Just Another Four Weeks To Flatten The Curve?

[slowsider]

I think you should all do as you're fecking well told, because until you do I can't reasonably swan over and visit my family.
Selfish twats.

I can swan over but have to self-isolate on my return and that period looks likely to be doubled.

[rusty]

So. Does anybody think it will be just another four weeks?

No idea. None at all. But the sun is out and the lockdown is minimal, can't say I care either way

I think this is the only way to look at it for now.

[Saga Lout]

Yesterday the government announced a continuation of measures for another four weeks. This will harm a range of businesses still locked down, and continue to impede other businesses operating well below normal capacity thanks to social distancing rules. I urge them to review this decision as soon as new data becomes available. It appears that the vaccines are very effective, and that practically everyone vulnerable to bad version of the disease has now had a vaccine. I favour letting people make more of their own decisions about how much risk they are willing to run in their lives. If someone still has a fear of this virus then of course the employer, the family and the community should be sympathetic and help them to do as much as possible without social contact. For others who are at very little risk of a bad version of the disease, let them make more of their own choices.

https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/06/1 ... to-unlock/

Here, here. (Or is it "Hear, hear"?)

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

This shit will still be going on this time next year

[weeksy]

This shit will still be going on this time next year

Yeah but people have to blame someone...

Or...

They could accept it's a global pandemic and not easy to manage

[Asian Boss]

I've also heard it said the restrictions were never just about public health. They were always being imposed by a government that found the pandemic a useful opportunity to asset-strip the country and consolidate power.

And they would have got away with it if you hadn't have spotted it.
Good catch

I didn't spot anything.

https://committees.parliament.uk/commit ... -pandemic/

"The report finds that the range of new laws introduced to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic have not been subject to adequate parliamentary scrutiny, with Government guidance and ministerial statements often failing to set out the law clearly, misstating the law or laying claim to legal requirements that did not exist."

Maybe you can dismiss it as 'leftists'?

[MrLongbeard]

Sod covid, what's his name??

[Mr Moofo]

This shit will still be going on this time next year

Yeah but people have to blame someone...

Or...

They could accept it's a global pandemic and not easy to manage

And some people / groups of people might like to be a little more community minded and get vaccinated - for the sake of everyone else.
That said we have to live with it - and with a death rate of 3 a day ate the moment, quite why we are just rolling out the live with it process instead is beyond me.

After all the government were perfectly happy to let people come in from India for 3 weeks after they knew of the new strain. And they really could have controlled that..

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I can make my way into Chad, hang around, do whatever I want, then fly to the UK and go straight to my house, but if I drive over the border to Sudan I cannot.

What are you up to, a tour of the shit holes of Africa without real governments?

And Boris Johnson is a lefty as far as I'm concerned.

[wheelnut]

And Boris Johnson is a lefty as far as I'm concerned.

He is fairly left, for a Tory.

[Mussels]

What are you up to, a tour of the shit holes of Africa without real governments?

That's my point, I could.
I could grease the right palms and turn up in the UK and go straight to my house, having been goodness knows where but still within the rules, because the rules have significant flaws that aren't being managed.

It's tinfoil hat fantasy to think that the government are doing it as some sort of Machiavellian masterplan to seize power and steal our future, but I think it could be managed better now they've had enough time to consider it properly.

I don't see them problem, the rules are nothing to do with you staying somewhere unsavoury or even generally diseased. If you do your own quarantine somewhere else all that matters is it is a lower covid risk.

[weeksy]

I'm not a politician sitting in an ivory tower.

stop now.... you know they're not... you're being a bit silly and argumentative.. you could have just ended it with "i'm not a politician" instead of writing something more just to provoke others.

[weeksy]

I'm not a politician sitting in an ivory tower.

stop now.... you know they're not... you're being a bit silly and argumentative.. you could have just ended it with "i'm not a politician" instead of writing something more just to provoke others.

I think you've misinterpreted that, my point is that the people making the decisions haven't got any experience of some of the places they're putting on these red, amber and green lists, I could have said misinformed, or ignorant of the conditions, it was just a throwaway comment.

I'm ok, but there are people in some pretty unfortunate positions because of these arbitrary decisions that IMO aren't based on common sense.

