BBC news...Matt Hancock says tier 4 could last for months due to this new strain

[ssd]

He must be joking.

Months of this there will be no businesses left

I think what fishy means is "everyone must be utterly miserable at all times and no enjoyment is allowed"

I wonder if shes employed by.the police force who were threatening to check peoples shopping baskets for non-essentials in the spring

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

Am I allowed to have non essentials in my Ocado delivery? I'm just thinking maybe I shouldn't have ordered the Baileys and Budweiser and other frivolous things for Christmas.

Pink you are totally pushing it. Beans for you.

I’ve already got my on sale full size Baileys ;

Marsha I don't like beans, would spaghetti count as too frivolous?

I also have some reduced price Baileys (and 3 other flavours), it was too good an offer to turn down!

@Unsure33, not sure why you are @ -ing me as your comment bears no relation to any of mine, but thanks for the vitriolic tone anyway

@BewareTheBeardedFatMan
"But it would not be 'quite right' for them to end up hating 'the older generations'.The government is responsible. I am not, despite being one of the 'older generations'. Neither are my parents. Neither are the vast vast majority of the country. The last thing we need is yet more division, ffs"

Nor did I , nor my mother, nor most of the people in the city where I live -but further intergenerational division will be the sum effect. It's not to be desired but it is what will happen.

I just had a Tesco shop delivered, full of essentials. Wine, various cheeses, chocolate Yule log if I'm going to stay at home I'm going to make the most of it!

I personally am not mixing at Christmas but that's because my 2 adult DC have been here since March and are here for the foreseeable. Honestly, if one or both of them weren't I would be ignoring the rules to spend Christmas with them. So who am i to sit here in my privileged position and berate others? Yes wild mixing with no thought to the consequences is selfish. But most people will have good reasons for the choices they make and I am in no position to judge.

For those saying close schools in T4, we are on holidays for 2 weeks, but effectively locked down then only years 11 and 13 are going back in secondary, so 3 weeks before they are back mixing.

This should hopefully give a "break" in the south east.

They need children in school the week after that as that's when they are doing the mass testing which will close down some schools anyway

They need this vaccination programme ramped up fast.

I'd like to see a proper lockdown implemented until the end of January at least-one hourof outdoor exercise per day (not endless gallivanting and going out for unnecessary reasons), one shopping tripper week(for essential food and medicine only, not wine and gin) and £100 rewards for neighbours who report people out for too long or too often.

good wind up attempt there. If it's not a wind up then

I've got so much chocolate in the house I think I could open a shop. I bought a bit, you know just in case, and I swear everyone I know has sent me chocolate. I've got to eat it haven't I? I mean it would be rude to waste it. I'm hoping DH will agree it is pointless cooking on the 25th and we can just have chcolate.

I think I might need new clothes in January.

@MargosKaftan

For those saying close schools in T4, we are on holidays for 2 weeks, but effectively locked down then only years 11 and 13 are going back in secondary, so 3 weeks before they are back mixing.

This should hopefully give a "break" in the south east.

They need children in school the week after that as that's when they are doing the mass testing which will close down some schools anyway

They need this vaccination programme ramped up fast.

If primary was included for that week, I would agree.

@AlecTrevelyan006 I wonder how that immunity passport is going to work for people who can’t have the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine is no good for people with allergies and unclear about autoimmune conditions DM tells me. The Russian vaccine which might be combined with the Oxford one is no good if you have had cancer or might want to have children in the near future apparently.

The Russian vaccine which might be combined with the Oxford one is no good if you have had cancer or might want to have children in the near future apparently.

What do you mean, apparently?

@Ihatemyseleffordoingthis sorry - not sure if you're the poster I was replying to with that. That poster said the the kids would quite rightly end up hating older generations. It was the 'quite rightly' I was taking issue with. Regarding this as a correct reaction is divisive in itself. Self fulfilling prophecy and all that

Folks if anyone wishes to keep an eye on cases in their local council, I publish it here everyday www.covidmessenger.com

I know for some they would rather not know, but if you wish to stay up to date on whats happening I collate the data and publish it every evening about an hour after the govt data release.

I have today added the ability to sort by county - seemed sensible given these tiers seem to now be imposed at county level, so you can easily sort by county and get a snapshot of all the councils in your county and whats going on.

While the table looks very grim this week, I found it immensely reassuring during the last lockdown to see council after council turn green. A few weeks ago almost the whole table was green (except for Kent and a few others). I dunno - I just found it helped seeing that the restrictions were actually working.

Anyway you are welcome to use and share it. That's what it is there for.

All the best and stay safe.

@ancientgran

I've got so much chocolate in the house I think I could open a shop. I bought a bit, you know just in case, and I swear everyone I know has sent me chocolate. I've got to eat it haven't I? I mean it would be rude to waste it. I'm hoping DH will agree it is pointless cooking on the 25th and we can just have chcolate.

I think I might need new clothes in January.

Manners cost nothing:get it ate😉👍

Both the Netherlands and now Ireland have banned travel from the UK into their countries. Netherlands until 1st Jan, Ireland for 48 hours I think.

littleowl1, the only possible flaw in this superb website is that the columns are only labelled at the top, and I keep having to go up and down to do comparisons. But I can't see any way to alter that, so it's not even a helpful quibble. In every other way it's brilliant. Thank you!

@littleowl1 That is amazing, thanks for sharing!! So much more clear than lots of other sites.

It's actually horrifying to sort them by rank and see row after row of Kent, London, Essex... Really shows how serious it is.

I can recommend the Marks and Spencer Yule Log if anyone is planning a frivolous and entirely unnecessary trip to the shops to buy products you don’t need.

Good tactic to get all the people who think they are too special or important to do their but and get vaccinated to clamour for it though, when this shite is the alternative.

*bit

For the avoidance of any wrangling, this was how the table of cases and deaths in some of the countries of the world today. I haven't put most of them in, just many of the European ones and a few from elsewhere for comparison. The number after each country is the number of deaths per million of the population.

Belgium 1,597 (but they counted all deaths in care homes as Covid deaths)
Italy 1,139
Spain 1,046
UK 990
USA 976
France 925
Hungary 839
Sweden 789
Switzerland 762
Poland 671
Netherlands 612
Portugal 602
Austria 593
Ireland 435
Greece 401
Canada 375
Germany 316
Channel Islands 298
Denmark 178
Finland 88
Iceland 82
Norway 74
Australia 35
New Zealand 5

I seem to remember that Italy and Spain have had the most stringently regulated populations, up to date. But Sweden did no locking down at all for several months and has done better than we have.

Gosh I’ve ordered lots of lovely frivolous things, baileys, cheese and a chocolate trifle.
I sent DH out to get a Christmas Colin the caterpillar yesterday. Presumably we’ll get fined several tines.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

even I am now wondering where/when this is all going to end

It'll only end when folk come to terms with what was obvious all along: that you can't "control" a virus, that the cost of this is out of all proportion to the threat and that the only thing left if the vaccines don't work is to learn to live with it

Unfortunately, the level of panic which has been encouraged is a bit of a stumbling block to that - not least because, if it happens, the cry will be "why didn't they do this in the first place instead of causing all this ruin?"

Agreed

If they keep schools open they should also keep all children's activities open.

My sons less affected by blended learning/ virtual learning for college than he is through not being able to swim train.

And swimming is far safer!

I had a letter a few weeks back stating my Pip had been extended until August 2021, this is the second time it's been extended, so I think
we are in it for a long while yet.