A 2-week 'circuit breaker' could be coming after Christmas

[dancingstars]

Reported by The Times and The Guardian which means another NYE stuck indoors...

@Cameron2012

Both myself and my Husband are in hospitality. Saying we can serve outside in January seems to be their let out clause to not pay furlough.

Agree. Sunak is not willing to support businesses any more.

The Times also says Sunak is figuring out a deal for people who work in hospitality but I doubt it will be anything like paying people 80% of their wages.

Any ideas what 'after Christmas' will mean? Does it mean as of Boxing Day? I wasn't allowed to take my children to see my family last Boxing Day, I'll be absolutely gutted if the same happens this year.

And then you will merrily send your children back to school....

I don’t have school age children so no I wouldn’t be.

@paranoidnamechanger

The Times also says Sunak is figuring out a deal for people who work in hospitality but I doubt it will be anything like paying people 80% of their wages.

Why is he only figuring it out now, when he KNEW this would be needed?

Why did he swan off to LA for his own personal reasons instead of doing his job?

Why did he only bother to some back when Labour shamed him into it?

@paranoidnamechanger

The Times also says Sunak is figuring out a deal for people who work in hospitality but I doubt it will be anything like paying people 80% of their wages.

So costly, again

This is going to hit in next few years

Yes hospitality outside is crap - this is not California this is the UK in December and January - it is not nice outside for a meal or a drink! Better to close and give financial assistance but govt don't want to pay. I teach fitness classes indoors - again very few want to do them outside especially holistic ones. I might feel differently if like my friend, I was able to wfh and had been doing for 21 months now on full pay, being able to do my housework and laundry whilst working and saving money and time on commuting. She is hoping never to have to return to the office!

@Danja2010 odfod with the selfish shite.
People are allowed to be pissed off and express it.

@EllieSattler

Any ideas what 'after Christmas' will mean? Does it mean as of Boxing Day? I wasn't allowed to take my children to see my family last Boxing Day, I'll be absolutely gutted if the same happens this year.

The Times article says from December 27th or the 28th.

Well I hope they announce it before Xmas if they want it to start on 27th or 28th!

Sunak can't find the money. It's our money. We can't afford more tax rises. There is no magic money tree. Inflation will destroy our standard of living and cause insane shortages. Before you bleat about nasty Sunak, read a few economics textbooks. A lockdown means more poverty for more people. That reduces their ability to "stay safe" pretty substantially.

I think they will really struggle after party gate.

They will have to be cleverer than ‘no indoor mixing’ as, rightly or wrongly, it will be ignored.

@LowPowerMode

What’s the point of locking down / circuit breaking if the the schools are still operating as a viral incubator.

Education setting = viral incubator, nice way to undermine your own country's education. We have to live with this virus. All the people who want to lock down, are you willing to live in lockdown for the rest of your lives? Because nothing will change this virus will keep mutating, vaccines will only be partially efficient. Happy to lock yourselves away for ever?

This with bells and cherries on. The lockdowns, masks, circuit breakers and vaccine progress over last 2 years having stopped the virus, but helped reduce deaths. We need to live with, by that I mean businesses need to function properly, childreb in schools, holidays, hospitality fully open.

The alternative is never ending lockdowns, mass unemployment, homelessness, high deaths from non covid illnesses, uneducated children, high levels of MH.... and people are screeching for this

@Cherryblossoms85

Sunak can't find the money. It's our money. We can't afford more tax rises. There is no magic money tree. Inflation will destroy our standard of living and cause insane shortages. Before you bleat about nasty Sunak, read a few economics textbooks. A lockdown means more poverty for more people. That reduces their ability to "stay safe" pretty substantially.

Exactly people seem to be forgetting this

So what's the alternative?

FML

Swamp the nhs?
There ate hard choices to be made.

I genuinely don't understand how you can do this, we are all so angry with the PM for acting like he is above the rules - do you not think you are equal to your fellow citizens?

We followed every single rule of the last lockdowns. We spent Christmas last year without seeing family as my area got put into t4 so we weren’t even allowed to see one other household. I spent the whole of my maternity leave with restrictions and was alone in hospital for days with a new born with no visitors allowed, not even DH. I’ve had to watch family funerals online. I’m sorry but I’ve reached my limit. I don’t believe that further restrictions on social contact are right two years down the line and the impact on people outweighs covid for most people. I’m not cancelling my family gathering.

@User5329806

So punishing all the people who have to work over Christmas and hold their Christmas Day celebrations a few days later

Yes this exactly. Just like last year. Christmas was prioritised but anyone who was working Christmas and wanting to celebrate days later were screwed over. If they must do a circuit breaker after Christmas which lets face it, is slightly useless they should do it after the start of new year.

Someone suggested longer term but lighter restrictions. I dunno, rule of 6, max 2/3 households, lateral flow before meeting up. I can't see a 2 week circuit breaker making much of a difference. Especially if schools stay open which I'm almost certain they will. I'm convinced there's no way they'll go there again, especially as last time there were still loads in making very little difference to class sizes. Trouble is with schools open, a circuit breaker (ridiculous term) has minimal effect. Not just because of the obvious but also due to the psychological impact on people's willingness to comply. People think why bother when the kids are mixing.

@Hairwizard

They can get fucked. Will it fuck be just a circuit breaker. Bullshit. Useless. Business as usual here. To hell with that shower of cunts.

This accurately depicts my current mood

@Cherryblossoms85

Sunak can't find the money. It's our money. We can't afford more tax rises. There is no magic money tree. Inflation will destroy our standard of living and cause insane shortages. Before you bleat about nasty Sunak, read a few economics textbooks. A lockdown means more poverty for more people. That reduces their ability to "stay safe" pretty substantially.

This.

@rrhuth

Medics are absolutely at their wits' end with anti-vaxxers. But the only way they can do their job is to care for everyone, to be compassionate.

You’re assuming all metics are vaccinated. I understand there’s still a high percentage of people working in healthcare who aren’t.

So more pubs and restaurants to go under and more jobs lost and more poverty to come but they didn't catch a milder version of a virus. Fantastic.

What's the point of having a booster if we are back here? If, like me, you aren't remotely worried about covid and only had vaccines because they were "the way out", what would be the point of having a booster now.

Are they bringing back the uplift for UC again then?

Well from a stupidly labelled libertarian point of view, the alternative is that people are already very quickly heeding govt advice; people will stay home where they can. They're staying home. Cases will drop over Christmas. Hospitality will be decimated but at least allowed to operate, so the subsidy required won't be as big. There will be huge problems in the NHS as we have never had the capacity. Mass absence caused by isolation rules will cause a rethink of those rules by the Spring, unless the political pressure from Labour for yet more big State "to the rescue" changes the equation. My personal view is that Omicron is much less severe, but the level of terror the govt has instilled in people means they'll probably pressure hospital capacity for relatively mild symptoms. I don't really see a way in which the next three months aren't utterly fucked up, but lockdowns won't fix it either. Sadly I think lost people will start calling for them and the govt will go and spend yet more decades of taxes.