Coronavirus

[aintforever]

23 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

What's your point?

 

The whole idea is fucked.

The whole reason this disease spreads so much is the fact that people without symptoms spread it and those that get symptoms spread it before they have symptoms. I expect the amount of people who have symptoms, then went to get tested and still carry on spreading it is tiny - making your bizarre ship idea pointless.

If having a positive test means you get sent to a ship full of Covid ridden people for two weeks then no one would go to get tested, certainly not the type of people who would otherwise just carry on as normal if they had symptoms.

Also, me and my other half have both worked from home throughout the pandemic, even when we had symptoms. Under your cunning plan we would have to stop working for two weeks, so on top of the cost of the ship and two weeks food and upkeep for our family there would also have to be some sort of compensation for two weeks lost earnings. If we just stayed at home and isolated there would be zero cost. Cracking idea.

Edited 28 December, 2020 by aintforever

[egg]

23 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

I understand there are barriers.  If you mentioned before this year that the entire country would be 'locked down', then a thousand different barriers to success would have been raised.  Parliament simply passed temporary laws to try and mitigate for these.

Combatting the virus basically has two answers.

1. Remove the population from the virus to stop / slow the spread - aka lockdown.

2. Remove the virus from the population - either using an effective vaccine or by removing those that are infected from society, as has happened in China, Korea etc.

So far we (the UK) has only tried number 1.  The vaccine is currently being rolled out which will eventually give us number 2.  Doesn't mean that other elements of number 2 couldn't / shouldn't have been tried in the meantime.

You asked for alternatives, I've given you some.  The fact that they have barriers to their success is irrelevant in this argument as it shows that other alternatives exist - I appreciate that no matter what anyone suggests you are going to find the negatives and say it 'won't work', but that says more about your ability to think about other ways to combat the issue.

The ship has sailed on your hair brain idea. The virus is out of control and teh numbers too high 

I'm not the one who needs to think of other ways to combat the virus. There are none - it's you that claims there are alternatives but you can't say any better than cramming all our over 60's onto the Isle of Wight, and everyone who's tested positive (30k + daily) onto boats.

Mental, absolutely mental. 

[Tamesaint]

The sheer awfulness  of this country 's handling of the pandemic is exemplified by very recent experiences of 2 family members. 

One has gone to Barbados.  3 days before leaving the UK they had to have a a negative  Covid test. Results from this test had to be submitted online. On arrival they were strictly shepherded  through the airport and went to an approved hotel (the number of the taxi in which they travelled even being recorded for possible  future reference) where they were placed in quarantine. They then had a 2nd Covid test and were only allowed  out of quarantine on a negative result. For the next 7 days they had to take their temperature twice a day and this was checked by a Government  tracer but after then they were restriction free.

Another family member returned  on 18 December from Spain - one of the few countries with a worse Covid rate than the UK. They knew the rules and have self isolated for 10 days. No tracer has asked them to do this. Nobody has contacted  them to check they are quaranting. No contact tracer seems to be aware that they exist.

Barbados  and the UK are vastly  different  in size and  complexity. Being a small island with a fraction  of the population of the UK gives them many advantages. But the UK has much greater resources and has  spent over £22 billion on a track and trace system which does not seem to work effectively. 

The UK Covid death rate per 100,000 people is over 106. In Barbados it is 2.44. A top rate track and trace system, easy to understand does  make a difference. 

 

[Fan The Flames]

Since LD1 we have been doing various levels of measures inbetween lockdown and normal life. The government have been fumbling around trying to find the magic balance.

I do think the NHS shut down too many services in LD1 and have created a big backlog which they are now trying to solve. GPs have been the weak link and still are, but that's what happens when you have private contractors as the gateway to the system.

[Weston Super Saint]

1 hour ago, egg said:

 

I'm not the one who needs to think of other ways to combat the virus. There are none

Apparently there are other ways that the virus can / could / should have been combatted - unless you're going to claim this post from Tamesaint is absolutely horseshit as well?

Just because you're too blinkered to considered other possibilities of how things could have been handled differently, doesn't mean there aren't any.

1 hour ago, Tamesaint said:

The sheer awfulness  of this country 's handling of the pandemic is exemplified by very recent experiences of 2 family members. 

One has gone to Barbados.  3 days before leaving the UK they had to have a a negative  Covid test. Results from this test had to be submitted online. On arrival they were strictly shepherded  through the airport and went to an approved hotel (the number of the taxi in which they travelled even being recorded for possible  future reference) where they were placed in quarantine. They then had a 2nd Covid test and were only allowed  out of quarantine on a negative result. For the next 7 days they had to take their temperature twice a day and this was checked by a Government  tracer but after then they were restriction free.

