Why the government won’t do a proper lockdown?

[Jangle33]

The NHS say for LONDON they will likely be short by 2000 to 5000 beds.

They won’t be treating people who are in a road traffic accidents or have a heart attack. I cannot even begin to imagine what the staff are going through.

Can someone people explain why the government are not stepping in and:

• rethinking the number of “key” worker children they have permitted to attend. 50% of kids in school is not sustainable.
• make it illegal for unscrupulous employers to not allow staff to work from home who perfectly are able to.
• close cafes
• close click and collect
• police enforce breaches
• close garden centres and other non essential retail
• anything else I’ve missed...

We will all be locked up for longer with this halfway house and more people will die.

They need to act fast.

Our takeaway coffee shops have many people inside waiting! Tis a bit nuts imo.

Then report them to your local authority's environmental health department as not being Covid secure.

I went to an M&S food hall yesterday as I needed a few bits and was told by a few people that in the last lockdown it was the food place which is the least busy to shop in and has wide aisles. (The other place is the local market but they don't sell a normal loaf of bread.) Nearly all the coffee shops that use to allow people in under Tier 4, now block the entrance with a table and you have to order from the door. The ones that weren't doing it don't have a line of customers outside the door.

MacDonalds was closed except to delivery cyclists who were all hanging around outside.

Agreed Stripes. It is a hard message to swallow and I am guilty of expecting most people to have the ability to read between the lines.

People who are able to work from home decrying that businesses should be made to put workers jobs at real risk to satisfy what THEY think should happen need to check their privilege.

@ALondonMum2

I really hope people who want lockdown can shut up and just go and lock yourself up. You already got your lockdown, what more do you want? If NHS is so overwhelmed, why is Nightingale not in use? Thanks to people like you, thousands of kids have no proper education, no interaction with friends. Do you know while you are out for walks, enjoying the deserted street, thousands of parents (keyworker or not) are struggling with work and childcare to the point of breaking? Do you know there are single parents out there who can't send their kids to school and still have to work at the same time? Do you think this is mere inconvenience?

My understanding is that the nightingale hospitals were only built for when things get really bad. They can't treat patients with covid there but they are beds where end of life patients can receive palliative care or where patients who are slowly recovering from covid can go before being discharged. They are essentially field hospitals.

Close click and collect? Dear God. May as well close all shops and have the army deliver whatever food rations the government considers suitable.

@ALondonMum2 The NHS in Scotland is massively under strain. The Louisa Jordan was mentioned in NS lockdown announcement and it looks likely that it will be used very soon for patients.

It had been in use already to try and get through some of the backlog of appointments that people hadn't been able to get during the previous lockdown and was being used for vaccinations etc also.

Glasgow hospitals were apparently at 96% capacity and she said will only get worse as Scotland is apparently four weeks behind London due to the new strain.

She also said that anyone receiving the shielding letter this time around can use this effectively as a fitnote for their employer so they can shield as we all know the issues the first time around with very vulnerable people being left struggling with what to do.

The issue is that we all know a lot of employers won't be very happy/impressed with some employees who decide to do this and I know that some are very worried about potential damage to their careers.

Tighter restrictions will be coming in Scotland more than likely as so many businesses have tried to stay open meaning this new strain is going to be circulating around so many now.

It has reached remote parts of Scotland now - numbers have gone up a lot - and the NHS there really cannot cope at all with large numbers and the alternative hospitals are also extremely, extremely busy. It is a very scary time.

The whole point is we need to lockdown more stringently or we are stuck in this awful situation for ages.

Why do you think this? Can you explain the steps between a 'proper lockdown' and an end to this situation?

There are more levers the government should use. It’s very clear that the less Interaction between people means fewer options for transmission (outlined above some suggestions).

The point of this post is to question whether there are others the government used in the past and should now.

But walking down my high street I can click and collect for the Body Shop, WHSmith. That is not essential and as a PP poster made clear, huge numbers of people work to make that happen.

And all the people working for those businesses struggling to stay afloat? Should they just sign up for Universal Credit, but have the warm glow of knowing that although they'll struggle to get another job for the forseeable, that some randomer on MN is screaming for a harder lockdown and will be pleased?

