Prime Minister to make an announcement tonight at 5 p.m.

[Calmandmeasured1]

The Express reports:
"No indication has been given as to why the briefing has suddenly been called, however, it comes less than 24 hours after false reports in the German media caused alarm by claiming the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was ineffective among over-65s."

It could also be to make the announcement about hotel quarantining for those entering the country. I would imagine both subjects.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon yes I do seeing as I used to work there and I know how much certain areas rely very heavily on it

@ChardonnaysPetDragon nothing on its own makes the economy , lots of things together do ,

@donewithitalltodayandxmas @GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly some of us had been in peoples houses or able to mix inside we were not all in the same tiers before xmas and not in same ones over either

We were in national lockdown throughout November (albeit with schools open) and prior to that we had the rule of 6. So from a position of rates high enough to require national lockdown it was hardly the time to be suggesting 3 households (with however many that involves) meeting for 5 days indoors throughout the UK. As you correctly point out the situation differed throughout the UK so was it really sensible to suggest moving around the country? I’m not a virologist but that policy sounds like a golden opportunity for a virus that thrives indoors to ramp up and spread.

yes I do seeing as I used to work there and I know how much certain areas rely very heavily on it

That makes sense, that's why you don't want to see their negatives.

@Emilyontmoor

Who takes over and what do they do now? There's always loads of lists of where he went wrong and how terrible he is and what a dreadful hash he's made of things prior to where we are now, but no one seems to want to say what they themselves would do now in his place, or who they'd like to take his place when he resigns as demanded and what they would want to see the incumbent do.

OK. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Covid took hours of hours of evidence from all parts of society on the effects of covid and the lessons that could be learned, so there is a sensible expert driven plan in place. appgcoronavirus.marchforchange.uk/interim_report As a start he needs to accept that his testing factories are not working because their processes are unsafe and they are short of staff because they do not train them adequately and treat them like commodities, but that there are a host of public labs who have the staff and highly effective processes but can't get the machines they need because they are all tied up in the superlabs. So fund the small labs and put them in charge of the superlabs and get rid of the inexperienced private sector managers trying to run them like callcentres. Then put track and trace under the control of public health officials who know the local ground. Third provide funding to make sure people do not have a choice between getting food on the table and isolating, then make isolation compulsory and introduce monitoring systems to ensure compliance. Manage the borders and ensure compliance with quarantine on arrival. If all this is in place then you keep the R number down and you can have an open economy. in fact Taiwan never locked down, the above control were enough.

@Emilyontmoor you are very well informed. Thank You.

@grumblymumblyisnotjumbly but the rules were changed as soon as they realised about the new variant and many places had no mixing and others had one day.
Although many did not mix still no where near what could of but just a few days before where I was pubs/ restaurants were open and Some were still allowed rule of 6 which potentially could be 6 households

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@Miljea not really no maybe half have , some countries per capita slightly worse many others not that far behind, especially europe who we have the most in common with. [/quote]
We are currently faring worse than any other country. We have the worst rolling week on week death rate in the world.

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-uk-records-599-more-coronavirus-deaths-and-another-37-535-cases-12191659

Looking at per capita deaths for the entire pandemic we are third highest out of 152 countries listed.

www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/

Even taking into account potential inaccuracies in some country’s reporting this makes for sobering reading. Look at the difference between Belgium and the U.K. over the last seven days. They have had 260 deaths. With a population six times that of Belgium - and not as densely populated - we have had a staggering 7,042 deaths.

I last looked at this table around ten days ago. We were eighth then. Third ten days later. We do appear to be going very much in the wrong direction

Of course this is a monumentally difficult crisis for any government to tackle. But our government should have done better. There are so many people queuing up to be apologists for them. No, they couldn’t have predicated the exact form the pandemic would take but there should have been adequate plans in place for a pandemic, not least the adequate provision of PPE.

Just imagine how the press would be reacting if this had happened under a Labour administration.

@Emilyontmoor

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Covid took hours of hours of evidence from all parts of society on the effects of covid and the lessons that could be learned

Of course most of that sounds reasonable. But you are still dependent on the public who will be moaning about giving up their human rights, the tantrumming, and overall hit and miss compliance.

It may have worked in some places in Asia (plus Oz and NZ), but it would have been most likely impossible here unfortunately

@Emilyontmoor

Also, even if he had implemented that list to the letter, the dissenters would still be crying blue murder and demanding he did exactly the opposite.

The government is never going to win with some people

The point is that he didn’t implement that list and 100000 people have died. Of course people are going to criticise. It’s fairly gobsmacking to suggest that we should all just stay quiet and pretend he’s doing a fantastic job.

Even he seems to know he’s not up to it.

[quote trulydelicious]@Emilyontmoor

Also, even if he had implemented that list to the letter, the dissenters would still be crying blue murder and demanding he did exactly the opposite.

The government is never going to win with some people[/quote]
I judge on results.

If we'd had 25 deaths like NZ, you wouldn't hear a peep out of me.

Just before the briefing the BBC spoke on air to Profoessor David Spiegelhalter, Prof of Statistics at Cambridge. Top bloke.

He confirmed that when all the statistical data is investigated, analysed, weighted, stripped of background noise, assembled so as to accurately compare like with like, and researched by expert statisticians, the UK is doing very badly indeed compared to every other country on the planet.

And they are still trying to blame the general public for not complying with the rules, nothing to do with failure of government, nothing to see here. The new campaign "Look me in the eye and say you are doing all you can..." etc is appalling. More propaganda to make the public fight amongst themselves instead of removing this appalling government.

al Jazeera, mentioned yesterday only 11% of UK citizens who feel ill get tested and of those only 11% isolate. went on to discuss it was basically due to poverty and being unable to stay home without pay.

The symptoms for testing are also ridiculously restrictive in the UK. You can be really unwell with a sore throat, rash, painful tongue, headaches, fatigue, nausea, diarrhoea, an intermittent cough and be feeling a bit breathless and according to the government website these symptoms don't qualify for a covid-19 test.

So you have to lie to get a test, basically.

"The government is never going to win with some people"

It's not about fucking politics it's about competence.

It clearly didn't have to be as catastrophic as it has been. Because you can see other countries have handled it better.

@donewithitalltodayandxmas @grumblymumblyisnotjumbly but the rules were changed as soon as they realised about the new variant and many places had no mixing and others had one day.Although many did not mix still no where near what could of but just a few days before where I was pubs/ restaurants were open and Some were still allowed rule of 6 which potentially could be 6 households

We could be in an even bigger mess if people have mixed as much as was actually permitted! My area was put into Tier4 from Boxing Day rates were sky high but Johnson encouraged the primary pupils back in with no further safety measures. From back in the first wave Whitty was warning winter would be a problem as hospitals are already stretched and the virus would transmit more indoors.

I think the real failing was when the wheels fell off the test and trace system in September, when Dido Harding said no one predicted the increased demand for tests Schools went back as normal aside from hand washing (masks were only introduced into corridors at secondary later) community transmission escalated and the ‘whack a mole’ approach failed.

@trulydelicious Of course most of that sounds reasonable. But you are still dependent on the public who will be moaning about giving up their human rights, the tantrumming, and overall hit and miss compliance

Do you really think there is no dissent from the public in other countries? Are the UK population more likely to break Government rules than the populations of all the other countries with death rates lower than the UK?

[quote GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly]**@trulydelicious* Of course most of that sounds reasonable. But you are still dependent on the public who will be moaning about giving up their human rights, the tantrumming, and overall hit and miss compliance*

Do you really think there is no dissent from the public in other countries? Are the UK population more likely to break Government rules than the populations of all the other countries with death rates lower than the UK?[/quote]
I don't.

So far we haven't had the riots other countries have seen.

A few anti mask demonstrations but nothing compared to some other countries.

@fallfallfall

went on to discuss it was basically due to poverty and being unable to stay home without pay

Why do people take news as gospel?

Yes, poverty does account for some of it. But I remember well someone saying here that a whole family living next door tested positive and rather than isolating went out to buy a car! Again, the government is partially responsible but we should not lay all the blame on them

@GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly

Are the UK population more likely to break Government rules than the populations of all the other countries with death rates lower than the UK

Which are these countries where people break the rules and have low death rates?

@GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly

encouraged the primary pupils back in with no further safety measures

I agree with this. Safety measures should have been put in place

I could have done a better job than him because I am would have had the humility to say "this is massive, I am not equipped to deal with this, I am going to use my intelligence to rethink government and form a small team"

I am then going to communicate effectively with firmness and empathy to the population.

@trulydelicious Again, the government is partially responsible but we should not lay all the blame on them

I think most people are complimentary about the vaccine development, procurement and rollout & the Government’s role in that. Other than ,understandably, raising questions about why gap between doses was extended- which the medics have responded to and explained the rationale for.

Passing such a landmark figure of Covid deaths was always going to be a point of reflection. It would be remiss not to. Some people suggest it’s ‘Boris bashing’ for the sake of it. That’s untrue. We should look back and learn, what worked, what didn’t. Why are the UK outcomes worse than other countries? If people don’t comply why not? Why hasn’t public non-compliance in other countries resulted in a death rate as high as in the UK?

@randomer

I could have done a better job than him

Sure, go on and register a party (same advice goes for some posters on here who seem to think they are seriously gifted)

I'll watch with interest to see how well you all fare in similar circumsances