Boris does it again!

[Sally71]

Here we go again. OK another lockdown was not unexpected and we have to admit may well be needed. But why o why at such short notice?? All the mucking about with schools is a complete farce! On the very last day of term he told all secondary schools that they must organise mass testing of pupils. Which presumably schools have been trying to do over the holidays, only to now be told that they might as well not have bothered because the children won’t be coming back anyway. Now primary schools have been back precisely one day and have to close again; the one I work at had inset day today so I’m due back at work tomorrow. In less than 12 hours time in fact and now I have no clue whether I’ll actually be needed or not, and there isn’t exactly a lot of time for the senior management team to find out how many vulnerable/key worker children will be in and how many staff they need etc etc.

Covid cases started going up again pretty much as soon as all the shops reopened in December, so the government surely can’t claim that they didn’t see this coming; could they not have given people even a couple of days’ notice to sort their lives out?? I’m fuming!

Anyway a couple of colleagues and I have decided that unless we hear anything to the contrary we’ll just turn up tomorrow anyway and take it from there, what a ridiculous situation though, headteacher now trying to contact the parents of over 400 children in one night to find out if their child needs a place at school tomorrow, and how many won’t get the message and will just turn up anyway?! 😡😡😡

 

[KARNAK]

Could see it coming @Sally71, as a country we have no chance we`re in for the long haul.

Poor children and their parents lives are in pandemonium, yes I do agree the lock down is needed
and 6 weeks in my opinion will not be enough unless they can get everyone vaccinated in that time
not a chance in hell.

Do your best Sally and if it means breaking the rules to protect your loved ones so be it, as long as
no one else is put at risk.

 

[Paulbreen]

I just watched Boris’s statement on the TV, even dubbed into German is sounds very frightening and I’m not one to be that worried as long as you’re sensible.
I’m called to the UK quite often for work and the companies I work with take it extremely seriously, quarantined area around where I’m working, no one can enter, all conversations are done by phone even if their engineers are standing 4-5M away from me and at the moment I won’t travel.
What I heard tonight sounds like it just got very serious.
I think they are doing the right thing and it looks like Germany are going the same way in the next days, I know it sounds like a real pain in the a*s being locked down but I think underestimating this virus especially now as the vaccines are being rolled out is more than foolish.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

. But why o why at such short notice??

Even though the lockdown was obvious I would suspect it has a lot to do with panic buying or trying to stop it.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Even though the lockdown was obvious I would suspect it has a lot to do with panic buying or trying to stop it.

Doubt it, since (in areas which are Tier 4) this doesn't change which shops are open.

I think he just always wants to wait until it's really obvious to everyone that he doesn't have any choice. (No idea why, presuming it's not just that he's a weak leader, since delay is always going to make things worse. Maybe it's because while the public in general are supportive of effective measures to try and control the virus, people who support him aren't so generally supportive?)

 

[Ljc]

Doubt it, since (in areas which are Tier 4) this doesn't change which shops are open.

I think he just always wants to wait until it's really obvious to everyone that he doesn't have any choice. (No idea why, presuming it's not just that he's a weak leader, since delay is always going to make things worse. Maybe it's because while the public in general are supportive of effective measures to try and control the virus, people who support him aren't so generally supportive?)

I also think he wants to test the water first .

Personally I hate all these turn arounds ie, no we won’t do this then a few days later that’s exactly what he does,

To me it was on the cards that schools would close but giving such short notice doesn’t give schools or parents to make proper arrangements.

 

[Sally71]

I just watched Boris’s statement on the TV, even dubbed into German is sounds very frightening and I’m not one to be that worried as long as you’re sensible.
I’m called to the UK quite often for work and the companies I work with take it extremely seriously, quarantined area around where I’m working, no one can enter, all conversations are done by phone even if their engineers are standing 4-5M away from me and at the moment I won’t travel.
What I heard tonight sounds like it just got very serious.
I think they are doing the right thing and it looks like Germany are going the same way in the next days, I know it sounds like a real pain in the a*s being locked down but I think underestimating this virus especially now as the vaccines are being rolled out is more than foolish.

