Westministenders: Can you tell your Rs from Elbows?

[RedToothBrush]

This week Mark Sedwill has resigned (or was he pushed?) and David Frost (chief brexit lead) was appointed National Security Adviser in a move that enraged Theresa May. The former prime minister felt that his appointment was unprofessional and that was a political appointment not an independent one and that he lacked experience. Of course in terms of national security we still haven't had that report on Russia and I don't believe The Intelligence and Security Committee has yet been named (not sat since Johnson was appointed as PM).

We have passed the deadline for extending transition and we have now apparently said that negotiations on the end of transition will finish at the end of September.

The bill ending Free movement of people has been signed, amongst much fanfare by the Conservatives saying they have delivered on the Referendum promise. However we might have up to 3million Hong Kongers who we are willing to allow into the country which might not go down too well with those who were unhappy with 'unrestricted EU immigration'.

We also have the demonstration of utter incompetence, outsourcing and lack of coordination and communication from central government and local government in the covid-19 crisis. A national scandal that isn't being properly reported by the press and leave you with the very large question of who is this government serving? If its contract with Deloittes over testing didn't require them to report positive tests to Public Health England, what was the point in the testing? How can this be consistent with 'The Government’s new approach to biosecurity will bring together the UK’s world-leading epidemiological expertise and fuse it with the best analytical capability from across Government in an integrated approach.' and will provide real time analysis and assessment of infection outbreaks at a community level, to enable rapid intervention before outbreaks grow.?

The growing feeling that Brexit is being exploited by this government for personal interests and those of big business at the expense of the general public is one which was feared and grows harder to argue against by the day.

Queenofthorns
Proper elbow macaroni (1970's style) is now only in Lidl
OR
the online wholesale folks

red The govt is moving away from all types of services having direct contact with people:

We saw this too in the preference for contact tracing Apps, then a call centre,
moving away from the shoe leather approach still used by many developed countries - mostly those more successful against COVID

Business too has been motivated to use WFH and has found cost savings wrt offices, utilities etc

This is all part of an inevitable move of chunks of life to online, greatly accelerated by COVID

This acceleration includes consumer shopping switching to online and hence more big name chains going under,
while more (tougher) warehouse jobs open up

Government launches new 'Get Ready for Brexit' campaign

'cos the previous one was so inspiring ....

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/10/government-launches-new-get-ready-for-brexit-campaign

Thanks Listening! I’ll investigate the macaroni situation in Lidl

LQ, one of my favourite things about Lidl is their knack for offering staples of mostly decent quality at excellent prices. l'm largely gluten free so don't eat any pasta other than the stuff made from brown rice flour (Waitrose) but often catch sight of those packets of macaroni and, like all their pasta, it costs pennies.

Today I got a pleasingly robust watermelon for just under £1.50 🍉 Result.

Their reduced prices on fresh best befores are unbeatable, in my experience. I can often go first thing in the morning and get bags of salad for 20p, or chicken and fish items for 70p.

i pray Brexit doesn't skew the ethos of shops like Lidl too much🤞

Worried BJ will male face masks mandatory- I've just ordered mum a hidden disabilities lanyard and card as she can't wear a mask as she has copd.

I'm back at local shops/cafes but won't be if I have to wear a mask...I have vision problems and can't see without my glasses but they steam up when I wear a mask.

Yet children are back at school/will all be back in September?

Baffling.

What a mess.

My Trust is going full steam ahead with video consultations, but the patient always, always has the choice. A face to face will always be made available if the patient wants it. We get that for some people, video consultation will work really well - people who find travel difficult, for example, or people who don't like being in clinical facilities. But for us, it's about choice. Uptake is gradually increasing, but we are all fully aware that this option will never fully replace old school interactions. My directorate includes all the people who have dementia and we have made it very clear that this patient group will have face to face wherever possible.

I've been able to find macaroni in Sainsburys's and Ocado, as well. I'm sure it's cheaper at Lidl, though.

When I went shopping today first day it was mandatory at Lidl, I'd say about 90% of the customers were wearing masks including me and 100% of the staff were wearing masks. There was one family (guy and about 3 kids between about 7 and 10) who were not wearing masks and 2 women who were not covering their faces (although they were wearing scarves).

I wear very thick glasses too, Yoikes as I'm registered visually disabled.
I've no problems now I've got the hang of masks.

Your glasses shouldn't steam up if you wear the mask correctly,
because the exhalation should not be able to get up that far.

If you have one of those masks with a metal strip along the top, then press this along your nose
The glasses go on top of the mask

Fintal O'Toole on the political situation in the USA - a crossroads

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/07/23/trump-unpresident-unredeemed-promise/

All of these historical surpluses

• the afterlives of slavery, of the deranged presidency, and of the threat of terrorism as permission to set aside legal and democratic rights -

have raised the stakes in the present struggle.

