Westministenders: Reployed back to No Deal Planning

[RedToothBrush]

Now Covid-19 is over (yeah I know right) lots of civil servants who were switched from brexit no deal planning to covid-19 planning have been switched back to their original remit.

For some reason this doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

We've also seen yet another doubling down on the EU not being flexible and how they need to make a deal. And lots of rhetoric about being serious about no transiton planning.

Remember we have something of a deadline looming at the end of next month.

So before we are even out of this crisis, the government have lost interest. Today's press conference was an eye opener - Van Tam openly said that the time taken to get test results was too long and wasn't good enough yet and meant track and trace wasnt still operational despite it being such a crucial factor in being able to go into the next phase as planned on 1st June.

Another deadline we won't make - the Manchester Nightgale still has patients and the local authorities in the NW are going mental. So the government is playing more silly buggers over blame and villianising the evil workshy teachers. Noting the government guidance for teachers on how to teacher children at home says fuck all and the guidance on reopening schools makes a Theresa May dog ate my homework style document look positively well thought out, in terms of practicality. (Not even going to touch on the question of whether its safe - the whether its workable one is more important).

I guess that means things are getting back to normal at least.

A recession looms, but workers rights are now fair game and fully in the government cross hairs - as we see from a lack of PPE for the 'heroes' and the attacks on the teachers. As well as the carers who were sold down river. That'll be the ununionised carers...

Taking back control.

oldlace god, don't get me started on those kids with sen/ehcps.
They are being failed spectacularly.
Oh well, as long as Flris can go and fetch her newspaper each day, it's all worth it, eh

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/21/nhs-doctor-enough-people-clapping

Consultant says clapping and rainbows are a diversion from the real issues in the NHS.

Yep.
I suppose it makes tory voters feel better though?
Not much effort required after all...

The biggest problem I have with the "it's their choice, the oldies can go out and risk their health if they want," position is that it's NOT just about their health. If they get the virus, they will seek out and get treatment (because it's one thing to laugh off risk and seem to accept death, it's quite another to slowly smother alone at home). And that will expose their carers, who are already exposed and underprotected (but clapped for, hurrah). And the families of the carers. And therefore teachers. Etc.

To my mind, it's a bit like deciding to take illegal drugs because it's your choice to take the risk of arrest/addition/death. It completely ignores the entire network of criminality and exploitation that enables that market and that choice, so if you're choosing to support the market you're also supporting county lines crime, child exploitation, violence domestically and abroad, smuggling.

Choosing to ignore the wider network of impacts from "your choice" doesn't mean you're not complicit, and no amount of Thursday night clapping changes that.

The long hand of the Puritans is responsible for so much sheer evil in the US.

seems the English joy at waving goodbye to them at the time ( ... and do not let the door hit thy arse on the way out, sir ! ) was a tad premature

We need 3 arks ...

They’re still not testing 100,000 people a day due to counting many people as two tests (nasal and throat).
I can’t even be surprised any more... like the gloves counted as two items of PPE.

Yesterday 67,681 people tested, but 128,340 tests.
To date: 3 million tests; 2 million people.

Tens of thousands of coronavirus tests have been double-counted, officials admit
Two samples taken from the same patient are being recorded as two separate tests in the Government's official figures
It is not the first time the Government has been caught massaging the testing data.

www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/tens-thousands-coronavirus-tests-have-double-counted-officials/

mobile.twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1263460601843548163

mobile.twitter.com/mrjamesob/status/1263747159729614850

To my mind, it's a bit like deciding to take illegal drugs because it's your choice to take the risk of arrest/addition/death. It completely ignores the entire network of criminality and exploitation that enables that market and that choice, so if you're choosing to support the market you're also supporting county lines crime, child exploitation, violence domestically and abroad, smuggling

It's possible to grow your own cannabis - and many do specifically to avoid the criminality you describe.

The drugs laws are a paradigm of inventing laws to tackle issues that are neither judicial nor criminal but - in as much as they are issues at all - are matters of public health.

@yoikes I’m not sure how preventing an old person from picking up a newspaper will help kids in abusive situations. Many old people don’t have any choice but to do their own shopping.

As I said we can’t lockdown until the pandemic is over - so we will all have to get used to life with a degree of risk than we’re used to. We will all likely be exposed to the virus at some point over the next couple of years and we just have to accept that.

The key to ending lockdown is getting the track, trace and testing properly organised which is currently a shitshow.

Choosing to ignore the wider network of impacts from "your choice" doesn't mean you're not complicit

Well said Singasonga!

DGR 3 arks

So double counting is now a "thing".

Can't wait to go shopping tomorrow ...

Yes, it looks like £50, but it is in fact £100 under the new "Matty Hancock" system of accounting. Just wait till I get the beers in....

On further reflection, it's hard to believe how dim Hancock is.

All he had to do was tell us that he was including 200,000 tests that hadn't been scrapped yet. After all, we bought that during the election with nurses.