Yes i’m not suggesting that the lockdown shouldn’t happen, but the decision could have been made last week, or even before that, that schools would not return and then at least everyone would know where they stand!

Now had an email that our school will be closed to all pupils tomorrow and there will be some sort of online meeting at 1pm to update staff. How many parents won’t have read the messages though and will send their children in anyway, only for them to be sent home again. It happens more often than it should!

 

[Lucy Honeychurch]

Testing the waters first?...ridiculous that so many schools were open for one day...and now shut...absolute incompetence from the Government, dreadful.

 

[Drummer]

I think it is simply a slightly slow response to changing circumstances. The numbers are changing so quickly the system cannot keep up.

 

[Lucy Honeychurch]

Why send so many primary schools back for just one day? Ridiculous and dangerous (of course private schools are still off!) False hope to parents who have to work and how they have to manage this. Not to mention the fact that the children may now have been exposed.

 

[Paulbreen]

Yes i’m not suggesting that the lockdown shouldn’t happen, but the decision could have been made last week, or even before that, that schools would not return and then at least everyone would know where they stand!

Now had an email that our school will be closed to all pupils tomorrow and there will be some sort of online meeting at 1pm to update staff. How many parents won’t have read the messages though and will send their children in anyway, only for them to be sent home again. It happens more often than it should!

I wasn’t criticising your point I was saying how I saw it here. It seems like it was on pretty much every news bulletin on the TV and radio and online so I’m pretty sure most people will know schools are going to be closed, it made the TV news here as a top story. he made it pretty clear it was a full lockdown or so I thought.
It seems that the situation is changing by the day if not hourly and the government are dammed if the do and dammed if they don’t, they don’t want to wreck the economy on one hand but also don’t want to be responsible for unnecessary death.

 

[mikeydt1]

without closing our borders apart from goods then lockdowns are just a pointless affair. 3 lockdowns and borders remain open allowing people to come and go as they please. i spoke to a carer and in the last lockdown they were selling flights to Ireland for £5 sort of speaks for itself.

all lockdowns do is reduce 'r' then as soon as they relax it is here we go around the merry go round. one thing they are doing is knackering the economy without that there is no NHS full stop.

someone summed up the situation that it is okay for those in power to force these lockdowns but they are the ones still getting good wages, food and drink brought to them along with getting their bills paid while the rest of us are stuffed up.

at least we can still go out for food and exercise. next we will need a permit just to breath.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-lockdown-rules-january-2021-b1782192.html

 

[Stitch147]

What I dont understand is why are places like garden centres etc still open, are these really essential? I know some do pet food and supplies, but........
It will be interesting to see how busy work is today. Yesterday morning we was fairly quiet, but not long after it was announced that Boris was making the 8pm announcement we started to get busier. Pasta, loo roll and tinned stuff going out the door in large quantities!!!

 

[Maca44]

Perhaps we need to think about people who have lost loved one's including people here before moaning about the inconvenience of the changes, I have seen first hand how poorly my wife was over xmas with this virus and we were lucky.

We were given freedom many years ago which cost many lives I wonder if we have taken our freedom for granted somewhat. Instead of complaining that kids will have to stay at home or we can't buy toilet rolls how about pulling together it's not going to be forever, I wish we could just see the bigger picture and hopefully an end to this virus.

Rant over

 

[ColinUK]

What I dont understand is why are places like garden centres etc still open, are these really essential? I know some do pet food and supplies, but........
It will be interesting to see how busy work is today. Yesterday morning we was fairly quiet, but not long after it was announced that Boris was making the 8pm announcement we started to get busier. Pasta, loo roll and tinned stuff going out the door in large quantities!!!

