Stive Pesley

I'd think you were a psychopath if you were hoping for the former!

Apparently not - they have had guidance from Public Health England which says the whole bubble has to isolate until 14th

FFS - my son's Y6 bubble has been closed because of two cases. Home schooling again till 14th May
Just when I was feeling like things were heading back to some sort of normality ?

FFS - my son's Y6 bubble has been closed because of two cases. Home schooling again till 14th May
Just when I was feeling like things were heading back to some sort of normality ?

I was being a little facetious. I don't think I'm cleverer than the government, even if I am. 
However I would have locked down earlier, like when body bags were piling up in Northern Italy and we were still allowing people to fly into the UK from there, on flights I would have already stopped.
I would also not have moved people from hospitals into care homes full of vulnerable people, without giving them Covid tests.
I wouldn't have given people warnings that they might lose their jobs if they don't go back to the office in early September when cases were already starting to climb.
I'd have listened to the expert predictions in September about what was gonna happen by Xmas, then lockdowned when they said it was vital that we did.
I wouldn't have got my party to tweet out abuse about Starmer saying he wanted to destroy the economy with another lockdown, then days later announce another lockdown.
I wouldn't have announced a lockdown in London starting the next day, without informing trains/police etc so they could help prevent 1000s of people carrying new variants across the uk on packed transportation.
I wouldn't have told the schools to go back after Xmas for a day before implementing another lockdown, based on no change in data.
I wouldn't have screwed up so many times that we are now in this weird position that people who have had 2 vaccinations are still not supposed to see anyone indoors (but packed tubes have been allowed for weeks now).
Many people on this forum alone are cleverer than most of the people in charge. And if they aren't cleverer, they are certainly more trustworthy.

Although it's been hammered into me that I am 'highly vulnerable' owing to lung damage I suffered a decade ago (swine flu - most people thought it was nothing, yet it nearly killed me), I've had my two jabs, so has the Memsahib, and we have decided that the time is right now - or at least soon - to rehabilitate ourselves into society. We are having weekly shopping trips now (essentials are still delivered - this is 'pleasure' shopping I am talking about), occasional walks and we will probably consider a pub visit shortly. The big next step will be public transport - something that we are keen to start using again.

Woo hoo. Second jab on Friday.

The boldest act by NASA since the Apollo missions, showing the most ambition since Kennedy's 1961 "We choose to go to the Moon" speech. 
There were three bids still in the running for the contract for the Human Landing System to take astronauts back to the Moon as part of the Artemis mission. The other two were far more expensive than SpaceX, but were "safe" ideas, essentially trying to recreate the Lunar Module from the 1960s, but a little bigger. And would largely have just resulted in more cushy government contracts to do the same old, same old. 
In contrast, SpaceX has self-funded the development of Starship for five years, risking bankruptcy along the way. If it can succeed, it represents a step change in what NASA can do on the Moon, delivering thousands of tonnes of cargo for a significant Human presence. 
This is a political decision in that the Chinese and Russians have signed an accord to build a Moonbase together. Meanwhile, Biden has nominated the deeply unpopular (in the space world) Bill Nelson to run NASA, now awaiting Senate ratification. 
If NASA had waited, Nelson wouldn't have allowed SpaceX to have the contract, and the Russians and Chinese would have the Moon to themselves. Instead, if (and it is an "if") Starship can succeed, NASA has a hundred times more capacity than other nations. That's my reading of it anyway. 

That's not a Zoom backdrop causing that... it's what the atmosphere on Mars does to your head.

Cheers for the link - a good chat, and as a fellow baldie I feel your pain when it comes to Zoom backdrops making your head look like a weird ever-changing shape!

Worse, definitely worse.  Driven in part by 24/7 news outlets that have to turn a profit and social media. 
I agree with a lot of what you said and would like to expand upon others but this isn't the thread for that and I'd only be putting the effort in to write an off topic post that may end up being removed. 
I think regarding covid however, as we emerge from the pandemic we really need to start pushing back against the Government, big business and the media now.  In an ideal world we'd be given the truth, get our freedoms restored, learn lessons for the future and have those that profited from the crisis or exploited it in some way pay their dues.

