Highland moving tier 1 to tier 4 utter nonsense

[Coconut80]

My husband is a nurse, I have a DD in s5 a ds in 1st year at uni and a bed and breakfast. I have emailed Ian Blackford, Kate forbes and nicola sturgeon to express my displeasure and asking for the evidence to back why on earth we are going to tier 4. There are hardly any cases in Highland I live on a sparsely populated island.

NHS Highland is in no way overstretched yet we are plunged into similar conditions to central London.

How can I complain, protest about this except via ballot box. Does anyone have any links to websites, petitions or marches please thanks

Are yup talking about density @icanboogieboogiewoogie ? Density in London is far higher than central belt.

🤷‍♀️

The crowing about numbers is a bit lacking in humanity - this doesn't really tell us much but good for you if it makes you feel good.

Oh fuck off, anon. I said I had heard the numbers in London were higher than those in Scotland - I was asked for more details so I posted the most recent stats I could find quickly. I don't consider that "crowing".

The highest figures in Scotland are miles behind those in England.

83% of the people of Scotland live on 2% of the land.

83% of the people of England live in urban settings, but they take up a larger % of the available land.

For the purpose of infection spread, it's the amount of people who live in urban settings that matters, not the large rural areas where very few live.

The Scottish government Covid measures have been more successful at controlling the spread of the disease in urban areas as evidence by the lower death rate per 100,000.

You can't help noticing though eh? Fair enough, I did ask you for more detail.

@anon444877

The crowing about numbers is a bit lacking in humanity - this doesn't really tell us much but good for you if it makes you feel good.

@icanboogieboogiewoogie was hardly 'crowing'(!) The UK Health Minister himself said covid is out of control in SE England. It is dire and thankfully we have a leader who has worked her backside off nearly every day with the aim of keeping cases low. Its not the fault of the people living there, it's the utter incompetence of the Eng Gov through their failure to do anything until it was too late.

It's out of control here too that's why we have increased restrictions. I'm sorry for the emotive language, and won't then complain about then being told to F off, but I do always find snp supporters very quick to the trigger to shout about Uk numbers every time they look bad.

How about we just get through it, and then down the line a lot of studies will try and pick out what worked and what didn't.

The incompetence of the uk govt, the incompetence of the french govt, the incompetence of the German govt, not to mention the incompetence of the poor Italian and Spanish govts.

I'm glad for you that you have such faith in the Scottish govt measures.

@anon444877

The incompetence of the uk govt, the incompetence of the french govt, the incompetence of the German govt, not to mention the incompetence of the poor Italian and Spanish govts.

I'm glad for you that you have such faith in the Scottish govt measures.

This. Over and over.

No government has the master plan. The reality is, governments have to protect themselves from future legal action over any deaths or negligence along this process. Any decision is underpinned by that.

If you find comfort in believing that yours cares more even feels like crying when they announce changes and doesn’t have an agenda in everything they do-like all the others- then that must be reassuring.

FYI. Not an SNP supporter.

But I apologise for telling you to fuck off. I was upset that anyone would think I was celebrating infection rates anywhere.

@Bytheloch Why did some places handle it better then? New Zealand or Singapore for example? Just dumb luck?

Or was some kind of competence factor, or difference in attitude at the heart of decision making that

Do you mean the same New Zealand, the island that shut its international travel borders by stopping flights and locked down its 5 million people just once...and continues to quarantine any overseas visitors, including anyone arriving to repatriate?

I’m not sure what your point is, I think we probably agree on this?

[quote TuxedoPanther]@Bytheloch Why did some places handle it better then? New Zealand or Singapore for example? Just dumb luck?

Or was some kind of competence factor, or difference in attitude at the heart of decision making that[/quote]
They shut international travel and enforced 14 day quarantine in designated hotels and testing on arrival and testing whilst in isolation.

Their supplies also arrive by unaccompanied freight (Air mostly but also sea) so no continual cross borders by people.
The UK could have done this in the early days as well but chose not to now too late.

@icanboogieboogiewoogie sorry here too for poor word choice. Merry Christmas

I think hysteria has led the decision behind tier 4 for parts of Scotland with very few cases..... spreads faster than the virus

All in all, it's too early to say if NZ handled it well, something can look that way now but the pandemic isn't over and there are many factors. NZ has particular conditions that we don't have such as natural borders. That's a massive geographic advantage that the countries of the UK and Europe for example will never have.

Who knows what weighting should be given to that benefit? I don't, and the academics will be crunching this data for a long time.

Sorry annon but it's not out of control here- the Scottish restrictions are preventative measures.
I have a lot of friends and family in England hence my outrage at the mismanagement by the Eng Gov comes from worry. My niece is in a city with 1000 cases per 100k.

The SG have made mistakes, as the FM herself will admit but they did write to the UK Gov five times at the start of the pandemic asking them to impose restrictions on travel into the UK. This was ignored and not done until much later. It's not luck why some countries have tiny amounts of cases / deaths. Yes, being an island helps but some land locked countries have done very well through taking the steps mentioned above.

I guess we'll have to see who is right overall across all factors.

Much family in many other parts of the Uk here too and thank goodness they're so far ok and let's hope for that continuing for everyone we know, that they remain well, it's such a worry.

Also I feel so sorry for the truckers stuck at the border. No water, blankets etc. 1000 lorries yet the PM tried to downplay it on TV. No wonder they became angry. I really hope hope most can start their journeys home today.

@anon444877

I guess we'll have to see who is right overall across all factors.

Much family in many other parts of the Uk here too and thank goodness they're so far ok and let's hope for that continuing for everyone we know, that they remain well, it's such a worry.

Yes let's hope things get better for us all.

Those poor trucks - fingers crossed for them too, hard enough job at the best of times.

It's disingenuous to keep Highlands level 1, really. Would encourage others to flock there as a holiday destination, increasing infection rates. There is a logic to it, so it's worth looking at it from a different point of view Coconut (love Skye, can't wait to return one day!).

@blowin it's snowy on skye today looking very pretty. DD 16 after a 2 day break has started voicing concerns again about the three lots of prelims she is having to do and whether they will happen. She is normally a robust girl but this chop and change has really taken a toll on her x

Coconut hopefully your DD will hear soon about what will happen wrt prelims. It's an incredibly unsettling time for all young people sitting exams. I have one DC in S2 so not quite at the exam stages yet. I feel so sorry for all the kids just now. I just wish we all knew what is going to happen after 18th January. Hate all this uncertainty