Nicola Sturgeon

[Malachite234]

Hospitality restrictions extended today and a 5 tier system?

Why not just have the same as England? Why is she insisting on harsher lockdowns then blaming Westminster for no funding.

Edinburgh and Glasgow will be like ghost towns soon. I’m sure more than 50% of bars and restaurants won’t re-open.

Are you all following the restrictions ( question for the central belters) ?

Ah no you’ll get pavement cafes shut by mentioning them on here! Judging by some of the comments on here the world has really gone mad. At least the governments main objective of getting us to blame each other is still working. Feel like @RaspberryCoulis is just getting a hard time for not liking NS, therefore it’s her fault the cases are up because she went on holiday?! I hope you look back on this thread and are ashamed of yourselves.

I can't stand the SNP or NS but they didn't cause Covid. I agree NS is damned whatever she does/says.

As a teacher (and mother of 3 dc) I've given up discussing schools on this site. I only know that I went into teaching to educate children, not to prop up the economy. Schools and school staff are also damned whatever they (are told to) do/say.

Can you find a link to pavement cafes @OrangeLeavesYellowLeaves
Welcome to them in this weather!

The nurse neighbour being allowed to go to a cafe for necessary social support was pure Sturgeon tbh.

@SBTLove

That old argument of whatever 🤣🤣 Poor raspberry; working from home, having her holidays, how put upon are you.😭 My DP is self employed and has lost £10,000s, thankfully has secured a job now, never once have we whined about any of the restrictions, needs must.

I suppose you must have been able to afford it. I lost my job and my husband hasn’t earned a full wage since March and god knows when he will as he’s in hospitality. Not many people are going to uncomplainingly put up with restrictions when they can’t afford to house and feed their families.

@OrangeLeavesYellowLeaves that's a disgraceful comment. I hope you weren't out clapping in the spring.

@MadameBlobby sorry to hear that. I know Andy Burnham was fighting Westminster to get a fair deal for people like your DH. When it comes down to it Scotland is in the same financial position as Manchester.

[quote Malachite234]@LoopyGremlin

I would think teens can pretty much fend for themselves. If not - get a childminder, ask family, friends. Having children is a lifestyle choice and things are always fluid, so people should prioritise accordingly.

Primary based kids should attend school.[/quote]
Why is secondary school an optional extra?

It's the making up of rules to attack a poster that I actually seriously object too.

Who are they to judge someone ought not to go on a legally allowed holiday that was also to someone looking at it logically was a low risk.

The ridiculous attempted shaming of posters who are actually obeying all rules but don't share a particular political blind spot is very sad.

I suppose the side effect of daily briefings is that NS has become the 'face' of all this. She has a cabinet, a team of national and international advisers, an opposition, a parliament, and three other home nations, all of whom have an impact on the eventual Scottish regulations. I hate this relentless nitpicking at the woman. And I am no nationalist.

She is playing a shitty hand and doing the best she can with it. As a nation, we don't have to follow England's lead if alllllll of the people listed above don't think that's the right approach.

IMO - 5 tiers is stupidly confusing, but the English 3 tiers aren't right either. Schools must stay open. Being in the central belt is shite right now. We have lost all sense of living as a collective. Thatcher's declaration has finally come true; there is no such thing as society. Unfortunately it's taken a pandemic to show it. Hopefully that will, eventually, stop the 'we're Scottish and soooo special narrative' as it is very clear that we are not.

[quote grumplass]@MadameBlobby sorry to hear that. I know Andy Burnham was fighting Westminster to get a fair deal for people like your DH. When it comes down to it Scotland is in the same financial position as Manchester. [/quote]
Thanks grump. I managed to get something else thankfully with a company based in....Manchester! Couldn’t write it could you.

We thankfully could manage on 2/3 of his wage if we had to but am sure not everyone can :(

Almost all the children in my DD's classes have at least one parent working in the NHS or social care. Suspect most of the cases in children in school are being brought to them by their parents and being picked up because their parents being regularly tested rather than the other way round.

Also suspect this is driving a lot of Central Belt transmission. Glasgow and Edinburgh are the major hospital centres for almost all of Scotland, not just the central belt. A lot of the staff live more widely throughout the central belt.

I have 2 "at Uni". One of them is at home with all classes on line. The other is in Halls pretty much segregated permanently from the wider community with all but a couple of token tutorials a week completely on-line. It is not the case that Unis are functioning as normal. Even if there are still student cases in the numbers I don't see how they are spreading out to the wider community. If the students were to disperse back to their communities that would make if more likely if anything.

