Guilt Free Railing 17

[WouldBeGood]

Happy New Thread, Railers!

I hate masks, having to wear one seriously limits what I will
Do and where I will go. I do my shopping online as I get so stressed wearing a mask with my glasses. Glasses will steam up or fall off and I feel all hot and bothered.
Went to the cinema twice recently though and can totally get away with no mask wearing as it’s dark and you can just eat all the time anyway 😀

The Tories do want an end to masks in schools

I would suck it up and keep mine if it meant they took them off the kids.

Note I have wee kids so it's purely because I think it's a joke especially kids going through puberty etc

The fertility stuff is heartbreaking.

@WouldBeGood

The Tories do want an end to masks in schools

Thank goodness for that. I really really feel for kids in schools.

Fingers crossed Scotland bins them in schools at least they really can't be good for kids.
This is the 3rd academic year that's been affected by covid some kids only do 4 years in secondary school.

@WouldBeGood

The Tories do want an end to masks in schools

Ah, phew. Well that's something I suppose. Thought I was going mad if even the tories had gone all cheerleady for them.

Wish I could understand their thinking for the risk/ benefit falling against mandating them in schools, but mandating them in other public places (rather than making them personal choice, with proper protective ones should people so choose). I know there's differences in time, and also children HAVE to attend school (just like workers in indoor public places have to attend work, and so need to wear a mask for the full working day) but either near-universal masking is useful in reducing spread, outweighing the inconvenience and difficulties involved - or it isn't.

But hey, that's me expecting logic where none needs exist, again.

The IVF thing is awful too. Is that just NHS Scotland, or a UK restriction? I can sort of understand the requirement, alongside all the other requirements for treatment (which in themselves are hard for many to meet) , but to change the goalposts so late in the day for many couples must be heartbreaking. I'd have thought they could have tapered it in, saying new patients from x date will need it as a condition of treatment. But to drop it on existing patients as a further delay is horrible.

I was wondering if they’re just saying that on the masks as they think people want to keep them..?

@ResilienceWanker the IVF thing seems to just be Scotland. Everywhere has guidance to encourage women TTC to get vaccinated because the benefits are thought to outweigh the risks, but certainly England isn't then barring women from treatment for making the 'wrong choice'. If it's about reducing the risks to the pregnancy I genuinely don't understand why prior infection isn't being considered - it's this idea that immunity can only come from vaccines again which in the omicron age (not a great match to the virus any more) is farcical.

I wonder if the Tories feel like ditching masks altogether is a step too far for the Scottish public who have been gas lighted into thinking that the tissue paper or piece of cloth over their mouths are actually doing a good job of preventing spread. A bit of honesty wouldn't go amiss here either.

God, we can't let PEOPLE decide what policy is going to be!! That way madness lies...

But seriously, yes, that may be true. I'm not sure WHY people want to carry on with them (or, rather, why thinking "I want other people to be made to wear them to protect me and other people like me" is ok - no one's going to stop anyone who wants to wear one!) but why is that suddenly the way policy is made?! Surely politicians should be protecting us from "populist" policies that don't fit with our liberal (or however you would describe it) society? Of course that can go wrong (see the current nationalities and public protest bills for example) but in general, "the public" are much more authoritarian than we (as a nice society!) would like them to be- so we need to be protected from ourselves

DS was saying he was arguing with his classmates about whether they could do a better job as PM than BJ we appear to have accidentally bred a Tory apologist And his main argument was "you can't ask children what rules they'd bring in, because they'd just say" no school" and that would be silly because then we'd all be thickos" Which is probably true, to be fair! (He also pointed out that if BJ was sacked the person they got in to replace him could well be even worse, which shows a certain degree of knowledge of the current tory party that is worrying admirable).

At DS primary they never stopped eating in classrooms, and being shoved outside to eat snack regardless of the weather

The IVF thing (and I've no doubt it will be ALL fertility treatments) is most likely an NHS Scotland thing.
I'd take a guess it's a sly way off reducing the waiting list, it goes along with the posters in the waiting rooms warning treatment may be stopped if your are 10mins late for appointments.

Honestly don't get me started on fertility on the NHS it was so so long and stressful.

I bet it won't be an issue to private providers.

Is anyone else's Dr's making them fill out a form the day before appointment on "health check" they are allowed to attend or is it just mine???

Looks like my Dr's are taking the follow up of my infection seriously (found out parents GP called them to discuss it due to missing ths seriousness for 4/5 weeks....again bloody amazing GP!!!) But I have to fill in a questionnaire along with do I have a runny nose etc....

It says its a Scotland wide health protection not sure if it's true!

Not at my GP, no.

It's this mish mash of made up extra stuff that's so annoying isn't it! The inconsistency drives me nuts.

I’ve provisionally booked France for Easter without telling DP so he doesn’t moan, I’ll go myself if he’s still not sure 😃

@Lockdownbear

The IVF thing (and I've no doubt it will be ALL fertility treatments) is most likely an NHS Scotland thing. I'd take a guess it's a sly way off reducing the waiting list, it goes along with the posters in the waiting rooms warning treatment may be stopped if your are 10mins late for appointments.

Honestly don't get me started on fertility on the NHS it was so so long and stressful.

I bet it won't be an issue to private providers.

