Hogmanae

[rookiemere]

This is an ongoing thread for Scottish mumsnetters - or indeed non Scottish mumsnetters such as myself, to comment on ongoing covid matters pertinent to ourselves, in a hopefully not too partisan and friendly fashion.

@Christmasbiscuit

I'll miss them all dressed up in the their nativity costumes, I love that. This year they've to bring their own tea towel 😂

BYO tea towel 🤣

Cos none of the people making the decisions have been stuck in the house with young kids in the pissing rain with no swimming pools etc open.

That did cross my mind, none of them will ever have been in a soft play. I could understand back at the beginning but not when figures were low over summer.

BYO tea-towel

@WaxOnFeckOff I reckon that’s it re: soft plays. They just don’t care. A soft play owner somewhere out Falkirk way made a video that was shared widely by folk I know on Facebook. He was so desperate and angry, couldn’t pay his staff and the SG just weren’t engaging with him, all he got from them was ‘it’s not safe.’

But then this is the same government who opened pubs before children’s outdoor playgrounds. No offence to the pubs but the playgrounds should never have been shut.

I've been trying to think about how the public sector might be fucked further than just pay freezes. We had pay freezes following the financial crisis. I was at the top of my pay grade then and I've always been at the top of my pay grade. People who joined the organisation after me (with less qualifications) are now paid the same as me. That grates, I must admit, although I guess I'm lucky to have a job!

We had voluntary severance in our organisation about 2 years into the financial crisis so I anticipate that coming too. We also had restructures and office closures.

Anyone else got any ideas how the public sector could be fucked further?

I know the private sector is really struggling too BTW (DH is in the private sector).

The 5 year economic horizon due to covid looks miserable all over.

I'm not against public sector pay rises, it is easy to go on Twitter and say we need to borrow more money though, I saw some chart saying the uk has borrowed more money for covid reasons this year than any country except Canada.

@Christmasbiscuit

My DS was telling me about the nativity at school this year. Apparently it will just be songs with each class recording them separately and then it'll all be put together for the parents to watch. I said "so is there anything else or just singing songs?" He looked at me in disgust and said "SINGING? We're playing instruments! You're not allowed to sing!"

You're lucky to be having a nativity. We usually do one with the P1s but there is nothing at all. We were going to have a little party for each class in their classroom as we're not allowed to mix in the big hall, but were told we couldn't put on Christmas music or play pass the parcel. Seemingly we are allowed to play statues (with no music it would appear ) which seems odd as we're not allowed indoor PE. How can it be safe to have children running around in a small classroom but not in a hall? The whole thing is utterly bonkers.

Just catching up on the rules
What a crock of shite. Honestly. Can't believe bring yer own gravy boat turned out to be on the mone

In all seriousness, how many domestic dining tables are big enough to even allow 2m distancing? Mine is expandable and pretty big, so we'd get over 2m end to end (I think it's 2.4 at max) but that would only work if you only had 2 people sitting at opposites ends. Soon as there's folk in the middle or facing each other...

But then this is the same government who opened pubs before children’s outdoor playgrounds. No offence to the pubs but the playgrounds should never have been shut.

Did they seriously open the pubs first? The ante alcohol SG?
I can understand the playgrounds being closed initially when they did know enough about the virus but surely they opened play grounds before pubs.

The guy from the Saltire centre, I feel heart sorry for him. He even had the police round because kids under 12 were in his football area. Really sad.

My DH is public sector NHS at the top of one of the lowest payscales, he has also worked in private and I've always worked in private sector.

He ended up in a twitter argument with someone as DH was saying that people in the private sector (in the main) get nothing like as good T&Cs as he gets and so you need to look at it as a package rather than x person gets more pay for working in an outsourced call centre when that person may only get stat sick pay, no decent pension, less holidays etc etc.

I've been lucky in private sector in that i've generally had fairly decent (but rapidly eroding) T&Cs but that's becoming more unusual andis mainly as it's been large reputable national companies.

