Guilt free railing

[WouldBeGood]

The place to vent, moan, rail, cheer: whatever you’re feeling about Covid, and the rules, and life and the universe.

I’ve started this as I’m feeling scared and fed up with increasing restrictions despite vaccines. I feel that what should be a more positive time is instead bringing more and more doom.

I want the simple pleasures of life back, as well as all the big stuff.

I think Jason Leitch is very removed from the realities of life and singularly lacks empathy

• "Schools will reopen as normal after Christmas, schools stay open in all protection levels."
• "Okay things have changed, no they won't. But they will reopen on 18 January, that is our planning assumption, the date we are working towards."
• "18 January's not happening any more, but it'll definitely happen on 1 February. Absolutely that's what we expect and that is what we are planning for."
• "No 1 February isn't happening either, but mid-February, definitely we're planning for some time around mid-February."
• "All right mid-February's off the cards, but 22nd for P1-3. Absolutely 22nd, as long as the numbers are going in the right direction."
• "We-ell, they're going in the right direction, but not as fast as we'd like... maybe have to be careful with this one... we're taking an ultra-cautious approach..."

Only just found you all! Placemarking

@StopTouchingYourFairyGarden

I met my DCs nursery teacher at the shop on Wednesday and she said they were almost certain, as certain as they can be, that the 22nd will go ahead. They've been told to prepare for it and are gearing up for it.

If they change the goalposts now I'll be devastated. We can just about hold it together for another week but children and adults REALLY need this to happen.

Unfortunately I can say with certainty she won't know anything more than we do. There's no advance warning. We find out when they announce (or don't and follow up with a twitter announcement!)

Hello @StatisticallyChallenged 😊

@GoldenOmber when you see it written down like that it does not inspire confidence.

[quote WouldBeGood]@GoldenOmber when you see it written down like that it does not inspire confidence.[/quote]
It doesn't sound good does it. And of course if they delay then that's every subsequent batch delayed. Ffs

Omg please let nurseries open

Please

@GoldenOmber

- "Schools will reopen as normal after Christmas, schools stay open in all protection levels."

• "Okay things have changed, no they won't. But they will reopen on 18 January, that is our planning assumption, the date we are working towards."
• "18 January's not happening any more, but it'll definitely happen on 1 February. Absolutely that's what we expect and that is what we are planning for."
• "No 1 February isn't happening either, but mid-February, definitely we're planning for some time around mid-February."
• "All right mid-February's off the cards, but 22nd for P1-3. Absolutely 22nd, as long as the numbers are going in the right direction."
• "We-ell, they're going in the right direction, but not as fast as we'd like... maybe have to be careful with this one... we're taking an ultra-cautious approach..."

Yes, this.... It's exactly this. It doesn't inspire confidence at all. And this is the clear, honest, adult conversation that Scotland is having, compared to the piffly flounderers down in plaguey Englandshire.

This tweet thread is interesting - I haven't verified his stats but seems sensible

James (@jamestweets29) Tweeted:
As each day passes Scotland seems to get closer to the full vaccination of older care homes - today’s figure was 99.6% with only 135 people left to reach the magic 100%. An impressive feat but is all as it seems? 1/ twitter.com/jamestweets29/status/1358906616310030337?s=20

Short version...care home vaccine percentages are smelling funky

Did anyone else read the Jim Sillars piece in the Herald? Interesting reading and he's obviously on Salmond's side but it's the tone and some of the wording - particularly the last sentence - that is unusual from a SNP guy:

A FORMER deputy leader of the SNP has called for a "revolt" in the party to sweep its leadership out of power.

Jim Sillars, who twice served as an MP, said he could not vote for the SNP "when the rot at the centre is unmistakeable".

He said: "There needs to be a revolt and a change in leadership, a real sweeping change.

"The first action falls upon the NEC [the SNP's national executive committee] to demand and create the change."

Mr Sillars made the comments on the Yours for Scotland blog, run by former SNP office bearer Iain Lawson.

In a blog post, Mr Sillars accused the Scottish Government of pursuing "vindictive and unlawful actions" against former first minister Alex Salmond.

And he said those who advocate staying silent for the sake of achieving independence risk turning "the SNP and the whole independence movement into an ideology akin to that in Stalin’s USSR".

He also referenced the recent sacking of Joanna Cherry, the high-profile MP and QC, from the SNP's Westminster front bench.

He wrote: "Joanna Cherry’s persecution is mild, dismissal from a shadow job, but the vilification is not greatly different from that dished out by the Kremlin’s stooges."

Mr Sillars accused the SNP's leadership of centralising power, marching supporters "up the hill and back down again" on a second referendum and attacking free speech.

He said SNP members and voters "are in the same position here that Trump placed decent USA republican members and voters in during his presidency and at the 2020 election".

He added: “'You are repelled by what I say and do, but you have nowhere else to go,' was his message. Basically the same as 'Wheesht for Indy.'"

