Keir Starmer calls for immediate lockdown in England

[herecomesthsun]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/03/keir-starmer-calls-for-immediate-lockdown-in-england-as-covid-cases-soar

@ Kazzyhoward
I don’t mind it’s been longer than 3 weeks tbh. I’m worried that the longer we wait to act the longer we will need to be in lockdown. SAGE suggested 2 weeks in October but of course in November it was too late and 2 weeks wasn’t enough hence 4 weeks.
The problem is that to have restrictions is not enough, people need to follow them.
I’m doing what I can I’m having tier 4 life basically since October and we were in tier 2 in October. However I suspect some people live the way they like no matter what tier they are in.

He’s the leader of the opposition, of course he’s going to call for lockdown. If Boris had locked down he’d be calling for it to be lifted. It’s politics.

Have you been following the news at all since March?

They could say we can only leave our house/flat once a day and have to carry a form we have signed saying why we are out.

Starmer makes the right call yet again. Johnson has to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the inevitable, but has left it too late, yet again.

We are seeing a pattern...

I hope people who are angry at Starmer will feel the same towards Boris if he does basically what he's calling for in a week or two.

Starmer was criticised a lot by Boris included for calling for a change to the Christmas policy then less than a week later Boris does just that.

Those of you so against another national lockdown - what should we do instead?

Hospitals will run out of capacity soon - as long as you're happy not to get treated, or your loved ones not to get an ICU bed because there's no room at the inn, then carry on screaming for your freedom.

We are so close to coming out of the other side of this - if we lock down properly for 4 weeks, this could make a huge difference as it would ease pressure on hospitals and allow more of the population to be vaccinated. Taking back control, as it were.

Ive never voted Tory
Ive not been abroad since 1986
I tackled my weight problem.

Ive never been drunk.
I was protecting the NHS before it was fashionable.

@Kazzyhoward completely agree with you regarding the impossibility of shielding the vulnerable completely, I’m cev, 3 other house members currently working or at school, 2 working in the very same place I would be. I think people see us vulnerable secured in a room alone, sterile food delivered. Many I know are mums, dads, children (although many cev children were removed from the list and now attending school). It’s not realistic at all, not to mention those with no support relying on volunteers to help. Don’t get me wrong, I’m bloody scared, but it’s just not possible. In fact many shielded living in tier 3 are expected to work, I keep hearing people say it’s better to be alive than pay the mortgage, but that’s the choice many face and people need to walk in their shoes.

However, there’s loads of uni staff working, some spend their days in the accommodation units, some catering, reception staff, building maintenance. It’s like a mini city with a whole underground work force 24 hours a day. The lecturers actually make a tiny portion of the team making it all work.

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease make the biggest recession yet to come even worse.
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease make millions of people unemployed.
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease bring on a crisis of mental health.
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease utterly destroy our children's future prospects.
This is what the lockdown zealots are pleading for.

And what was it Saint Boris said earlier? "We must all be more fit to resist the virus." This from the fucker who closed the gyms and stopped recreational sport.

And I agree with those who say it's easy for Kier Starmer to call for lockdown, when he does not have the responsibility of dealing with the aftermath.

The death numbers are lower than I’d expect to see from this many cases. It would look like they are better at treating it.
People who are dying now are the ones who had a positive test when the cases were ~ at half of what they are now.

I wish someone would explain what they mean by a full lockdown.

Cafes,pubs,shops,hairdressers etc and schools are shut already for millions of us.What other measures do you want?

Cool I agree, this is last big push..
I'd rather sacrifice now and be able to have the UK flourish again as spring arrives.

I knew winter would be bad but the new strain has knocked everyone sideways.
I also never thought they would keep school open in the middle of the worst period.
The relief I felt getting everyone safe at home, and then counting each day until we reached 5 days no symptoms then 10 then 14

I was listening to LBC and they were discussing this. The general thought was that Kier Starmer will say something., Boris will deny its the right cause of action and then later concede but pretend it was his idea all along. Whichever way we get there, I hope we get there before there are too many more victms to this virus.

cause - course

Tier 4 is equivalent to the lockdown we had in March anyway isn't it?
No - schools, universities etc are open

And a load more non essential shops are open for click and collect, my workplace has customers travelling from all over the country to ’click and collect’ but then they ask to just pop in to use the loo or have a ‘quick look round’ .

more small businesses were registered in 2020 than in 2019
just because we shut down or lock down doesn't mean a worse time afterwards, in fact a decisive government with a plan would shut down now in the quieter months ready to open back up when safe with confidence

@Bluntness100

I think a Christmas lag would have been seen by now. Everyone is back at work.

