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.

Colouring
The Government advice on play areas and outdoor recreation has just had to be TOTALLY rewritten and reissued - the former is superceded not amended
when it met with reality (and operators who knew what was going on)

Schools guidance will be the same
come September the guidance will change every week until it settles down probably by mid October

@SabrinaThwaite

You know people might just resist wearing masks because they’re stuffy and uncomfortable?

Are you suggesting that avoiding a bit of personal discomfort is a good reason to risk spreading a potentially fatal disease? Smear tests and mammograms are damn uncomfortable, but people still have them, because the benefit far outweighs the unpleasantness.

Although maybe it’s because masks are better at protecting other people, while cancer screening is done for your own benefit...

@QueenOfThorns

You know, I was just pointing out a pretty obvious simple reason for people disliking wearing masks that didn’t need some convoluted socio-economic reasoning behind it?

FT: UK abandons hope of US trade deal by end of year

No EU deal, now no US deal
Not getting very far with "Britannia Unchained" are they - it'll be "Britannia Adrift"

https://www.ft.com/content/383f174e-baa4-49c5-86c3-d2b5f6453fd4

The UK government has abandoned hopes of reaching a trade deal with America ahead of the US presidential election in November,
with British officials blaming the Covid-19 pandemic for slow progress.
< wouldn't have happened in time, anyway >

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and international trade secretary Liz Truss had hoped to conclude a fast-track agreement by late summer,
which would be hailed as an early win from leaving the EU.
.....
But senior government figures have concluded that no comprehensive deal is possible before the November US poll
as the two sides grapple over contentious issues such as whether to allow US agricultural products into the UK market.

I think there’s further guidance for schools coming out on Aug 11. That’s doesn’t mean it’ll be in anyway useful and won’t need to be amended.

I don’t completely disagree with your point DGRossetti, but tbf I don’t really think it’s been properly explained why the advice has changed and what the benefits are. Not in a clear and consistent way anyway. A halfway decent public health campaign would have gone a long way if the scientists, media and government were all giving the same message.

Instead what we’ve got is months of ‘masks don’t protect you and might increase the risk if you don’t use them properly’ followed by a change in policy with no real explanation of why. And then they are becoming compulsory unless they are not compulsory because Gove gets a take away.

Once again proving the gov are more interested in covering their own arses than providing consistent messaging. All it needed was Gove to say "No, I didn't follow best practice and I apologise. To help avoid this happening all over the country, we are now making masks compulsory in shops, and when queuing for takeaway products".

It was pretty much stay at home unless you need to go to Durham part 2. And utterly pointless since Gove wasn’t actually breaking the rules at the time.

I've been wearing a mask in big shops over the last few days - so I get used to it.

• security guards in supermarkets are having HUGE problems
• ID checks for alcohol require removal of the mask
• petrol stations are struggling because covered faces have been banned in them for decades !

Today in the supermarket the worst offenders for no mask and no social distancing

were three pensioners, one of whom was on oxygen

Are you suggesting that avoiding a bit of personal discomfort is a good reason to risk spreading a potentially fatal disease? Smear tests and mammograms are damn uncomfortable, but people still have them, because the benefit far outweighs the unpleasantness.

which misses the point.

People have smear tests and mammograms to keep themselves healthy.

Wearing masks is to keep other people healthy.

And that's the difference right there. It's "I'm alright Jack" versus "Fuck you".

Maybe because we haven't had the same mixed messages, but compliance up here in Scotland seems to be pretty good.

The Chief Scientific Advisor (Jason Leitch) has even openly admitted that the advice has changed over the period as we've got to know the virus and how it is transmitted better - but acknowledges that we are still learning. He's also been on the radio regularly spreading the message - including every Saturday on a popular football programme on Radio Scotland (which even when the football season is "active" is full of comedic wittering ) to communicate the message.

We're still having regular Covid press briefings led by the FM (down to 3 days a week for the Glasgow Fair Fortnight to allow her to enjoy her 50th birthday celebrations the summer break, but will resume 5 days a week in August) accompanied by the Chief Medical Officer/Chief Scientific Officer/Chief Nurse/Health Secretary/Business Secretary (usually 2 additional but occasionally just one - depending on the topics due to be covered. You can always predict when we're going to be "telt" about how the public should be behave as the Chief Scientific Officer will be on - but he's a good and clear communicator.