Elsewhere, he dismissed talk of an independence referendum this year as "utter garbage".

Mr Sillars, who was deputy leader of the SNP under Mr Salmond from 1991 to 1992, said independence will happen, but just as important is "how it is achieved".

He later added: "We should be ashamed of those who govern us."

Yes statistically, obviously they are estimated targets since some are over 100% of the target so its a bit disingenuous to claim that we are at 99% or whatever. Since you don't have a verified steady population the margin for error must be quite high?

Glad to see the SNP taking a leaf out of Labour's playbook there, going from 'plausibly competent if in several ways worrying centre-left government' to 'let's tear ourselves apart over internal civil wars that most of the country just does not care that much about'.

@GoldenOmber

Glad to see the SNP taking a leaf out of Labour's playbook there, going from 'plausibly competent if in several ways worrying centre-left government' to 'let's tear ourselves apart over internal civil wars that most of the country just does not care that much about'.

You forgot "whilst obsessing about weirs identity politics which most folk don't even understand "

But yes, definite shades of Corbyn Labour. Possibly with a side order of illegality/corruption.

It has gone incredibly sleazy. No matter what the rights and wrongs of it all is, it must also be a distraction from proper government

But then they didn't govern properly before this emerged or before covid. Still awaiting the review of education that is vastly overdue and conveniently postponed until after the election - funny that I wonder what else is being buried?

I wonder what else is being buried

I reckon it's a hell of a big hole... There seems to be a theme emerging of totally ignoring legal advice, which makes me think there must be other issues ready to explode.

I’m a lawyer and ignoring legal advice makes me hyperventilate 😂

I sort of vaguely care whether Salmond did or didn't do what he's accused of, I suppose, and I care about Joanna Cherry getting booted from the front bench because she's good and that seems really off.

But the whole rest of it, like that piece from the Herald, this "SHOCK shakes the SNP to its foundations as someone you vaguely remember from a shadow cabinet post in 2003 writes a furious takedown on some fringe indy figure's blog, revealing the REAL reason that Peter Murrell said he read a WhatsApp message when he didn't!" stuff, where we're all supposed to gasp and coo and follow the twists and turns of some twenty-year-old grudge between politicians? I'm sure it's all deeply fascinating at some level but there's a fucking pandemic on, children, I really don't care who was mean to you outside Parliament that time in the 2007 election campaign.

Did you see the (heavily redacted) legal advice on the Salmond judicial review they were forced to publish? The essence was they ended up being told that their counsel would pull out as the case was unstateable.

@GoldenOmber

I sort of vaguely care whether Salmond did or didn't do what he's accused of, I suppose, and I care about Joanna Cherry getting booted from the front bench because she's good and that seems really off.

But the whole rest of it, like that piece from the Herald, this "SHOCK shakes the SNP to its foundations as someone you vaguely remember from a shadow cabinet post in 2003 writes a furious takedown on some fringe indy figure's blog, revealing the REAL reason that Peter Murrell said he read a WhatsApp message when he didn't!" stuff, where we're all supposed to gasp and coo and follow the twists and turns of some twenty-year-old grudge between politicians? I'm sure it's all deeply fascinating at some level but there's a fucking pandemic on, children, I really don't care who was mean to you outside Parliament that time in the 2007 election campaign.

I think - think! - that the issue here is there's a major limit to what people can say (for legal reasons) so you are ending up with what sounds kind of schoolyard but actually is potentially very serious but they can only really talk around the sides. The who met who when, who sent whatsapp stuff is bloody hard to follow but in essence...why the fuck are they lying about stuff that sounds minor? Most likely because it's not the minor thing that matters, but that it reveals incompetence, misconduct or worse.

lack of ethics, lack of integrity, lack of honesty - we could go on.

People that we elect and pay to run the country on our behalf don't just have to live up to normal standards of integrity etc, they should be setting an even higher standard for themselves, so yes, some of it may sound childish but it's what is sitting behind that and the sheer waste of public funds on top of that that fucking annoys me.

Couldn't run a minodge as my granny would say.

Exactly @waxonfeckoff. I don't expect perfection - honestly - but I do expect basic competence and integrity. Being competent includes knowing when to seek, and listen to, expert advice.

I think there's an element of being in power for too long; it seems to cause a sense of being untouchable. Perhaps the US has the right idea with the max 2 terms for Presidents?

yep and it's also a two party system. I think no matter who is in power, there comes a time when the pendulum just swings as people get tired and politicians become lazy/corrupt etc or simply no longer in flavour or whatever and it's just time for a change. So basically in the UK voting, it's the folk in the middle that hold the power to swing it one way or another really, not the entrenched folk who will never vote for another party types. Scottish voting is complicated by the independence thing.

If there was a more cross party element to obtaining a referendum on independence or further devolution or whatever at a suitable point in the future then parties would be campaigning on other things and judged on their ability to actually run the country as it is.