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.

@Jangle33

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

Furlough has to be offered and not everyone is eligible for it.

@Stripesnomore

The March lockdown worked in reducing cases so that hospitals could cope, which was its purpose.

Not where I live, Covid wasn't up here in March. The hospital was empty. We were locked down for months for nothing. It has now made it's way up and we are back at square one.

So many threads of competitive misery, and everybody desperately racing to the bottom.

I agree with you OP. Half arsed lockdowns don't work, they just prolong the misery for everyone. The other obvious thing that needs to be addressd is the borders. Open borders and unrestricted travel is insane at this time. I am in NZ and the UK version of full lockdown looks very different to the NZ one, although it's obvious that our government's aim of elimination is not what the UK government is aiming for.

It's not a half way house, it is a proper lock down.

Wh Smith sells book s study guides..

P the lockdown in March had same rules as now

Businesses weren’t forced to close

They closed because the virus was new and they weren’t covid secure so legally that’s be liable if staff got ill

Now they’re secure so they’ll stay open

Plus no one in real life I know is scared anymore

I don’t know a single person working from home

If people want it to work, you have to do big structural changes - I guess like they did building hospitals after the war and nightingales.

rationing.
Testing at borders (like truck drivers). Increase tax, employ lots of people as covid marshals. Centralized school curriculum.

It's so naive to think that locking down harder will get us out of this sooner when we already know from a year's experience and the experience of pretty much every other European country that that isn't the case. We did a hard lockdown in March and it took ages for cases to fall and they only really started falling once the season changed and we are back to square one now despite not having anything close to normality in between times. Some European countries did a harder lockdown and it didn't put them in any better a position on coming out of lockdown.

And people saying this isn't a proper lockdown are only saying that because the idea of lockdown has been normalised and presented as the only viable answer. At the moment it is a criminal offence to sit on a park bench, meet with your family or friends, run a hospitality business, get on a train without a mask on etc. There is no authoritarian regime in history which has done that to people. We have destroyed the economy, wrecked a year of most people's lives, wrecked a lot of people's future livelihoods and health and it still isn't enough for some people. My life outside my house is basically reduced to taking my baby on a walk with a friend to the park and getting a takeaway coffee and you want to take more away from it.

A strategy which relies on keeping 66m people separate indefinitely in a country as densely populated as ours when our society is structured with numerous inter-dependencies between people is ridiculous and was always doomed to fail. And yet the answer after a year of this strategy failing is to do more of it.

And even if you think lockdown is a good strategy where is the evidence that click and collect and garden centres have anything to do with whether the NHS is overwhelmed.

If you want to stop click and collect for non essential goods, then you should also want to stop on-line ordering and delivery of those same goods. 100's of people work in those warehouses that pick your orders, how about thinking of their risks as well.

Honestly OP, so many people not reading your initial post properly. I get exactly what you mean - you want a lockdown like we had in NZ. The only places open were supermarkets/dairies, pharmacies, and shops essential for farming supplies. No takeaways, no garden centres, no click and collect (other than s/markets) - we weren't even allowed online shopping initially, and then it changed to essentials only. You could order something else, but it wouldn't be sent. I think however that it is probably too late for the UK - your original lockdown would have been a better time to do this. However, it also wouldn't work while all and sundry are entering the country and not having to go into isolation. You are right though, a half hearted lockdown is never going to be enough.

I just saw your post @Cousinit - with both of us saying the same thing!

My work are trotting out the total bollocks to staff that mention how inessential we are(furniture logistics) that this time we can’t shut down because the ports will back up and we will run out of fresh food and medicine as it will get stuck. So why did that not happen in the last real lockdown then, when we were shut?

I know plenty who are not complying though.

Even if harsher rules were implemented, some friends and family will continue doing what they've been doing all along (mixing in homes, masks under noses and ignoring distancing, going round several shops a day due to boredom or what they see as "defiance", going on holiday abroad, having mobile hairdressers round, lying to get kids into school or saying you're a keyworker when you work in an e-cigarette shop. I've not made that last one up either). Nobody is 'policing' it anyway (not saying I agree with that).

Well, I have a friend who thinks that anyone caught breaking the rules should be done for manslaughter and I think there might be enough on here who feel the same way to start a petition!

Completely agree with you OP. A half hearted lockdown will just prolong things and damage the economy more. Either we do a proper lockdown with borders closed/strict isolation and testing on arrivals (was pretty shocked that the UK is only introducing requirements of negative test on arrival recently, other counties require mandatory self isolation upon arrival plus testing is required) or we actually sort out test and trace and comply more with social distancing and masks (eg South Korea). But then the same people who complain about lockdown are also the ones refusing to give out data and follow social distsncing rules. So yes we will be in this mess for quite awhile.

Well Garden Centres should be limited to click and collect and the numbers in school need to be further reduced (although some of the biggest offenders of using school spaces that they don't really need are healthcare workers) but at the same time the economy needs to keep running and allowing click and collect is the only way that a lot of shops will survive. Throwing more money into the NHS is also pointless as the current pressures wouldn't be relieved by more money and in the longer term there has to be bigger questions as to the reform of the NHS as it is unsustainable in it's current form. The biggest problem is that too many of those with children can't understand why they need to follow the same rules as the rest of society and that their children need to stay at home as much as physically possible.

I’m glad some people understand what I am saying!

I saw statistics for number of hospital admissions yesterday. Very sobering. This is not just flu.

We are an island. It is disappointing that island status could not have been utilised. Unlike the rest of Europe e could have secured our borders. Almost a year on and we still haven’t...

We are an island. It is disappointing that island status could not have been utilised. Unlike the rest of Europe e could have secured our borders.

Firstly, the UK isn’t permitted to close the Irish border

Oops posted too soon.

Firstly, the U.K. can’t close the border under the terms of the GFA.

Secondly, what would you propose doing about all the food that comes from Europe via freight and driven across the country?

The Chris’s Whitty comment on the press conference on Sunday was very telling. It was about what risk society will accept in return for what level of civil liberty. I’m assuming the people are speaking. This is the level of full lockdown people have decided to accept.

We are in lockdown - what else can he taken away from us??

Schools closed
Wfh
Don't go out

Chains on our front door?

I hate these threads.

@Jangle33
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.

Where have you read that?

Why is it ok to die in a car crash but not if covid?

It’s really worrying if that’s true, most mini heart attacks can be saved with the right treatment.

You do realise that we also need an economy otherwise we are all f#cked???

@Givemeabreak88
Argos sells lots of essential products though, my kettle broke during lockdown 2, the fact I could click and collect (you pick up outside) is safer than the supermarket and Argos pay tax unlike Amazon