First ministers briefing

[Trichford]

Is there one on today? If so what time will it be? Thanks

There are two issues which I think affect parents who have kids at different stages.

For children at Primary school, the issue is most definitely childcare. Given that the government have told every school to organise themselves in the way which suits them best, there will be no consistency. Employers are going to have 50 workers with children in 50 different schools trying to work around 50 different school patterns. Total nightmare, at a time when companies are trying to recover.

For children at secondary school, it's about the fact that in many cases parents can't support the work. Parents in general can cope with primary level education, but once children start to specialise in subjects you have no experience of, you have no chance. They need to be in school. And if you have a child in secondary you'll be expected to be back at work, so the child isn't getting blended learning at home as there's no-one to support them, they're left to their own devices as parents are out at work.

Total shit show. And you know the most annoying thing? There is ZERO point in contacting your MSP if they are SNP as they all have to toe the party line and say how wonderful this is going to be.

I contacted my MSP because I am so pissed off with what is being suggested for August. Wondering if it will even be acknowledged!

I'm a single parent and I honestly don't know how I'm going to do this.

@user1487194234 and yet you get posters frothing at the mouth saying stick up for your rights as a woman and make your husband stay home and work less days etc! If only it was that easy, he doesn’t work in an office he works in agricultural construction and his role is specialised, only one in the company who does it, he works away a lot, if he starts saying he can only work certain days or weeks etc the buildings won’t be able to be started and they will just replace him! We can’t afford to lose that

I’ve contacted my SNP MSP a couple of times (no acknowledgement the second time) and asked if it would be possible for someone (anyone!) to question whether it’s proportionate for blended learning to be rolled out across all age groups, in all areas, as the default position irrespective of the local levels of infection or the state of the science at the time. By August there will be more available data on whether or not opening schools leads to infection spikes that we could use.

I don’t expect this to happen as they are apparently not allowed to challenge the leadership, but I am kind of hoping that if enough people express concern/anger about this it will feed back to the leadership who might then think again. At their heart the SNP are popularists and if they think they might lose votes they might act.

I have just checked on the www.theyworkforyou.com/ They work for you website - enter your postcode and it shows the regional list MSPs too.

One of the ones on the West of Scotland list is the shadow education minister. Will be raising my concerns with him.

They will probably have some sort of consultation before making a decision, just to shift the blame elsewhere

Alaska That's very difficult
Individual families have to sort things out the best they can
Certainly I don't agree that the man's job should always come first
We are lucky in that we both earn much the same
But as time passes employers will want staff back in work 100% and if people can't do that eventually their employment will come to an end
People need to get back to work and to facilitate that kids need to get back to school
All this blended learning shite is useless

Shouldn't always

I think that children will be expected to grow up faster. So leaving children home alone if they're 9 or 10, and expecting them to do schoolwork.

Well, Labour are definitely going to do much better in next year's Scottish Elections as a result of this shit show.

People losing jobs, companies losing business, parents stressing over schools, PPE issues etc and the two governments in charge are Tory and SNP.

So yes, Labour should benefit from it.

(I don't vote Labour btw)

Sturgeon is useless. She should be getting a much harder time over failing to disclose the details about the Nike conference.

Her latest determination to be different has reached new levels of absurdity. England allows up to 6 people to meet and they can use the lavatory in someone else's house . Sturgeon is allowing 8 but you can't use a lavatory. She is destroying the economy- she seems to have no understanding lockdown can't go on forever.

But scientists are saying that England is relaxing the lockdown rules too early. Heading towards a 2nd wave.

She should be getting a much harder time over failing to disclose the details about the Nike conference.

Of COURSE she should. But the SNP all close ranks and there just isn't an effective opposition to call them out on it.

Whatever your politics, you can't argue that we don't need someone like Ruth Davidson who wasn't afraid of Nicola Strurgeon and her cronies, and not afraid to hold them to account. Her replacement is just too wishy-washy, as is the Labour chap.

Some scientists are saying that. Others (including the ones advising the government presumably) are more comfortable with it. We’ll know in a few weeks whether a second wave emerges, but I don’t think it’s by any means certain.

There's just no effective opposition. I'm
Hoping things might be better with Keir Starmer if labour can become a more credible option. But you cannot criticise the SNP publicly in Scotland without incurring the wrath of the believers.

People losing jobs, companies losing business, parents stressing over schools, PPE issues etc and the two governments in charge are Tory and SNP.
So yes, Labour should benefit from it.

Only if voters believe Scotland would have fared better over all, or if any of the above could (without the benefit of hindsight) have reasonably been avoided without a greater impact to public health, during the pandemic with Richard Leonard or Jackson Carlaw at the helm....🤔

I agree re the lack of opposition since Ruth left. It’s an issue all the time but at a critical point like this the lack of proper scrutiny of plans feels very dangerous.

I have noticed though, with blended learning anyway, that a lot of the usual SNP supporters who pile in to defend everything the Scottish government does seem to be struggling with this. Perhaps because they too are wondering how on earth they will manage. If this is rolled out in August and infection rates are very low at that point I think people will really question why we’re doing this to ourselves. More so if England doesn’t actually see a significant second spike in infections after easing lockdown and Scotland falls further behind economically.

The quality of our politicians is really dire.

I hate the SNP and Nicola but she is the consummate politician. And it's their closed ranks policies that have got them where they are so I don't see that changing either. Can you imagine what it would be like with sleezball salmond and his corrupt sidekick Tasmina in charge never mind the other two.

I'm hoping the infighting and fallout that might split the ranks after all this means that the vote is split and please please please can we get someone decent in charge of the other parties? At the moment they are like a pair of wet elderly ewes.

I'm hoping Keri Starmer can really influence the Labour Party up here for that reason @WaxOnFeckOff

I'm watching with interest tits, Richard Leonard is like a wet weekend somewhere devoid of personality.

I agree. Credit where it due though, his 'you okay hun' tweet to Jackson Carlaw fair tickled me.

Didn't see that tits, to be fair I tend to try to avoid a lot of it as I end up getting annoyed.

The government's scientific advisors have made it clear that relaxing lockdown is a political decision.

In England.