I get locked down. Tiers go up again.

[Cismyfatarse]

New Fred.

Apparently Boris's trip north isn't essential, pot and kettle come to mind is it essential for her to travel to Edinburgh every day??

English schools are closed to March. NI are the same this isn't looking hopeful.

To be fair to NS, travel at that point wasn't banned and she hardly knew or sanctioned super spready Margaret's trip.

I really wish BJ would stay at home for many reasons, but mainly because he's the biggest advertisement in favour of Scottish Independence available.

This is very true I don’t want him here either. I’m sure every time he comes he increases support .

Agree rookie at least Cameron understood he wasn't a vote winner for better together!

But I agree, Edinburgh is out of NS's council area too....

Be interesting if SG bucks the trend and gets the schools back in earlier ie. straight after half term. How likely is that? (clutches at straws!)

To be fair, if it needs to be after Easter break, so be it. I’m hoping the decision will be taken for the right reasons. I just wish it would be taken NOW but we were told Feb 1st so just have to wait. I’m failing to distract myself from this issue - hate the uncertainty.

given nurseries have been closed here, I'd have thought there was at least still a case for nurseries opening after half term...optimism fading though.

Sorry but I simply can't see Scottish schools opening this side of Easter. Her modus operandi has always been to be a few weeks behind England and whilst the numbers are still going down, they're still worryingly high in the Glasgow area.

Just have to keep our fingers crossed that the vaccine rollout does actually lead to reductions in hospitalisations.

@WaxOnFeckOff my husbands gran is currently in hospital for a kidney infection and has tested positive after being stuck in there for some time. Her brother is in the same hospital and the same thing has happened to me. I think the chances of going into hospital now and not testing postitive for COVID at some point if you have an extended stay are somewhat slim.
So yes no way of knowing if they are in hospital because of COVID or they just happen to have it or have it because they are in hospital in fact 😬
I think in fact that most of the spread is coming from hospitals, care homes and carers. They planned to send the 99 year old granny home with a care package after she tested positive. She would then have been in contact with 4 carers a day plus my husbands parents who would have had to pick up the slack as 2 hours of care a day are not nearly enough. I wonder how many more people would end up infected once the carers caught it. (She’s not been sent home as of now as she has no mobility at all so needs some physio first)
Frankly what we do or don’t do or where we travel or don’t travel seems pointless with that sort of thing going on every single day up and down the country

On the plus side home schooling has improved this week, we know have online maths for my ten year old every day so I am not quite so insane.
We had online well-being sessions and spelling as well so feels a little easier altogether (although I am getting no more done as they are using my laptop!)

@Lockdownbear

Apparently Boris's trip north isn't essential, pot and kettle come to mind is it essential for her to travel to Edinburgh every day??

English schools are closed to March. NI are the same this isn't looking hopeful.

There's a massive difference between going to your office to hold meetings and talk to dozens of people a day, and traveling the length of the country purely to gee up your political base.

One involves work, the other ego and distraction.

Regrettably I agree with @rookiemere on the schools front. It pains me to say it, especially as Mr Tits can't work in tier 4 but I think that's how it'll play out.

@goodname. I agree totally. I also despair at the lack of transparency around this and the fact it is acceptable for my primary school age child to miss shed loads of learning again. Frankly all essential workers need to be moved up the vaccination list (not just NHS).

Why does NS travel each day? She has a grace and favour house in Charlotte Square in Edinburgh. Surely, if required to be in work she should be there.

And if they are still renovating it, then nearby in Edinburgh. Why travel an hour to work every day? Does she have a driver? Who parks the car? Fills it with petrol?

Roads are supposedly risky places and we need to stay close to home.

Why is she travelling daily and Boris is not allowed to travel to somewhere that he governs? If she can travel for work, so can he. And part of his work is the Union.

I am no fan of his at all but there are plenty of SNP politicians travelling to work in Westminster or within Scotland.

And that is without MF the super spreader.

