little thought about where the funds actually come from

@GoldenOmber

There are plenty of countries who have managed to keep it suppressed. The idea that no government could ever possibly manage this is letting ours off the hook a bit.

None in Europe. Only those with developed Pandemic strategies and infrastructure in place right from the start, or isolated islands.