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)?

@HoneysuckIejasmine so glad you rate red fermipan - I got a pack 3 weeks ago for stockpile!
@SwedishEdith that is great news re Liverpool reactions; it is exactly what is needed in every locality but I worry many won't be able to budget well for it.

I'm 80% sure I am going to apply for a job in London tomorrow (after my booked slot tip run) and hope, perversely, that it will be working from home for the forseeable. It's 5K more that the localish one I applied for but in London terms it's not massive so I am again hoping it is grad level entry; certainly I could do the job description with ease possibly even prior to doing the degree

SOS stay, please! I tried to highlight the stress aspect this morning and didn't think you meant any harm. We need to know how your DGD gets on anyway!

red
Everyone am here x

Lost two friends to Covid a married couple. Husband was a nurse. They died within a week of each other both in their fifties a lovely couple with 3 adult children. I couldn't go to funerals and this was 3 Rd week of April.. hadn't seen them for years but usual birthday/Xmas cards etc. All very sad as is every loss to this virus.
Sorry for yesterday we all get fraught just that I feel particularly fragile at the moment being silly really. Hope we can all get through this together as friends

Conservative MP arrested on suspicion of rape

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53625829

And will the Tory party suspend him?

I know of one person locally who has had it , hospitalised and one who wasn't. Both very fit and healthy. I would be interested to know what their antibody tests would reveal if they were offered one.

Work wise, we have had a couple of people off with classic symptoms early on ( not tested ), but not one person in the team has come back with antibodies, including those who believe they have had it. We have all been very physically close to people who tested positive over the last few months. We have been very rigorous about infection control measures and PPE is worn once for each individual patient, as was always the case and I think I probably wash my hands in my sleep now !

I do think of myself as one of the fortunate ones though, during lockdown, I was out and about doing my job, I had my colleagues for support and to vent to. The fear subsided quite rapidly as a result, still very cautious but no longer scared.

I've posted before about ticking every Covid symptom in the book (apart from loss of smell/taste) plus it's taken about 5 months to feel 'normal' again. Numerous work colleagues have also been ill with symptoms including those who've been hospitalised, as well as local friends ill with Covid symptoms. Of course no one tested. Whilst locally we're not in any particular hotspot, my uni has 40% international students and 20% EU students. I firmly believe the virus has been circulating since January at least. However, very recently I've tested negative for antibodies, which was disappointing and leaves me apprehensive for start of next academic term.

Scotland seem to be getting on top of it, they had less to begin with and lockdown was effectively much earlier there - whilst they've been more restrictive than England up til now, how long before we see Scotland with more things open than England?

The Roland smith tweet is all very well... I am not actually afraid of dying ...... it's the long term health effect that worries me . My one friend who has had it , is only just come right. She was first sick at the beginning of March. And she's still not back to pre Covid health/energy levels. She can now walk up stairs , handle her kids etc . She was fit and healthy with no underlying health conditions.

I read a Facebook post on a mums group a friend signed me up for. Lady lives in Cornwall - local, feels besieged. Is classed as vulnerable. Can hardly go to the shops as lots of holiday makers refusing to wear masks because "the came away to get away from the whole Covid thing". She says it's so much busier than normal summer.
She also says infection rates are going up in the area - unsurprisingly. I absolutely despair

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/02/brexit-fuels-brain-drain-as-skilled-britons-head-to-the-eu

Not rocket science to see people wanting to leave. Eminent colleagues decided to return to the EU that would not have otherwise gone thanks to Brexit. I was gutted that it was my greatGF not my GF who was Irish as I hoped to get Irish passport even if only to enable my DC the opportunity of living in the EU in the future.

Reading about Tommy Robinson moving to Spain because of safety concerns over the racial anger and anti-EU sentiment he's actively and deliberately provoked made me choke on my cereal. Why on earth would Spain allow him to stay?

A friend of mine lost a brother. She lives here in the US and he lived and died in Ireland. No travel was possible, no funeral was held.
My Dsis and her family all got it, in Ireland. Dsis has had two rounds of ABs since pulling out of covid, for different infections, complicating her recovery.
A friend of BIL's was possibly one of the first UK cases - he attended a London conference on an obscure academic topic in December where there were researchers from China, and got what he thought was pneumonia in late Dec/early Jan.

Young people know about traffic accidents and the dangers of drug overdoses, but they all believe stuff like that only happens to other people.

Mask wearing has been in place here since late April, and in the limited number of shops I go to I have not seen people without masks, though there have been a few wearing masks just over their mouths. My church has reopened in a very limited way, requiring people to book a pew and time, with a very limited number of people allowed in the church. I haven't been. I think even the limited reopening that has been done here was too early.