Another family member returned  on 18 December from Spain - one of the few countries with a worse Covid rate than the UK. They knew the rules and have self isolated for 10 days. No tracer has asked them to do this. Nobody has contacted  them to check they are quaranting. No contact tracer seems to be aware that they exist.

Barbados  and the UK are vastly  different  in size and  complexity. Being a small island with a fraction  of the population of the UK gives them many advantages. But the UK has much greater resources and has  spent over £22 billion on a track and trace system which does not seem to work effectively. 

The UK Covid death rate per 100,000 people is over 106. In Barbados it is 2.44. A top rate track and trace system, easy to understand does  make a difference. 

 

 

[Weston Super Saint]

1 hour ago, aintforever said:

 

The whole reason this disease spreads so much is the fact that people without symptoms spread it and those that get symptoms spread it before they have symptoms.

Essentially your argument is saying that track and trace is also pointless.

If the disease spreads so much because of people without symptoms and therefore without a positive test result - as you are suggesting to be the biggest cause - then track and trace is worthless as they will only track the contacts of positive test results....

That £22bn could have been used to compensate those that were isolated on cruise ships  

[aintforever]

3 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Essentially your argument is saying that track and trace is also pointless.

If the disease spreads so much because of people without symptoms and therefore without a positive test result - as you are suggesting to be the biggest cause - then track and trace is worthless as they will only track the contacts of positive test results....

That £22bn could have been used to compensate those that were isolated on cruise ships  

No because with this disease you are highly infectious just before you get symptoms so with a decent track and trace system you can track people you have previously been in touch with. It’s not rocket science.

[Weston Super Saint]

12 hours ago, Winnersaint said:

I  know a bit about this as my wife has had more scans than a tin of beans at Tesco's since 28th March. She has an oncology consultant at RBH in Reading, a radiotherapy consultant at Churchill Hospital in Oxford and a cancer surgeon, Alex Mirnezami involved in Southampton they are all part of her MDT. She's rightly in contact with many in a similar situation to her and whilst there are those who are struggling it is apparent that this may not be the case in Berkshire ,Oxfordshire and Hampshire. Every consultation has been followed through with dates and deadlines all of which have been kept. In November she had a CT, MRI and PET scan all in the space of 8 days. Aware that this may not be the case nationwide, but our experience of cancer care during lockdowns has been nothing but positive.

Luckily it looks like your wife has been 'in the system' since the beginning of the outbreak and before the services were stopped at the end of March. (Obviously there is nothing 'lucky' about the reason why your wife needed to be in the system in the first place).

I have a family member who is also "lucky" enough to have been in the system - three previous bouts of cancer and subsequent all clear's - who also had another scare in late Summer.  He too had the contacts for specialists and was able to contact them directly to discuss the issues, although he did have an MRI scan in September for which he still has not received the results! (presumably nothing bad was found and his symptoms have disappeared).

I believe the wider issue is with people who weren't already in the system, who have struggled to see their GP and thus have not been able to get appointments with specialists and cannot get the diagnosis to get appropriate treatment.  These are the people who are being negatively impacted.

[Weston Super Saint]

Just now, aintforever said:

No because with this disease you are highly infectious just before you get symptoms so with a decent track and trace system you can track people you have previously been in touch with. It’s not rocket science.

Nice volte face!

Previously you stated this : "The whole reason this disease spreads so much is the fact that people without symptoms spread it"

That's the quickest you've changed your mind since you stood at the front door with your Brexit polling card!

Nice to see you've changed your mind and are still completely wrong!

Quote

Contact tracing and modelling studies also show that transmission is highest in the first five days of experiencing symptoms. According to a recent study, the period of highest infectiousness is within about five days of symptoms starting. A contact tracing study from Taiwan and the UK found that most contacts got infected if they were exposed to the infected person within five days of their symptom onset.

https://theconversation.com/covid-19-when-are-you-most-infectious-150760#:~:text=Contact tracing and modelling studies,five days of symptoms starting.

Have another go - it's always good to see how wrong you can be  

[egg]

30 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Apparently there are other ways that the virus can / could / should have been combatted - unless you're going to claim this post from Tamesaint is absolutely horseshit as well?

Just because you're too blinkered to considered other possibilities of how things could have been handled differently, doesn't mean there aren't any.

