Westministenders: A Year of Johnson

[RedToothBrush]

So having given the benefit of the doubt...

... whats your reflections?

Good (and yes do have some thoughts on the positive - challenge yourself on this one as its important) and the bad (and yes this is the easy bit but keep it within reason)?

Red - I COMPLETELY get where you coming from. And am going to risk the ire of everyone in this thread and admit we have gone away. TBH it hasn't been for my benefit - but for my husband and son. DH suffers from depression- and has coped with the situation remarkably well - but was looking ahead to autumn, and seeing more lockdown. He also won't be back in the office this year. His world had shrunk to our house. You could say we could go out to pubs and restaurants- but we don't live in an elated where the virus is very well controlled. DS suffers from social anxiety- where we have come offers kids club. So he can mix with his own age group. It's all been highly modified to offer protection from Covid spread. Bubbles and the like. But at least he can talk with some kids his own age. In the structured inline learning environment he will talk online. But he would never FaceTime friends , and doesn't "do" social media. I was amazed the first night that DS struggled to eat with other people around him(and believe me - they are at some distance) something he has not struggled with for 2 years.
It was not an easy decision to go away - it was sudden (in that it wasn't planned - but we took 2 days to intensively reasearch the risks) but I am pleased we did.
Part of the reason was - I think schools are going to be affected. Do I think Boris will shut pubs, so schools can open? No I don't think he will.
Research shows this virus seems to thrive in cold damp conditions- I think winter will be awful.

Pretty you spoke about not being able to fly long haul the other day - we are in the same situation- we don't think we will be going to NZ for at least 2 years . My parents have both passed, but DH are both still alive - but his mum is not in great health, which is quite concerning.

Ire?
Pppffftt.
Have a fab time mrsL
No idea what we will do. We finally got our deposit back from our cancelled holiday but ds1 needs to start revising for important exams from Monday so probably not going anywhere :(

@JeSuisPoulet

The stress is really getting to people now, for sure. I don't think SOS meant the whole of the North FWIW but it's a good reminder not to separate; they want to do another version of divide and conquer.

I did an online shop 2 days ago and keep logging in to change/add things. Has anyone else found that "stocks are low" messages are far more frequent? Both plain/SR flour has been subbed, coconut milk, kitkats and pasta (still!). I feel like our JIT is still reeling and not back to normal, but we've not been to a big shop for weeks so maybe it is just delivery?

Long time lurked who works in food manufacturing. We are struggling to supply to the demand of supermarkets. Similar to many of our suppliers, we dropped our safety stocks massively to free up cash. Then demand picked up far quicker than anyone was expecting. We're also struggling with having enough agency staff to keep all our lines going. And this is before Brexit really impacts us...

The limbo is the most damaging at the moment.

COVID is still killing people but in such low numbers that most young people do not know people who have been affected.

They just see their jobs lost and their holidays ruined and their future opportunities trashed

and then the Prime Minister puts his brother into the House of Lords

If we get through August without social unrest I'll be gobsmacked

red 💐 You would be pragmatic to prioritise your needs and DS needs

The UK is one of the countries - like Spain & Italy - where lockdown went on so long that many people have exhausted their "resilience"
and are in no state to cope with some being reimposed

In the case of the UK at least, it was because despite seeing these other countries so badly hit, the govt dithered for a crucial couple of weeks,
which meant exponential growth rocketed infections, also spreading infections all around the country

Then of course there is the utter chaos, mixed messages and Dom Does What He Wants that have seriously undermined public confidence and tolerance

and now some people are blaming groups they resented anyway, instead of the Domnishambles running this shit show

It was disgusting to see on MN the relish with which some posters piled on to a bride who has to cancel her wedding and lose what she paid,

the people who've lost their holiday or are facing quarantine,

the sometimes barely veiled racist posts on the thread where the OP posted how her DD was in tears about cancelled Eid celbrations

• the nasty wing of the right are out in force

The people being slammed on such threads obeyed the rules - they were just caught out by change with almost no notice

Those of us going to activities like the gym would have great disappointment if they are closed,
but we don't have to do anything - we don't have the massive ovary ache of cancelling expensive events, informing everyone, reorganising where we're going to stay or work for the next couple of weeks

Thank yoikes . I have to say - seeing DS tentatively find his social feet has been lovely. Unfortunately he broke his finger badly just before we came away (involving surgery) so a lot of the activities are out - but he's doing a lot with his group. Even if he's just in the sidelines (think he is quite happy to have an excuse to not play badminton or ping pong and just watch - being dyspraxic!). What I will say - is I am not sure if it's just this particular group, but they seem kinder and more tolerant than regular teenagers. I wonder if the last 6 months in some ways has had a positive effect.

@Cabbagejam that's interesting, thanks for delurking! I've been attempting to slowly build stockpile back up which may be why I've noticed, but only 1 bag of flour at a time!

Don't be worried about holiday judgement, I'm saving that for Leave and Con voting friend with house in Greece who is flying back out after coming back for the weekend

Listening - Jo Johnson didn't get me, but Claire fox (child porn fine because most of it is simulated), Kate Hoey and The Russian really got to me yesterday . I mean he obv is trying to stack the House of Lords with Brexiteers..... but really it is the bottom of the barrel.

We seriously need electoral reform once we rid ourselves of these c**ts .

MrsL
I do not blame you AT ALL for having a break.

