Coronavirus - Strange times

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scottishtv
Posts: 743
Joined: Thu 01 Apr, 2004 15.36
Location: Edinburgh

I think the Prime Minister's handling of the whole affair has been abysmal. A total inability to get to grips with the story early, and a string of inconsistencies emerging from statements to the press and Cabinet Ministers. Whatever your view on the matter, Sunday night's briefing by the PM looked weaselly and duplicitous at times.

The PM's unelected adviser giving a personal press conference in the garden of Number 10 yesterday was a truly bizarre sight.
bilky asko
Posts: 1400
Joined: Sat 08 Nov, 2008 19.48

dosxuk wrote: Tue 26 May, 2020 12.13 Many families have been in the same situation but have followed the rules as they were told to. Autistic child or not, he specifically stated he didn't consider options for childcare in London before deciding to drive to Durham. That's not him weighing up the options, that's him ignoring the options.

He wants us to think this is a very specific exception which couldn't possibly be covered by the rules, but when you write it down, it seems like that isn't the case. The rules are if you or anyone in your household are showing symptoms "You must stay at home" not "You must stay at home unless you think traveling to a property elsewhere that you have access to will be safer for you and your household". The rules even specifically say you must not travel to a second home, which he tried to bluff around by saying it wasn't that nice as it's only made from concrete blocks.

How anyone can consider this a lessor offense than healthy non-symptomatic people travelling a short distance to a second home, or being visited by a close "friend" is beyond me.
Because visiting a friend or fancying a change in scenery is frivolous, acting to ensure your child has someone to look after them isn't.

This is why I'm not a fan of the comparisons to people not being able to attend funerals - it's not essential or necessary, as unfortunate as it is, to be at a funeral.
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james2001
Posts: 718
Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 23.10

bilky asko wrote: Tue 26 May, 2020 12.06 It's been reported in some quarters (Al Jazeera being the first one I could find) that his son is autistic, and may have been a factor in not finding someone local that his son would be unfamiliar with.


Someone tracked down the origins of the "his son is Autistic" story.



According to them it was started by what seems to be a twitter troll account, and when asked they claimed they heard it on LBC, then admitted they hadn't (and, indeed LBC never broadcast anything resembling it), then very sharpishly deleted his account.

Certainly there's been nothing resembling official confirmation or reported anywhere reliable (the only mainstream media source I can find that even references it is the Al Jazeera article you mentioned, anf that's only referencing the Twitter rumours), neither Cummings or anyone assosiated with him has ever claimed it, so I feel pretty confident is something false made up by people trying to drum up sympathy for Dom. Whether that (now deleted) twitter account is where it originated from, it's certainly not come from, or been confirmed by, anywhere official or credible, but it's spread like wildfire.
bilky asko
Posts: 1400
Joined: Sat 08 Nov, 2008 19.48

james2001 wrote: Tue 26 May, 2020 13.13 Someone tracked down the origins of the "his son is Autistic" story.



According to them it was started by a right-wing twitter account, and when asked they claimed they heard it on LBC, then admitted they hadn't (and, indeed LBC never broadcast anything resembling it), then very sharpishly deleted his account.

Certainly there's been nothing resembling official confirmation or reported anywhere reliable (the only mainstream media source I can find that even references it is Al Jazeera, and their article mentioned a few posts back is only referencing the Twitter rumours), neither Cummings or anyone assosiated with him has ever claimed it, so I feel pretty confident is someone false made up by people trying to drum up sympathy for Dom. Whether that (now deleted) twitter account is where it originated from, it's certainly not come from, or been confirmed by, anywhere official or credible, but it's spread like wildfire.
Indeed, I only quoted it because Al Jazeera mentioned it, with the phrase "it had been reported", which is obviously quite a bit different from "we saw it on Twitter".
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thegeek
Posts: 858
Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 12.35

