So angry at the Government this evening

[Moonme]

I’m SO mad. I haven’t been on this board for months and I was feeling really optimistic about life feeling like it was returning to normal.
It is criminal that they have let this variant in. It’s literally ground hog day. Playing politics with public health to do trade deals (because of bloody Brexit) with India.
I know there is hope that the vaccines will do there jobs but we shouldn’t be in this position. This wasn’t inevitable. Arggh so cross

@Sarahrellyboo1987

Stop blaming the government.

Start blaming people who are too selfish.

Humans are selfish. Pretty much every human on the planet it selfish in some form. Including you. This needed to be strongly managed by those in charge to go against human nature of mixing with family and friends and against being able to return home. Don’t be naive. In no human populated world would everyone just give up returning home and not seeing their parents / children just in case. Most would maybe, but never all. That’s where someone in charge steps in

It needs to be wiped out or it will rumble on.

It won't be wiped out. It WILL rumble on.

Sarahrelly, I do blame the government. And I strongly disagree with the lazy "people are selfish" attitude. Compliance has been far higher than was anticipated. The government has massively got this pandemic wrong, not putting India on the red list for dodgy political reasons, handing out contracts to their mates when better experienced firms were available, defending their own for breaking the rules while the rest of us had toe the line, ruling through fear. No wonder people have had enough. I don't think they're selfish at all. I think people demanding we give up more of our.freedoms for longer are the selfish ones

People have very different views on this issue. I would rather we moved everything to a voluntary basis as the vaccinations mean our one aim in this - hospitals not full to bursting - has pretty much been achieved.

We have about 17m more people in the UK than when I was born (I preferred it with 17m fewer) and we have over those decades chosen to be an open nation and London like New York is a travel hub and people come and go all the time. I would not be against changing that and nor would environmentalists. I never had a night away from home until I was 10 and that did me no harm. However we are where we are and people have relatives from all over the world to a much greater extent than when I was born and will want to come and go.

I preferred it with 17m fewer

Congratulations on your phenomenal memory of those times.

A BA pilot of our aquaintance brought back a full flight from India in April, full of family who had gone out for a "third cousin twice removed" kind of wedding, with "family" from around the globe. It isn't surprising that certain areas have never been out of lockdown when they don't take things seriously. They were all UK residents, and should have gone into isolation, did they? Obviously not.

I didn't know that pilots had that much information on all their passengers

Humans are selfish. Pretty much every human on the planet it selfish in some form. Including you. This needed to be strongly managed by those in charge to go against human nature of mixing with family and friends and against being able to return home. Don’t be naive. In no human populated world would everyone just give up returning home and not seeing their parents / children just in case. Most would maybe, but never all. That’s where someone in charge steps in

Sounds totalitarian. If only it were so easy to 'strongly manage' human nature.

@ichundich

Exactly. We just cannot carry on like this forever. It's been 14 months; my kids have missed nearly a year of schooling. Even now they're missing out on their education because their school day has been shortened to allow for social distancing at dropoff and pickup times. This is a small village school with fewer than 150 pupils.

@icundich - I imagine they're not missing out on teaching time though, there will be less time for things like assemblies (probably done via streaming rather than all classes filing into and out of the hall which takes time) and a slight reduction perhaps in the length of the lunch break or other things. They'll hardly be missing anything! (I'm a supply teacher and have seen how many schools have adapted their start/end times and other things in the school day)

There’s been an outbreak of the Indian variant in Singapore and their borders are watertight. I don’t believe we could have even bought time by red listing India earlier. It’s not just in India, this variant is everywhere now, probably just not detected. U.K. detects far more than other countries.

I agree it will get in even with red list countries

Not sure on how much date of a India on impacts that, maybe some

@Julia001

People in red countries are flying to turkey etc to be able to get flights back - I know this for a fact , but let’s blame the government , of course it’s their fault , I doubt that any other government could have done any better - this is a once in a lifetime situation, everyone is still learning.