I admit that as soon as my family get a particular piece of news in a few days
we will be dong a road trip to visit certain places and friends

because all of us are struggling mentally with the nothingness of the days dragging by
the financial hit was softened a bit by the Bounceback loan

Je Suis - I don't know how much you bake - but I have been buying flour in either 16kg or 18kg sacks. (I do bake a lot - espmwiyh everyone "home") dove farm are doing there plain flour in bulk sacks - as are hay gates for non organic , and Shipton mills.

I gave up with supermarket supplies. I also have been tracking down bulk boxes of sugar..... yeast still appears to be an issue - unless you want fresh, which you can freeze.

I am
More worried about fruit and veg going into winter - and over winter.

I think people might better accept these sudden bans of certain activities (like going in others’ houses, but not pubs) if we were shown some statistical evidence that this is where the most infections are occurring.

Likewise if they shut pubs again to open schools (another way of doing whack-a-mole) then the public might go with it if we knew pubs are the area of most risk.

Do they have numerical evidence?

Pubs in England may have to close to control coronavirus, says Sage adviser
Government modelling expert Graham Medley says reopening schools is a priority

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/01/pubs-england-close-control-coronavirus-adviser-graham-medley

It's more for emergency bread than daily baking but yes, maybe a bulk buy would be worth it. Storage is a little bit of an issue but that's mainly because I've not really tidied the house and rearranged half empty stocks from the first time around, if that makes sense! Really missing having 2 full hours alone to crack on with jobs without interruption or guilt!

A 16kg bag of flour sits neatly in the plastic tub that bird food fat balls came in

V interesting from ONS on trains, illustrating the extent of business / economic changes

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/01/pubs-england-close-control-coronavirus-adviser-graham-medley

Train companies have been effectively renationalised on a temporary basis,
the UK statistics body said on Friday, prompting a dispute between trade unions and private operators over rail ownership.

The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown forced the government to take emergency steps to prop up train companies by assuming the financial risk of rail franchisess^, after passenger numbers dwindled almost to nothing.

The Office for National Statistics has now written to the Treasury and the Scottish government to inform them of its decisionn* to reclassify train companies as public non-financial corporations in the light of the measures.

Maybe they'll reclassify private healthcare too, until the crisis is over

Hester I saw a graph this morning plotted infections , and they marked on it when pubs opened . There has been a steady uptick in infections since. Indy sage yesterday they talked about the dropping of social inhibitions that go hand and hand with alcohol consumption. If you have someone over for a bbq - maybe that's not so bad , as it's just one other household..... but when you have multiple households in the same space , and you add alcohol to the mix.

I don't think you will get the scientific prof you want .......there is not time to produce a peer reviewed study.....
But want we know is the risk factors and you want to reduce those in any given setting?

Funny how all those 2019 Labour policies that we were told were unaffordable pie-in-the-sky have been adopted by the Tories.

BCF - I do have private health insurance- but haven't needed it, but heard a couple of stories recently where people have developed conditions, have the insurance - but can't get treatment , as private healthcare here has all but stopped. Not that anyone has stopped paying the premiums mind....

My gym is really well managed and I’m feeling the benefit already after only a week. I went for a lovely birthday meal with DD in a Thai restaurant, which also felt very safe. You wouldn’t get me into a pub though.

Ds is really upset that the Scottish gyms are not due to reopen until 14 September - and even that date is only tentative.

But he's been getting imaginative at using body weight and resistance bands to do his own training. Plus his rugby training will be starting back - albeit restricted - in the next fortnight. So he's happy about that!

My DS is staying in England to use the gym and will only head back up North at the last minute. He’d been training with resistance bands which has kept him ticking over (apparently). He’s not impressed with only being able to get a 50 minute slot at the public gym here though.

Another one whose DS was very happy to get back to "proper" weights after surviving on random stuff in the garden for months

red it's really shit
At the start of lockdown I couldn't leave my house for a while, no one was socially distancing when out and about and even a short walk set my anxiety flying. People got a lot better later on and I'm back feeling able to go out and about, which I desperately needed for my own mental health. I'm trying to make the most of it because since my brush with what I suspect was COVID in March, my asthma has been declared unstable and I've been warned that if new shielding programmes happen, I may well be advised to shield not that anyone really knows where they're going with more personalised approached but I'm suspecting that's my nurse telling me she'd be recommending it

Massive sympathies to anyone who got caught in this last minute lockdown. It was handled so badly.

@mrslaughan

BCF - I do have private health insurance- but haven't needed it, but heard a couple of stories recently where people have developed conditions, have the insurance - but can't get treatment , as private healthcare here has all but stopped. Not that anyone has stopped paying the premiums mind....

If Covid does leave chronic conditions in it's wake then you can pretty much kiss goodbye to private health cover. Pretty much everything will be decided to be "caused by Covid" and therefore not covered.

As someone who has never been able to add DW to a private policy with any employer, I have a lot of T-Shirts you may like.

Actually - there is one notable exception to that. Amazingly, EDS (of Ross Perot fame). They didn't offer "insurance". When I was interviewed they said that Ross didn't have time to mess around with their nonsense, so the policy was EDS just paid bills - for employee and family directly. (This was 1998). Apparently the Perot philosophy was that happy employees were the best motivated and most productive and you can't be happy if you are worrying about your family.

But other than that, tick the "pre existing condition" box and see what happens.