Opinions on how the Government have handled the coronavirus outbreak

[slinger]

First case reported at my kids primary school today (for local people ). Not in my son's or daughter's year but I'm starting to get a bit twitchy

[NSNO2021]

This time around feels different and worse. My next door neighbours have both tested positive and are in the second week of isolation, they are NHS staff, my nephew and his wife are positive and isolating, at my wife's primary school, they have already sent a class and four staff home, they returned on Monday as two other classes & 5 staff were sent home (typically 30 kids per class) , 1 teacher is quite poorly.

I also sense more confusion and resistance to the governments instructions than during the first lockdown. My fear is this will get a lot worse before it levels off some time in 2021, lets hope I'm wrong.

[slinger]

A big problem will come when people without symptoms are told to self-isolate for 2 weeks because they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive. They won't get a test because they don't have symptoms and they won't get adequate financial support because the furlough scheme has been scaled back / withdrawn. It could happen several times to an individual over the course of this winter. Good will from employers will not cover it.

If there is widespread resistance to restrictions, for this reason or any other, you might as well remove them and take a more educational / advisory approach.

[slinger]

Never underestimate the stupidity, ignorance, and the ability to ignore expert medical advice, to be found in vast numbers of the British public. They may, eventually, find a cure for COVID-19, but they'll never find a cure for stupid.

People are being told in no uncertain terms that "this will kill you." To which they appear to be replying "Yeah, no, somebody else, I'll be OK." Now don't get me wrong, people that stupid or just simply that blasé probably deserve all they get, but the innocent people who they infect due to their twattish, childish, behaviour do not.

[SteveTheShadow]

Never underestimate the stupidity, ignorance, and the ability to ignore expert medical advice, to be found in vast numbers of the British public. They may, eventually, find a cure for COVID-19, but they'll never find a cure for stupid.

People are being told in no uncertain terms that "this will kill you." To which they appear to be replying "Yeah, no, somebody else, I'll be OK." Now don't get me wrong, people that stupid or just simply that blasé probably deserve all they get, but the innocent people who they infect due to their twattish, childish, behaviour do not.

40 years of “me, me, me,” “No such thing as society,” geezerish behaviour and “I know my rights” encouraged and celebrated by successive governments, have come home to roost. And the sad thing is that these useless entitled twats, of any age, not just young people, genuinely do not give a fuck - really, they don’t.
If I were in charge, they would be rounded up by soldiers, and put in purpose built quarantine centres, for a month. Any protests of “yeah but I’ll get fired if I don’t turn up for work” would be met with “tough luck sunshine, you should have thought of that before being a selfish little shit”
But I’m not in charge and the government don’t have any authority. Neither are they prepared to exercise any. So it’s going to be up to us to protect ourselves as best we can from these lunatics. It’s going to be a long cold lonely winter.

[slinger]

File this under "You must be shitting me????"

Test-and-trace consultants are being paid £7,000 a day

The government is paying private sector consultants the equivalent of million-pound wages to work on its test-and-trace system.

Some executives from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) helping the government to set up and run its testing system are being paid day rates of about £7,000, equivalent to a salary of about £1.5 million, according to Sky News.

The revelation is the latest evidence of the cost of the testing scheme, which is budgeted to be £12 billion this year. According to the documents, the government has paid BCG about £10 million for a team of about 40 consultants to work on the testing system between the end of April and late August.

While the government pays the consultancy, its fee is set by the “day rates” of the individuals. BCG has day rates for public sector work of up to £7,360 for the most senior consultants. The documents show that the Department of Health and Social Care has been given a 10-15 per cent discount.

There has been growing consternation about the cost of Britain’s Covid-19 testing system and questions over value for money. Toby Perkins, a Labour MP, said that the government was paying consultants thousands of pounds “to preside over this shambolic sight”. He added: “You won’t find dedicated public servants being paid £7,500 per day . . . but what you will find is a basic competence, a knowledge of their area, a desire to make sure that the systems work before they are implemented.”

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said: “The figures being spent on this broken system are truly shocking. Testing and contact tracing is failing to keep the virus under control, which makes it even more disgraceful that such huge sums of money are being spent on something that isn’t fit for purpose.”

Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat MP, said: “Just imagine how far that money would go if it was given to local authorities. They are paying these consultants the weekly equivalent of what a nurse makes in a year.”

Last week Sky News revealed that the government had more than 1,000 consultants from Deloitte working on the programme at day rates of as much as £2,360. It has also seen separate documents revealing that the government has since recruited more consultants to work on its so-called moonshot programme for mass Covid-19 testing.

Tamzen Isacsson, chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association, said that its members working with the government were “evaluated for efficiency and cost”.

She added: “We should remember that the government is dealing with an unprecedented volume of workload and major upheaval due to Covid-19 and using external resources has enabled them to work quickly and with intensity in many areas.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “To build the largest diagnostic network in British history, it requires us to work with public and private sector partners with specialist skills and experience.”

