Westminstenders: A test of logistic planning

[RedToothBrush]

We are witnessing a demonstration in Government crisis management.

For the past week journalists have asked the same questions and politicians have said they've already done it / are doing it in the near future. But as time wears on, the inability to produce the answers or demonstrate results is proving illusive.

This will have consequences.

It is a demonstration in how planning has proved to be lacking in certain areas.

With Brexit in mind, the lack of vision, coordination with business and wider capability and capacity this does not bode well.

MoS

International courts. I thought we didn't like international courts in this country.

The whole 2 page spread is just full of such utterly ridiculous nonsense I don't know where to begin.

I know. Let's sign a petition on wet markets on our Chinese made iPhone. Before purchasing some more Chinese ventilators and PPE.

now, what about the reporters that followed her and took the pictures?

Technically speaking if they were following a tip off, their job is to hold power to account and to highlight abuses of power. So they would be within their rights their travel was for essential purposes in the public interest.

Calderwood has been given a warning by the police - and rightly so.

Is that an official shows-up-on-DBS warning, or just a spanked bottom in the press (see also: Tahir Ali, MP ...) ?

She should have been fined the maximum, with also fines per person taken with her

However, it's crazy to demand she be sacked for this
The last thing we need atm is to sack key people and suffer the consequent disruption

Re Calderwood, she damn well should be fined. She also should resign, clear as day IMO. Failing this, obviously she should be sacked.

Why is calling for her to be sacked “crazy?” She’s CMO, she’s giving advice to the whole population expecting them to follow it but considers herself above doing so.

Calderwood, she damn well should be fined

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I am thinking she wasn't even cautioned.

My family, who are pretty positive about the SNP definitely feel Calderwood should resign.
They are managing a variety of small dc without any of the usual activities they usually do like Kayaking.
Actually four families feel she should resign and DF would never think the SNP could do wrong.

However, it's crazy to demand she be sacked for this. The last thing we need atm is to sack key people and suffer the consequent disruption

I don't go as far to call it crazy to call for resignation. She's failed massively and created a lack of trust in her personally and the role of Scottish chief medical officer. It is misconduct in a public office.

Do I think she should resign / be sacked?

That's a different question.

Is her deputy well enough briefed and placed to take over? Are their currently the resources for those lower down to take on more duties?

Probably not.

I think there is a situation where what she's done is bad but not serious enough to get rid of her now under the current circumstances. I do however this she should face a proper disciplinary and be relieved of her duties the second this does calm down and there is capacity to do so.

Marek Gierlinski @marekgierlinksi
A puppy has died. Look at the y axis.

"Why is calling for her to be sacked “crazy?” She’s CMO"

Precisely why we shouldn't sack her

Replacing her in the middle of a crisis might cause some disruption
We can't afford the risk

"cutting off nose" etc

Hence she should get max fines for herself and all accompanyinf persons, plus an official reprimand

Besides, legally it would be quite difficult to sack someone for at a civil offence carrying at most a small fine

That pesky employment law
Of course, she might resign out of embarassment

• and to escape the responsibility, moral and public, of many hundreds of deaths in Scotland, whatever she does

The problem is, if the CMO is seen to be sticking two fingers up to the official advice, it's very hard to try and insist other people follow it. Leading to the impression that the UK is really just like a big, school than a proper country. Where the "grown ups" get to do what they want, whilst the pupils have to toe the line because they are pupils.

Equality ? No thank you.

"back in the day" the UK had evolved quite a clever and sophisticated system for such incidents ...

The person involved - from personal honour - tendered their resignation, which could then be accepted - or refused - by their superiors.

In a case like this the CMO could tender their resignation, and it could be refused and we would all know where we stood.

But I can't recall the last time we ever saw any honour at the top of the tree. Just look at Prince Andrew if you like.