 

Key words = "should have". Stop living in the past. What we should have done solves nothing.

As we sit here now, what's your solution beyond filling up the Isle of Wight with over 60's and putting all the infected on boats?

Or do you now accept that doing what we have been is all we can carry on doing?

Edited 28 December, 2020 by egg

[View From The Top]

One, very, very simple thing the government could and should have done and should do now, is to make sure secondary and tertiary students wear masks in schools and colleges at all times.

 

It's absolute bolloxs that it hasn't been happening are it was pretty damn obvious to anyone that educational environments were driving infections in London before Xmas.

 

Even where I am we've had the city 6th form and one of the FE colleges close for 2 weeks as infection rates were so high. 

 

Those kids, who thankfully in the main are fine, are infecting family etc which just drives up the R rate. 

[aintforever]

33 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Nice volte face!

Previously you stated this : "The whole reason this disease spreads so much is the fact that people without symptoms spread it"

That's the quickest you've changed your mind since you stood at the front door with your Brexit polling card!

Nice to see you've changed your mind and are still completely wrong!

https://theconversation.com/covid-19-when-are-you-most-infectious-150760#:~:text=Contact tracing and modelling studies,five days of symptoms starting.

Have another go - it's always good to see how wrong you can be  

It’s most infectious when you have symptoms but it begins to peak the day before.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54648684

It behaves like a 'hit and run' killer 

The amount of virus in our body begins to peak the day before we begin to get sick.

But it takes at least a week before Covid progresses to the point where people need hospital treatment. 

"This is a really brilliant evolutionary tactic - you don't go to bed, you go out and have a good time," says Prof Lehner.

So the virus is like a dangerous driver fleeing the scene - the virus has moved on to the next victim long before we either recover or die. 

In stark terms, "the virus doesn't care" if you die, says Prof Lehner, "this is a hit and run virus".

This is a massive contrast with the original Sars-coronavirus, back in 2002. It was most infectious days after people became ill, so they were easy to isolate.”

 

I can see why you think Brexit is a good idea, you seem to have a problem understanding details and reality. You only understand concepts that can be drawn up in crayons and primary colours. Maybe you should come up with a catchy three word slogan to get the public to buy onto your brilliant Cruise Ship idea, SHIP COVID OUT?

[egg]

12 minutes ago, View From The Top said:

One, very, very simple thing the government could and should have done and should do now, is to make sure secondary and tertiary students wear masks in schools and colleges at all times.

 

It's absolute bolloxs that it hasn't been happening are it was pretty damn obvious to anyone that educational environments were driving infections in London before Xmas.

 

Even where I am we've had the city 6th form and one of the FE colleges close for 2 weeks as infection rates were so high. 

 

Those kids, who thankfully in the main are fine, are infecting family etc which just drives up the R rate. 

Yep, our use of masks came far too late and the lack of kids wearing them is crazy. The slow take up, and the earlier message that they do no good, has created the Sam Allardyce syndrome of thinking of ways of wearing them but not. In shops in particular I see loads of people, mostly men, with masks on chins. Absolutely ridiculous, popping a mask on is no hardship. 

[Weston Super Saint]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Key words = "should have". Stop living in the past. What we should have done solves nothing.

 

 

58 minutes ago, egg said:

Yep, our use of masks came far too late and the lack of kids wearing them is crazy

Stop living in the past, what we should have done solves nothing.

[Weston Super Saint]

59 minutes ago, aintforever said:

It’s most infectious when you have symptoms but it begins to peak the day before.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54648684

It behaves like a 'hit and run' killer 

The amount of virus in our body begins to peak the day before we begin to get sick.

But it takes at least a week before Covid progresses to the point where people need hospital treatment. 

"This is a really brilliant evolutionary tactic - you don't go to bed, you go out and have a good time," says Prof Lehner.

So the virus is like a dangerous driver fleeing the scene - the virus has moved on to the next victim long before we either recover or die. 

In stark terms, "the virus doesn't care" if you die, says Prof Lehner, "this is a hit and run virus".

This is a massive contrast with the original Sars-coronavirus, back in 2002. It was most infectious days after people became ill, so they were easy to isolate.”

 

I can see why you think Brexit is a good idea, you seem to have a problem understanding details and reality. You only understand concepts that can be drawn up in crayons and primary colours. Maybe you should come up with a catchy three word slogan to get the public to buy onto your brilliant Cruise Ship idea, SHIP COVID OUT?