Yes, it's one more thing that if you have the money to pay for private provision you're fine. If not, you have to deal with a seemingly random set of restrictions/ rules dependent on where you go and how each provider is interpreting the government guidance this week, without the ability to vote with your feet and choose somewhere else.

I've finally managed to book our dentist for a checkup in march (only 2 years late), and we have to do that health check form before attending too ski. Frankly, I've got to the stage of assuming they would ask us to come in in a beekeepers suit with an arm and leg tied behind our back singing Flower of Scotland and I'd STILL have done it, so a form is fine... Glad you're getting seen to, though!

And good news on France wouldbegood! That's exciting!

@Icannever - we spent nearly £6 on popcorn at the cinema recently so we didn't have to wear our marks. Waste of money - we were the only people there

@resiliencewanker I think I just find it bizarre I mean if I was going to see them about my asthma then I would be selecting yes to about a third of the questions......

I fully get not attending if you have had a positive test etc but surely Dr's must expect to see people who have coughs which aren't covid?! Although that's what got me in the mess with the infections anyway their assessing bronchitis over the phone!!!

@Icannever

I hate masks, having to wear one seriously limits what I will Do and where I will go. I do my shopping online as I get so stressed wearing a mask with my glasses. Glasses will steam up or fall off and I feel all hot and bothered. Went to the cinema twice recently though and can totally get away with no mask wearing as it’s dark and you can just eat all the time anyway 😀

Honestly just choose not to wear it. A few months ago we had a threatening guy at the door to Tesco but he has gone now so I am back to maskless. I've been mostly maskless since July and I've had no issues

The NHS fertility ques were massive anyway and I can only imagine covid has added to the que, so it's just a way of bumping people off it to help meet the targets.
I'm so glad all that shit is behind me, waiting months for appointments only to get told we need to send you for x test, you wait for it, get it, then it's another 3 mths to see the consultant again only to get told we need the swimmers retested - ah but that one is too old. I'm convinced the way they did the tests was about a delay process so they could say people weren't waiting months for their first appointment.

From point of referral I was 18mths to getting my first packet of drugs that might do something.

In less that 18mths going private I had a failed round of IVF and a baby cooked and delivered!

Headline on BBC - Boris nobody warned me it was against the rule - FFS did he not make the rules?

As much as it don't like Nicola's over controlling ways. I'll give it too her she hasn't been seen to flute the rules.

I think the most interesting narrative behind all these Number 10 parties (and seriously, WTF? I don't go out that much in a normal year never mind a pandemic) is this idea that the rules were too strict. I mean I actually agree with that - I doubt there was ever much harm in meeting up outside for instance - but that should have been for all of us to decide, not just staffers at No. 10! It does show a shift in the thinking though - not so long ago the narrative was all about protecting people from COVID, whereas now there's a lot more thought being given to the damage done with restrictions and whether they were necessary or over the top. That at least is encouraging and shows a willingness to start to leave it all behind and go back to normal.

Ffs! He's the PM - you'd have thought he'd have had some capacity for independent thought. Or maybe he could have asked one of the nice policemen hanging around his street whether they would arrest him if he sat in the garden with a few colleagues, drinking. It's just getting more and more ridiculous. But equally, I don't want Priti Patel or Liz Truss or Raaaaaaab taking over either. They are truly scary (and really dull). Even Rishi who's been cultivating a cuddly exterior with his furlough and grants and whatnot I think is one of those dangerous no tax lunatics underneath. Urgh. We are screwed, really, aren't we...

And depressing that we are impressed that NS is largely following the rules she has made (masks in indoor public or crowded places notwithstanding). Whoopdeedoo.

Yes it is depressing but I also think part of that is her nature, she doesn't ever strike me as the wild night on the town sort of person, him I bet he as a few wild tales to tell.

Exactly youcannot. I'm sure everyone having or wanting to have parties or visiting relatives or whatever during lockdown could have come up with some kind of exemption (business purposes, mental health, childcare, checking my eyesight or whatever). But most of us chose not to, because there was some kind of feeling of solidarity - being all in it together and so on. So we suffered and held back because everyone else was suffering too, some much more than us - and overall, holding off doing something that we "could" do was felt to be better for society as a whole, and would mean we could get back to normal quicker. The whole "just because you CAN, doesn't mean you should..." being made flesh . Of course no one thought that not meeting more than one person outdoors, not sitting on benches, not being able to access any health or educational services, not being able to play in playgrounds and so on was proportionate (well ok, most people...) - definitely on an individual level. But it was accepted (ish) as a way overall of minimising spread of the virus, stopping the NHS from being overwhelmed and so on.

So to find that whole narrative was being totally ignored by the people who set it up in the first place is especially galling. Who didn't have the added worry of getting dobbed in by their neighbours and fined by police who they were ill-equipped to argue against. (not sure a policeman would be as willing to approach the PM or his mates to fine them as they were two women walking together with coffee wherever it was... ). Tossers.

@Lockdownbear

Yes it is depressing but I also think part of that is her nature, she doesn't ever strike me as the wild night on the town sort of person, him I bet he as a few wild tales to tell.

It surprises me that the cupboard full of skeletons hasn't burst open with the sheer volume of the contents.

Oh the skeleton cupboard is firmly controlled by someone very senior.....who knows if its all at once the out roar is large but short lived and more survivable then bit at a time and sit back and watch!