I understand that, but i think there's better ways to argue your point. I'm fairly sure even people who are in ivory towers have lost friends, family, parents, etc to Covid... just because they're making decisions doesn't make them immune to the effects. Sure it may mean they're less affected personally, but they could equally be affected just as easily.

I'm not posting here as a Moderator, but just as a person...

[weeksy]

I'm not talking about personally, and I'm not moaning about left or right, I'm talking about professional decisions as part of the job. This isn't a personal attack on anyone, I'm criticising how some of the covid travel rules have been done. Allowing the influx from the subcontinent for example, when it was clear there was a risk, and now the ongoing traffic light system that is flawed.

And if I did everything based on the best solution for me personally I'd have done what many have already done and cheated the system by going via a third country where I know I can bribe my way through.

I didn't think I was being provocative, I'm offering a critique of the way the government are handling some of the rules.

no worries, you're completely missing my point, i'll move on.

[Saga Lout]

It's tinfoil hat fantasy to think that the government are doing it as some sort of Machiavellian masterplan to seize power and steal our future, but I think it could be managed better now they've had enough time to consider it properly.

It's probably incompetence. The problem is that it's difficult to differentiate between incompetence and malice.

Mrs S L recently returned from China. She had to fly from Hong Kong which meant a 450 mile train journey to Shenzhen. We followed the instructions on the government's website to the letter: I ordered the covid tests, filled in all the details on the passenger locator form, she had a hard copy of that to show at check in. They demanded to see the receipt for the covid tests which, of course, she didn't have. It was 1:00 am here. I woke up at about 4:00 am to the sound of my answerphone beeping. I called her but by then it was too late, she'd missed her flight and had to go back to Nanning and do it all again two weeks later. Extra cost: about £600.

I wrote to my MP, Priti Patel, suggesting that the webpage should include a line to the effect that the traveller might need to show the receipt so make sure they have it. Somebody in her office forwarded my concerns to the appropriate department who wrote back:

Our guidance clearly states that the requirements for a pre departure test (PDT) for arrivals into the UK are:

i.e. incompetently or maliciously (you choose) completely missing the point.

It took another two letters from me to get a halfway satisfactory answer:

The Passenger Locator Form (PLF) has been upgraded so that requirements
for testing are automatically determined based on the departure country and
travel history. Passengers cannot submit the form until they have fulfilled all
requirements relating to mandatory testing.
In addition, the booking reference required for testing is validated
automatically and the passenger cannot proceed unless they have entered
the number in the correct format. Airlines and other carriers must continue to

check that a passenger has a completed PLF and a valid negative pre-
departure test.

However, carriers are no longer compelled to check the details of mandatory
test bookings, see confirmation emails or booking reference numbers.

So instead of the simple solution: tell passengers to have a copy of the receipt, they're relying on all the check clerks in the world to read and comply with the amended requirements.

And that last line: "However, carriers are no longer compelled to check the details of mandatory
test bookings, see confirmation emails or booking reference numbers." shows that it was our government's incompetence (or malice) that caused the problem in the first place: telling passengers to comply with one set of rules and the carriers to enforce an additional rule.

TL/DR Government's incompetence/malice cost my wife about £600.

[Yorick]

no worries, you're completely missing my point, i'll move on.

I'm having a tough day mate, I'll read it again later.

Tough day ? Fuck me, my fave flip flop just broke.

It's now just flip, flip, flip..

That's a tough day

[Yambo]

TL/DR Government's incompetence/malice cost my wife about £600.

Small Claims Court SL. You have the evidence, you have suffered loss so claim. Nobody will turn up to defend the action (they're short staffed due to Covid) so you'll win.

You could claim all sorts of things, distress (for you and your wife) lost work time etc.

[Saga Lout]

I'm looking for somewhere to go on holiday, apparently we can fly into Greece with no tests at all, then after twelve days we can go to the UK and take a train to my house, unimpeded, there's clever.

I think you'll have to have a negative test in Greece before you fly to the UK.

[wheelnut]

I'm looking for somewhere to go on holiday, apparently we can fly into Greece with no tests at all, then after twelve days we can go to the UK and take a train to my house, unimpeded, there's clever.

So essentially you’ll be doing your isolation in Greece. You’ll need to take a (negative) test there before you fly to the uk, and then isolate for 10 days when you arrive, with multiple tests.

[slowsider]

Can't you just blag some UEFA accreditation and go directly? Doesnt seem to be any restrictions there.