Of course routing India to UK via a intermediate country to get a flight is legit....

However lying about doing that on the Passenger Location Form is an offence.

I personally don't have an issue with people travelling if they are honest about where they have been and quarantine appropriately...however I really will have a major crinkle if those who want to travel are further restricted, and certain industries ending even more under the cosh, because of the results of some people being dishonest.

He was actually smirking when he was telling us.

@smittenkittten

He was actually smirking when he was telling us.

That really bothered me.

That's the highest level of inappropriate smirking I've ever seen.

This variant was already in other countries as well . Not just uk so we would have to cancel all flights and every lorry bringing in imports that keep businesses going.

@Villanelle17 Totally agree. My 85 year old mum broke her wrist and couldnt even wash her own hair for two months.

@Sarahrellyboo1987 You posting from 1987? Heard a lot of that attitude during the HIV epidemic

And yet (sorry if it's already been said) people voted spectacularly for the Tories at Hartlepool and in the local elections. I was mystified by the connection between the PM and his cabinet and the development of the vaccine but voters seemed to think there was one.

@BonnieDundee

A BA pilot of our aquaintance brought back a full flight from India in April, full of family who had gone out for a "third cousin twice removed" kind of wedding, with "family" from around the globe. It isn't surprising that certain areas have never been out of lockdown when they don't take things seriously. They were all UK residents, and should have gone into isolation, did they? Obviously not.

I didn't know that pilots had that much information on all their passengers

They don't.

I would rather we moved everything to a voluntary basis as the vaccinations mean our one aim in this - hospitals not full to bursting - has pretty much been achieved

I never thought the day would come when I agreed with you @Xenia! Deaths are down to virtually nothing, there are very few hospital admissions and it seems that the Indian variant causes a relatively mild illness. It’s time to accept covid is here to stay now.

There's some communities that need to pull their finger out and comply with the Government restrictions and measures.

The Government know who this communities are. However to mitigate risk they still allowed communities to freely travel back and fore to see family etc.

Blame Government AND communities in the hotspot areas.

@BonnieDundee

A BA pilot of our aquaintance brought back a full flight from India in April, full of family who had gone out for a "third cousin twice removed" kind of wedding, with "family" from around the globe. It isn't surprising that certain areas have never been out of lockdown when they don't take things seriously. They were all UK residents, and should have gone into isolation, did they? Obviously not.

I didn't know that pilots had that much information on all their passengers

Maybe they chatted to cabin crew?

Well the last time I was involved in that sort of thing at the airline in question the cabin crew didn't have access to that level of information either.

I accept things have changed in the last year or so but I wonder if Sounds like the story has grown in the telling.

@MercyBooth oh, the irony!

The AIDS pandemic taught us that taking personal responsibility for safe sex is the most important thing we can do....so, yeah!

Nice try though, pats you on the head

Boris has said that he will reduce the gap between first and second jabs for over 50s from 12 weeks to 8 weeks. This is just a lie.

I am 53 and I already had my jab 8 weeks ago. So unless I am getting mine done later tonight and haven't been told yet it will be more than an 8 weeks gap. And for anyone older than me it will clearly be even longer than this as they will have had their jab earlier.

I have no trust in this government.

inews.co.uk/news/arrivals-from-india-spent-hours-in-heathrow-queues-insanity-close-to-other-passengers-says-ex-pat-1002477/amp

Reading this it's no wonder the variant is coming into the country and spreading despite the stricter quarantine.

definitely frustrating but who gets the blame, being a layman I have no proper knowledge as to whats going on but surely, when when the Indian variant was first noticed all borders in India and UK should have been shut, might not have prevented it getting in but would surely have helped

The 8 week not 12 weeks for the second jab may not happen for everyone over 50 but my interpretation is that the idea is that by 21 June all would have had the second dose if that policy is implemented for enough over 50s. Many people over 50 were able to book their second dose appointment at the same time as the first, as I was, and I will stick to my original date.