Ingo ohne Flamingo

Interesting to note that the Local Lockdowns in Wales seem to be pretty strict, especially in terms of Movement.

Whilst nothing surprises me with said fat tory c**t, I was genuinely surprised there wasn't even a mention of a Chancellor update on those sectors. I work in the Events Business and I've already witnessed 2 large companies go bust, one being a previous employer. Many Production Companies across Scotland have more than halved their workforce with talented Technicians on the brunt, then there's the Theatres and Concert Halls. Furlough has been a godsend but that's coming to an end and despite a lot of noise being made by the industry, there's no hope of any help. Covering wages is one thing, companies still need to pay many bills including rent, mortgages, insurance, utilities etc etc. Freelancers have been absolutely shafted, got many mates who are freelance one of whom is now struggling mentally whereas others have managed to find work - mostly at Amazon. The events industry is so undervalued. Transport, Restaurants, Bars, Hotels, Security being 5 types of business that rely heavily on organised events. If you dig deeper there's even more.

Most of what Boris has just announced is what we already have here in Scotland. Reckon Nicola will go further than this... Going to be an interesting afternoon.

I'm hoping it works, it's more the contact teaching during doing that coursework and if the Teachers are readily available to be approached as and when required.

The closing of schools does give me the fear as a dad to a 13 year old son. He generally does well in School but the Lockdown months were a nightmare for him, it was obvious to me that Teacher interaction was critical for him. He's now started 2nd year and from a conversation with his head of year, he's striving again in what is a very important year for him so I am happy for that. My fear now is a school shut down and the blended learning approach kicks in, this could have a huge impact on his education. I'm not a Teacher and I struggled to keep him going, my wife is a Nursery Teacher but she could only work with what the Teachers were supplying and mostly it was BBC Bitesize stuff which unfortunately stopped during the English holidays at Easter rather than the Scottish holidays. My son lived with his Mum for a week then with me for a week, I was finding out that he wasn't doing any homework at all whilst at his Mums and even was sending blank documents in so when I checked his Glow / Teams account it looked like it had been done, but what he didn't know was I was in constant dialogue with his head of year who informed me of his wee trick... My son is a bright lad but needs pushed and his teachers are brilliant at that. Adam makes a good point earlier about the effects on his WFH. I also had that same issue but I was lucky my wife was able to step in and help with my son but my work did suffer as my Daughter was at home and not at nursery, she's 2 so demanded a lot of attention. I'm now ever thankful that my son is at School and my daughter is at Nursery again, not just for me being able to work, or my son to get an education, but for their social wellbeing - it was a horrible few months for them. Hopefully these other measures work but I'm not holding my breath. Whatever policies are put forward, I honestly hope they are made with Childrens Education and Mental Wellbeing in mind.