I am so glad I only have one DD who is nearly 13. She's old enough that she's able to get on with her work herself and young enough that she isn't missing out on exams.

I can remember how much attention she needed as a baby and as a toddler, it would have been so difficult (I had PND)

I agree home schooling is better than 1st lockdown. DD has had virtual maths lessons from Heriot Watt university and Science lessons fro Strathclyde University so I think its good that the schools are teaming up with the universities to offer something interesting (well DD doesn't think its interesting lol)

Thinking aloud on the counter narrative. Boris has had his fingers burnt several times already on schools so it looks stupid to have given a target date of 4 March for his opponents to aim at. Hopeful conclusion is that he already knows vaccine policy will be so far progressed and infection indicators declined so much that the clamour to meet 4 March will finally put him on the right side of public opinion.

Either that or we are forever doomed in a never ending cycle.

Was speaking to my DM about her vaccine appointment. Made me wonder if current rhetoric is because they are fearful people won't turn up for their booster shots if they are allowed to relax and resume any sort of normality.

To be fair, he can barely govern his hair never mind the Union.

I think Sturgeon needs to accept there's an exemption for traveling for work and stop trying to pick at individuals because they don't fit with her viewpoint.

Zero covid as a goal...sigh. At some stage we are going to have to work out how we, as a country, live with covid. It's not going to vanish even with vaccination, especially given the higher spread strain, so at some point we need to work out how we live with it circulating to some extend. That means working out what extra the NHS needs to manage it and planning for it - not as emergency surge capacity but a long term plan. We still seem to be hoping it will go away if we lock down long and hard enough

@Cismyfatarse

Why does NS travel each day? She has a grace and favour house in Charlotte Square in Edinburgh. Surely, if required to be in work she should be there.

And if they are still renovating it, then nearby in Edinburgh. Why travel an hour to work every day? Does she have a driver? Who parks the car? Fills it with petrol?

Roads are supposedly risky places and we need to stay close to home.

Why is she travelling daily and Boris is not allowed to travel to somewhere that he governs? If she can travel for work, so can he. And part of his work is the Union.

I am no fan of his at all but there are plenty of SNP politicians travelling to work in Westminster or within Scotland.

And that is without MF the super spreader.

Because if she stays there, additional staff / security are normally needed so she chose to stay at home.

Johnson is only travelling to campaign for the union. Would you be ok with the FM doing that just now? Travelling around the country to campaign for independence? I wouldn't.

I suppose the good thing is Johnson/ Cameron/ May always go to places where there's no chance they'll meet members of the public ..

Beside the point, but I read that Boris said this today and it was the first time I've actually felt that a politician actually gets what they are asking of parents. I'm sure this is part of the reason why nurseries never closed in England - someone in that team (whether Boris or otherwise) actually knows what that means, and it just isn't worth it to stop the pretty negligible spread coming from nurseries. I just don't get the feeling there is that understanding up here.

The prime minister said he understood frustration among pupils and teachers "and for parents and for carers who spent so many months juggling their day jobs, not only with home schooling but meeting the myriad other demands of their children from breakfast until bedtime".

And yes, if English schools are closed until at least the 8th of March, ours certainly aren't going back before then 😫

Even if England dates don't come to fruition, my mental health would really like Nipoleon to do the same. Somehow a date to work towards that doesn't happen seems easier than no date (I fully admit it's unlikely others feel the same)

BBC already reframed it. No longer a hopeful prospect but a new starting point to negotiate forwards from..

"England's schools will not re-open before March".

I thought NS wasn’t staying at Bute House because essential repairs were getting carried out there.

Surely, with the geography of Scotland, there’s an argument for opening schools regionally?
Are they going to keep schools shut in Shetland, Elgin and Inveraray until community transmission is down in the central belt

Sootness they know how quickly it spiked in Barra, if it was to spike in Shetland, Elgin or anywhere else - where are the ICU beds for those people?
Probably one of the main cities, and the main city hospitals, are stretched.
So it's all linked together.