@DrBlackbird It would have needed to be your father that was Irish for your DC to benefit.

Meanwhile, Government dumps plans to regularly Covid test in care homes this summer, according to The Sunday Times.

Ok - can I just say - they were shit before - the government, but just when you don't think they can go any lower you read the news..... the shit idea (and from what I have read scientifically dodgey) plan of shielding over 50's..... while there kids come home from school/uni/ work? And then abandoning testing in care homes.......
And then the cherry on the cake - an ex misinterpret arrested on sexual assault charges that took place v recently.... are any of them not depraved or corrupt?

[quote SabrinaThwaite]@DrBlackbird It would have needed to be your father that was Irish for your DC to benefit.[/quote]
That probably makes me feel a bit better. I didn't want one so much for myself. At least she's got dual citizenship with another (non EU) country.

MrsL after reading about exRCP (Revolutionary Communist Party) members forming a key part of Johnson's policy advisors, maybe we can add ruthless and the bad kind of weirdos to depraved and corrupt?

@DrBlackbird

MrsL after reading about exRCP (Revolutionary Communist Party) members forming a key part of Johnson's policy advisors, maybe we can add ruthless and the bad kind of weirdos to depraved and corrupt?

Probably explains why that revolting creature is going to become a Dame and sit in the HoL.

@mrslaughan, the problem is that posters to these threads tend to empathatic, competent and caring human beings.

That's why we keep being surprised by the actions of this Government. We are working to completely different standards.

DrB I am the same re passport - Great Grandfather and also thought I'd missed it by a generation. Dd's dad used to say he would help if she ever needed a NZ passport but he hasn't seen her since she was a baby and I don't feel comfortable asking. One of those things I am hoping I won't have to do and I'm not completely sure if that would help anyone until she is 18. He doesn't pay maintenance so it would be the least he could do I suppose.

@SabrinaThwaite

Conservative MP arrested on suspicion of rape

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53625829

And will the Tory party suspend him?

No, but I bet there are still places in the Lords ...

Reading about Tommy Robinson moving to Spain because of safety concerns over the racial anger and anti-EU sentiment he's actively and deliberately provoked made me choke on my cereal. Why on earth would Spain allow him to stay?

Because Spain doesn't have a "hostile environment" for asylum seekers like him ?

I can think of 3 ex Senior Ministers in their 50s ...

Poulet perhaps it's something that your dd can decide for herself once she's 18 and if so, she might then make contact with her father to help her? When my fil passed away, I thought he was part of a dying generation of adult men who mostly took family responsiblities seriously. Or at least, societal norms were strongly in favour of men taking their family responsibilities more seriously than they do now.

Not wanting to wear nostalgic rose tinted glasses, but amongst my contemporaries I know of far too many families that were torn apart by the DH's conviction of their right to 'happiness' (and screw everyone else's including their children). Another variation was 'my kids want me to be happy'. Both code for doing whatever the hell they wanted and screw the consequences for everyone else. We are right to be infantilised by our political leaders because it feels like we are a generation of infants.

@RedToothBrush, tbh your answer to @Sostenueto was harsh, very harsh. Even more so seen the way you normally post, which is very measured.

As you said yourself, many people have had as ma y different experiences. For me, life with Covid has hardly changed. Because my illness means I wasn’t going out of my house anyway... Hearing people saying how hard it is, how it has affected their MH is hard because very few people have ever cared about my MH due my illness/inability to go out that much.... I wouldn’t berate them for that though.

So remembering that not everyone has the same experience and to be kind is something that everyone should be mindful about imo.

@RedToothBrush, tbh your answer to @Sostenueto was harsh, very harsh. Even more so seen the way you normally post, which is very measured.

To be fair I think it's clear that the ongoing situation is proving hard for everyone, and that can make it hard to see others over the mountains of your own situation. I don't think anyone would deny that weather and weeks excepted, it's been a long hot summer and recent developments have not been to the better.

I know I've been snippier than usual, and perhaps not called out on it as I should have been thanks to other posters patience. So at the risk of feeling like we need to build to a big chorus number across the UK (if not the world) with retch inducing faux cheeriness and matching costumes, could I drop a plea for chilling out a bit ?

I echo what many have said that these threads are probably the most concentrated and informed debates on Brexit and it's wider arena in the entire internet. And I use a lot of forums.

So, as Ringo used to sign off: Peace 'n' love to all

Yes Blackbird, I do hope it is something at least that he can give to dd. She has asked several times about visiting her grandma over there but it looks increasingly unlikely as the years go on. I just hope she is still alive when she turns 18!

Glad you are still around SOS