Just read this article on the Spectator from a Swedish Doctor in Stockholm https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-dangerous-is-covid-a-swedish-doctor-s-perspective/amp?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR0-HKgjAjjc1oNwGPm4NR8xs10_3YrC1vGZ8nMzxsgoP2z-w2GEui_dUBM I want to preface this article by stating that it is entirely anecdotal and based on my experience working as a doctor in the emergency room of one of the big hospitals in Stockholm, and on living as a citizen in Sweden. As many people know, Sweden is perhaps the country that has taken the most relaxed attitude towards the Covid pandemic. Unlike other countries, Sweden never went into complete lockdown. Non-essential businesses have remained open, people have continued to go to cafés and restaurants, children have remained in school, and very few people have bothered with face masks in public. Covid hit Stockholm like a storm in mid-March. One day I was seeing people with appendicitis and kidney stones, the normal things you see in the emergency room. The next day all those patients were gone and the only thing coming into the hospital was Covid. Practically everyone who was tested had Covid, regardless of their presenting symptoms. People came in with a nosebleed and they had Covid. They came in with stomach pain and they had Covid. Then, after a few months, all the Covid patients disappeared. It is now four months since the start of the pandemic, and I haven’t seen a single Covid patient in over a month. When I do test someone because they have a cough or a fever, the test invariably comes back negative. At the peak three months back, a hundred people were dying a day of Covid in Sweden, a country with a population of ten million. We are now down to around five people dying per day in the whole country, and that number continues to drop. Since people generally die around three weeks after infection, that suggests virtually no one is now being infected. If we assume around 0.5 per cent of those infected die (which I think is very generous, more on that later) that means three weeks back 1,000 people were getting infected per day in the whole country, which works out to a daily risk per person of getting infected of 1 in 10,000. And remember, the risk of dying is at the very most 1 in 200 if you actually do get infected. And that was three weeks ago. Basically, Covid is in all practical senses over and done with in Sweden. After four months. In total Covid has killed under 6,000 people in a country of ten million. A country with an annual death rate of around 100,000 people. That makes Covid a mere blip in terms of its effect on mortality. That is why it is nonsensical to compare Covid to other major pandemics, like the 1918 pandemic that killed tens of millions of people. Covid will never even come close to those numbers. And yet many countries have shut down their entire economies, stopped children going to school, and made large portions of their population unemployed in order to deal with this disease. The media have been proclaiming that only a small percentage of the population have antibodies, and therefore it is impossible that herd immunity has developed. Well, if herd immunity hasn’t developed, where are all the sick people? Why has the rate of infection dropped so precipitously? Considering that most people in Sweden are leading their lives normally now, not socially distancing, not wearing masks, there should still be high rates of infection. The reason we test for antibodies is because it is easy and cheap. Antibodies are in fact not the body’s main defence against virus infections. T-cells are. But T-cells are harder to measure than antibodies, so we don’t really do it clinically. It is quite possible to have T-cells that are specific for Covid and thereby make you immune to the disease, without having any antibodies. Personally, I think this is what has happened. Everybody who works in the emergency room where I work has had the antibody test. Very few actually have antibodies. This is in spite of being exposed to huge numbers of infected people, including at the beginning of the pandemic, before we realised how widespread Covid was, and when no one was wearing protective equipment. I am not denying that Covid is awful for the people who do get really sick or for the families of the people who die, just as it is awful for the families of people who die of cancer, influenza, or an opioid overdose. But the size of the response in most of the world (not including Sweden) has been totally disproportionate to the size of the threat. Sweden ripped the metaphorical band-aid off quickly and got the epidemic over and done with in a short amount of time, while the rest of the world has chosen to try to peel the band-aid off slowly. At present that means Sweden has one of the highest total death rates in the world. But Covid is over in Sweden. People have gone back to their normal lives and barely anyone is getting infected anymore. I am willing to bet that the countries that have shut down completely will see rates spike when they open up. If that is the case, then there won’t have been any point in shutting down in the first place, because all those countries are going to end up with the same number of dead at the end of the day anyway. Shutting down completely in order to decrease the total number of deaths only makes sense if you are willing to stay shut down until a vaccine is available. That could take years. No country is willing to wait that long. Covid has at present killed less than 6,000 in Sweden. It is very unlikely that the number of dead will go above 7,000. In an average year 700 people die of influenza in Sweden. Does that mean Covid is ten times worse than influenza? No, because influenza has been around for centuries while Covid is completely new. In an average influenza year most people already have some level of immunity because they’ve been infected with a similar strain previously, or because they’re vaccinated. So it is quite possible, or in fact likely, that the case fatality rate for Covid is the same as for influenza, or only slightly higher, and that the entire difference we have seen is due to the complete lack of any immunity in the population at the start of this pandemic. This conclusion makes sense of the Swedish fatality numbers – if we’ve reached a point where there is hardly any active infection going on anymore in Sweden, in spite of the fact that there is barely any social distancing happening, then that suggests at least 50 per cent of the population has been infected already and has developed immunity, which is five million people. This number is perfectly reasonable if we assume a reproductive number for the virus of two: If each person infects two new people within a five day period, and you start out with just one infected person in the country, then you will reach a point where several million are infected in just four months. If only 6,000 are dead out of five million infected, that works out to a case fatality rate of 0.12 per cent, roughly the same as regular old influenza, which no one is the least bit frightened of, and which we don’t shut down our societies for. WRITTEN BYSebastian Rushworth Sebastian Rushworth is a junior doctor in Stockholm, who studied medicine at the Karolinska Institute. This article originally appeared on his personal website.

Getting fed up of seeing the schools take the blame here. Looking at this map, are people suggesting that Highland, Falkirk, Stirling, Perthshire, Clackmannanshire, Aberdeenshire etc don't have the schools open? This map covers positive tests in the last 7 days. It is obvious it is places like Glasgow and the Lanarkshires that are the problem in Scotland, areas that host scotlands more deprived areas and areas where law abiding is lower. Also worth adding that Glasgow and the Lanarkshires are more densely populated. Worth looking at the whole 4 nations, again the last 7 days. Look at the Southern half of England, are the schools still shut there? There's no doubt there has been transmission within schools, but the schools are regulated and behaviours more controlled therefore it's not that high - Track and Trace is proving this. Considering most livingrooms in Scotland can only fit 2 sofas and a TV Cabinet, having 8 people in there from 3 households there was no danger people could socially distance. I had family and friends over in the last few months and it was impossible to stay distant. Those visits didn't involve alcohol so you can only imagine what a house party with even 8 would be like, then you'll have the usual kitchen party and people using the same toilets, towels etc etc.

