Coronavirus

[Wolfie]

Can we get off politics please?.

I'm not sure how much longer I can resist putting you all right ??

[Gone]

45 minutes ago, SchtivePesley said:

Yes - my comment was aimed at TexasRam's flippant comment about everyone having the same opportunities in life

At least @me I see why you disagree so strongly now #lazy

[ariotofmyown]

7 hours ago, Van Wolfie said:

Can we get off politics please?.

I'm not sure how much longer I can resist putting you all right ??

Think you spelt alt wrong!

[Gone]

1st business trip since Covid. Flew to Poland and thought the airline did a fantastic job with precautions. Certainly a different mentality to dealing with the crisis over here. It doesn’t seem as strict as the UK, however a bustling city like Kraków is now a ghost town. Talking with my French colleagues they fear the worst for there economy and think they went to far with restrictions of movements. On to Germany now, wonder how different that’ll be. One things for sure from what I have seen and am hearing from other nationals they certainly fear the worst for the future, not a 2nd wave but the complete change of society we were used to. Scary time’s ahead. 
 

However theGovernment's form for re entry to the UK is not very intuitive and some questions seem abit daft, not sure what everyone thought of it ?

 

[djfred84]

58 minutes ago, TexasRam said:

1st business trip since Covid. Flew to Poland and thought the airline did a fantastic job with precautions. Certainly a different mentality to dealing with the crisis over here. It doesn’t seem as strict as the UK, however a bustling city like Kraków is now a ghost town. Talking with my French colleagues they fear the worst for there economy and think they went to far with restrictions of movements. On to Germany now, wonder how different that’ll be. One things for sure from what I have seen and am hearing from other nationals they certainly fear the worst for the future, not a 2nd wave but the complete change of society we were used to. Scary time’s ahead. 
 

However theGovernment's form for re entry to the UK is not very intuitive and some questions seem abit daft, not sure what everyone thought of it ?

 

Is a change of society a bad thing i thought voting for Brexit was meant to be a the change. Maybe the pandemic as bad as it has been is the time for reflection we need. Have you had to show anyone your forms in regards to re-entry.

[RamNut]

1 hour ago, TexasRam said:

1st business trip since Covid. Flew to Poland and thought the airline did a fantastic job with precautions. Certainly a different mentality to dealing with the crisis over here. It doesn’t seem as strict as the UK, however a bustling city like Kraków is now a ghost town. Talking with my French colleagues they fear the worst for there economy and think they went to far with restrictions of movements. On to Germany now, wonder how different that’ll be. One things for sure from what I have seen and am hearing from other nationals they certainly fear the worst for the future, not a 2nd wave but the complete change of society we were used to. Scary time’s ahead. 
 

However theGovernment's form for re entry to the UK is not very intuitive and some questions seem abit daft, not sure what everyone thought of it ?

 

Was the trip necessary and essential?
Could you have achieved the same result with virtual meetings? 
Is the ‘first foreign trip’ another indication that people are wanting to return to normal and are less risk averse? 

[Archied]

As someone born in Scotland who s parents had to move south then moved further south myself as an adult because the north has been systematically economically destroyed over years I’m kind of getting a bit cynical regards how local lock downs seem to be the preserve of the north and midlands ? 
london is a massive city ,has large ethnic communities just the same but we are not seeing these lock downs in the south east ,,,hmmmmm ?

[G STAR RAM]

19 hours ago, SchtivePesley said:

Of course - Google aren't doing anything illegal with their taxes. They are simply taking advantage of the ambiguities in the UK taxation rules. The same way every wealthy tax avoider does. The rules do need changing, but then that's where the lobying comes in. These wealthy businesses lobby MPs (ie give them "donations") to make sure that they don't go changing the rules. A certain recent opposition leader was very keen to change those rules, but unsurprisingly was slaughtered at every opportunity by the wealthy media companies who had a vested interest in NOT changing the rules

 

But we digress into politics - suffice to say my point stands. Any small businesses who took the furlough money, did so under the rules that were published. Whether they acted morally is the point in question. They didn't act illegally.

Exactly the same as tax avoidance, lobbying, political cronyism etc

Except in most cases they will have been doing it as a matter of survival - not greed

Good job you managed to drop the word furlough into that otherwise people could have, mistakenly of course, seen this post as just an attack on the Conservative government rather than anything to do with coronavirus!

[Gone]

14 minutes ago, RamNut said:

Was the trip necessary and essential?
Could you have achieved the same result with virtual meetings? 
Is the ‘first foreign trip’ another indication that people are wanting to return to normal and are less risk averse? 

Absolutely necessary somethings you can’t do virtually 

Are holidays necessary? there were plenty at the airport going on them

[Gone]

18 minutes ago, djfred84 said:

Is a change of society a bad thing i thought voting for Brexit was meant to be a the change. Maybe the pandemic as bad as it has been is the time for reflection we need. Have you had to show anyone your forms in regards to re-entry.

