UK Politics: What about a Masquerade?

[The BlackBear]

Just anecdotal sure: but I've not had any problem with police, and I'm out and about delivering all day. Seems pretty regional. Seen plenty around, but they mostly just seem to be keeping an eye.

[Zoë Sumra]

7 hours ago, john said:

I just read an article about how, in response to 20 London bus drivers dying so far, TFL is going to introduce new safety measures from Monday such as barring the front door and only allowing entry from the rear door.

WTF, they couldn’t have thought of that four weeks ago?!

Four weeks ago, or maybe five or six (time flies when you're having fun), the London bus related fuss was all about fare dodging on the new Routemaster buses, caused by people getting onto the middle or rear doors and not touching in. Ironically these are now the only London buses on which passengers will be able to pay a fare. Everyone else (except pass holders, who paid already) will now travel free, during a period when public revenue is sharply down.

While comparisons between the two situations lead to value of life calculations, I assume the cumulative effect of hundreds of potentially infected passengers passing each driver on a daily basis just wasn't recognised before. Drivers do sit in shielded compartments already.

[Heartofice]

20 minutes ago, Zoë Sumra said:

Drivers do sit in shielded compartments already.

Exactly. What door people get on would be largely irrelevant and other factors would be more important.

[mormont]

4 hours ago, ljkeane said:

The government furlough subsidy scheme has been extended until the end of June.

On the plus side it means the chances of losing my job before the end of June are probably pretty slim. On the downside it's probably significantly increased the chances of me having to sit at home doing nothing for another month.

By June, I might just get a minute to myself. All my time up to now has been spent getting the other staff on furlough. Still not done.

[Spockydog]

You'll never take me, copper!

LMFAO.

[Isis]

On 4/17/2020 at 1:29 AM, Raja said:

That's interesting - it's evident that providers & the biomedical scientists are cognizant of a shortage of testing kits & reagents. It seems like a mess on an operational level when you combine what I posted & the statement you posted by the president of the IBMS. Curious if you'ed know, but I would assume most labs housed inside hospitals/ trusts/ NHS labs are delivered by the HCPC registered scientists & are UKAS accredited.

 

Yes, that's right. NHS and PHE labs (PHE are specialist centres working on particular pathogens, usually reference labs) are UKAS accredited and the scientists performing the tests, analysis, interpretation are HCPC registered. 

My big question is how much discussion was there between academia/industry and NHS/PHE before these mass testing centres were set up. The NHS is highly interconnected so even though it's a massive entity, it was able to restructure operations on a national level relatively quickly. 

I know that the collaboration between the Francis Crick Institute and UCLH is an example of a positive blend of clinical labs and research labs in response to COVID 19. I sat in on a webinar and I know people who work at both sites. It seems. But from what the IBMS president says, that's not the case for other industry/research testing centres.

It seems odd to us in the UK to associate healthcare and cash but you have to follow the money and ask what about the financial motivations of all concerned parties. 

[Isis]

18 hours ago, john said:

I just read an article about how, in response to 20 London bus drivers dying so far, TFL is going to introduce new safety measures from Monday such as barring the front door and only allowing entry from the rear door.

WTF, they couldn’t have thought of that four weeks ago?!

What's ironic is that at the start of March tfl had stopped people boarding buses via the rear doors to prevent fare dodging. So they'd literally just stopped people doing this and had put signage on the outside of buses, and were playing audio reminders about it. 

I said the same thing myself at the end of March - just stop opening the front doors of the bus, then the drivers will be able to practice physical distancing from passengers.

ETA, just seen Zöe said the same thing. The reason I know that it happened from March 6th is that I catch a 159 to Brixton station in the morning and I board via the rear doors...until they banned it. 

[BigFatCoward]

7 hours ago, Spockydog said:

You'll never take me, copper!

LMFAO.

What an embarrassing twat. 

[Spockydog]

NHS frontline staff may refuse to work over lack of PPE, says union

Quote

Sara Gorton, the head of health at Unison, said: “If gowns run out, staff in high-risk areas may well decide that it’s no longer safe for them to work. No part of the NHS should use this move as an excuse to ration supplies of gowns when they still have stocks. That would cause a damaging breakdown of trust at a time when staff are working under intense pressure.”

“Unite has already advised its 100,000 members that reluctantly NHS and social care staff could legitimately and lawfully decline to put themselves in further danger and risk of injury at work,” she said. “The continued lack of PPE is a national scandal and the government’s litany of broken promises over the last month is shameful.”

Cartmail said the health secretary, Matt Hancock, may have to consider his position if he was not able to secure the necessary PPE. She said the situation could not continue, and that health professionals would be quite right to decline to put themselves in danger.