This mass of unresolved stuff is being forced toward some kind of resolution.
That resolution can come in only one of two ways.

What has come to the surface can be repressed again

• but that repression will have to be enforced by methods that will also dismantle democracy.

Trump’s boast that he can do whatever he wants will have to be institutionalized, made fully operational, and imposed by state violence.

Or there will be a transformative wave of change.

All of this unfinished business has made the United States semidemocratic,
a half-and-half world in which ideals of equality, political accountability, and the rule of law exist
alongside practices that make a daily mockery of those ideals.

This half-life is ending

• either the outward show of democracy is finished and authoritarianism triumphs, or the long-denied substance becomes real.

The unconsumed past will either be faced and dealt with, or it will consume the American republic.

I wear glasses. The only frames that fit me correctly are smaller than an adults. But kids are not suitable either as styles designed for 8 year olds are exactly appropriate for a 42 year old nor do they fit properly either.

It was a revelation when the last time I went and faced with the age old problem of trying every frame in the store to find something that actually fits, the assistant saw me struggling and pulled out a magic box from under the counter of smaller frames including cheap ones and branded ones.

I'm yet to work out how this is going to work with a mask - especially with the steaming up issue.

When Scotland decided to make masks mandatory last week, I said to DH that we needed to find something suitable for me. He's being using a mask and going into shops when we've needed it so far but that's untenable going forward.

I've got one which is apparently smaller on order but god knows when it will turn up or how it will fit. It's not as if you can just try one on in a shop to see if it fits.

It's a bit of a joke between me and DH who is 6'2" on how much the world is designed for him and how it isn't for me. He never realised it before and now he appreciates how the detail of size makes such a huge difference to how the world works for me, how people perceive us differently due to size / sex and how much of an impact that's had on me in different ways, particularly with my confidence.

The whole business of getting a mask that will simply fit me without me ending up unable to see is much more of a palaver than it should be. I can't just wear a standard mask.

red I'm similar with frames too. Most adult styles are too large and wide, child frames too small though I'd possible attempt to rock a pair of Frozen glasses. I've hit varifocal stage now which really helps matters . When I'm wearing a cloth mask I find that putting it up high the shoving my glasses over it helps with both steaming up and keeping the damn things on my nose. Used the trick with DS earlier and it helped him too. Possibly depends on the use of thicker rimmed glasses though.

On the subject on phone consultations with GPs, I'm sure there are some things for which that would work. But a series of phone consults nearly killed my mother a few years back, and if it wasn't for some family members insisting on an ambulance after the last she wouldn't be here. Some things need to be seen.

Of all the reasons I've seen my gps for myself or my dc over the last year, the only one I think that didn't require prodding, poking, swabbing, injecting, etc was my asthma review and that's only because I own a peak flow meter and could have reported that reading.

Thanks for that link, BCF. A chilling must-read.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jul/09/how-to-stop-your-glasses-steaming-up-and-19-other-essential-facts-about-face-masks

Sadly I have a tiny button nose and no matter how I press the masks they just don't fit :(

Its embarrassing really
I have barely any bridge to my nose...wearing safety googles is hilarious.
I have to tie them on!

normally lurk
RTB - if you know anyone who sews , ( or you do yourself ) check out this page on facebook -

EldenberryBlossoms Pattern Group ( you need to join the page)

Though its a clothes sewing page , there is a free mask pattern for different sizes , from babies upwards plus lots of extra info and tweaks to make masks fit and pockets for filters etc .

.

PPE is all designed for men, it's been very annoying all year, everything is massive

tie on masks fit a bit better I think but I always seem to tie them into my hair...

I wear glasses on night shifts (contacts in the day) and the steaming up thing is a massive pain. doubly bad with a visor, triply bad when you're trying to do something more intense or that requires good instant communication with the team like a cardiac arrest

I have been wearing a mask out the house for a while now, not necessarily if I'm going for a walk on my own, but all other situations

I could write essays on PPE grumbles

There's an incredibly depressing thread about redundancies where poor posters are saying their jobs are lost, their livelihoods are over, then there is a squabble about whether economic or health measures kill the most people, some people saying we shouldn't have locked down at all, then it is acknowledged that our country has one of the worst death tolls AND economic situations, and then the comments turn to...

"... the government have done everything they can."

Is it just me that boggles at the inability to join dots???

"... the government have done everything they can."

I was just as depressed the other day, when I read the Guardian article about them interviewing people in Leigh, which has just voted in the first Tory MP in 100 years. It was all how wonderful Sunak was for his bribes, and all 'Corbyn would have been worse.'

What will make the scales drop from people's eyes?

UK plan to shun EU vaccine scheme ‘unforgivable’, say critics

Health secretary says government believes there is a quicker way to source a coronavirus vaccine for Britons

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/10/uk-poised-to-shun-eu-coronavirus-vaccine-scheme