Covid-19 : 2nd Lockdown 2020 : 3rd Lockdown 2021

[gbnz]

obstructing a normally quiet country lane with intent to cause close passes with other people.

Never had a problem whilst on the bike, but it isn't that uncommon whilst walking. Whilst I routinely give plenty of space (Nb. Including to to teenagers on bikes, who approaching the same gate at the same time, stepped a good 8-9' back the other weekend), with those who can't be bothered, I simply step into the centre of the path and ignore them!

Rather like knocking on the drivers window at the next set of lights, it tends to work

[mjr]

... "Hands, face, space"

Is that clear enough?

On its own very clear, but IMO blurred by the surrounding spin.

We are now in the absurd situation that the prime minister gets on his bike and rides seven miles and this is the subject of media queries. A strange world, but evidence of the self-inflicted bullet holes in his feet.

Do you remember that time you said that something he did was good?

"Gear Change" last summer.

Nothing to do directly with covid and definitely not "hands, face, knees and toes, knees and toes"!

[thirdcrank]

... Do you remember that time you said that something he did was good?

(I missed this till somebody quoted it.)

No.

More to the point, I can't remember a time when he did anything good about the pandemic.

[Psamathe]

School meals issues again and guess what

Free meals firm at centre of outcry was run by Conservative party donor
The companies at the centre of the outcry over the “disgusting” free meals provided to struggling families while schools remain closed have links to the Conservatives, it has emerged.

Ian

[Debs]

School meals issues again and guess what

Free meals firm at centre of outcry was run by Conservative party donor
The companies at the centre of the outcry over the “disgusting” free meals provided to struggling families while schools remain closed have links to the Conservatives, it has emerged.

Ian

It doesn't make sense, those measly school meal hampers could be stuffed with fish, lobsters, and shellfish.

Plus it would also save lots of valuable space in the landfill, another unexpected achievement of Brexit!

[Oldjohnw]

Tories making yet another U-turn. Vouchers will be reinstated next week according to the tarantula wielding boy Secretary of State for Education.

[Jdsk]

Updated guidance from Cycling UK:
https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/coronavirus-qa-cycling-guidance

Jonathan

[mjr]

Updated guidance from Cycling UK:
https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/coronavirus-qa-cycling-guidance

In short, the government have been very silly and won't tell CUK what they mean:

Cycling UK’s view is that the guidance is unclear, leading to speculation about whether people need to stay within the district or borough within which they live while exercising, how far from home they can cycle, how long they can cycle for and whether the answers to these questions vary depending on where people live, the population density, the time of day and likely proximity to others while exercising.

Cycling UK is therefore unable to clarify the meaning of ‘local area’, as we would merely be doing that which many others are doing: speculating upon the interpretation of unclear guidance. We will therefore be seeking clarity from the government on the guidance around exercise.

Pending any such clarification, Cycling UK can only add that the intention behind both the regulations and the guidance is to limit contact between people and reduce the spread of infection. However, the physical and mental wellbeing benefits of maintaining exercise in open space are well established, hence the exemption within the regulations permitting exercise outdoors alone, with members of your household or, in those parts of the UK where it is permitted, with one other person. People can therefore continue to cycle for exercise during the current lockdown, but they should do so in a manner which minimises their exposure to others.

[thirdcrank]

Lockdown debate clouds effort against Covid - Police boss

An “obsession” with debating the coronavirus lockdown rules is “getting in the way” of the aim to bring coronavirus infections under control, North Yorkshire’s police boss has said.

Julia Mulligan, the county’s police, fire and crime commissioner, said some people were spending too much time debating how far rules - such as those about "essential" travel - can be stretched rather than playing their part in controlling the pandemic.

She told a North Yorkshire County Council meeting: "This isn’t about the rules. This is about a virus and stopping the spread.

"Sometimes the debate and our obsession with the rules gets in the way of that overall thing that we need to do, and that is just to stay at home."

Mrs Mulligan added: "If you are in any doubt about whether your journey is essential or not, it probably isn’t."

Since the new national lockdown began on 6 January, North Yorkshire Police has issued 107 fixed penalty notices for breaches of the coronavirus regulations.

That figure is more than double the amount issued during the first week of the first national lockdown last year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england?ns_m ... type=share

Translation: I'm elected by NIMBYS.

[Jamesh]

I tend to avoid N Yorkshire ATM for the reasons above....

Cheers James

[simonineaston]

Hmmm... couple of comments heard on this morning's round of interviews on the news programme, from which I understand the following: i) so-called Brazilian variant may or may not be with us already but only a matter of time before it is. ii) Brazilian variant only one of any number of existing & inevitable mutations. iii) Brazilian variant not certain to be contained by existing immunity, inc. that provided by the available vaccines, just 'thought to be'.
Reading between the lines, it seems likely that variant/s will emerge that are not contained by existing immunity and that vaccines will have to be adapted and made available to populations in order to deal with them. If this happens before the virus ceases to be active, due to lack of available hosts, ie before the 70%-ish figure I've heard talked about, for the current vaccine/s take-up, we'll be back to square one.
This doesn't sound much fun to me and suggests we're going to be living with Sars-Cov2 for perhaps longer than we maybe thought we were...

[Jdsk]

Reading between the lines, it seems likely that variant/s will emerge that are not contained by existing immunity and that vaccines will have to be adapted and made available to populations in order to deal with them. If this happens before the virus ceases to be active, due to lack of available hosts, ie before the 70%-ish figure I've heard talked about, for the current vaccine/s take-up, we'll be back to square one.

Doesn't have to be square one for a couple of reasons.

It could be at a time when the prevalence is low and we have a working test/trace/isolate system. The UK doesn't have recent experience of this but it can work very efficiently.

And because of the way that several of the vaccines are engineered we will probably be able to produce and authorise new versions that match the variants quickly and safely.

This doesn't sound much fun to me and suggests we're going to be living with Sars-Cov2 for perhaps longer than we maybe thought we were...

That depends what you thought before... and IMHO the Government has been very misleading in some of its statements on future time course. Experts (!) who understand these things not so much.

Jonathan

[simonineaston]

Yes, perhaps better to say Square 2. Compared with this time a year ago, we (as in, us in the UK) know more than we did about the basics, Ventilation, Distance, Hand-washing and Masks, although take-up not universal... We're OK at testing and pretty good at genome analysis. We're excellent at shovelling public money into private companies, but not so good at the intended result, that is a really good Test,Track & Trace system.
So all-in-all, teacher's report might read, "UK has done some creditable work this term, but has fallen at the fences of one or two of the term's important objectives. Could do better and is capable of so much more. However, UK is in a good position to produce better work, next term." !

[Oldjohnw]

9 months late,the UK is finally managing our borders. For a government obsessed with borders the tardiness is remarkable.

[David9694]

9 months late,the UK is finally managing our borders. For a government obsessed with borders the tardiness is remarkable.

The lost opportunity probably to have saved the UK from a lot of this back in February ‘20 by taking decisive action at the ports must now rank as the biggest “if only” in recent times.