Yep - Unfortunately there is that attitude. In turn though, you need to look at the volume of folk going through each set of turnstyles compared to Germany. On Saturday Dortmund had 9300 people there, only Celtic would have more than that sticking to 20%, the rest are made up of much smaller crowds especially in the lower tiers. With social distancing implemented at stadiums like Broadwood, Annan, Stirling, Airdrie etc - it can be achieved. Also to my point earlier that those teams attract local crowds, many of whom could walk to the ground - Maybe clyde slightly different because of our Rutherglen / Glasgow background, but only 1 supporters bus goes to home games each week and only a handful of folk use it, worth pointing out that those who use that particular bus are in the high risk categories therefore can't see that bus running anyway. Most Clyde fans get to the games by private transport and the car parking is more than adequate. Despite everything, it is crucial that fans are allowed back and aye, it'll be pish with the measures but it will ensure our clubs survival. The top league can just get by on TV money and whatever else, everything below could fade away with no crowds. Scottish clubs have shite crowds anyway and as I pointed out above, our stadiums are more than big enough to do things by the book. If only we were Rugby fans then we might be treated better I suppose...

Despite everything the Government have to allow crowds back. In Germany they have allowed for 20% of Stadium Capacity for the time being, below I have listed last years attendances throughout the leagues. If 20% capacity was allowed in Scotland it would allow the majority of clubs in Tier 2, 3 and 4 to compete in front of their usual average crowd. These being the same clubs who heavily depend on gate receipts. It is also worth noting that those clubs are mostly supported by folk who live in that town or very nearby and generally travel to the games by Car or Walk or if they do use public transport, it isn't packed. In Germany they are only allowing fans who live within a certain radius of the stadium, so for Rangers and Celtic for example that would rule out the Glory Hunters from the likes of Inverness, Dumfries, Falkirk and Ayr for example who would normally pack into Supporters Busses or Trains, or at the very least drive to either stadium of which doesn't have adequate parking facilities to match what is required for even 20% of their capacity. For Rangers and Celtic it wouldn't surprise me if 20% covers the majority of those who live within an hours walk of Ibrox or Parkhead judging by the amount of supporters busses that head that way from all over Scotland. Also in Germany, away crowds are banned. Again to stop people from unnecessary travelling - especially via public or grouped transport Clubs need to have a plan in place on how they would seat fans at their grounds. cutting out every second row and spacing people out by households and issuing tickets. Broadwood for example they can have one way into the turnstyles, kiosk area closed and fans exit via the trackside and out the side exits. Sanitiser stations dotted around the ground, doors all open and facemasks to be worn and that should surely tick all boxes. Here's the attendances for last season starting with the Premiership. Pay attention to the lowest figure, Hamilton, Livi, St Johnstone, Motherwell, Kilmarnock fall within that 20% or not too much above it. Could be argued that Accies have been social distancing for years judging by their top flight attendances. Championship Now here's the leagues that heavily depend on crowds. Again looking at the Low, the majority of these clubs could play in front of those crowds within the 20% mark with the exception of Dundee United and Dundee. League 1 Again, majority of teams in this league well within the 20%, Clyde within 10% of that. Even winners Raith's average crowd falls within the 20%. Falkirk the only team that would suffer from a 20% cap. Now Thistle are joining us in this league, they will be the other who will suffer from the cap, the rest untouched. League 2 League 2 is a tricky one because of the size and type of stadiums. Edinburgh has 3500 capacity but I'm assuming that is including the grass verges. Albion Rovers is hardly fit for purpose on a normal day nevermind these times with social distancing. Either way, the majority of teams here can play to their average crowd which falls within the 20% mark. Teams like Annan would obviously need to utilise their terracing a bit more as that wee stand hardly holds club officials nevermind fans.

Travelling Tabby is a brilliant site. Fair play to whoever is behind that, it's my go to for all the facts and figures. Also, the Lockdown in Aberdeen did seem to work wonders but I don't think it'll quite work in more deprived areas where law abiding isn't quite the norm. In the height of Lockdown my sons Street in Govan had plenty of house gatherings with the police there most weekends to break them up.

Glad I'm not the only one who finds that show utter pish. Weirdly enough the only people I know who find this show funny are those in the categories more at risk from Covid 19.

