Breaking PM Covid statement 8pm

[MissMarpletheMurderer]

Will he be on time? What will he say?

I would guess full lockdown including schools.
My DD's school sent an email this afternoon to say that they had planned to open tomorrow but it has become untenable and they will be closed until further notice and that's tier 4 Birmingham well outside the area of schools that were announced in the initial closure.

@Topseyt

Tier 4 everywhere and all schools and universities closed. Online learning only.

Why he left it it until today I don’t know, and after all his bullshit on the Andrew Marr Show about schools being safe he will look like even more of a rudderless twat than he already does.

It is beyond belief really. The utter incompetence of the government is mind blowing.

Tbh I don't expect anything more of our government now, but even this is ridiculous beyond imagination. Thankfully my local authority decided to keep schools closed anyway - although only able to make that decision yesterday.

As much as I benefit from a support bubble I also think those need to be suspended. Household mixing needs to stop

@MrsR87

If he announces school closures a day after saying they should all go back, then he has (if you didn’t already think so) officially lost the plot. That would be delivering us the worst of everything; a lockdown (horrible but seemingly necessary) and a surge in cases from pupils mixing for the day (who knows...will probably lead to an extra couple of weeks of lockdown needed).

I’ve tried to keep level headed and upbeat about everything but I am absolutely livid about the leadership (or lack of) the this country has experienced.

You were spot on with your prediction of this exact scenario @MrsR87 It's so frustrating, how many children have needlessly mixed today? How many staff have been exposed to Covid today? Oh silly me, schools are safe, Boris said so yesterday.

Williamson and Johnson should from now on be referred to as Dumb and Dumber.

The Guardian quotes Financial Times on their live news: According to the Financial Times (paywall), which says it has been briefed by “several Whitehall officials”, cabinet ministers agreed this afternoon that “primary and secondary schools would probably close until the mid-February half-term break”.
nothing about nurseries though - I bet he says from Wednesday

Bollocks...

When my OH said BJ at 8, not what I was expecting or hoping

If you’re in Tier 4 aren’t you already in a full lockdown? Except for school closures.

Jeremy Hunt has some sensible proposals. In particular proper quarantine for those entering the country.

My partners school went back today. He has had 30 families out due to not wanting to risk the virus. He isn't going to mark them as unauthorised as he totally understands their position. He has a 10 families isolating after mixing during school break, so they are out as well. He has a number of staff out, so will have to close down his Nursery. He says it is a total nightmare in school. For once, he agrees that schools should close.

There will be no real difference for most of UK in tier 4

I don’t understand the u-turn!! Surely if you’re going to make this announcement do it Sunday night FFS.

@Skylor

There will be no real difference for most of UK in tier 4

Apart from our kids no longer go to school!

@picklemewalnuts

If he's shutting the bloody schools after just sending the primary kids back to germ swap, then he's a blithering idiot.

Oh, wait...

I can't get my head around the idiocy All for one day.

We know it's going to be a "complete" lockdown but what does it mean?

Will the roads and supermarkets/shopping centres be as full as they were in the last lockdown (November)?

Will people unable to work from home be working elsewhere without masks, not bothering with social distancing, not washing their hands, etc etc?

Will people still be buying trolley loads of booze to have parties at home?

I suspect that it will be another half-hearted lockdown that causes untold damage to the economy but doesn't actually reduce infections/deaths that much because it's targetted in the wrong areas and not enforced properly so far too many people are allowed to get away with not giving a toss about the rules.

According to a snap YouGov poll, members of the public support another national lockdown by a margin of five to one.

Some 79% of people either strongly (51%) or somewhat (28%) support the idea. Only 16% are either strongly (7%) or somewhat (9%) opposed.

This is an even larger margin of support for another lockdown than when YouGov last polled on this just before Christmas.

Today’s YouGov poll also suggests 69% of people think the government has handled the school re-opening issue badly.

(the charts are on the Guardian - judging from here I would suspect 99.99999% think the government (Boris et al) have handled it badly - OK I am a Guardian reader :) )

He will announce that alas,he is no longer able to lead this sovereign nation and therefore a cabinet has been created which will guide our blessed land through these troubled times.Mr Starmer will be at the helm and Mr.Brown will be manning the portholes.

Anything less than a full country wide lockdown including schools ( apart from childcare hubs for vulnerable/key worker kids) would be disastrous.

@TakingItOnTheChin

"Alas, I have fucked up. Again"

@TakingItOnTheChin 😂😂😂😂

Why does he use the word alas so much? @MissMarpletheMurderer

@picklemewalnuts

If he's shutting the bloody schools after just sending the primary kids back to germ swap, then he's a blithering idiot.

Oh, wait...

Totally.

By the denuded look of supermarket just now people are planning on a lockdown
I haven’t a freezer and now have a family member staying for foreseeable.
Their relationship broke down because of first lockdown..
It places intolerable stress on the self employed and home workers
I f NHS had been invested in for decades we’d not be in this parlours state.

Lots of old people and a crumbling NHS

@MissMarpletheMurderer

Will he be on time? What will he say?

Robert Peston has tweeted it

PM will be directly addressing the nation. It won’t be a press conference. Tier 4 restrictions will be imposed everywhere. Schools closed. No more team games in parks. But outdoor exercise will still be allowed.

What also drives me nuts is these self important 'addressing the nation' - he's so imagining that he's Churchill. He's an incompetent idiot.

Assuming that whatever he says tonight will come into effect straight away. Chances are he will do the bloody stupid thing of locking down from Saturday a whole week of mixing away.

I really really hope not. Anyone thought he is actually trying to keep small businesses afloat and stop more business going bankrupt? We can’t all work from home, be furloughed, live of pensions or benefits!

I bet my husband that he’d lock us down. But wouldn’t shut schools. They’d realise (I did get this wrong) and said December. I said he’d realise that the shutting of schools in September wouldn’t make a difference. That Xmas would be stopped. That they’d see a huge increase in cases after Xmas.

Then he’d shut schools and put us into full lockdown

I literally won all but one lot. Ha. At least I won some money from this situation!