“We are not just talking about NHS staff in hospitals, but those working in the community, such as health visitors and community nurses, and those employed in social care settings, such as care homes,” she said.

The new guidelines mark a U-turn on original guidance that full-length waterproof surgical gowns should be worn during high-risk procedures.

In a world infested by tax-evading billionaires, this is heartbreaking and infuriating in equal measure.

 

 

[Heartofice]

3 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

 

In a world infested by billionaires, this is heartbreaking and infuriating in equal measure.

 

 

what has this got to do with Billionaires?

[Spockydog]

1 minute ago, Heartofice said:

what has this got to do with Billionaires?

Get ye back under yer bridge.

 

 

[Heartofice]

1 minute ago, Spockydog said:

Get ye back under yer bridge.

 

 

Well I just popped out to see how you were connecting the dots between Billionaires and PPE. It seems as usual it was just an over emotional rant with little content to back it up.

[Spockydog]

I know you're just trying to get a rise out of me. But if not, perhaps, with a little bit of effort, some abstract thinking, you might be able to make the connection yourself.

In case that's too much to ask, here is a simple equation:

Too many billionaires (a.k.a. modern day robber barons who do not pay anything like their fair share of tax) + neo-liberal governments falling over each other to rob the poor to pay the rich = not enough like-saving resources for people who really need it at times like this.

I can you draw you a diagram, if you like. But it will be a very simple diagram.

ETA: And you really should look up the definition of rant.

[Heartofice]

3 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

I know you're just trying to get a rise out of me. But if not, perhaps, with a little bit of effort, some abstract thinking, you might be able to make the connection yourself.

In case that's too much to ask, here is a simple equation:

Too many billionaires (a.k.a. modern day robber barons who do not pay anything like their fair share of tax) + neo-liberal governments falling over each other to rob the poor to pay the rich = not enough like-saving resources for people who really need it at times like this.

I can you draw you a diagram, if you like. But it will be a very simple diagram.

Actually can you go into much more detail about this because it doesn’t add up at all. My guess is guy haven’t thought about it

[Spockydog]

[Werthead]

The Sunday Times has run possibly its best article in ten years on the British government's lackadaisical approach to preparations for the pandemic. To say it is scathing is an understatement. It shows how Boris went on holiday several times during the critical planning period, how there had been a failure to respond to a 2016 pandemic exercise which had already exposed many of the current failings we've seen, how pandemic planning and contingencies was diverted by no-deal Brexit planning and how the NHS had been left critically exposed by a decade of austerity and cuts.

They completely go for the jugular on this one with clinical precision. 

And this is from a paper which is usually fawning to the point of obsequiousness to the Conservative Party.

[polishgenius]

7 minutes ago, Werthead said:

And this is from a paper which is usually fawning to the point of obsequiousness to the Conservative Party.

 

 

Guy on another forum I post on has pointed out that it's probably not a coincidence that two weeks after Labour safely elect a centrist opposition leader  Boris, who could hitherto do little wrong, is suddenly a raging moron who can barely hold the nation together in the press.

[Heartofice]

Without the ability to read the article as it’s behind a paywall I can only go by what others like Dunt or Owen Jones have said about it (Jones basically transcribing it with his own take on his twitter feed)

However I’m not as convinced it’s as damning towards the government as he thinks it is. Boris not going to Cobra meetings isn’t that interesting, especially at a time when scientific opinion suggested the virus wasn’t that dangerous or contagious. Britain has basically followed scientific advice the whole time, and when that advice dramatically changed so did the governments position.
 

Complaining that efforts had been made to prepare for no deal Brexit instead of a pandemic when the likes of Jones and Dunt have been treating no deal like it’s the apocalypse is highly ironic. Which one do they want?

Would there have been more PPE and ventilators if it weren’t for austerity? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe the money would have been spent elsewhere. It’s just speculation IMO.

Thats not to say that there is no blame to be apportioned. I read a particularly damming thread around planning for the building of ventilators that showed a huge level of incompetence. Ministers rushing to get them built but never considering whether they were the right things to build. It is concerning when you have bully boys in charge who want to ‘get it done’ because of higher ups having a bigger goal. Worrying in terms of Brexit.

 

[Heartofice]

Worth reading this thread on the minutes of certain meetings to understand the thinking around the virus at certain times

 

Quote

For anyone who thinks it was all obvious in January and February reading these minutes is a sobering experience. What comes over is the real uncertainty about what could be foretold from the Chinese experience and the ease with which the disease could be transmitted

 

[Werthead]

12 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Without the ability to read the article as it’s behind a paywall

That's why I posted a direct link to the article.