If you were the Government, what would you do .....

[MagicSummer]

To bring the virus under control and ultimately give us back our 'old' life as far as possible?

I would sack Gavin Williamson for making a shit show of education this year and for voting against FSM over half term

The FSM thing is just such bad politics, isn't it? Far be it from me to want to help the Tories, but what a daft hill to die on.

I'd let it rip and just stop reporting stats.

@Bellesavage oh the ostrich approach. If I don’t hear about it it’s not happening. Compassionate. I think people might notice when there are no more hospital beds and mass funerals. Don’t think your policy would be dead popular.

Back in February I would have had a stricter national lockdown, banning international travel to and from the country and got track and trace under way. None of that warning, where we were told to social distance but no one bothered. Shutting boarders.

If I was PM I would firmly tell everyone in England that there would be no national lockdown & that we would be following a whack a mole approach. I would tell the public to ignore the scientists that said a short sharp national lockdown was required to keep things in check. I would say ignore what our immediate neighbours in Wales, Scotland, NI and Ireland are doing. Then I would change my mind, but I wouldn’t tell the public first, oh no, I’d tell the press to make up some stories about it first!

I think I’d go down in the history books as a world beating PM!

I would have told all businesses, theatres, venues and universities to open fully in June, and when case numbers get too high for hospitals to cope there would be full on, strict lockdown that included schools and provided everyone with their normal wage. Lockdown would last a maximum of 4 weeks and we’d be open properly again for at least 8 weeks before there could be another lockdown. The in and out of lockdown would be awful, but people would have more idea of where they stood than they do now.

I’d also give a final date, somewhere in spring next year, where I’d guarantee that there would be no more lockdowns. By that time I’d have increased hospital capacity enough by throwing billions at it that the nhs would be able to cope if deaths went up again.

@NailsNeedDoing

I would have told all businesses, theatres, venues and universities to open fully in June, and when case numbers get too high for hospitals to cope there would be full on, strict lockdown that included schools and provided everyone with their normal wage. Lockdown would last a maximum of 4 weeks and we’d be open properly again for at least 8 weeks before there could be another lockdown. The in and out of lockdown would be awful, but people would have more idea of where they stood than they do now.

I’d also give a final date, somewhere in spring next year, where I’d guarantee that there would be no more lockdowns. By that time I’d have increased hospital capacity enough by throwing billions at it that the nhs would be able to cope if deaths went up again.

Theatres wouldn't be viable if only open for a few weeks then locked down again. They don't just "open up" overnight - there is several weeks of rehearsals, setting up sound/light systems, etc., and most need production runs much longer to recoup the costs.

Re Unis, they actually finished the term early June, so they wouldn't have been open in June/July/August anyway, so that's a non starter too.

Likewise football stadia, season finished by June, so they couldn't have been open during Summer either.

As for throwing billions at the NHS, you can't train doctors and nurses in just a few months, so however much money you threw at it, there'd not be enough qualified staff. We've staff shortages today because of poor decision making a decade or two ago.

By that time I’d have increased hospital capacity enough by throwing billions at it that the nhs would be able to cope if deaths went up again

Impossible. How are you going to increase capacity? Build more hospitals, staff them? There are not enough medical staff in world to fill all our requirements.