Great post.
As @GboroRam mentioned though, is it worse than before?
In the past, media sensationalism taught us to despise those who are different. Now that is mostly no longer acceptable, we are taught to despise those with different opinions. It's progress of sorts as at least people can change their minds!
Maybe people have to stand up and reject sensationalism, but I'm not sure that's possible. Social Media has just amplified this massively as it's full of nobodies looking to earn money from extreme views. There is even less of a filter these days.  This also drowns out moderate voices looking for compromise.
Heard an interesting radio programme a few months back about gerrymandering in the US, where election boundaries were kept being redrawn to sure up either sides support.
So originally, you may have two election areas, both mixed between rich and poor, black and white etc. To win an election, a candidate had to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters.
Over time, boundaries were redrawn to end up with one party's voters in one area and vice versa. This then meant the winning party was a given and the only challenge came from within the own party, attempting to push further from the centre ground towards the extreme.
This seems to be how the media also seems to operate these days, perhaps as the are so driven by commercial need to sensationalise. Think we need the BBC more than ever, but one that can always provide an unbiased factual account of what us going on. Maybe the news could be replaced with More or Less?

Sorry Texas - i didn't mean to belittle your opinion, it was meant tongue in cheek if anything, as I saw the news article about Sweden and remembered the argument from a couple of months back.
As with almost everything about this god forsaken pandemic, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Right now I'm feeling very optimistic that the UK is finally reaping the benefit of the hellish lockdowns we've been through. Huge amounts of people vaccinated and infections/deaths/hospitalisations driven right down. You say you'd still rather be in Sweden's shoes - I disagree. I don't hold it against you, and I do understand your argument ?

Oh yeah its not just limited to one news station/political party - everyone does its cos it generates money, power or both.  It is killing society however as we're forever being told the other side is evil.  We're being manipulated and shepherded into boxes and taught to despise people that don't agree with us rather than focus on what we do have in common. 
As for covid, I think we all agree that the first lockdown was warranted but as time has gone on not only have the goal posts have moved but they continue to move.  IMO politicians, big corp and the media gained a lot of power and money during the initial outbreak and its been in their interests to prolong the pandemic ever since. 
Does it really matter if a country has been financially ruined for example?  The rich can even make money betting against economies anyway and move to some sunny tax haven to avoid any fallout. 
What we really need is someone to give us the truth, for politicians to ensure we get our freedoms back and for those that have made millions/billions throughout the pandemic to pay their share.  I'm fairly certain non of that is going to happen though.

I watched Jimmy Carr on Netflix yesterday and I think he smashed about twenty taboos in one show. 
If he'd said any of it at a council meeting he would have been shot.
So time and place does seem to apply. 

If only Phil would have heeded your advice on "time and place"......
During Prince Philip's last visit to India to mark the 50th anniversary of independence in 1997, he joined the Queen on a visit to Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, where the royals laid a commemorative wreath at the site associated with General Dyer's orders to open fire on a large Baisakhi gathering in April 1919.
"Two thousand? It wasn't, was it," he questioned, as he passed by a plaque at the memorial, which read This place is saturated with the blood of about two thousand Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who were martyred in a non-violent struggle".
"That's wrong. I was in the Navy with Dyer's son. That's a bit exaggerated it must include the wounded," he is reported to have said.

My family just discovered that my Dad is addicted to viagra
Mum is taking it especially hard
 

All great points I agree with, but I guess we also have to accept the world has changed from when we were kids.
To most older people, not having had that social interaction would be unimaginable. But kids today are already adept at forming relationships with much less face to face time. 
We can't say our way was all good and the new way is all bad though. 
For example, our world was made for certain types of characters to excel: confident, outgoing, attractive for example.
Perhaps a more online world gives the less extroverted people a chance to shine? The workplace extrovert who everyone likes, so no one questions their productivity vs the boring and shy nerd, who whilst working at home, leads a design via chat that build an incredible new product.

2 parts Tequila Rose 2 parts Kahlua 1 part Vodka 0.5 part Half cream Shake well over ice, strain and pour into a glass with fresh ice.
 
Oh, sorry. I thought you said 'Pink Russian' (let the cocktail puns commence)
 
 

Had my first jab yesterday. Felt completely fine afterwards, although have woken up with a very sore arm this morning. Apart from that there's been no adverse reaction so far, and the actual process was extremely quick and efficient, so all good ?

Fortunately it wasn't far to go, a mountain slope being behind them.  Some of the spectators have been foolhardy and we're just grateful for every day without an accident.