Westminstenders: Operation Shock and Awe

[RedToothBrush]

The government is launching its get ready for the end of transition campaign which has been dubbed a 'shock and awe' campaign.

In this campaign we will learn all about what Brexit means and what amazing opportunities lie for having increased customs and borders, beaucracy and increased costs. Bet you are all really excited and looking forward to this.

We will also get a 'Farage Garage' in Kent to cope with these wonderful opportunities in traffic jams. This will be something that businesses throughout the country will be super excited to plan for in their socially distanced Zoom meetings or across warehouses with their face masks on. And banks will be delighted to see an uptick in applications in CCJs and debt reconstruction plans.

It will be a super fun time for the under 30s who have zero hours contracts, worked in retail or hospitality. Or should I say 'worked'.

Meanwhile the right to a jury trial has been binned due to 'long covid delays' which are shorter than they were several years ago. The NHS isn't getting the funding it expected, and waiting lists are longer than ever with no way to clear them. The plan to build more hospitals seems to have disappeared with the Nightingales. Many councils are about to go into insolvency and be taken over by accountancy firms. The civil service is being dismantled and conservative loyalists with no experience being put in charge of important functions of state. Communications with the press are being 'streamlined' to make them incredible of holding power to account and only able to repeat government public announcements.

Anyone looking forward to Christmas? When you write a letter to Santa remember to add 'visa application form', 'a sleeping bag for use at Dover', 'tinned tomatoes' and 'packets of seeds to grow your own' to the list.

This is not what was promised - our NHS standards weren't going to be compromised and we were going to get a great deal.

What astonishes me is why Leave voters aren't angry? I'd be fucking furious if I'd voted Leave and this mess is what politicians had delivered. Actually, some Leave voters are angry, but they're angry with the EU. It sounds like the expected the EU to act against the best interests of their own populations and put the benefits to the UK first, how can they be surprised that this didn't happen? Did anyone else see that thread on Twitter about a Leave voting couple with a house in Spain, furious with the EU because it won't be so easy for them to live in Spain? This couple were also dead set against FOM. I'm convinced the thread was a spoof actually, nobody could be that stupid.

What astonishes me is why Leave voters aren't angry? I'd be fucking furious if I'd voted Leave and this mess is what politicians had delivered.

What, and admit that they were wrong ? They really would rather die in a ditch than admit they were wrong. Especially since modern technology makes it impossible for them to pretend they weren't Leavers.

What we need is a media capable of hauling the Big Guns in and confronting them with their glib assurances and asking So, What The Fuck Happened ?.

But that isn't going to happen either.

If I were a Chinese politician, I'd be pissing my pants at the sight of the US, EU, UK and Russia all desperately wearing themselves out trying to scramble to the top of the heap and doing all my heavy lifting for me.

I'd be fucking furious if I'd voted Leave and this mess is what politicians had delivered.
I refer you back to my point about science and maths versus wiff waff

@JeSuisPoulet

I’d be more convinced of the public health message of face masks if there was any consistency to the requirements. I can go to the pub or restaurant, an indoor space with lots of people, and not wear a mask. If I want to buy a pint of milk when I’m the only person in the shop, I have to wear a mask. If I nip across the border into Wales, I don’t have to wear a mask to buy a pint of milk.

But that's because you can't drink or eat a meal with a mask on?

But I’m still spending a prolonged period of time in reasonably close proximity to other people without needing to wear a mask - in closer proximity and for a longer period of time than when I’m doing a shop in Tesco’s for instance.

@ListeningQuietly, they will be furious when the real-world impact hits home but at that point, it's too late.

This is being driven by people who think (or know) it won't affect them. I am fairly sure Johnson will bugger off to America when he grows too unpopular.

[quote SabrinaThwaite]@JeSuisPoulet

I’d be more convinced of the public health message of face masks if there was any consistency to the requirements. I can go to the pub or restaurant, an indoor space with lots of people, and not wear a mask. If I want to buy a pint of milk when I’m the only person in the shop, I have to wear a mask. If I nip across the border into Wales, I don’t have to wear a mask to buy a pint of milk.[/quote]
....
The chaotic policies of the UK govenment don't invalidate the science and the expert opinions of most epidemiologists and virologists around the world

If you go down that rejection road, then you'd have to reject climate change among a host of other topics

Most countries in Europe have worn masks for months now, as their governments looked at new knowledge specifically related to COVID
and made them mandatory

We've been wearing masks in Germany since April, pretty consistent policy here.
Yes, masks can be hot & stuffy, but nearly everyone here has got used to them

Those who genuinely can't wear them get an exemption form signed and stamped by their doctor

