Genie Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 Quote The government is backing away from suggestions of a mass return of workers to offices this week, with one cabinet minister acknowledging that employers will not have the capacity to accommodate all staff at their desks in a Covid-secure way. Boris Johnson has been accused of "bullying" workers after a senior government source was quoted as saying that staff who continue to work from home may be "vulnerable" to the sack. Senior Tory backbencher Robert Halfon insisted that it should be for employers not ministers to decide when it is safe for workers to return, warning that the Conservatives must not be seen to demand that "everyone must march from the suburbs to the cities in some sort of forced collectivisation". But environment secretary George Eustice this morning indicated that a back-to-work publicity drive expected from the PM this week will focus instead on reassurance that workplaces are safe. I see they’ve found a way of doing a U-turn but call it something else. It’s now “backing away” from something they previously said. The Indie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 How can they have a publicity drive to say workplaces are safe? How can they know that? This government is giving incompetent double speak arseholes everywhere a bad name. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 42 minutes ago, Genie said: I see they’ve found a way of doing a U-turn but call it something else. It’s now “backing away” from something they previously said. The Indie They're calling it Government 360, because when they announce a policy, they turn 360 degrees and walk away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted August 31, 2020 Moderator Share Posted August 31, 2020 2 hours ago, Davkaus said: They're calling it Government 360, because when they announce a policy, they turn 360 degrees and walk away. Christ on a bike, they can't even get their degrees right. If they turned 360 degrees, they'd be facing the same way. A U-turn would be 180 degrees surely? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 Classic Tory coronavirus advice. Go back to work, you really must. Unless you can’t... don’t need to... or it’s not safe. Then you absolutely should not go back to work. Key is to use common sense and get back to the office... if you want... no pressure. We’ll let business decide what’s best, so yes, this “advice” is completely pointless. Thank you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 (edited) 19 minutes ago, bickster said: Christ on a bike, they can't even get their degrees right. If they turned 360 degrees, they'd be facing the same way. A U-turn would be 180 degrees surely? My 15 year old console related meme is clearly too hip for the VT bolitics threads. I live in hope that one person read that and laughed as much as I did when I posted it Edited August 31, 2020 by Davkaus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted August 31, 2020 Author Share Posted August 31, 2020 Deaths in England are in the single digits or low teens. Time to get on with life and stop being terrified of an illness that has minimal effects on the vast majority of the population. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 3 hours ago, Genie said: Classic Tory coronavirus advice. Go back to work, you really must. Unless you can’t... don’t need to... or it’s not safe. Then you absolutely should not go back to work. Key is to use common sense and get back to the office... if you want... no pressure. We’ll let business decide what’s best, so yes, this “advice” is completely pointless. Thank you. Dither and indecision are even clearer themes of this government than corruption is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 (edited) 19 hours ago, villakram said: Deaths in England are in the single digits or low teens. Time to get on with life and stop being terrified of an illness that has minimal effects on the vast majority of the population. It seems to have minimal on the healthy and young but we need to proceed with caution as you can see the rising cases and hospitalisations in France and Spain. We have to protect the old and vunerable. Edited September 1, 2020 by PaulC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 From the start of the infection to end of July the mean average age of those testing positive was in the mid 50’s. In August, the mean average age was below 40. Apologies, I only have stats for here but I’d expect a very similar story across the UK. That massive difference will account for infections recently going up, whist death rate and hospital admission stay low. The trick, I guess, will be keeping the old away from the young, without selective lockdown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 55 minutes ago, PaulC said: It seems to have minimal on the healthy and young but we need to proceed with caution as you can see the rising cases and hospitalisations in France and Spain. We have to protect the old and vunerable. We had a process for that, shielding ended months ago, the government is advising is no longer necessary as the risk is so low. I think schools are a big step, so we'll wait and see what happens over the next few weeks, but if we're not seeing an unmanageable spike by mid-late September, I think it's time to continue the loosening of restrictions, continue to expand allowed gatherings, and ultimately, put the onus on the vulnerable to safeguard themselves while everyone else can start to regain some semblance of normality. Winter/flu season is still the big worry, but we shouldn't just be speculatively locking the country down until January just in case, we should be continuing to ease things off until we start to see increases again, then assessing the risk, and potentially tightening them again as a reaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 22 hours ago, villakram said: Deaths in England are in the single digits or low teens. Time to get on with life and stop being terrified of an illness that has minimal effects on the vast majority of the population. It's not just deaths, though, is it? It's other potential complications and whether those turn out to be long-term as well as short-term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 2 hours ago, Davkaus said: shielding ended months ago A month ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 3 minutes ago, snowychap said: A month ago. True. From 6th July they could go outside in groups and form support bubbles which I thought was essentially the end of it, but you're right it only ended entirely a month ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 22 hours ago, villakram said: Deaths in England are in the single digits or low teens. Time to get on with life and stop being terrified of an illness that has minimal effects on the vast majority of the population. Deaths are low BECAUSE of the changes we have all made to life. Doing too much too soon will increase deaths. I don't know anyone who has ever died of handling asbestos. It has minimal impact on most people. But we don't say it's all ok and we can drop all of the asbestos safety measures. I doubt there will be another national lockdown but we are heading back towards localised lockdowns to control the second spike which is going to hit us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 1 minute ago, Davkaus said: True. From 6th July they could go outside in groups and form support bubbles which I thought was essentially the end of it, but you're right it only ended entirely a month ago. They were always able to go outside in groups and form support bubbles (at least as much as the rest of us). Shielding was voluntary and not compulsory. The only thing setting those shielding apart was the help being offered which was withdrawn at the end of July. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 2 minutes ago, snowychap said: They were always able to go outside in groups and form support bubbles (at least as much as the rest of us). Shielding was voluntary and not compulsory. The only thing setting those shielding apart was the help being offered which was withdrawn at the end of July. Well, ok, I mean "from the 6th of July, the advice was...". They weren't compelled to comply of course, but they were given different advice to the rest of us, so it's not right to say there were no other differences. The more stringent advice for those shielding (literally do not leave the house, and even at home maintain social distancing) was relaxed then, which I thought, up until I googled it a few minutes ago, was the end of the shielding phase entirely, but I was mistaken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Davkaus said: Well, ok, I mean "from the 6th of July, the advice was...". They weren't compelled to comply of course, but they were given different advice to the rest of us, so it's not right to say there were no other differences. The more stringent advice for those shielding (literally do not leave the house, and even at home maintain social distancing) was relaxed then, which I thought, up until I googled it a few minutes ago, was the end of the shielding phase entirely, but I was mistaken. But that's the thing - it was (and still is) presented by the media as people were 'unable to' and so on. Government advice is just that - advice. If you listen to our government and take their advice then you're a plum.* Listen to the law, listen to what the support is and listen to what experts say and then make your own call. *Edit: Obviously that's not a 'you' as in you. I know and agree with the contempt you've shown for this shower. Edited September 1, 2020 by snowychap 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts