Scottish announcement

[ashmts]

Anyone else feeling deflated? It feels like England were given hope yesterday and we've not been given much. My area has basically been in lockdown (tier 3 or 4) since October. I do understand the need for caution and I suspect the English dates won't be met, but I'm scunnered tbh.

That says 5 miles from a local area boundary. I'm in North Lanarkshire so does that not suggest I could travel across any of its boundaries by 5 miles? Local authority areas are quite large so I could travel quite a distance

Totally shit. And looks like my elder child will not get back to school until 5 April.

England got a bit of hope at least.

She couldn't squeeze any of that out.

Totally shit.

Sturgeon always has to ensure that Scotland does things slightly different to England. It’s in her DNA

The most laughable thing about this is that all 4 governments within the UK have consistently had small variances to approach to covid, but it's never 'Boris just has to be different', or 'England is wrong'. Nope, it's supposedly Sturgeon every single time.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

More or less the same as England, only on a provisional schedule that is 1-2 weeks behind. Nothing as silly as an 'it'll all be magically over by X date' proclamation, but the timeframe isn't too different.

Nothing like England. Back into a fat level 3 so when things do open we are supposed to stay in our local authority area, unless for essential reasons.

Half the things that will be open will be inaccessible anyway.

Relieved to have DD2 back to primary school reasonably soon. Secondary schools not back until April 5, but they’re on holiday at that point so DD1 won’t be back until 19 April—-another 6 weeks. She’s really struggling now and a further six weeks seems a very long time away.

Also given our education provision is so totally rubbish - I am completely fed up and worried about the effects on our children.

Why are they giving a date for schools to be back when they are actually going to be on holiday? Do you think they will change holiday dates

*Nothing like England. Back into a fat level 3 so when things do open we are supposed to stay in our local authority area, unless for essential reasons.

Half the things that will be open will be inaccessible anyway*

FM was quite clear that the 'tier 3' is going to be reviewed in advance of April, so I doubt it'll be exactly as before. And England is not magically going to be 100% back to normal at that point either, so I've no idea why you think that Scotland is going to be 'Nothing like England'.

I'm guessing 4 people from two households excludes under 12s like before. Does anyone know for sure? Feeling sooooooo underwhelmed right now and just trying to organise anything I can look forward to. Even if it's another walk in the rain at least I can another couple to it!!!

It's the levels that have done it. Boris had no mention of them and I got quite excited at the idea of being able to travel to the big supermarkets. It's the small things.

Date??? What date??

Boris consistently said that the dates might move - we will be led by data not dates - that the dates given were the earliest time at which changes would be made.

Can we start listening and repeating only what has been said?

That way we could work out what the differences across the home nations actually are.

Under 12s have never been counted so far

@ineedaholidaynow school holidays vary all over Scotland but that is a point - that means my eldest wont go back till 12 April.

The joy just keeps coming.

Johnson didn't guarantee everything would be back to normal by June though, he repeatedly said that 4 standards had to be met before that would happen and that June was the earliest. He's allowing 5 weeks between each relaxation to see what the effect is before we move on to the next stage. I was impressed by the plan actually, but we still need to be cautious. I'm sorry about Scotland though.

FM was quite clear that the 'tier 3' is going to be reviewed in advance of April, so I doubt it'll be exactly as before. And England is not magically going to be 100% back to normal at that point either, so I've no idea why you think that Scotland is going to be 'Nothing like England'.

I think it's 'nothing like England' because it is 'nothing like England'.

If she changes things like you say, it may become like England, but right now it is no where close.

@CuriousaboutSamphire so many people are booking holidays, hair appointments etc based on those dates

I give up

Thank you @dementedpixie

Indeed, but I can't help but agree with Patrick Harvey when he says that Boris giving a date in June for a full return to normality, when that is four months away and he has a history of getting practically everything wrong, isn't just ambitious, it's irresponsible.

My interpretation of what BJ said was that a full return to normality in June would be achieved in four stages with progression from one stage to the next being conditional on four tests being passed. No pass, no progression. There was no firm date. That was quite clear. To me anyway.

Covid hasn't gone away. In Scotland we're still averaging about 700-800 new cases a day and 85% of those are the new more transmissible variant. We aren't out the woods yet and however depressing it is, I think caution is vital.

@CuriousaboutSamphire so many people are booking holidays, hair appointments etc based on those dates

Yep, not helped by newspaper front pages crowing about June like it's going to be another VE day.

The 'irreversible' thing is hugely irresponsible, because people are banking on the 'provisional' becoming factual on the timescale supplied. There will be no end of anger if they don't happen due to unforeseen circumstances, but I don't expect that the media will bother to remind Boris that he used the term 'irreversible' when talking about relaxations. Normally a bad idea to build a rod for your own back, but you can get away with it when you simply do not care about being exposed as a charlatan and you have a compliant and amenable media that will not challenge you.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

Sturgeon always has to ensure that Scotland does things slightly different to England. It’s in her DNA

The most laughable thing about this is that all 4 governments within the UK have consistently had small variances to approach to covid, but it's never 'Boris just has to be different', or 'England is wrong'. Nope, it's supposedly Sturgeon every single time.

Drakeford is just as bad

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@CuriousaboutSamphire so many people are booking holidays, hair appointments etc based on those dates[/quote]
As are we... But not the day, or even the week, after!

That would be overly optimistic madness!

I will accept a hairdresser appointment though...

When do p4-7 kids go back?

Gutted. I'm in England, all my family are on the west coast and I haven't seen them since Christmas before last.