Now when it comes to mistakes of far greater consequence, such as

. running down the NHS and public health services for years
. wasting a month on herd immunity before switching to WHO advice
. not testing
. wasting time before ordering PPE and ventilators - and then giving contracts to Tory / Leave supporters
......

Her personal cockup looks pretty insignificant if all those ministers aren't resigning over cockups that have damaged the whole country

I've been watching out for the Tory media to switch to attacking public servants

Now that the death toll is mounting
and people are getting frustrated in lockdown

She was a fucking idiot, as the media would have been hunting for any story like this

"Look, a squirrel" will run for some time

She will be used as justification for people to ignore the rules.

"it can't be that risky / dangerous if the chief medical officer is doing it."

Followed by a good little conspiracy theory attached.

Also, to be consistent, we should be sacking most of the Royal Family for doing this ....

The problem is she is the person standing up telling people how they have to behave and what they have to give up.
If she either won't are can't give up these personal freedoms why should those she should talks to bother following her advice.

There has been much discussion in my family about kayaking but it hasn't been done. If it is ok for Calderwood to travel around because social distancing happened then kayaking is fine for my family.
If that is replicated throughout Scotland then the lockdown ceases to work at all.

Definitely she should resign as soon as this crisis is over - but that's probably in 18 months

Maybe she'll bring her deputy up to speed and quit in a couple of months - must be tempting for anyone to do so, escape this responsibility

In the meantime, no grade rises or whatever

In the meantime, no grade rises or whatever

Watch out for the golden handshake...

Maybe tonight Queenie will explain in her broadcast why most of her family have ignored the rules and buggered off to their 2nd / 3rd /4th homes

Wrt to the rent being paid for Nightingale:
Spain, having declared a state of emergency, can requisition buildings as long as they are not private homes.
The texts defining the state of emergency in France say the state can
requisitions all goods and services needed to help stop the virus spreading, which includes PPE and, I presume, buildings.

"Watch out for the golden handshake"

That's another problem if she resigns now
We'll be told it's because of employment law, civil service contract etc

But so bloody irresponsible

Like an entitled princess ....

There has been much discussion in my family about kayaking but it hasn't been done. If it is ok for Calderwood to travel around because social distancing happened then kayaking is fine for my family.

Technically speaking in terms of kayaking many waterways have been officially closed by those bodies that run them. So you could get a fine for that regardless of the social distancing stuff.

Other places are permitted on the basis of British Canoeing Membership (many canals for example) and their official line is its not OK. Since this also involves insurance that's also invalid.

The canal and river trust also have said no one should use tow paths atm wherever it is possible. (so pretty much access only) and water companies have closed reservoirs for recreational activities

Dh and I had a long conversation about it as he wanted to kayak for his daily exercise so I looked into what the official advice was. It was only then he said fair enough (he coaches in his spare time so he'd lose his certification if he did). His white water friends who are really dedicated paddlers have also jacked it in temporarily as the risk of having an accident and then straining emergency services is too high. It's generally low risk as a sport but there are those odd incidents every year which almost always turn out to be because safety isn't taken seriously. These guys take the safety element seriously as a result.

I know not everywhere and everyone will kayak in places which are owned or access controlled nor need a permit nor insurance but if the advice is so heavily backed in this way it would be much easier for you to fall foul of bylaws or trespass laws than for other forms of exercise.

There are some wacky kayaking in the back garden activities online at the moment though. I think a number of kayak manufacturers have decided to put prizes towards them too.

So yeah this idiot might be flouting the rules but there are plenty of other reasons why kayaking atm isn't the best of plans.

Wrt to the rent being paid for Nightingale

There's been a rethink on that one:

The owner of London's ExCel centre has performed a U-turn on charging the NHS for use of the site.

ExCel chief executive Jeremy Rees said an initial agreement with the NHS to house the temporary Nightingale Hospital "included a contribution to some fixed costs" but he said on Sunday: "We have since decided to cover the fixed costs ourselves.