I think it's hard to see the bigger picture sometimes when all you can see is your own salary being devalued by below inflation rises, changes in pensions etc.

why is music banned? Is it in case anyone should sing along or....try to dance and may get carried away with the moment?

It's fucking bizzare.

@Bikingbear

But then this is the same government who opened pubs before children’s outdoor playgrounds. No offence to the pubs but the playgrounds should never have been shut.

Did they seriously open the pubs first? The ante alcohol SG?
I can understand the playgrounds being closed initially when they did know enough about the virus but surely they opened play grounds before pubs.

The guy from the Saltire centre, I feel heart sorry for him. He even had the police round because kids under 12 were in his football area. Really sad.

The situation with the softplays makes me angry. Personally I think they should register as childcare providers and open it as a creche - bet some providers would buddy up to make the process smooth.

Never mind pubs, can anyonr explain why bingo halls (average client age approximately 907) were allowed to open when soft play isn't?

@RaraRachael that's so sad. They did individual class Halloween parties at my son's school but it was more arts and crafts and a movie. They seemed happy with it anyway. Bizarre times.

Interesting article from the FT today. Scotland’s deaths proportionately more than England recently.

FT

I'm not subscribed so can't read the article :(

Soft plays are gyms for toddlers. In this weather where else are they supposed to exercise? And no school PE. Not going to help the obesity crisis.

We will next be told to only donate salad to the food bank and cleaning materials

@Bikingbear

But then this is the same government who opened pubs before children’s outdoor playgrounds. No offence to the pubs but the playgrounds should never have been shut.

Did they seriously open the pubs first? The ante alcohol SG?
I can understand the playgrounds being closed initially when they did know enough about the virus but surely they opened play grounds before pubs.

The guy from the Saltire centre, I feel heart sorry for him. He even had the police round because kids under 12 were in his football area. Really sad.

@Bikingbear indeed they did open the pubs first. I think it was a full month before. I remember being in Shawlands with DS in the buggy, sheltering from a heavy rain shower under the awning of the John Stirling Maxwell pub, which was full of the usual crew of older folk nursing pints at about 1pm. And thinking, but I can’t take the wee one to the swings in Queens Park when the rain goes off? Insanity. And no disrespect meant to older folk there, it was just the absolute madness of it. Our library, playgroup, local soft play, council swimming pool, none have reopened. All shut since March.

The Saltire Centre, yes that was the one. I felt so sorry for him, he sounded like a broken, desperate man.

Just a thought do you think Labour and Torys are just watching the figures and giving SNP enough rope to hang themselves??

Or is that too much to hope for?

Agent I don't know why I cant remember that about playparks. So many illogical things have happened.

@WouldBeGood I also see in the BBC that Scotland is the only one of the four nations to have virus cases increasing according to the ONS study. It does make you wonder what good all these restrictions are doing when cases just do their thing regardless - Glasgow has been under enhanced restrictions for almost 3 months now and cases are only just beginning to fall.

@Y0uCann0tBeSer10us that’s interesting.

It really is looking like it’s up for with the underlying health of a population?

Eh? Weird autocorrect 😃

To do with l, I meant

We have a less healthy population, but I think we might also have an older population? We certainly seem to have a worse care home problem with COVID, and I note there are starting to be a few outbreaks again (probably not helped by the policy of decanting positive patients back into care homes but don't get me started on that). That could all contribute to the higher death rate than England of the last few weeks.

*Just a thought do you think Labour and Torys are just watching the figures and giving SNP enough rope to hang themselves??

Or is that too much to hope for?*

Well if they are, it's clearly an utterly idiotic approach (so quite likely in fact), since SNP approval is still overwhelmingly positive in spite of the Covid pandemic and associated measures.

What exactly are you hoping for from two completely hopeless parties with no discernible policy or direction with regard to Scotland other than 'no to a 2nd referendum'? Have you not noticed that the Tories are making an even bigger arse of this south of the border?

I see the latest wee echo-chamber gripe is the miniscule divergence from the 4 nations approach. Presumably the same in Wales, and the far larger discrepancy in NI is somehow also the 'fault' of the SNP.