Westminstenders: Where are we now?

[RedToothBrush]

Twenty thousand people
Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed
Just in case
Walking the dead

Where are we now, where are we now?
The moment you know, you know, you know

Just that.

Don't really want to reflect more than that right now.

@SabrinaThwaite

We need a local management (I know, I know, we said this months ago) to deal with local flare ups.

PHE won't let the health modellers at County level do their own modelling tailored to local demographics.

Is it possible to be accidentally this obtuse? FFS PHE

DH's claim to fame
he saw Dame Vera Lynn on stage with Lemmy and Dave Brock

Social distancing of 1m (just over 3ft) as opposed to 2m (6ft) is "safe and appropriate" for children and young people at school, the Northern Ireland Executive has agreed.

The bit I take from this is safe and appropriate for children and young people at school...no mention of the Teaching and support staff, but then no one these days gives a flying fig for them - the staff are not even an afterthought now.

We've always had 1.5 m everywhere, but it will be eased to allow ft schools in September, barring disaster

The only schools closed so far have been because parents were infected at slaughterhouses, logistics centres, churches etc
and then infected the kids

Amid Brexit impasse, Germany urges no-deal preparations - document

Reuters - Fits in with the v little I've heard here since March - the WA sorted out the 3 most worrying issues
The rest can wait while Britannia Unhinged tries its act for 2021

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-amid-brexit-impasse-germany-132734570.html

"The situation is less serious than in 2019, as important regulations, for example for citizens, were sorted out in the withdrawal agreement,"

Pussycat
The reality is that for people under 50 the risk of severe ill health from COVIS is around the same as normal winter flu
I fully accept that the risks are many many times higher for older people and those with some health issues

therefore in a school situation
the benefits of letting children and their teachers get on with learning
with proper hygiene rules
massively outweigh the long term damage being done to the prospects of children under lockdown.

Use the ONS map, look at your localised risk

sp chk COVID

About the Brexit impasse:

"The situation is less serious than in 2019, as important regulations, for example for citizens, were sorted out in the withdrawal agreement," the document read.

They say that but Johnson, Gove, Cummings and the right wingers are all quite happy to tear up the withdrawal agreement. What will the saction be if they do?

www.ft.com/content/d7c27b79-3b30-4e6b-804e-b746573853a3
Facebook taken down some of Trumps ad's

We have 1 metre here in France and they might even relax that in schools.

listening Statistically, a COVID infection doubles the annual risk of dying for those aged 45+

Which some teachers aged 45+ will accept, but others won't

• to open schools for other peoples' children

SD would of course immediately be dropped in schools if it were also dropped everywhere else,
but that is unlikely atm,
as virologists in most countries say some SD must be maintained for adults indoors
and large outdoor events must remain banned for some time too.

Merkel has just banned all large events until the end of October,
which includes the culturally v important Oktoberfest

Schools can't open ft unless the 25% of teachers classes as vulnerable for various conditions, are required to teach

That might be the sticking point for the unions - and even cause a strike - unless by September the infections are so low that SD is abolished in all workplaces

It could all have been managed by a competent govt that negotiates sensibly,
but we've already seen this govt sucks at negotiations and can only play the blame game

Xavier Bettel, PM of Luxembourg 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

"The problem is, I worked with three British Prime Ministers.
I started with David Cameron, then Theresa May, and then there was Boris Johnson.

I have to admit Theresa May did not always agree with David Cameron's position he defended.

And then Theresa May changed, and then we have Boris Johnson.
And Johnson did not always agree with Theresa May's position.

But now I live in a situation where Boris Johnson is disagreeing with his own position."

The Economist currently has Biden well ahead of Trump, also in electoral college votes
Months to go though
< crosses fingers for a return of sanity to the world's #1 superpower >

The i reports that many GCSE and A-level grades are likely to be marked down this year after "generous" predictions by teachers.

Found you all...