Such one-dimensional thinking.

I’m screaming for the lockdown to end quicker! That is all. Furlough exists for those who can’t work.

@Jangle33

Goodness I don’t think anyone had actually read my first post.

I am not advocating we turn into China.

I am not advocating we close supermarket click and collect. Delivery of non essential items happened in first lockdown and seemed a sensible compromise to avoid people going into town centres.

It has been widely reported that the interpretation of key workers is wider. Why should a key worker on furlough be allowed to send their kids into school?

If car showrooms, cafes etc remain open it is advocating people should go out!

Agree with you, I don't want lockdown at all but if we are going to do it through these winter months lets at least try and do it properly, what we have now is a halfway house. China style is obviously not an option but many other things could be stricter like you have mentioned but not sure click and collect is a big issue?

Bubbles are the big difference I can see, yes the genuinely needed ones should stay but the whole concept has been stretched out and people are multi bubbling/ bubbling with a non single involved, think I read yesterday on here of a parents park bubble.

@Jangle33

I’m screaming for the lockdown to end quicker! That is all. Furlough exists for those who can’t work.

Furlough doesn't pay business rates, rent, insurance, utilities, stock....

You haven't a clue.

Furlough exists for those who can’t work paid for out of this endless pot of money we don't have? The means by which we have some hope of propping up you are calling to be stopped?

Your view is looking beyond ridiculous now.

But a shorter lockdown get kids back to school quicker, businesses can reopen properly.

We can’t just close almost everything kind of but not really and bring the economy to our knees which is what the current “solution” is doing. That is short sighted and will cripple our economy for much longer.

Closing businesses will not get the vaccine rolled out any faster.

I am at a loss at to what you think a 'harsher lockdown' will actually achieve apart from preventing a problem that, at present, does not exist.

Why should a key worker on furlough be allowed to send their kids into school?

Who are these key workers on furlough sending kids in?

Surely a key worker wouldn’t be furloughed in the first place?

Car showrooms are essential. What if someone needs a car if theirs breaks and they use for work?
Forecourts aren't open so not people waltzing around but you have to click and Collect like everything else but can't see them being a hotbed of transmission at all. Yes there is a risk but workers need cars

I had to go to car showroom for MOT / service which is essential

Very good system though

The damage is already done. The headline I saw was that London hospital beds would struggle over the next couple of weeks. Everyone who is going to need a bed is already most likely infected.

Let’s see whether or not we do see an actual christmas/new year peak and whether the case numbers start going down with a combination of school holidays and then closures.

citymapper.com/cmi/london

This shows traffic movement since lockdown one, interesting the differences throughout the year and does show us quite low the last few days.

I figured click and collect was both to keep some of those shops going and to help relieve stress on the postal service. Yes, there were a lot of deliveries the first time around, but at least where I was there was some struggling going on.

Some of that has been relieved it seems by local taxi drivers having deliveries in the front as passengers aren't as available now, but I'm worried we'd get similar issues to last time.

Also, properties still need to maintained so someone may still need to go in anyways. My spouse is in full agreement he isn't a "key worker" no matter what his letter says, but a lot of other hotels failed to reopen on time and some people got ill from little things like the water not being run regularly while closed. Things that many don't think about, but needs to be part of any strategy to move back to things. I think, along with not really caring about deaths as long as it's photogenic, their main focus is on being able to 'reopen' as easily as possible.

@Jangle33

I’m screaming for the lockdown to end quicker! That is all. Furlough exists for those who can’t work.

Furlough isn’t available to all. 🤷‍♀️

@Dadnotamum72

citymapper.com/cmi/london

This shows traffic movement since lockdown one, interesting the differences throughout the year and does show us quite low the last few days.

Very interesting

For crying out loud, what's the point in people wanting a 'proper lockdown'? It will never happen (thankfully). The government know full well the public on the whole wouldn't comply. There's also the problem of it being unenforceable.

🙄 this again

“Proper lockdown “

But walking down my high street I can click and collect for the Body Shop, WHSmith. That is not essential

Fairly essential for the people who work there. And also for the economy.