Is Nicola Sturgeon being too cautious now

[frasersmummy]

Listening to her briefing it sounds like there will be no easing of restrictions until the schools are back and settled

With infections at such a low rate should we not be getting back to something closer to normal?

People are losing their jobs every day and she doesnt seem bothered

What does everyone else think?

@LovelyWeekAway yes I think it is awful.
Hopefully more information will shed some light on this and whether the number of deaths in this group of people were expected without the presence of COVID-19.

@SockYarn I agree that photo is racist. Just look at other conversations on Mumsnet about people wanting to move to Scotland from England and it’s often said be prepared for low level racism, comments about your children dropping their English accent. It’s shameful and the SNP need to take a harder line. Actions speak louder than words.

@AudacityOfHope it didn’t say want the cause of death was.
It is in the weekly figures section of coronavirus COVID-19: daily data for Scotland

The current figure of those who have died with confirmed Covid is 2,491 according to the Scottish Government.

I really really need back to the gym.

So.. Boris has made his brother a Lord and given a knighthood to Theresa May's husband.

Glad my hard earned taxes will go towards making these millionaires richer (!)

in fairness, I wondered myself what Philip May had done to get one.

@MumofHunter what’s that got to to with this thread, though?

@britINscotland

I'm sure the Scottish Tourism sector just love Nicola right now. Right at the start of the English school holidays as well.

Indeed. I was standing outside a big Wetherspoons in Glasgow with DS in the buggy earlier in the week to take shelter from the pissing rain. It was fucking packed. And you know the folk who never washed their hands after the toilet before aren’t going to start now. Especially not if they’re half cut.

This was 1pm. I was looking in thinking that’s deemed safe but I can’t take my toddler to the transport museum to look at cars from behind a barrier? Sounds legit.

@dementedma

this is fucking insanity in Scotland now. We have about 300 people suspected of being infectious with the R number below 1 and STILL hundreds of thousands of office workers are being told to work from home with all the isolation and family stress that causes for many. I hope our great leader will take responsibilities for the mental health issues that are building up in this neglected sector of the workforce.

But having office workers wfh is one if the easiest things to do...? I sit on the phone all day to folk in a different office anyway so I can’t see the point in wasting all that time, money and diesel to get there !

@SockYarn,
I opened a thread asking whether there is an endemic racism problem in Scotland but the powers that be deleted it as "it wasn't helping anyone".
Quite a few people said YES (and some No), and I didn't recognize any of the names...
I have managed to save the thread on my phone, though. ;)

@LizzieMacQueen

So are businesses still advised to keep offices shut? I work in accountancy, currently on furlough and I wasn't able to be set up for wfh before we shut. Anybody know when things will re open?

I work in accountancy and our office hasn't been shut. About 80% staff furloughed at the start who are all back with the remaining few back next week. We have a mix of working from home and working in the office. I was furloughed but been back since the start of June and work in the office

@MumofHunter

So.. Boris has made his brother a Lord and given a knighthood to Theresa May's husband.

Glad my hard earned taxes will go towards making these millionaires richer (!)

Well yes, I'm glad my hard earned taxes were chucked down a well called the Named Persons scheme and many more things.

There is a requirement to have a 2nd chamber (though clearly not in the one party state that is Scotland), no doubt if the SNP were in charge they would also be giving awards to their own cronies, it's been like that for hundreds of years.

But I digress and derail the thread even more.

They’re all as sleazy as each other 🤷‍♀️

The named person scheme, whilst not perfect, had the aim of stopping the horrific cases where a child falls through the cracks of various agencies ; social work, schools etc and they're tortured and /or killed.
This does happen in Scotland - at work I need to analyse a case / full review yearly. It's beyond harrowing.
The fact that you're comparing this to a person making their family a Lord is just beyond comprehension to me.

Horrific crimes against children happened in areas where the named person scheme was being trialled. Even the judge who ruled on it said that something along the lines of government who interferes with parents bringing up their children being sinister.

The only link I made was the waste of taxpayers money which was not inconsiderable.

You are great at the sound bites and seem to have had a finger in every pie of life and I dont believe the half of it. Every time I engage with you I want to poke myself in the eye for my own stupidity but sometimes I just can't let the nonsense go unchallenged.

The named person scheme, whilst not perfect, had the aim of stopping the horrific cases where a child falls through the cracks of various agencies ; social work, schools etc and they're tortured and /or killed.

That may have been it’s aim, but it was utterly unworkable and cast the net far far too wide. The Scottish Government didn’t listen to experts who told them repeatedly that it wouldn’t work in the form proposed and continued to press on. It was an absolute shambles of a scheme and, if you understood it in implementation you’d understand that if anything, more children would likely fall through the cracks while everyone thought they were safe.

This government is notoriously bad at listening to its electorate, which is ridiculous in such a small nation.

Could we keep on topic, please?

This is meant to be a thread about easing lockdown restrictions.

I’m glad NS is prioritising the school return and has her eyes squarely on that goal. I am concerned that the economy and jobs are the latent disaster facing us in the last quarter of the year but a bungled school return would compound that.

I’m also glad NS is focusing on schools return. It’s really important to get kids back to school.

It doesn’t bother me at all that she asked people to limit social contact when returning from areas of England with high infection rates. I think it’s a sensible decision and not racist or Nationalist.

If I had been to an area within Scotland with a breakout I would fully expect the same advice.

I am not an SNP voter , I just think these are sensible policies regardless of party politics.

local lockdowns have to go hand in hand with avoiding travel to those areas. I don’t condone the idiots at the station holding up ‘England out’ banners - they clearly don’t understand the policy.

It's a bit more tricky to claim that NS's caution is political when Chris Whitty has come out and said they've hit the limit of what is possible in terms of easing - and in fact it's clear they've gone a bit too far as they've had to pull back.

I think the only way to know if something has a positive or negative impact on infections is to try it, hence stopping meet ups indoors again.

Although I think pubs and restaurants being open is stupid and the only reason they aren't closing them down again is not because they are safer than seeing family but because of the economy and jobs.

Schools is the next big test. I think by mid/end September we will see who was right about how safe it was.

as for me, I really want to continue WFH, so I'm glad that NS is encouraging this but will employers listen? some, but not all.

Sort of. But when England began easing in June, they did so with a far higher rate of cases and deaths than, for example, Spain and Italy did. They didn't wait until infections were low enough, there was still too much community transmission which has now started spreading again.

It’s hard to know what will be right in the end though, all things considered. It depends a bit on when the end is and when the vaccine appears. As for now everyone is muddling through.

I actually do agree that travel restrictions to and from REGIONS of England/U.K. that are currently under enhanced restrictions themselves is sensible. Unlike the refusal to rule out travel from the whole of England which did come across as political. She should make this difference clear to her acolytes that seem to be applying this to all English though.

I have a lot of time for Chris Whitty and I think his explanation yesterday was very reasonable. You need to balance everything in society, including the risks from unemployment etc. and no one knows what is ‘safe’ so you need to test the limits. They’ve monitored the data and seen it getting out of control a bit, so are pulling back. I think that’s all anyone can do in this situation.