Very good point and one I forgot. You're correct, the virus isn't as lethal as it was as we've found ways to treat it and things like the use of certain steroids have been proven to keep the death rate down.

This is something that has been crossing my mind for a good few weeks and in the last week or so becoming more aware of the Swedish "experiment". I'm in the mindset now that we can't keep kicking the can down the road until a vaccine comes which could be here in November, but it could be 2021,2022 or 2023 or later - we just don't know. As part of my job I travel around Europe attending Advisory boards for a Pharmaceutical company who develop insulins for Diabetes. Developing any sort of medicine is a very lengthy process, then there's trying to get approval from each country which is another minefield itself. Then the cost of the medicines /vaccines itself but that last point I don't think will be a big issue due to what is at stake here. With all that, I think we need to open up a lot more but make moves to protect those who need it. We need the 18-65s out working, socialising and doing what they normally do. Children and young adults in full time education as well. Venues and stadiums opened as well. We can't afford a lost generation here through lack of learning, the subsequent debt that will arise which we'll be paying for, the lack of opportunities for our youngsters of which were already scarce and lastly the mental health of the nation. We were lucky first lock down the weather was good and we had the message it was only for a few weeks which wasn't the case. Now we're going into the dark cold winter, this could be grim Next up is social distancing and face masks, they've been in place for a wee while now but is it that effective? There seems to be a lot less chat about contaminated surfaces, is that still a proven spreader of the virus? I'm no expert but simple things like social distancing, face masks and regularly washing hands no doubt helps to an extent. With all that, I think we need to follow Sweden lead and go for the herd immunity approach whilst keeping our old and vulnerable protected. For Sweden it looks like it took 6 months to reach that stage. If we start now we may be good to go again from March. Another thing to bear in mind, going for that approach is political suicide for any politician who implements it. With the Scottish government election next May and Nicola having such high approval ratings and Scottish independence naturally the favoured outcome in any future referendum then whatever nicola does may affect that may 2021 result.

You'd think that. My wife was telling me yesterday a grandparent who had full custody came into the school to collect their grandson and was saying how he (that grandad) had just received his negative test, 5 days after taking it. The child was in the school the whole week with him dropping and collecting the kid every day. One thing we've learned from this whole shambles is how thick a large number of the population are.

Definitely Airdrie has won kit of the league with that home effort. Absolute belter. Only slight criticism, the sponsor looks quite on the low side, maybe big Kevin James could've came out of retirement to model it . That sponsor though, always makes me laugh

I'm sure I've seen you post elsewhere, I think you are in the same industry as me albeit I'm not a Freelancer and thankfully I'm one of the lucky few who has been working albeit on the Virtual stuff. Our sector has received very little help except the Furlough scheme and the Freelancers have been shafted royally, the fact there was a "race for 10k" last week sums up the shambles that is both our governments. Also sad to hear about your loss, it is never easy but a year like this makes it worse, get through this and you'll get through anything.

Same shite every season mate

Big Norway looking good so far this season. Reckon if he can remain injury free he'll be a massive part of our season. Seems to link up well with Goodie. Goodie up top with big Norway in a free role behind him could be a nightmare for defences in this division.

Regarding 3-5-2, Lennon had already said he doesn't like this formation as it is versatile enough to change during games. Was reading about Marcelo Bielsa last night and his 3-3-3-1 tactics, that sounds magic but I'd imagine that would only work with players of full time fitness.

South Park just shared this on Instagram for Grandfather's day (yep, new to me as well) so had to go and find it on YouTube. Fucking brutal but hilarious at the same time, classic South Park

That's amazing! Wee man looks brilliant Hopefully the chat will be here soon

Getting Bryson back would be the best piece of business in the league this year. Probably more likely to go to Kilmarnock again or even a top end Championship club like Hearts or even Inverness.

Hadn't been cycling for 6 weeks and done this one today. Safe to say my legs are fucked! The stretch between Bishopton and Port Glasgow was hard and then from Inverkip to Largs my legs were almost gone, never been as relieved to have arrived anywhere in my life

Absolutely bring back the belt, if the last generation and the one before that got the belt then their wouldn't be so many disrespectful wee c***s out there, the same ones who breed their own line of disrespectful wee c***s. Seen it before in schools when teachers are telling parents of their kids behaviour for the parent not to give a f**k... Anyway, I love Danny Lennon

My daughter loves her Rapunzel dress! She's obsessed with the Falkirk Steeple because of her, always shouting "rapunzel let down your hairrrr" when we're in town