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.

From memory, the Scottish campaign is

Face Coverings (Note: not masks - just requiring that people have some form of face covering)
Avoid busy places
Clean your hands and surfaces
Two metres distancing
Symptoms - test and self-isolate

The FM repeats it at the end of every press conference.

Where I am, teens are seeing masks as fashion. Even my DSs match their masks to their clothes. The black ones in cloth are particularly seen as 'cool'

Re tesco and cleaning, in my retail store there are cleaners during the day. But the night time warehouse staff on the same store have to do their own cleaning 3x a night!

That's excellent, pretty
I wish BJ would copy it !

I forgot to include the actual acronym that is used: FACTS

I got a pack of blue masks from Adidas, soft material and look very cool imo
They do a small size (small adult / teen) and an L/M

I think we all figured out the acronym, pretty
Nice & simple

@Whenwillow

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?

Completely agree with this. I'd say not one of the people I know who voted Leave have the slightest interest in actually following current politics or have the slightest idea of what is actually happening politically in this country. Moreover, they don't really seem to care. Voting Leave was their biggest political act.

TBH, my wealthy family members probably won't experience much difference to their lives come January 1st other than perhaps paying more 'stuff'.

In terms of what's happening to the press, to the judicary, to rewriting electoral boundaries, to unelected Spads running the country, to selling off the NHS to the US, none of that seems to really interest them in the slightest... too far removed from their daily lives to matter to them.

The Japan "3Cs" one explains clusters - they assume a reasonably intelligent public

BCF it's probably safe for the Japanese government to assume a reasonably intelligent public - here, not so much.

It's also reasonably fair to assume there is less Japanese disinformation floating around, and the stuff that is out there is genuinely grassroots. Unilingual anglophones have been targeted with enormous amounts of disinformation for a few years now, both home grown and generated by private and state actors.

Maybe they are leaving it to the last minute www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/18/face-masks-public-health-campaign

Cross party report on lack of planning for economic impact this morning www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/23/uk-failed-to-plan-for-economic-impact-of-flu-like-pandemic-says-watchdog “Yet, while school closures were predicted in pandemic planning, there seems to have been no plan for how schools and pupils would be supported to continue to learn,” the report said."

I have to wear masks at work as a nurse, I have really come to hate them, they are annoying and uncomfortable. Add on glasses and goggles and every task is made that little bit harder, especially in the houses where the heating is set to Persian Gulf ! If it reduces any potential risk to my patients then it is worth the discomfort.

I was shocked on that thread where the OP posted on FB that she had a positive test,
then received angry posts there that COVID is a hoax and some people blocking her

Not so much that one person has a lot of nutjobs on their FB,
but that so many MN posters also attacked her for posting it

Apparently now having COVID is the great unmentionable
and admitting you have it makes you a drama llama

If someone posts they have flu, noro, even a cold, they'd normally get sympathy or at worst their illness would be ignored

but admitting you have a positive COVID test somehow makes you a bad person

BCF I hope that’s not the next battle in the culture wars after masks, 5G conspiracies etc.!

Like an extreme form of the "bubbles" in media terms we are all meant to be in BCF post ref. So many bubbles for such a troublesome time in history!

With glasses, it takes some experimenting to find what works best for the individual

The positioning and even size of glasses may make a difference:

I wear v large glasses, because my prescription is so extreme that I need them to cover my peripheral vision too
I put on my mask, press down the metal strip over my nose, then put the glasses on top,
so that the top is pretty much sealed off and no exhalation comes up that way

When I tried out my smaller reading glasses, the seal wasn't nearly as good and they misted up a bit

When I wear contact lenses, to walk to heavy lifting classes at the gym, I normally wear plain glasses on top, to prevent dust getting under the lenses (ouch !)
I've found that without glasses, the seal is not nearly as good for me, so I keep them on.

I normally nose breathe, which also seems to help more than mouth-breathing - I tried both to check.

We've been wearing them in Germany since April and it took me a few days to work out the best system,
but I don't really notice wearing a mask any more
(Quite different to HCPs who have to wear the more cumbersome medical ones)

A big advantage of glasses is that they greatly reduce the danger of the virus particles entering via the mucuous membranes in the eyes, which is also apparaently a risk
However, that is more for times and situations where there might be much more virus than at present, when there is v little in the community

Think you are meant to dip glasses in soapy water to form a film to stop steam. I have only used the mask twice as we are still avoiding shops etc and doing online shopping so atm it's not much of an issue here. Daily dog walk in remote places so we can let dog off-lead, so we don't see anyone other than the postman!

Masks are one VERY SMALL aspect of the chaos we are in.

The fact that Russian teens control our elections from server farms is a MUCH BIGGER worry

and Corbyn is providing squirrels for the Tories
eejit

@BigChocFrenzy

If someone posts they have flu, noro, even a cold, they'd normally get sympathy or at worst their illness would be ignored

but admitting you have a positive COVID test somehow makes you a bad person

Try having a chronic condition like MS then.

Although friends are over rated, I think.

We are fortunate in that we only have to wear the surgical ones at the moment, the fit and comfort seems to vary quite a lot depending on the brand we recieve, some are definately better than others !

@BigChocFrenzy

can i ask where you source your masks FROM please?
I also wear large round John Lennon type specs and cant seem to find a mask that doesn't fog up my specs? any recommendations?

Telegraph headlining that we will have to wear masks in takeaways after all. (The contortions they go through to protect certain people... was it Gove this time?)

[quote OldLace]@BigChocFrenzy

can i ask where you source your masks FROM please?
I also wear large round John Lennon type specs and cant seem to find a mask that doesn't fog up my specs? any recommendations?[/quote]
@oldlace
I've tried different kinds - and tbh, the disposable are probably the most comfortable and I can get them easily here
I prioritise health & comfort over concerns about adding to my weekly waste

Here at least, the washables are available v cheaply in supermarkets and at most restaurants & cafes - a useful sideline for them. A zillion styles & colours. I expect in the UK too ?

I also like the Adidas pack of 3 blue ones; they are light and soft, look stylish and come in 2 sizes:
XS / S are for teens and smaller adults I'd say, M/L would fit most adults

@HesterThrale

Telegraph headlining that we will have to wear masks in takeaways after all. (The contortions they go through to protect certain people... was it Gove this time?)

I wonder if that's going to translate into a "lets not bother" movement ? Nothing organised, just a spontaneous decision by enough people to be noticeable ?

On a wider note, I wonder how many businesses futures are now relying on their customers to do a proportion of their work for them ? And if that is going to be a viable model for the future ? I wonder because it's clear our car dealer is expecting customers to do all the running that they used to do as part of the service (the trick is to note they haven't reduced their prices ...)