cdd wrote: Tue 26 May, 2020 01.08 My take is that his trip to Durham was defensible (due to a very particular set of circumstances), but the separate trip to Barnard Castle was BS (the dodgy explanation and hypocrisy, rather than the actual risks posed).
thegeek wrote: Mon 25 May, 2020 22.52 So it turns out we were allowed to do our own risk assessments all along? Thanks, Dom.
I know your statement was sarcastic, but I actually think this is spot on. Behind the “stay home” slogan lies legislation which hinges on the interpretation of “reasonable excuse”, accompanied by a non-exhaustive list of things that definitely are reasonable.
I admit I was being a bit flippant - I'd spent the evening in the park drinking beer while sitting two metres away from a member of another household - but the response from Cummings and Johnson seems to have been "you were allowed to do this kind of thing all along, you were all chumps for not reading the letter of the law and staying at home regardless".

Maybe he is getting more criticism than he deserves for what he did, but he must realise that most of the country are fed up of remaining within the same four walls, so of course it's going to rankle to hear that someone's essential journey has somehow taken them 350 miles away, particularly when they were behind the 'stay at home' message in the first place.
gottago
Posts: 260
Joined: Thu 29 Jan, 2009 19.50

For me it all stems down to the fact that he is one of the most powerful figures in Downing Street and realistically would have no issue in sourcing childcare in London through Number 10. If my boss can find overnight childcare from external sources in even these times then I'm confident the corridors of power would easily have been able to find someone. I'm quite sure this is simply another case of someone preferring to see their illness out in more pleasant surroundings.

It was intriguing seeing the tweets this morning about how that blog post he mentioned that he'd written last year in which he said he'd predicted a coronavirus outbreak had actually been edited last month to include those predictions. The sheer number of lies coming out of the government recently is very disturbing:

bilky asko
Posts: 1400
Joined: Sat 08 Nov, 2008 19.48

He happened to link to an article by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that mentioned coronaviruses. I'm not sure we want them to be too accurate on their predictions, seeing as their doomsday clock has it as 100 seconds to midnight...

This sort of lying is perhaps a good indication that the Cadwalladrs of the world hugely overestimate his power.
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scottishtv
Posts: 743
Joined: Thu 01 Apr, 2004 15.36
Location: Edinburgh

Was watching this video from John Lewis and thinking how much POS will need to be updated if they do reduce the social distancing to 1 metre. Some signage people must be doing a decent trade right now. although I suppose all the usual work has dried up.

Thinking of getting into the "sticky stuff remover" industry, ahead of a surge in demand in a few months/next year.
Whataday
Posts: 361
Joined: Fri 22 Aug, 2003 00.08
Location: Cardiff
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scottishtv wrote: Fri 12 Jun, 2020 15.05 Was watching this video from John Lewis and thinking how much POS will need to be updated if they do reduce the social distancing to 1 metre. Some signage people must be doing a decent trade right now. although I suppose all the usual work has dried up.

Thinking of getting into the "sticky stuff remover" industry, ahead of a surge in demand in a few months/next year.

A lot of stores have more sensibly used floor markers that don't specify 2 metres, meaning they can just add more markers when social distancing reduces to 1 metre.
Martin Phillp
Posts: 1469
Joined: Wed 11 May, 2011 01.28

I'm wondering how many non-essential stores will have hand sanitiser on the door?

HMV is going to do it at the 93 English stores they're reopening on Monday, which will allow customers to handle the stock safely.
TVF's London Lite.
all new Phil
Posts: 1965
Joined: Sun 13 Feb, 2005 00.04
Location: Next door to Hell

Nice to walk through the city centre this afternoon and see lots of shops have got their POS up ready for reopening on Monday with “we’ve missed you” type messages. Could spot hand sanitising stations inside a few entrances too.

H&M, Primark, Burton and River Island all looked good to go. No sign of life in New Look yet though and Next still had Mother’s Day POS up in the window.
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