SOURCE

Dear sirs,

If only I'd known. I'm sure I could have provided the necessary level of leadership and guidance to deploy a Track & Trace system at least on a par with the one we have now for much less than seven grand an hour. Six, maybe? Five?

[CN211276]

If I were in charge, they would be rounded up by soldiers, and put in purpose built quarantine centres, for a month. Any protests of “yeah but I’ll get fired if I don’t turn up for work” would be met with “tough luck sunshine, you should have thought of that before being a selfish little shit”

My sentiments too. What has given the covidiots encouragement is Demonic Dom and now this Scottish nationalist MP getting away with the most flagarant of breaches. If I were in charge the pair would be shot.

[slinger]

I am indebted to Russ aka @RussinCheshire on Twitter for this barrage of 65 Tweets.

Here comes another #TheWeekInTory, and I'm afraid it's quite lengthy.

The positive we can take from this is that if you start now, you can probably get through the 2 bottles of gin you'll definitely need before the end.
Uncork and begin…
 
1. Boris Johnson announced a new 3 Tier lockdown system, with the lowest Tier being “medium”, like at McDonalds.

2. As part of the announcement, the Chief Medical Officer reassuringly said the plan wouldn’t work.

3. The govt said “in all cases, we are following the science.” 

4. It was revealed the SAGE science committee told the govt to lock-down weeks ago, but that bit of science wasn’t followed very far.

5. SAGE went on to say the govt’s “world-beating” £12bn Test and Trace system was having only “a marginal impact on transmission rates.” 

6. Dido Harding, head of Seemingly Everything, said Test and Trace would be “local by default” and be “highly efficient.”

7. She then handed £12bn to Serco, which is highly efficiently charging us £7360 per day for consultants. To trace Covid infections. Which they aren’t doing. 

8. Serco’s CEO is the brother of an ex-Tory MP. His partner is a Tory donor. Serco’s ex-head of PR is now a Tory Health Minister.

9. If you feel all this is a bit corrupt, you can complain to the govt’s Anti-Corruption Champion, John Penrose, who is married to Dido Harding.

10. Meanwhile an investigation by the Good Law Project found PPE suppliers owned by Tory donors or associates were paid 30% more per item than similar businesses globally. I'm telling you: John Penrose. He’s your fella. He’ll get to the bottom of it, fo shizzle. 

11. And only 34 days since the announcement of Boris Johnson’s "brainchild", the £100bn Operation Moonshot, it was quietly scrapped, along with (apparently) Boris Johnson’s brain and around 28% of his children.

12. A Tory MP said Boris Johnson’s “personal skillset this doesn't play to this. He's not a details, manager type. He's a picture painter”. On the side of wine-boxes, mostly.

13. Another said “I think it's obvious this is a government happier picking fights than governing.” 

14. Another said Boris Johnson “prefers to get on with dog-walking” and “let’s Dominic do the work.”

15. Chastened by reports local authorities were given only 5 minutes notice of previous lockdowns, this time the govt gave them ... 7 minutes notice of the meeting to discuss it.

16. Except some MPs didn't even get that, and were only invited after the meeting had started.

17. And the govt invited the MP for Sunderland, who had to inform them she was only of 3 Sunderland MPs. The govt was “surprised to be informed” of this. 

18. The dep Chief Medical Officer said the infection rate in the north “never dropped” meaning the relaxation of lock-down was at the expense of lives oop north.

19. Then the govt said they would “devolve more decision-making” and “give more financial aid to local authorities.” 

20. But the aid is conditional on the "devolved" local authority doing what the govt wants, which is quite a novel a definition of "devolved."

21. So, following criticism, the govt briefed the press that it was going to consult more with regional govts.

22. Literally 2 hours later, the govt briefed the press that Manchester was moving into Tier 3 restrictions. The Mayor of Manchester was not consulted (or even informed) about a decision he must implement, and which affects the largest city-region outside London. 

23. A Tory MP, anxious about the lock-down affecting businesses over the party season, asked the PM “what can you tell us about Christmas”. Boris Johnson replied, “it’s a religious festival that’s been celebrated 2020 years”, which I’m sure helps us all.

24. Matt Hancock insisted we all follow the science and adhere to the 10pm pub curfew that scientists say makes absolutely no improvement in slowing infection rates.

25. Then Matt Hancock broke that curfew, in a House of Commons bar. 

26. And then Matt Hancock said “The drinks are on me but Public Health England are in charge of payment methodology so I will not be paying anything.”

27. In August, Public Health England was scrapped by [checks notes ] Matt Hancock. 

28. But prior to that, Tories imposed budget cuts of 5% to 10% on Public Health England for each of the previous 7 years.