I do have respect for her doing the daily briefings

Also 'having children is a lifestyle choice' perfectly illustrates my point about the lack of societal cohesion. It's really not, ya know. Not if you want your bum wiped and your pension paid when the time comes...

I'm in the central belt and following all the rules I'm legally obliged to plus trying to be considerate (giving space when out for a walk, using hand sanitiser etc.), but I have also had my parents round as 'childcare' so that they could see their grandkids while we went out when they didn't strictly need to be there, and have continued with prearranged low risk outdoor activities in the neighbouring health board. If I had any time in my life to do anything other than work, look after kids and sleep I would probably go to one of the few establishments still open for a coffee too, and wouldn't feel the least bit guilty.

I started off thinking that Nicola Sturgeon was doing well - she was certainly much more articulate than the politicians in Westminster (and still is I guess). But as the months have gone on I've seen her spin like a top to cover up and deflect from failings on care homes, testing, exams, quarantine systems and so many more, and the ease with which she claimed that 'blended learning was always a contingency' (bullshit) or 'elimination always meant keeping levels as low as possible' when politically expedient was quite the eye opener. Now the 'short term two week circuit breaker' has been extended to three weeks, and probably from there indefinitely. There is a lack of transparency about how decisions are being made, and restrictions are changed so often there is no time to tease out what is working and what isn't. What really bothers me is the lack of an end goal giving the feeling that this could go on forever, seemingly at the whim of one woman, and the treating the public like naughty school children unable to use common sense.

I am increasingly of the view that the only way forward is to take sensible precautions like cleaning hands and surfaces and accepting that there will be a certain level of infection (just as we do for every other pathogen). Experts are now warning that even a fabled vaccine (if/when it ever arrives) is not likely to eradicate the virus, will probably need to be repeated regularly, and will likely only lessen symptoms rather than block transmission. I have to wonder in that case whether it is really worth completely decimating society.

Totally agree, @Y0uCann0tBeSer10us.

A vaccine which lessens the risk for the most vulnerable is a great thing! Give it to everyone who currently qualifies for a flu jab, and that protects the most at risk groups. Perfect.

But this is a mistake that both the Scottish government and to be fair all other governments have made from the start. They have promoted a vaccine as a cure and a method of eradication. Not going to happen. It'll be like the flu vaccine in that it will lessen symptoms and reduce the number of very serious cases. Coupled with further advances in treatment this will see deaths come way down. But people WILL still die. Saving everyone, all the time, is unachievable and unrealistic.

The way they are going on is as if they intend keeping restrictions until Covid is completely eradicated and banished forever. Not going to happen.

@grumplass
This is a discussion forum. You start a thread but request no-one who disagrees posts.🤷🏻‍♀️
How strange.

I'd rather do what is needed to keep deaths to a minimum. Covid is eradicated in NZ. That could have happened in the UK too as we are.. an island! But nope, here we are..

You can only eradicate a virus if you seal yourself off completely, forever. It's impossible. New Zealand is a lot further from the next land than we are. We're 25 miles from Ireland, less than that to mainland Europe. Seal all borders, no planes, no ships, no one enters, no one leaves. Forever. Economy in its knees but hey, no covid!

The very fact that people think eradication is achievable is worrying.

@Svelteinmydreams I think that's what @Malachite234 said about this thread ?

@Scotslassie1

I'd rather do what is needed to keep deaths to a minimum. Covid is eradicated in NZ. That could have happened in the UK too as we are.. an island! But nope, here we are..

No it's not!! They've had another outbreak. Smallpox is the only virus ever to be eradicated. That was because they had a vaccine and it can only be transmitted between humans, making it easier to bring under control. Also, it took a very, very long time to eradicate it. Unfortunately, politicians and the media have foolishly led us to believe that lockdowns will enable us to eradicate the virus.

Have they been in lockdown for months? Nope. Why? Strict control of entry. Deep lockdown but for short time periods. And yes, their outbreaks was what.. 10 cases?! Fck me. South Korea , similar. Obviously not an island! But strict border control. Life isn't as impacted as we are here.

@grumplass . That’s my point. I agree with @Malachite234. It’s your second thread which seems odd.

25 new cases in New Zealand. Its not eradicated anywhere