Maybe because we haven't had the same mixed messages, but compliance up here in Scotland seems to be pretty good.

Or simply because Scots aren't as selfish as the English ?

@DGRossetti

Are you suggesting that avoiding a bit of personal discomfort is a good reason to risk spreading a potentially fatal disease? Smear tests and mammograms are damn uncomfortable, but people still have them, because the benefit far outweighs the unpleasantness.

which misses the point.

People have smear tests and mammograms to keep themselves healthy.

Wearing masks is to keep other people healthy.

And that's the difference right there. It's "I'm alright Jack" versus "Fuck you".

If you think I missed the point, you presumably didn’t read the next part of my post, which said pretty much exactly what you said

This is what I said: Although maybe it’s because masks are better at protecting other people, while cancer screening is done for your own benefit...

I wear a mask to keep myself healthy

If you think I missed the point, you presumably didn’t read the next part of my post, which said pretty much exactly what you said

Guilty as charged.

That said, I personally reckon masks in public is all a bit for show .. any effect it's going to have on the spread of the virus is just above marginal at best.

I will wear one when and where mandated. But I won't do so with any sincerity.

@DGRossetti

Maybe because we haven't had the same mixed messages, but compliance up here in Scotland seems to be pretty good.

Or simply because Scots aren't as selfish as the English ?

Actually, on this occasion I don't think that is the case. I think it is simply that we have more trust in our government and what they are asking us to do than the English those in England do with the numpties in WM

@DGRossetti

If you think I missed the point, you presumably didn’t read the next part of my post, which said pretty much exactly what you said

Guilty as charged.

That said, I personally reckon masks in public is all a bit for show .. any effect it's going to have on the spread of the virus is just above marginal at best.

I will wear one when and where mandated. But I won't do so with any sincerity.

... Studies show masks make a considerable difference when enough people wear them but give only a small amount of protection to the wearer

Several other European countries followed the science and made face coverings compulsory months ago
Posts upthread discuss why there is such a problem in the UK - and they are all about the UK, not science

I don't think it is about selfishness.
Mask wearing is happening with little pushback in Illinois and not really happening at all in Wisconsin a next door State.
I don't think the people of one State are less selfish than another.
I do think that they have had different State leadership, one has joined up government the other is split with different messages being given out.
Mask wearing has become very political in one State and is being sold as a civic duty in the other.

Mandating mask wearing by members of the public in the course of their usual activities while said masks were in short supply and still desperately needed by healthcare professionals and other essential workers would have been very unwise IMO. I get why they would change the advice on masks only once there was security of supply for those people for whom they truly are essential.

Now masks are mandatory, people should comply and I expect most people will.

Early on, I think the “social distancing” message was preferable.
I’d have been even more repetitive about it than the messaging actually was but being told by the PM, “ Stay at home apart from once a day....if your friends invite you round, you should say no” is pretty stark to be fair.

Illinois, more a Democrat leaning state, Wisconsin less so?

@LouiseCollins28 my scarves were never in short supply. Don't equate government ineptitude with avoidable shortages.

Yes.
Mostly because Illinois has Chicago in it which distorts everything.
Other than that they are quite similar.
But drive across the State border and with regards to mask wearing everything changed.
In the service station people from Wisconsin were scooting back to their cars to pick up masks because they could see that everyone was wearing them inside, like the notice told them to.

Studies show masks make a considerable difference when enough people wear them but give only a small amount of protection to the wearer

I think you missed off "properly"

I have no doubt as part of a full PPE regime, they have enough impact to justify the costs. Just as much as I have every doubt that the pieces of rag a lot of people have tied around their face does very little.

But it's immaterial what I think (as usual, you get used to that a lot in a democracy). As I said, I'll wear one when and where mandated. DW is less keen as no matter what guide she's read, she can't stop her glasses misting up ... which makes her feel too vulnerable when out and about wheeling.

As for protection for the wearer ... I'm suspecting that any protective value is far exceeded by the additional risks of bacterial throat infections where people haven't cleaned/changed their masks or worn them too long.

.

and ...

Random Conversation loop
T'other day bitter courgettes were mentioned
I believe by DGRosetti
I guarantee that these are safe to eat