In addition, as much as they are low on weekends, we can do weekend to weekend comparisons. And on the spring peak they were much much higher than this. For less cases.

The majority of people I know aren't back to work yet, tomorrow is the day they all return.

Teny

I'm tier 4, cases nearly 600, higher than some London areas with school closed, ours are business as usual.

People are not making any effort to avoid people in the street, families walk at you several people abreast, no one walks to make a single file as we do.. My dh, dc and I... Loads are congregated outside take way cafes...

But non of that compares to walking into school for the dc or work, with loads of colleagues, students... Then spending the entire day in the same class as students with no masks.. School canteen is heaving... It's just awful. They have done their best, but they are not experts on germ control. It took ages to point out the electronic finger pay system was a germ hot-spot...

Sometimes for us a full lock down would be to bring back 2 meters outside, get people to shift their arses away...

To close school.

Sorry, should have said that it's relevant as most people I know haven't been mixing yet, having been off work for nearly two weeks.

@Bing12

At last! He finds his voice!

Agreed!

@AgeLikeWine

Starmer makes the right call yet again. Johnson has to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the inevitable, but has left it too late, yet again.

We are seeing a pattern...

Boris can’t lead from the front. He will announce lockdown within a week and make himself the victim yet again. We all know it’s coming. And where has he hidden Rishi ??? We will need money and lots of it, unless it’s all been spent on help out to eat out.

@ivykaty44

more small businesses were registered in 2020 than in 2019 just because we shut down or lock down doesn't mean a worse time afterwards, in fact a decisive government with a plan would shut down now in the quieter months ready to open back up when safe with confidence

A lot of this can be due to the job centre pushing self-employment. Lots of people earn nothing - but come off the unemployment figures. Which is of course the main thing.

@Tenyearsgone

I wish someone would explain what they mean by a full lockdown.

Cafes,pubs,shops,hairdressers etc and schools are shut already for millions of us.What other measures do you want?

It isn't working. People are not staying home. As people have said already, people are out for click and collect, mixing with others, travelling to adjacent tiers to have a meal or walk around the shops etc. It's a shame the government don't show those traffic graphs that they did in the first lockdown - I'm pretty sure they would show a minimal impact of going in to Tier 4 compared with the impact of the 1st proper lockdown.

We end up with a see-saw effect - cases down in one bit of the country, and then up in another part - unless you have a hard border at the edge of Tier 4, cases will continue to spread and rise.

At least with a National Lockdown, there is a very clear message to everyone - Stay Home. No misinterpretation of the rules, no misunderstanding, and easier to enforce.

The economy can hardly be thriving anyway, surely? Those of you in a region with low cases currently - you are not protected from the impact of rising cases elsewhere. Your hospitals will get transfers from the overcrowded ICUs in the rest of the country. It's happening.

And Boris said this morning more restrictions were likely. So he has already expressed that a full lockdown might be on the cards.
So Mr Hindsight now says ‘I call for a full lockdown’ - so when Boris puts one in place in the next few weeks, he can say ‘this was my idea. I called for it’ ..
Political tactics all the way. I wish KS would come up real alternatives that he thinks of.

And if Boris had announced (say, a week ago,) that we were all going into lockdown for a month, from 27th December, Keir Starmer would have said it was 'reckless and irresponsible,' and 'another lockdown would be devastating for the economy.' And 'what's more, if the two lockdowns we have had have shown us anything, it's that lockdowns don't work!!!'

Upshot is... just like his predecessor, (Jeremy Corbyn,) no matter what the Tories do, it's 'WRONG,' and they will always say something contrary to it.

Bit pathetic actually. It's all about point-scoring with Labour these days.