I'm not sure you've really grasped the idea of how a virus 'infects' others.  Clue, the word 'infectious' plays a big part!

As you've agreed with me, people are most 'infectious' when they have symptoms, the rest of your post is pony.  Whether or not YOU have lots of the virus makes no difference if you are not INFECTIOUS to other people.

Attention to detail is clearly not something on your agenda.  No wonder you bottled your vote.

[badgerx16]

1 hour ago, Weston Super Saint said:

"The whole reason this disease spreads so much is the fact that people without symptoms spread it"

transmission is highest in the first five days of experiencing symptoms

Westie, these 2 statements are both true.

[Weston Super Saint]

If only they'd had the foresight to put them on a boat

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55465079

Quote

More than 200 British skiers fled a coronavirus quarantine in the popular Swiss resort of Verbier on Saturday night, reports say.

 

[Weston Super Saint]

1 minute ago, badgerx16 said:

Westie, these 2 statements are both true.

No they aren't!

You cannot claim the 'whole' reason for the disease spreading is due to people who are asymptomatic. To do so also claims that no-one who has symptoms has been responsible for spreading the disease - therefore the statement that 'transmission is highest in the first five days of experiencing symptoms' cannot possibly be true if you accept the first statement is true.

For the record, I agree that asymptomatic people will spread the virus as well as those with symptoms.  I do not agree that the 'whole' reason for the disease spreading is due to asymptomatic people, which is what aintclever claimed.

 

 

[egg]

44 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

 

Stop living in the past, what we should have done solves nothing.

You're struggling a bit here pal. Keep plugging away with your uber clever Isle of Wight and boat idea. 

[egg]

28 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

If only they'd had the foresight to put them on a boat

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55465079

 

That highlights the British mentality right there. Selfish idiots who think that getting around rules is a clever thing to do. 

[aintforever]

57 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

No they aren't!

You cannot claim the 'whole' reason for the disease spreading is due to people who are asymptomatic. To do so also claims that no-one who has symptoms has been responsible for spreading the disease - therefore the statement that 'transmission is highest in the first five days of experiencing symptoms' cannot possibly be true if you accept the first statement is true.

For the record, I agree that asymptomatic people will spread the virus as well as those with symptoms.  I do not agree that the 'whole' reason for the disease spreading is due to asymptomatic people, which is what aintclever claimed.

 

 

I said it was the reason it spread SO MUCH not the only reason it spreads which is pretty much what the professor in that link said.

Anyway, back to your cruise ship idea.

 

 

[Weston Super Saint]

 

42 minutes ago, aintforever said:

I said it was the reason it spread SO MUCH not the only reason it spreads which is pretty much what the professor in that link said.

 

 

 

Ah, yes, so you did 

5 hours ago, aintforever said:

The whole reason this disease spreads so much is the fact that people without symptoms spread it and those that get symptoms spread it before they have symptoms. I expect the amount of people who have symptoms, then went to get tested and still carry on spreading it is tiny - making your bizarre ship idea pointless.

 

[buctootim]

3 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

 

Ah, yes, so you did 

The whole reason this disease spread so much. This is like a reading comprehension test for 10 year olds 

Edited 28 December, 2020 by buctootim

[Weston Super Saint]

3 minutes ago, buctootim said:

The whole reason this disease spread so much. This is like a reading comprehension test for 10 year olds 

Have a word with aintclever, he's the one denying he's even written such cobblers.

[benjii]

5 hours ago, View From The Top said:

One, very, very simple thing the government could and should have done and should do now, is to make sure secondary and tertiary students wear masks in schools and colleges at all times.

 

It's absolute bolloxs that it hasn't been happening are it was pretty damn obvious to anyone that educational environments were driving infections in London before Xmas.

 

Even where I am we've had the city 6th form and one of the FE colleges close for 2 weeks as infection rates were so high. 

 

Those kids, who thankfully in the main are fine, are infecting family etc which just drives up the R rate. 

Are kids still moving between classrooms during the day? If so, that's stupid. The teachers should be moving, not the kids.

[aintforever]

1 hour ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Have a word with aintclever, he's the one denying he's even written such cobblers.

Fuck me you are hard work. Ok the main reason it spreads so much. Either way my point is correct about your cruise ship idea being complete nonsense.

Typical of a Brexit jihadi like you to come up with an idea that would just be a pointless waste of money.

[Whitey Grandad]

15 minutes ago, benjii said:

Are kids still moving between classrooms during the day? If so, that's stupid. The teachers should be moving, not the kids.

