Downing Street to hold press conference this afternoon

[FairyAtTheBottomOfTheGarden]

From BBC News -

UK government Health Secretary Matt Hancock is to host a virtual press conference from Downing Street later today, it's just been confirmed.

He is going to be joined by NHS England national medical director Steve Powis and chief medical adviser Chris Whitty.

Were we expecting one today?

"London has the highest rising case rates" - I heard today it's at about 180 per 100,000? That's lower than case rates have been in the NW for a good couple of months. That's about the same as my borough is now, and our rates have been falling since lockdown.

London should be in Tier 3 but they're going to throw resources at it in a desperate attempt to keep pubs and restaurants there open. Fuck the rest of us.

@BigSandyBalls2015

Anyone know what the 7 boroughs are?

Currently the top 7 are Havering Barking and Dagenham Waltham Forest Redbridge Bexley Newham Enfield Full list is here if you scroll about a third of the way down the page.

@nancy75

ElizabethG81 I’m not getting in to a North v South argument, people living in London didn’t pick their tier, we’re stuck with this shit show of a govt just like everyone else.

Its not the people causing the north south divide, its the government... Not difficult to get surely?

Yes they didnt pick what tier they are in but someone did, and that person/people are not picking fairly. Surely you can see that?

Well if we doubted a North/south divide before, we certainly know now. I’d be very interested to see the governments reasoning on this. I’m just absolutely pissed off at the entire situation, and now to see this latest farce, I’m starting to think the government is deliberately winding us all up.

Mass testing schools the week before Xmas. Burst a few hundred bubbles equalling thousands of kids with 14 days isolation.
A sneaky way to keep rates down in January down south.

@DigitalGhost

Mass testing schools the week before Xmas. Burst a few hundred bubbles equalling thousands of kids with 14 days isolation. A sneaky way to keep rates down in January down south.

Absolutely this.

@Livelovebehappy

Well if we doubted a North/south divide before, we certainly know now. I’d be very interested to see the governments reasoning on this. I’m just absolutely pissed off at the entire situation, and now to see this latest farce, I’m starting to think the government is deliberately winding us all up.

Not sure if this is a north/south divide or a Westminster/London vs rest of country one really.

"A sneaky way to keep rates down in January down south"

So then the Chelsea set can go on their ski trips in Jan/Feb

@DigitalGhost

Mass testing schools the week before Xmas. Burst a few hundred bubbles equalling thousands of kids with 14 days isolation. A sneaky way to keep rates down in January down south.

Yes, that’s exactly what they are doing. Good call. Unfortunately though I’m not convinced the bubbles bursting will stop people meeting up. People will still think the Xmas rules means that they can meet whoever they want

@MercyBooth

"A sneaky way to keep rates down in January down south"

So then the Chelsea set can go on their ski trips in Jan/Feb

Apparently not we’re all banned from the EU until further notice

I predict anno next week about London moving to tier three before Christmas

They’ll be in tier three for four days before the Christmas bubble thing. Seems a bit pointless.

NW, Tier 3 here for months. My year 11 and 13 have missed ten weeks between them through self isolation since September, and DS1 is still only in college 40% of the time.
No mass testing here. Certainly no end of term watching TV either for these year groups. They're racing thought the curriculum in a panic catch up.
Shut the schools by all means. But not for those in exam years.

bylinetimes.com/2020/12/10/covid-testing-deal-awarded-firm-with-links-matt-hancock-family/

@JacobReesMogadishu

Also if London is now the covid capital of the UK why wait another 6 days plus before moving it up a tier? Won't that just mean London stays in tier 3 longer?

They need to be more reactive and dynamic surely? If numbers are high and rising why wait for an arbitrary date?

Got to give the privately educated London kids time to get it out to the holiday homes, haven't they?

Can we refuse to let them have the test? We'll fall under this

What a surprise @MercyBooth

The more cases they can find, the longer they can string this shit out and the more money they can make their rich mates. Meanwhile they turn the whole country against each other, cause a North/South divide, a Wales/England divide, a Scotland/England divide, rule by fear and distract everybody nicely from all the underhand deals going on. It’s utterly disgraceful and the sooner the wider population wake up and revolt against it the better.

@cheninblanc why wouldn't you want them to be tested?

@Lostinacloud My niece is 25 and works with SEN children from 5 to 15 If one of the older ones tests positive she will have to self isolate
But i bet she wont be found alternative accomodation so shes not with my 84 year old parents whom she lives with.

Yet i wont be able to go round there at Christmas if this happens
So this virus is serious enough for the latter but not serious enough for the former.

flumposie I don't have an objection to them being tested. The fall out of a positive result would be devastating as we're waiting to see my step daughter for the first time in 6 months and I have work too. That's not to say I won't have them tested but a postive result won't just be stay home without a lot of tears

The idea that the Christmas free-for-all can still go ahead is a charade. It would be madness to let people mix freely in tier 2 and 3 areas.

Passata its the lies and the gas lighting and the guilt tripping and the emotional blackmail. Why lift restrictions in the first place then. And this also proves the November lockdown didnt work. People who have abided by the rules were promised they could see their families at Christmas. Why fucking say it if they KNEW they had no intention of following through. Now they have sneakily brought this in. Its sneaky and underhand. If a man in a relationship had been behaving the way this Government has he would find himself in court.

The Government knew people would mix at Christmas no matter what the rules, so they brought in some rules to try and help mitigate the disaster that could result with many families mixing. Also by trying to restrict mixing beforehand they are hoping to reduce transmission.

You would have to be pretty stupid to think if you have school aged children, especially Secondary school age, that mixing with vulnerable, elderly relatives at Christmas especially indoors is not going to be risk free. You don't need the Government to tell you that.

@ineedaholidaynow we have no intention of mixing households at Christmas, but it seems more than half the country think we're the odd ones

mass testing is one of their favourite sound bites. Say it enough and people believe it will happen.

Does anyone genuinely think there was genuine mass testing at universities? And if you do here’s a thought - have a look at HESA for student numbers, multiply it by 2 to cover the two tests three days apart, then have a look at the lateral flow testing numbers reported on the government dashboard.

Hancock did I think say that the secondary schools testing in London would be the full fat PCR test rather than lateral flow. Did anyone else pick that up or did I mishear. PCR is a whole different ball game, especially in speed of getting results. Which does make me question whether I did hear him correctly.