There's enough doom and gloom around this years A level and gcse results. This years cohort are brighter than last year's in terms of gcse results in 2018. The predicted grades will be higher on UCAS forms this year but considering only 17% last year only made those grades and as teachers are assessing pupils and no exams will be taken there will be different measures applied. The children have enough worrying to do without the scaremongering. Year 13 have been totally wiped out and forgotten as well as year 11. Their futures hanging by a thread without I'll written articles to make them worry even more. My Dgd missed her mocks as she was in hospital. We hope her work up to then will be good enough for her to get the grades she needs for uni. It was always going to be an unfair system for those dusadvantaged but that's nothing new.

As Mistigri says
France have found a way to re open their schools
the UK is mega entrenching inequality and undoing years of work on reducing education differentials

If other workers over 50 can suck it up
I'm afraid teachers are going to have to as well

the risk is reduced by hygeine and hand washing and fresh air and masks
that should be the focus of the unions
not random blather from Johnson

When France had the number of deaths there still is in the U.K., they hadn’t relaxed the 2 metre rule yet.
The reason why they can relax the rule and are talking about no rule in school in September is because the death rate is much lower than the U.K. you can’t compare the two countries like this.

The reality is that theUK handled the crisis badly and therefore it has to have restrictive measures for longer. Unless it is happy to see the number of death raising even higher than they already have. Seeing that we have the highest number of deaths per millions (which, imo, is the only number to compare countries), there is a question to ask: is the uk ready to say ‘oh just sod it. Economy first and foremost now. We’ve messed up anyway’ or is it going to chose to protect live instead and put up with the economic And health cost?

I actually wouldn’t want to be the person taking that decision because either way, people will die. And people will suffer. Whether one is better than the other is hard to tell tbh.

Listening I find it hard to ignore advice to "suck it up" and not find it inflammatory. My friend whose son had a bad cough in early March and isolated has still not fully recovered. She developed symptoms soon after but was not hospitalised and therefore never got a COVID test. Months later she can barely get out of bed, has pains in her neck, arms and legs and huge fatigue. She went in to hospital last month for blood tests, she has had scans and only this week had a COVID test. It came back negative, rather unsurprisingly given the time since she believes she was infected. She is 38. From what I can see a lot of previously healthy (women I have noted) seem to be having milder cases but longer term health problems from this virus.

The truth is we simply do not know the long term effects, which are sure to have a huge cost to the NHS let alone our workforce and productivity. Her family has been turned on it's head as she was the main earner and not furloughed. Her husband is a deputy head of a school and is now main care provider for their 2 children. There was an article in The Guardian last week about similar cases and I honestly think this is where public health needs to be focusing on going forwards.

Re PHE and County level; can't have Counties working independently when you want a privitised health system to be able to show it up as incompetent now, can you? Networks might form and people might start trusting them!

The Economist currently has Biden well ahead of Trump, also in electoral college votes

and Bloomberg (net wealth $60 billion) is bankrolling his campaign - whilst Donald is calling in the National Guard to be his personal security at rallies.

Popcorn ?

Referring back to the Bolton book, does anyone know off the top of their heads exactly how the 22nd amendment would work in practice ? Because it doesn't seem to prevent a person running for POTUS for a 3rd time. Just says they can't be POTUS if they have twice already. Worth noting, given that literal adherence to the text appears to be the order of the day.

I can imagine a situation where Donnie T runs for POTUS and then when elected has a spat with SCOTUS about (wait for it, wait for it ...) the will of the people.

And if not Donald, then next right wing nutjob. Because the US seems to be where they make them.

TBH the economy will be fine - we now live in a forest of magic money trees

Children on the other hand should be the priority
and in the UK the needs of children who are too young to vote, funny that are being utterly ignored.
It should not have taken a footballer to highlight summer food poverty.
Catch up tutoring should not be handled by a dodgy private company.

The teaching unions should seize the initiative by saying what they think WILL work
just ignore the garbage from whitehall
and work with their LEAs to implement it.
for the benefit of the children

A22 says "No person shall be elected to the office of President for more than two terms..."

This allows for the possibility that a serving Veep could assume the presidency then run for two full terms.

The Amendment that needs to be looked at is A25, which may need to be enacted after November to stop his knibbs attempting to pardon himself for life for everything, etc.

....Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nitwits is meeting to decide if Raab C Nitwit should receive an award for services to nitwittery beyond the call of ordinary stupidity, or should he be expelled from the College for bringing Nitwits into disrepute.