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

@Elephant4

What a dick head MH is. The whole government is full of them. Glorious dick heads. Patriotic dick heads. Enormous dick heads. The lot of them.

Well said, dickheads the lot of them, I have no respect for any of them.

@AlecTrevelyan006

Hancock is loving all this. I absolutely despise him.

Same, smarmy little weasel he is

I never, ever thought anything would make me wish Jeremy Hunt was still Health Secretary. I’m no Tory, but we desperately need serious, competent, politicians in charge.

Yes we do need serious competent people in charge ! People who aren't afraid of telling people YOU MUST NOT do xxx - instead of you 'shouldn't' do xxxx

It's the mealy mouthed lack of LAW that has fucked this all up..

Why is the UK with a huge GDP the 10th worst county in the world for deaths ?

The ones with the lowest death rates bought in draconian powers . With real consequences for breaking the law... it's the ONLY way.

People are inherently selfish. Given an opportunity between'you shouldn't' and you MUST NOT BY LAW ...

.. means people will do what is 'advised against ' .. because they can and we live in a society of fucking toddler mentality. Sorry - but MH issues are not sufficient compared with actual deaths.

MH is without doubt an issue but compared with 500 + deaths a day it is a drop in the ocean. I

People need to get a grip and dig deep. Realise that this is only until March /April when a combination of better weather/natural decrease of flu/vaccination will improve all things ..

@ElephantWhaleRabbit Christ we don’t want Jeremy hunt !! He’s clearly done some deal to keep his home area out t4 despite very fast rising rates including a big purple splodge in the middle of it !

I’ve had cheese and marmite for all 3 meals today. Keeping to the essentials.

@tootyfruitypickle

I’ve had cheese and marmite for all 3 meals today. Keeping to the essentials.

That made me smile! I love marmite too.

@Trickyboy

Yes we do need serious competent people in charge ! People who aren't afraid of telling people YOU MUST NOT do xxx - instead of you 'shouldn't' do xxxx

It's the mealy mouthed lack of LAW that has fucked this all up..

Why is the UK with a huge GDP the 10th worst county in the world for deaths ?

The ones with the lowest death rates bought in draconian powers . With real consequences for breaking the law... it's the ONLY way.

People are inherently selfish. Given an opportunity between'you shouldn't' and you MUST NOT BY LAW ...

.. means people will do what is 'advised against ' .. because they can and we live in a society of fucking toddler mentality. Sorry - but MH issues are not sufficient compared with actual deaths.

MH is without doubt an issue but compared with 500 + deaths a day it is a drop in the ocean. I

People need to get a grip and dig deep. Realise that this is only until March /April when a combination of better weather/natural decrease of flu/vaccination will improve all things ..

I agree. But they won't. We ' police by consent' Not a force , but a service! It's a no win here :(.

I'm not sure this situation warrants a dictatorship, no matter how many some people would like one.

What I see in London is that secondary-aged school children are not complying with face-covering, once out of school. Waiting at the bus stops, many of them chat to each other with their masks pushed down round their chins. It is easier and more comfortable for them to talk and listen and laugh in that way, and they gather closely
together doing just this, in disregard of the rules. The same follows during and after boarding the bus.

From what I observe, 20% don masks properly. Most are not in the exemption bracket: they have masks with them, they don't want to cover their noses and mouths; they like close contact. Nothing has been done about it and nothing probably will be. Full-grown adults don't like to challenge and alarm youngsters. Probably, lots is happening within schools to keep people safe. Probably, the same at home. In between - forget it.

How many people with mental health issues have been killed due to the measures having been put in place, that have felt they had no other option other than suicide?

So saying that mental health issues are not sufficient compared with actual deaths is a pretty disgusting thing to say.
Do their deaths not matter?

Trickyboy
The ones with the lowest death rates bought in draconian powers . With real consequences for breaking the law... it's the ONLY way.

Sorry, but the figures don't back that up: Italy and Spain brought in draconian measures, and each has a higher death rate per million than the UK. Italy: 1139, Spain: 1046, UK: 990.

I work in mental health. It is carnage. I am terrified for Christmas and January.

@treening My mum was on the kitchen floor last night crying. Shes in my support bubble I will be going there on Christmas Day But i suspect they will pull the support bubbles. I am frightened about the anger i feel. Ive been angry before but not like this
For the first time i am frightened of losing all control

I honestly feel like I’m in the worst mental health space I’ve ever been in.

It’s so hard to get help though. I mean, what do you even say?

Plus, there’s so much going on atm I feel bad for struggling. Others have it so much worse.

Hug for anyone who needs one!

@Trickyboy
You do realise that in winter 2018/19 (a bad flu season) there were approx 50,000 excess deaths from flu in England and Wales - 50,000 even though people were being vaccinated. did you jump up and down then demanding a lockdown? I'm betting you never thought about how dangerous flu could be to elderly / vulnerable people.

I do wish people would get some perspective about Covid. It is one of many things that can kill or seriously compromise the health of older /vulnerable people.

And I agree about the shocking state of affairs re mental health. I would love to know how much £££ is being spent on prescriptions for mental health issues compared to previous years - one way of measuring the mental health crisis

The only reason we’ve managed to restrict it to 65,000+ deaths is because if the restrictions and lockdowns.

The idea that this is comparable to a flu season has been done to death and is complete nonsense.

makingitupaswegoo

This isn't flu. As I'm sure you're well aware, all those excess deaths you think nothing of will have required expensive and time consuming treatment while others, less ill with other things, will have had their treatment postponed or cancelled. Stop framing this as "Oh let 'em go, they've always died in a harsh winter and you never said nought". It's not like that at all.

I agree with pennylane. This lot lie their way out of everything. Interesting too that the ‘new strain’ started in the U.K. isn’t it? Unfortunately I have no confidence in this government whatsoever. The crisis in this country is a reflection of their utter incompetence and self-interest. The virus, tragic though it is for us all, has simply given them an opportunity to gloss over Brexit issues. One day Johnson will get a boot up his backside and it can’t come soon enough.

somthinginthewoodshed
Interesting too that the ‘new strain’ started in the U.K. isn’t it?

I'm not sure that we know that it did. The UK identified it as a serious risk first, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it didn't come into the country from somewhere else via Heathrow, say. The French health minister has said it may already be circulating in France, for instance, but they hadn't been looking for it. And "“similar strains have been detected in Denmark and Australia, and there are other variants that look very similar to this that have been detected in South Africa, in the Netherlands".

www.cnbc.com/2020/10/29/coronavirus-variant-seen-spreading-across-europe-research-says.html is dated Thu, Oct 29 2020, and they seem to think it came from Spain.

The rest of your post I thoroughly agree with. I wouldn't believe the government here if one of them said it was raining outside; I'd check.

And it ‘could’ snow at Christmas.

I ‘could’ win the lottery next week.

He was probably asked “is it possible that the restrictions could last until Easter” or similar it’s possible doesn’t mean it will happen.

"Months" means more than one month, as well.

People are dyeing in this country from a lot more than covid. We are tearing this country limb from limb to save the elderly infirm and those with previous health conditions. I Know its controversial to say but we seem more hell bent on saving the lives of 99 year old people who may catch covid than 30 year olds with cancer. Will anyone in hospitality or retail even have a job no one seems to understand that covid is not the number one killer in this country !

Our children will continue to pay the price for these lockdowns long after the people whose lives we are supposedly saving are dead. The virus is here to stay, we can't control everything.