29. Unsurprisingly, it was reported that hospitals in the north of England would run out of beds within 7 days. 

30. The govt said "Hospital Trusts should consider cancelling all non-urgent treatments."

31. The govt then refused to drop fines it imposes on Hospital Trusts which cancel non-urgent treatments. 

32. So Matt Hancock announced the reopening of Nightingale Hospitals, which were closed last time because nobody could send patients to them, due to them not being staffed.

33. They still aren’t staffed: Matt Hancock's' "urgent boost to nursing training" doesn’t start until 2021. 

34. Fortunately, the govt began a campaign to get ballerinas to retrain, and then scrapped the campaign 24 hours later.

35. In June, Boris Johnson announced an "urgent" £1.57bn Arts Rescue Plan.

36. A mere 127 days later, it "urgently" got around to paying out some of that money. 

37. Except by now the £1.57bn had become £257m, which is 16% of the plan they originally announced.

38. Meanwhile, in news that will surely leave you all stunned and astonished, a month after work began on HS2 the budget for it has already risen a further £800m. 

39. Boris Johnson congratulated Marcus Rashford on the MBE he was awarded for his efforts to overcome the cruel policies of Boris Johnson.

40. The Law Society raised concerns about the “dangerous rhetoric” of Home Office Minister and Mouth of Sauron, Priti Patel.

41. The next day, a migration lawyer was victim of a knife attack, and senior lawyers said “Responsibility and accountability for this attack lies squarely at the feet of Priti Patel.”

42. The Home Office announced plans to catch migrants in a big net and OH MY GOD.

43. And then Lord West reassuringly said, “we need to deal with migrants in a concentrated place, a camp or whatever”. He didn’t mention whether Arbeit Macht Frei, but it’s still only Thursday, and who can tell what the remainder of the week will bring.


[ Open 2nd bottle now ] 


44. Speaking of dates: today is 15th Oct, the absolute, immoveable deadline for trade talks that mighty, fearsome Boris Johnson laid down to the cowed and quivering EU.

45. Talks continue tomorrow. Because obviously, duuur!

46. This is the third absolute deadline imposed by the British that has been missed because the British have temporarily inverted arse and elbow.

47. This didn’t stop Cabinet Office minister Lord Agnew from berating haulage businesses for not being ready for Brexit on 1 Jan. 

48. The Road Haulage Assoc pointed out we have only 1,668 of the 33,000 EU Haulage Permits we need on 1 Jan.

49. Software to control our borders won’t be ready until 4 months after 1 Jan.

50. And the govt is “still in the planning stage” of the “Kent Passports” we need on 1 Jan. 

51. And construction of Kent's “world’s largest lorry park” is behind schedule, so probably not ready on 1 Jan.

52. Fortunately the govt is well-prepared, and plans to install 1000s of Portaloos in Kent, the garden of England, to be used by lorry drivers trapped in 2-day queues. 

53. And our food standards will still be fine, as Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi tweeted “Our manifesto was clear. We will not compromise our animal welfare and food standards.”

54. He then voted to compromise our animal welfare and food standards, as did the rest of the Tory Party. 

55. And then govt used an obscure rule to deny MPs a vote on whether to allow chlorinated chicken.

56. Meanwhile, 20 years after North Sea Cod became so overfished the WWF declared it “economically extinct”, Tory MPs voted to reduce protections designed to let fish stocks recover.

57. So, after Brexit, our current plan is to accept tariffs that will destroy our manufacturing sector, and border delays that will destroy farming exports and imperil food supplies, and destroy the farming sector ... all so we can go and catch a fish that doesn’t exist.

58. But at least we’ve now "got back control", and therefore we can level up the playing field by implementing the govt's landmark “digital tax” policy on giants such as Amazon.

59. This week it was announced Amazon will be exempt from the digital tax. 

60. Speaking of tax exemptions, it was revealed Dominic Cummings has had a £30,000 council tax bill “written off” because he built the house illegally, so it doesn’t count as a real house, or summat. Sorry, my hurricane-force sarcasm briefly turned me more northern. 

61. And on the subject of extreme dodgy dealing, let me direct your attention to Robert Jenrick, who set up the £3.6bn “Towns Fund” for the 101 most deprived town, and then gave the maximum grant of £25m to his own constituency, which is the 270th most deprived town. 

62. His explanation was that he, Jenrick, did not make the decision. It was made by a colleague, Jake Berry.

63. Jake Berry also got money for his constituency. By a dazzling coincidence, that decision was made by – you guessed it – Robert Jenrick. 

64. Finally: at a meeting led by Liam Fox, the TaxPayers Alliance (insanity-pushers to the Tory Party) advocated cutting pensions immediately because half of old people “won't be around to vote against you in the next election”, and the other half “will have forgotten by then.”

[slinger]

[savvypaul]

Steady on. Poor fella hasn't had a holiday in weeks.

It's not that he's doing fuck all, it's that there's fuck all that he's doing well.