• but that is only a tiny %

compared to those those who consider themselves v low risk and dislike the inconvenience of protecting others, or who are (often unknowingly) following the US alt-right hymn book of selective libertarianism

Of all my friends who are leavers, not one is politically engaged, beyond parroting what they've heard about 'Brussels'. In the space of one conversation, one told me that our 'ridiculous health and safety rules are because of Brussels' before saying that her friend works across France and Germany and it's not nearly as strict there.
I challenged her on the logic of that, and she literally threw her arms in the air and said she didn't want to discuss politics anyway.
I didn't start the discussion - she did

However she has also said that 'they' wanted us to vote in the referendum so 'they' should now sort it out. It's not up to us.

Democracy, see?

@paragraff my son lives where rules are stricter - and enforced. They have to enter wearing masks, use hand sanitiser (provided) and only remove mask when they are actually eating.

In all countries, not wearing masks in pubs & restaurants is because otherwise they would remain closed
and the entire hospitality sector would go bankrupt
Also, public demand for these was unstoppable

There are inevitably compromises between public health and the economy and / or public demands

On the stats thread, I quoted an article about every country having a "transmission budget"
with an increase in R for each of the various choices, e.g. schools, restaurants

The amount for each likely varies according to the population density, space per child in classrooms, amount of outdoor restaurant space, cultural hugginess etc

"The problem with that interpretation is it relies on an assumption that the government would want to avoid unnecessary deaths.

An assumption we now know was flawed from the off."

I doubt Russia would care either way. The warning would be made.

BCF I’m not challenging the research (I can read the papers just as well as you can), but the entire inconsistency across the UK, both in terms of the devolved nations and industry sectors.

Maybe the Leavers could tell us exactly why the EU is responsible for a Trade Deal with the USA having to include the NHS?

In a statement Tesco said: “Currently we use third-party suppliers for cleaning. Following a successful trial, we have found that giving our stores more ownership and control over their cleaning results in better and more consistent standards. We will now roll this out to all our Express stores and convenience Metro stores.”

Absolute bollocks from Tesco. Take on cleaning staff, who want to clean and not be check out operators or shelf stackers, and put them on your pay roll. Is that too difficult to do?

@SabrinaThwaite

BCF I’m not challenging the research (I can read the papers just as well as you can), but the entire inconsistency across the UK, both in terms of the devolved nations and industry sectors.

I realise that

I'm just saying that I wouldn't let chaotic government policy distract me from mask-wearing in shops (if I lived in the UK) or irritate me about the new law

The govt are just noise, an irrelevance when it comes to science

I suspect that if too many large chains of shops inform the govt that they'll be bankrupt,
or (supermarkets) will have to put up prices
..... then masks in shops would go

However, currently the retail sector can mostly cope with masks, whereas the hospitality sector would go bust

The govt are just noise, an irrelevance when it comes to science

What's new ?

Gone are the days of Thatchers science-led approach to AIDS that was the talk (and model) for the rest of the world.

How are the mighty fallen ?

.

Thatcher, for all her faults, started out as a scientist, and it showed at times.

I don't know about May - it would depend on what options she took for Geography - it can be quite scientific, but can also be more social or economic.

I work in a massive secondary school. Govrrnment advice is that all students return in September and no-onr has to wear a mask.

I'm really concerned. As a single parent in already not great health I am very consciously trying Not to get Covid. Even if I wear a mask (and stick out like a sore thumb) would it make much difference if no-one else is?

Thatcher, for all her faults, started out as a scientist, and it showed at times.
At times - but Thatcher and all subsequent tory governments ignored the fundamental principles of the scientific method:
Examine the facts, formulate a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, if it fails the test - junk the hypothesis not the facts.

Thatcher ignored this with monetarism, subsequently from ems through to austerity the tories have continued with multiple failed hypothesis for purely idealistic reasons.

Even if I wear a mask (and stick out like a sore thumb) would it make much difference if no-one else is?

I think the idea of wearing a mask is so that you don't spread any potential droplets, so it won't help you very much if other people aren't wearing them.

Typical of this government, not to give clear advice.

Thatcher, for all her faults, started out as a scientist, and it showed at times.

She detested the advice on AIDS from a morality point of view. But had to accept it would save lives. Which it did. Countless lives.

Compare and contrast with Boris' Butchers, as they would be dubbed on Twitter if there were any truth or justice left in this world. Or the next.

Masks are there to protect other people

The more selfish the nation, the more problems people have with that concept. So once again, big win for the English.

I wouldn't say that someone walking around with no mask may as well be pissing in your cornflakes, but that's kind of how it should be viewed.