November Lockdown: Mibbes Aye Mibbes Naw

[BlueThursday]

Thread 3!!!!

Yes dh usually has a flu vaccine and he hasn't this year due to the mess - hardly ideal. I'll badger him, the GP said they weren't dealing with it anymore.

Yeah meh here too. I've been turning out my linen cupboard like a demented ferret and been muttering about further clear outs of this and that (another one), too much time at home without adult company!

Yeah flu vaccine. Has been a total mess. Hours of waiting. Police called to sort out traffic

I'm very meh here today too. Dh watches stuff on the laptop or the football and I'm on my phone.
I miss going out and seeing my friends.

I've got to take dd (2) for her flu vaccine this week. Its in a cramped town hall and the time slots seem to be in 5 minute increments. Been told to expect lots of hanging around. I can't wait.

My inlaws just paid for theirs as they were tired of waiting for an appointment.

So glad we just paid for our this year. Dh gets a voucher from his employer, so we paid £13 and both got done.

It looks like you can't even pay for them now - we were just saying we'd offer to pay it for our staff (very few would be eligible for NHS) but Boots, Lloyds etc aren't taking bookings

My Mum got her flu shot 4 weeks ago. Along with a whole host of other shots.

Dad refuses. They are both in their 70's.

My employer is offering it to the under 50's.

As far as I know, all primary age kids get it here.

No flu vaccine to be had in my part of Fife, NHS or private. Am asthmatic. Feckin joke

Hello, can I please join you all? I’m in Grampian where numbers are pretty low - the indicators were that we should have been level one - so really concerned about being slammed into full lockdown now NS knows furlough is back on the table.

www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/politics/scottish-politics/1696210/foolish-to-rule-out-second-national-lockdown-in-scotland-says-john-swinney/

And hello @Judystilldreamsofhorses

Horses are much more dangerous than Covid 😂

Well I guess if we can only get furlough money in November then that's when we'll need to lockdown.

You cannot base a lockdown on what money is it isn’t available from Westminster. There is absolutely no justification for further restrictions with the possible exception of Glasgow and Lanarkshire.

Elsewhere cases are far lower than England. If anything more areas should be reduced to tier 2.

It would not be fair to impose further closures on businesses that have already been closed for 3 and a half weeks (when hospitality was open in England) and have just been told they can reopen.

I'm in Glasgow, I was thinking of lockdown pertaining to tier 3,i agree the rest of the country doesn't need it, but not sure if that would work, as it seems to be all or nothing.

It occured to me that unless the furlough rules are changed, people who lost their jobs and found a new one are screwed.

I believe the current rules still have the same eligibility requirement of having had a payroll submission to HMRC before March (23rd, I think). If that is the case then a whole bunch of people are about to get double screwed.

Our business was closed in March. We'd just taken on 3 new staff a few weeks before. Couldn't furlough them - we found related work for 1, other two were apprentices and all we could do was promise that if there was a job available it would be theirs. Reopened in July. Been open since, all 3 still working for us. If we were to close again (not currently on cards but may come) then we currently won't be able to furlough them as they won't be eligible.

Anyone who maybe lost their job at the start, then got another job would be in the same boat. Anyone who changed jobs...

I hope I'm wrong and they change the eligibility criteria, otherwise people who have been working for months won't be eligible. I'd expect that to be many more people than were caught in the first batch (as it will be all of those plus all the job movers)

@Judystilldreamsofhorses

Hello, can I please join you all? I’m in Grampian where numbers are pretty low - the indicators were that we should have been level one - so really concerned about being slammed into full lockdown now NS knows furlough is back on the table.

We should be level 1 in Grampian we had 38 cases in the last week. But NS has threatened that levels 2s moved to 1 may not get all the benefits.

Low case areas wont stand for lockdown threats if other areas dont improve.

Surprisingly she's never come to visit Aberdeen she must be aware of how unpopular she is.

Surprise surprise.

Torvean she has visited Aberdeen. Or are you complaining she's not been up for a visit since the pandemic started?

You cannot base a lockdown on what money is it isn’t available from Westminster. There is absolutely no justification for further restrictions with the possible exception of Glasgow and Lanarkshire.

Completely agree. But since when have politics not come into all this?

The snp, the only party in world history above party politics in a pandemic! (Snort)

NHS Lanarkshire, the council, and the police all asked that there be no more restrictions on the basis they would make things worse.

Still think even leaving the money aside it's a hard decision for the SNP as Sturgeon's logic has all been about England reseeding Scotland, so wouldn't a parallel lockdown be the most effective plan given England has gone for it by her own logic?

She's got to have some confidence in the restrictions working to lose that opportunity. I fancy instead we've got a game whereby the money is blamed but she might have gone for the tandem lockdown anyway.

I don't think any of this will last beyond Christmas and the vaccine, and maybe she's thinking though to hold on for that if it's 6 weeks away.

Wales and NI were refused when asked to borrow money to help businesses during their lockdowns. Lockdowns that were needed to save thousands of lives. Of course, the same happened in Manchester. Thousands of jobs have been lost which didn't need to.

I'm slightly less clueless around the reasoning behind the furlough demand now...thanks to those who explained yesterday! Still don't think there's any justification to lockdown further areas though, just on the off chance they may otherwise need to lock down in December/ Jan instead. NS made it clear earlier in the year she would restrict businesses regardless of the extent of UK financial support, and that was when furlough was still going (albeit reduced) so if she really wants to lockdown later she knows she will anyway. May as well let those businesses open now to TRY to get some income rather than ensuring they definitely can't get any.

Closing businesses in (now) level 1 and 2 areas that have only just allowed to reopen will destroy them. Albeit staff may (or as statistically said, may not, as new employees won't get anything) be partly paid. And non essential retail closing "just in case" would be a disaster for them...especially coming up to the busiest time of year.

I'm not sure whether the proposal to make "full furlough" available whenever it needs to be used would work. Obviously it would be the ideal situation, but it seems that the UK gov wants to push for a four nations approach rather than the localised approach that has been used since May-ish up to now, when lockdown was eased at different rates in the different nations. I assume they want to avoid Scotland saying they will have, for example, an extended lockdown in December/ January, when the rest of the UK is getting back to normal. Of course it may be needed, but at the moment there is nothing in the Scottish figures that suggests it will be so there doesn't seem to be the need to make the necessary financial allowances for it. But apparently that view makes me more Tory than the Scottish Tories, which is an interesting state of affairs...

Even Douglas Ross has (unusually) opened his mouth to say that Scotland should get the same furlough entitlement as England regardless of when they choose to lock down. If there's no vaccine (and I can't see it), we may have a surge at the end of Jan (once Christmas rule-breaking is over and the schools are back) meaning stronger restrictions are required then, for example.