Also, how's those new hospitals coming along ? How many were there ? 35 ? 5 ? -15 ?

sing
Thank you for putting it far more eloquently and less swearily than me :)
These people are complicit. Absolutely.
Perhaps they should all sign a form declining treatment if the get covid-19?

People seem to think lockdown will solve the problem and it won’t.

Realistically, if old people go to a hospital appointment, use public transport, go to an unauthorised OAP jamboree, they may pick it up there. But they’re not that likely to pick it up at a newsagent.

A more pertinent area of concern is opening up schools and workplaces too soon, without adequate testing and tracking mechanisms, and without strong protocols. (What the Tories would call muscular or robust).

DGR I wonder if the Nightingale hospitals will be counted towards the 40 new hospitals?

DGR I wonder if the Nightingale hospitals will be counted towards the 40 new hospitals?

Well I see Wales was lucky enough to have two:

The Dragon's Heart Hospital and The Ysbyty Calon y Ddraig !

Consultant says clapping and rainbows are a diversion from the real issues in the NHS.

Dh was on a local cam call last night. A neighbour was on.

He asked why he hadn't seen DH out clapping.

To say DH wasn't impressed was an understatement.

Dh replied that since his brother worked in a and e and hated the clap he was respecting that instead of the self serving bullshit of others.

The night didn't get much better apparently.

Choosing to ignore the wider network of impacts from "your choice" doesn't mean you're not complicit, and no amount of Thursday night clapping changes that.

DH is an NHS surgeon and I’m out volunteering to get food to vulnerable people in the borough who can’t access it. We’re ‘complicit’ in our choices. Life doesn’t stop because people are afraid. Some people have to keep going.

One can point the finger of blame at people who keep partying and socialising against regulations. But the fact is OAPs are far, far more at risk in care homes and hospitals than in a newsagent.

If they go into a decline be cause they’ve given up on life, which can happen v fast in old people - they will still have to be dealt with by the NHS.

People seem to think lockdown will solve the problem and it won’t.

Unless I've completely lost all grasp of my maths, it seems risk of contracting Covid and severity of infection are integral functions of exposure.

TL;DR the fewer people you can interact with, the much better off you'll be.

I know this is school of the bleedin' obvious, but it's a slightly more nuanced staring point that "lock 'em all up".

Apropos of nothing, DW had a call yesterday. Her baclofen pump is due a refill and service and that can't be put off, so she'll be going into the clinic in a fortnights time.

On further reflection, it's hard to believe how dim Hancock is.

DGR, I expected more cynicism on Matt Hancock than that!

You are dropping your own standards!

It's hot and sticky in Englands armpit today as well as TFIF. Surely I can be excused a slightly more casual approach. I am, after all, Fuming From Home.

Unless I've completely lost all grasp of my maths, it seems risk of contracting Covid and severity of infection are integral functions of exposure.

We have a government that seems to think if you have a school with 7 classrooms and 7 teachers you can half the number of children in the class and you can still fit them in the same school and magically double the number of teachers by sticking them in grow bags or something.

We are well into imaginary maths. In addition reinvented biology, magical geography and new history. English is obviously the next subject up for modernisation so we best start using facet, sidewalk, diaper, fall and color as if that's how English has always been.

English is obviously the next subject up for modernisation so we best start using facet, sidewalk, diaper, fall and color as if that's how English has always been.

you are aware they are all ("color" excepted) originally words from England ? Fossilised (like so much else) into what passes for the American mind.

"Color" of course comes from Websters half-arsed (if well intentioned) attempt to make English modern.

My heart gave a double-beat on Wednesday. "Dilbert" used the word "banter" which my old chum Ben Yagoda has flagged as a definitive Britishism. But there it was. Used correctly too, which is a bonus for British words Americans try to appropriate.

I'm a keyworker too.
Am also out there each week.
What's your point?
I'm not vulnerable, not shielding, not indulging in risky behaviours, am following all Govt advice and nhs infection protocols.
I'm not just waking up in the morning and thinking "fuck it, I'm off to sneeze all over the baked goods in the co op coz I dont care if I die..."
(I no longer buy baked goods from said co op after witnessing an old man sneeze rather productively, and wipe his hand on the bags for customer use 🤢🤢
Amd before I'm accused of ageism of course it could happen with young children but they can't really reach the shelf...

People seem to think lockdown will solve the problem and it won’t It seems to have done a much better job elsewhere in the world when done more quickly and effectively. Until we actually succeed in doing lockdown properly then lifting it is just going to result in more unnecessary deaths. The only reason that old people are more at risk in care homes and hospitals than the newsagents is because we didn’t get it right in the first place. www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/19/mps-hear-why-hong-kong-had-no-covid-19-care-home-deaths

Talking about the benefits or not of Lockdown, it would appear that Sweden, which chose not to lockdown, has now overtaken the UK in deaths per capita from Covid

I could make a joke about BJ being frustrated that he's lost his "world beating" status, but these are real people, real lives and real deaths