Many have diversified to sell food now too but I think it’s mainly down to the fact that everything they sell pretty much is perishable so off they can’t sell their goods then they’re pulped for compost.
Many have said that gardening is also an exercise so having garden centres open means that can take place.

 

[Robin]

What I dont understand is why are places like garden centres etc still open, are these really essential? I know some do pet food and supplies, but........

Ask any frustrated gardener! Last March I was caught out without any potting compost or veg seed. It took weeks to find somewhere that would deliver, and I ended up sowing what seeds I’d got left from last year in trays of garden soil.

 

[Docb]

I wasn’t criticising your point I was saying how I saw it here. It seems like it was on pretty much every news bulletin on the TV and radio and online so I’m pretty sure most people will know schools are going to be closed, it made the TV news here as a top story. he made it pretty clear it was a full lockdown or so I thought.
It seems that the situation is changing by the day if not hourly and the government are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t, they don’t want to wreck the economy on one hand but also don’t want to be responsible for unnecessary death.

You are quite right in your last statement Paul, the problem is that leading a country through that dilemma needs somebody with real skill, not a scruffy, bumbling, waffling amateur so far out of his depth it is frightening. The only thing of substance in last night's statement was yet another u-turn on education. The rest was mostly filler. It was made in a pre-recorded statement. No journalists or MP's asking questions, no scrutiny, no nothing.

We have a Prime Minister who wants to be seen to be in charge but avoids scrutiny. Not a good place to be.

 

[Sally71]

Perhaps we need to think about people who have lost loved one's including people here before moaning about the inconvenience of the changes, I have seen first hand how poorly my wife was over xmas with this virus and we were lucky.

We were given freedom many years ago which cost many lives I wonder if we have taken our freedom for granted somewhat. Instead of complaining that kids will have to stay at home or we can't buy toilet rolls how about pulling together it's not going to be forever, I wish we could just see the bigger picture and hopefully an end to this virus.

Rant over

You are quite right of course, but many lives might have been saved if this government could see the bigger picture and just make a decision and stick to it. They took us into the first lockdown too late and brought us out of it far too early. Then made exactly the same mistakes a few months later. Then decided that everyone could have 5 days to celebrate Christmas with their families, waited until everyone had made plans and then realised that that was a bit of a stupid thing to suggest, better reduce it to Christmas Day only and then tried to tell everyone they shouldn’t even mix then. And then even though cases have been rising since early December and pressure to close schools has been increasing, they only decide to do it the day after they all go back with no warning. Little wonder people are getting fed up with all the restrictions and mucking about, people are much more likely to stick to the rules if they are clear and make sense and don’t keep changing. The devolved nations seem to be able to make these decisions much quicker and more clearly.

I’m sorry if my little moan has offended anyone, I do not like the way these rules have been brought in but would never dream of not sticking to them. There seem to be an awful lot of people out there though who still think that covid is a bit of a myth, or that the rules don’t apply to them, or that going for a pint/having a party/crowding into the shops to do Christmas shopping is more important that someone’s health or life, and that is unlikely to change when we have a leader who appears to change his mind with the weather.

 

[MarkGeordie]

I think there are far too many places open still that should not be classed as essential.

 

[Sally71]

What I dont understand is why are places like garden centres etc still open, are these really essential? I know some do pet food and supplies, but........
It will be interesting to see how busy work is today. Yesterday morning we was fairly quiet, but not long after it was announced that Boris was making the 8pm announcement we started to get busier. Pasta, loo roll and tinned stuff going out the door in large quantities!!!

That’s interesting, I did my shopping yesterday afternoon about 3pm, there was hardly anyone in there but bigger gaps on the shelves than I’ve seen for ages (although not much that they’d completely run out of, and I was able to get everything I needed, so much better than the first time round). Sigh, have people not learned that shopping for food is the one thing you can still do during lockdown, and therefore there is no need to panic buy. We’re already in tier 4 which means all non-essential shops are closed already so nothing will change there. It just shows how many people don’t have much common sense and need a strong leader!