In my schooldays that was the norm. Nowadays they have specialist classrooms for each subject. We used to have our own desks with our own schoolbooks kept within them and the books would last for many years. Nowadays they don’t last more than a couple of terms.

It is more efficient to move just the one teacher than a whole classroom of students. Saves a lot of time too.

[buctootim]

32 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

In my schooldays that was the norm. Nowadays they have specialist classrooms for each subject. We used to have our own desks with our own schoolbooks kept within them and the books would last for many years. Nowadays they don’t last more than a couple of terms.

It is more efficient to move just the one teacher than a whole classroom of students. Saves a lot of time too.

Its not just specialist classrooms, its also streaming by ability in different subjects. The kids aren't with the same group of people all day.  

[View From The Top]

1 hour ago, benjii said:

Are kids still moving between classrooms during the day? If so, that's stupid. The teachers should be moving, not the kids.

Depends on the setting.

Where I am they move across the campus as they're not all in all day.

My wife's fee paying school they move.

My kids school it's divided into "sectors" with each year group per sector and each year split into two and staff move between sectors. 

They all have to wear masks when moving around but in the class none do and staff aren't allowed to either. 

Anyone who believes the bolloxs that schools and colleges are "COVID Secure" is living in cloud cuckoo land.

We've had to cope with students losing grandparents, parents, relatives etc. So many of them have wondered if they infected them. It's been very hard for some of them mentally. 

We stayed open every holiday up until Xmas, when our governing body ordered everyone to have a proper break. Staff have happily given up their time. We've delivered food parcels, supplied grief counselling, all sorts of things we shouldn't have needed to do but ask to wear a mask and the government lose their shit. Ask about exams and we're ruining life choices.

Edited 28 December, 2020 by View From The Top

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, buctootim said:

Its not just specialist classrooms, its also streaming by ability in different subjects. The kids aren't with the same group of people all day.  

True. One of the consequences of larger schools.

[View From The Top]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55471095

I particularly like the bit when it's suggested that the army could set up mobile testing units on each school playground/carpark for testing and vaccinations for staff and students despite kids not being on the vaccination list.

1500 troops for 3500 English secondary schools plus 300 tertiary. 

Another world beating idea.

 

[CB Fry]

Let's just put all school children on cruise liners and be done with it.

[Lighthouse]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55471235
 

What a surprise, a bunch of Brits who think the rules don’t apply to them.

[aintforever]

From what I have read older secondary school kids should be treated as adults when I comes to this virus, it looks like young kids carry it but don’t transmit it but where older kids are physically more like adults they spread it more. I wouldn’t want to be in a room with 30 teenagers.

 

[Turkish]

My (black) friend and his missus both tested positive on christmas eve, he's not in a good way, his missus (white) is okay, just feels a bit achy. They both got it off their son (mixed race) who contracted it from his friend who is white. 

[aintforever]

On 27/12/2020 at 19:22, Weston Super Saint said:

There are thousands of cruise ships around the world not being used.  Put everyone that tests positive onto one of them for 10 days (taking them out of the general population) and the infection rate will plummet like a stone.

Over 40,000 positive tests today, assuming their families will also need to isolate you are probably looking at easily over 100,000 people to remove from their homes, transport from all over the UK and somehow get on board your cruise liners today. Consider the Queen Mary has a usual capacity of around 2,600, what’s your plan?

Edited 29 December, 2020 by aintforever

[Turkish]

6 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Over 40,000 positive tests today, assuming their families will also need to isolate you are probably looking at easily over 100,000 people to remove from their homes, transported from all over the UK and somehow get on board your cruise liners today. Consider the Queen Mary has a usual capacity of around 2,600, what’s your plan?

Usual capacity of a coach, 50 seats, 800 coaches a day need to pick people up and get them to the docks as well, or we could just ask 40,000 a day to drive themselves to the ports and park for two weeks around the towns, locals would love that.

Edited 29 December, 2020 by Turkish

[Lighthouse]

Just now, Turkish said:

Usual capacity of a coach, 50 seats, 

Don't be silly. Places like Kemble and Bournemouth have got entire taxiways stuffed with disused jumbos. They've got over 300 seats each.

[egg]

8 minutes ago, Turkish said:

My (black) friend and his missus both tested positive on christmas eve, he's not in a good way, his missus (white) is okay, just feels a bit achy. They both got it off their son (mixed race) who contracted it from his friend who is white. 