I didn’t vote for Brexit and not sure what that has to do with the views on the other nationals I was talking to regarding their concerns for the society they live in. 
 

on re-entry you have a QR code following filling in the form, that gets scanned I believe (I’ll find out later)

[alexxxxx]

14 minutes ago, Archied said:

As someone born in Scotland who s parents had to move south then moved further south myself as an adult because the north has been systematically economically destroyed over years I’m kind of getting a bit cynical regards how local lock downs seem to be the preserve of the north and midlands ? 
london is a massive city ,has large ethnic communities just the same but we are not seeing these lock downs in the south east ,,,hmmmmm ?

Simply the current infection rate. The infection rate was massive down here to start with, much higher than elsewhere. 

I don't think it will last though. Huge increase in test positives this week (1500 a day versus 1100 day for the previous 7 days and 1000 the week before) without any increase in testing. I fear we are sleepwalking into a France or Spain situation right now. 

[G STAR RAM]

5 minutes ago, alexxxxx said:

Simply the current infection rate. The infection rate was massive down here to start with, much higher than elsewhere. 

I don't think it will last though. Huge increase in test positives this week (1500 a day versus 1100 day for the previous 7 days and 1000 the week before) without any increase in testing. I fear we are sleepwalking into a France or Spain situation right now. 

The national lockdown effectively ended on 4th July.

That is 8 weeks ago.

Although we have seen an increase in infections I've seen no evidence that this is reflected in hospitalization or death rates.

 

[Wolfie]

7 minutes ago, alexxxxx said:

Simply the current infection rate. The infection rate was massive down here to start with, much higher than elsewhere. 

I don't think it will last though. Huge increase in test positives this week (1500 a day versus 1100 day for the previous 7 days and 1000 the week before) without any increase in testing. I fear we are sleepwalking into a France or Spain situation right now. 

I don't agree that we're sleepwalking into anything. If the strategy is to manage and limit the number of cases (flatten the curve?), then that's happening. We're not seeing the massive take-off in cases that we had in March and even those countries with rapidly increasing cases aren't seeing the hospital admissions and deaths.

Cases were always going to increase once we tried to re-open society and the economy but as long as they are more mild (as is the case currently), then maybe we can manage this until there's a vaccine or a degree of herd immunity.

[Archied]

11 minutes ago, alexxxxx said:

Simply the current infection rate. The infection rate was massive down here to start with, much higher than elsewhere. 

I don't think it will last though. Huge increase in test positives this week (1500 a day versus 1100 day for the previous 7 days and 1000 the week before) without any increase in testing. I fear we are sleepwalking into a France or Spain situation right now. 
 

 

watching this unfold there’s very little that’s simple about what’s going on

[RamNut]

54 minutes ago, TexasRam said:

Are holidays necessary? there were plenty at the airport going on them

I agree. I was just wondering whether - since the business trip was the first -  whether that is indicative of changing attitudes.

[Gone]

2 minutes ago, RamNut said:

I agree. I was just wondering whether - since the business trip was the first -  whether that is indicative of changing attitudes.

No necessity unfortunately, the narrative is (for the business I work in anyway) only essential travel for both health reasons and also operational cost management. I don’t see business attitudes changing at present. 

[alexxxxx]

55 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

The national lockdown effectively ended on 4th July.

That is 8 weeks ago.

Although we have seen an increase in infections I've seen no evidence that this is reflected in hospitalization or death rates.

 

Very true. They are the numbers that matter at the end of the day. 

It does make you wonder what the true infection numbers were when hundreds of people were being hospitalised a day and sadly many of them lost their lives. I find it hard to believe that the infection wasn't here in January at the least. 

[Archied]

28 minutes ago, alexxxxx said:

Very true. They are the numbers that matter at the end of the day. 

It does make you wonder what the true infection numbers were when hundreds of people were being hospitalised a day and sadly many of them lost their lives. I find it hard to believe that the infection wasn't here in January at the least. 

I find it hard to have faith in any of the numbers being used to drive policy of gov

[Gritstone Ram]

1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

The national lockdown effectively ended on 4th July.

That is 8 weeks ago.

Although we have seen an increase in infections I've seen no evidence that this is reflected in hospitalization or death rates.

 

The rise now may be a good thing because we are identifying people and areas where outbreaks are starting up. Previously the only people tested were when they were admitted to hospital these were severe cases rather than the mild symptoms. 

[Gritstone Ram]

2 hours ago, Archied said:

As someone born in Scotland who s parents had to move south then moved further south myself as an adult because the north has been systematically economically destroyed over years I’m kind of getting a bit cynical regards how local lock downs seem to be the preserve of the north and midlands ? 
london is a massive city ,has large ethnic communities just the same but we are not seeing these lock downs in the south east ,,,hmmmmm ?

I read somewhere that some scientists think some places are closer to herd immunity than previously thought. I think London my be one of those places where the first wave infected more people and may be a reason why it is preventing second outbreaks in certain areas.