The Covid19 thread

[DJ123]

Originally Posted by Seeker

We had to have laws to make us all wear crash helmets, we had to have laws to make us wear seatbelts, we have had to have laws to stop us using phones whilst driving.

People as individuals may recognise the need for the greater good but as soon as one person is seen to be getting away with it, it becomes "if they can do it, why can't I?"

As soon as they dropped the mask and social distancing rules from mandatory to recommended it was obvious what would happen and no mention of the "Blitz spirit" as regurgitated again today by Javid would change that.

EU countries that have similar vaccination rates but kept other restrictions have far fewer cases/hospitalisations and deaths - the evidence is there.

France has 49.2 cases per 100k pop, we have 476. Germany has 85.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...pe-by-country/

This is exactly what happened in the previous instances, case rates, hospitalisations and deaths rose, the government claimed everything was under control and then a month later belatedly introduced curbs.
Javid had to remind (Tory) MPs today to wear masks in the Commons because nobody was complying.

If they won't do it why should anyone else? They are pathetic (as you may have surmised, I didn't vote for them).

As has been mentioned a few times, covid can be managed with sensible, coherent rules - but our problem is that we don't have any adults setting the rules. Let's not forget BoZo's famous quote:

“I’ve given you the most important metric – never mind life expectancy, never mind cancer outcomes – look at wage growth.
Boris Johnson Oct2021

This wasn't covid related but shows his thinking.

To lighten the mood, Larry and David have a video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5h3kn-Pqk8&t=145s

It makes no difference to the MP's as they'll flout the rules/laws they implement. It's the Public who have to deal with the fall out of restrictions & the loss of loved ones.

When they start being held accountable, planning ahead and starting to lead by example, is when the public think they might have a clue as to what they're actually doing and believe a word they say.
Let's face it, if everyone (or even a majority, say 52%....) 'broke' lock down rules, including businesses there's not enough resources to hold people accountable - Police, Courts, Jails etc. There's not enough of them and a backlog to last for many years.

[Seeker]

"NHS Test and Trace has cost taxpayers “eye-watering” sums of money and has not achieved its main objective of letting people return to a normal lives, a damning report by MPs has concluded."

Surprised? Of course not, Dido Harding had a history of failure, she had no business running T&T. Her husband, John Penrose advocated her for the position (he's in charge of monitoring corruption - don't laugh). He wanted the private sector to run T&T not the NHS (Serco ran it). He also defended cronyism...
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dar...ovid-cronyism/

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by Seeker

"NHS Test and Trace has cost taxpayers “eye-watering” sums of money and has not achieved its main objective of letting people return to a normal lives, a damning report by MPs has concluded."

Surprised? Of course not, Dido Harding had a history of failure, she had no business running T&T. Her husband, John Penrose advocated her for the position (he's in charge of monitoring corruption - don't laugh). He wanted the private sector to run T&T not the NHS (Serco ran it). He also defended cronyism...
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dar...ovid-cronyism/

This bloke Penrose sounds like he isn't actually accountable for anything himself!

[Bibio]

lets put this 37Bn for Test and Trace into perspective.. Scotland's block grant for a year from Westminster is £32Bn. Scotland has to run a whole country with that money........

someone needs to be put in prison for a very long time. after all bozo could not even get funds to decorate No10 and they made a BIG fuss over that. so why not as much media cover for something as big as £37Bn. i personally think it was supposed to be £37m but someone had a sticky keyboard.

[embee]

It did strike me while listening o some of Mr.Sunak's much-leaked budget speech that the billion is the new million.

Not long ago it was pretty spectacular when the govt announced spending north of £100m on something, wow, where was all that money coming from?
Now unless it's in the billions no-one even bats an eyelid.

HS2 (which runs within half a mile of me) is going to cost well over £100bn, and just to put that into perspective that is £1500 for every man, woman, and child in the country. Track and trace is £500 for every single person. These truly are eye-watering sums. The Westminster clowns have lost all sense of reality.

I'm afraid that the concept of holding anyone (individual or department etc) to account for what they're doing or not doing seems to have become an irrelevance. After all, no-one cares that political leaders are proven blatant liars, the flock will still vote for them, so why bother about anything else?

"I have nothing but respect for them, and precious little of that."

[redtrummy]

And what benefit will you get from HS2? The eastern leg is planned to run through Leicestershire. No stops until Nottinghamshire. (but if it is ever built I wont know I will be long gone) about 3 mile from here.

Why did we have Austerity? Bo Jo seems to find the money. (I know its not his)

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by embee

Track and trace is £500 for every single person. These truly are eye-watering sums. The Westminster clowns have lost all sense of reality.
I'm afraid that the concept of holding anyone (individual or department etc) to account for what they're doing or not doing seems to have become an irrelevance. "

Quite right, how do they get away with it ? Even if they have an inquiry into these things, it ends up being fudged and as big a farce as the thing they are investigating it seems to me.

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by svenrico

Quite right, how do they get away with it ? Even if they have an inquiry into these things, it ends up being fudged and as big a farce as the thing they are investigating it seems to me.

Read this book and then you'll understand. You'll stop asking how they get away with it and start thinking about what we can do about it.

[redtrummy]

Just ordered - will need something to read next week

[svenrico]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

Read this book and then you'll understand. You'll stop asking how they get away with it and start thinking about what we can do about it.

Not Covid specifically but relevant to your comments - I am quoting from a letter written to my local paper regarding The Health and Care Bill being debated in parliament to end competitive tendering by private companies for NHS work.
As the letter writer says - this will actually mean more privatisation as it allows the award of NHS contracts without due process and scrutiny.
Sounds like legalising corruption to me !
So what can we do about it ?