Race is definitely a factor, weight and fitness too. Two (white friends) have tested positive. He's fit and lean and doing OK ish. She's not so much and now in hospital. 

[Turkish]

Just now, egg said:

Race is definitely a factor, weight and fitness too. Two (white friends) have tested positive. He's fit and lean and doing OK ish. She's not so much and now in hospital. 

Yes, he's not in the best of shape so was quite worried about him when he said he'd got it. His missus is slim and fit snd doing okay. his two brothers and his mum also had it a few weeks ago and they struggled, his mum went into hospital and his younger brother is a big lad and has a few other conditions as well and was very poorly but over it now with no complications. 

[rallyboy]

The answer to Brexit and Covid is clearly to reopen the shipyards.

As the UK leads the world in every field of human endeavour I'm sure we can build enough new cruise liners to house all the ill, and with Boris having negotiated for our waters to be bigger too, we have more room to moor them all.

Once the virus fades away we can then transform them into battleships and get a few wars on the go against some little countries - maybe develop an empire...

Sounds like a project for Chris Grayling.

 

 

 

[aintforever]

48 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Usual capacity of a coach, 50 seats, 800 coaches a day need to pick people up and get them to the docks as well, or we could just ask 40,000 a day to drive themselves to the ports and park for two weeks around the towns, locals would love that.

Not sure you can ask sick people to drive all the way to the coast, especially as lockdown hero Cummings proved, Covid effects your eyesight. It’s going to have to be coaches.

Just need to find 800 coach drivers, along with the thousands of Cruise ship crew willing to commit Covid suicide then we can start worrying about the complexities of having thousands of people infected with a potentially deadly disease stuck out in the English Channel.

[View From The Top]

Disused oil and gas rigs are clearly the answer.

 

[Turkish]

4 hours ago, View From The Top said:

Disused oil and gas rigs are clearly the answer.

 

Aren't there any disused coal mines we can shove them down?

Edited 29 December, 2020 by Turkish

[CB Fry]

22 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Not sure you can ask sick people to drive all the way to the coast, especially as lockdown hero Cummings proved, Covid effects your eyesight. It’s going to have to be coaches.

Just need to find 800 coach drivers, along with the thousands of Cruise ship crew willing to commit Covid suicide then we can start worrying about the complexities of having thousands of people infected with a potentially deadly disease stuck out in the English Channel.

But it's such a brilliant idea that the support from the right influencers in the media will absolutely guarantee the British people will embrace the concept without question.

I can already see Julia Hartley Brewer and Toby Young getting right behind the concept, plus the Daily Mail and Telegraph will coin a really snappy name for it. Something like "Joy-boats" or "safety-boats" or "patriot boats". Blanket positive coverage.

It can't fail.

[egg]

15 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

But it's such a brilliant idea that the support from the right influencers in the media will absolutely guarantee the British people will embrace the concept without question.

I can already see Julia Hartley Brewer and Toby Young getting right behind the concept, plus the Daily Mail and Telegraph will coin a really snappy name for it. Something like "Joy-boats" or "safety-boats" or "patriot boats". Blanket positive coverage.

It can't fail.

And those who perish can be tossed overboard, or eaten, freeing up the graveyards and risk of infection at the wake. It's a thing of genius. Weston is on course for a knighthood, maybe two. 

[Fan The Flames]

2 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55471235
 

What a surprise, a bunch of Brits who think the rules don’t apply to them.

No doubt there were Brits there, but to use English football tops as evidence is a bit thin, my Aussie nephew is often in his Man U top and my cousin's son in his Brighton top.

[skintsaint]

Reebok Classics are usually more of a sign than football tops.

[hypochondriac]

1 hour ago, Fan The Flames said:

No doubt there were Brits there, but to use English football tops as evidence is a bit thin, my Aussie nephew is often in his Man U top and my cousin's son in his Brighton top.

TBF they said the white English football Jersey so it would be the England top. 

[LGTL]

Schools have been the elephant in the room since September. With this new variant clearly more transmissible among children, the government have a clear choice to make. If they decide to keep schools open, they need to level with the public that the R number is very unlikely to fall below 1 as a result. Get teachers higher up the vaccination list and then batten down the hatches and hope for the best until spring.

The current dithering and window dressing cannot be allowed to continue. The choice is easy - keep them open and have the virus largely out of control until spring, or close them, reduce the R number but deal with a loss of education, exam chaos and mental health issues. I don’t really envy those making the decision.