Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[NotThePars]

23 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

When you ask folk what they SG could have done better you get a combination of clever-in-hindsight, vague generalities and things outwith their competence responses.

Personally I think it was a mistake allowing universities and colleges to return but the Scottish and U.K. governments would have got pellets had they not done that.

 

The SNP are unassailable in the polls and Sturgeon commands unprecedented levels of popularity. The Tories are in power for at least the next four years and have a compliant media. Both parties have zero effective opposition. "Getting pellets" doesn't excuse not taking a decision whether it's Holyrood or Westminster tbh. 

12 minutes ago, Jedi said:

Okay.....free university tuition fees is not a 're distributive' policy....it is geared towards benefiting the middle class...Of those starting full-time degrees in 2016/17 13.8 per cent were from the 20 per cent most deprived areas in Scotland. In other words tuition fees still means 87% of students are from middle class backgrounds.

 

 

 

Right obvs the SNP are boring Blairites with a less creepy leader but this is utter nonsense. Universality of access is an unequivocal good. I would never have got to complete a postgrad if I hadn't had support from the government and I know plenty of people who are the same. 

Edited November 23, 2020 by NotThePars

[Guest Jedi]

Of course there will be individual cases and good on you, but 13.8% students from working class backgrounds isn't the narrative normally heard around tuition fees.

[NotThePars]

8 minutes ago, Jedi said:

Of course there will be individual cases and good on you, but 13.8% students from working class backgrounds isn't the narrative normally heard around tuition fees.

Removing the financial barriers for poor people to attend university unequivocally is redistributive. It might not be the completion of the academic dictatorship of the proletariat but it's clearly one step towards levelling the playing field. Undoubtedly other factors influence why working class kids don't go to uni and more work needs to be done to address that. 

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by NotThePars

[tamthebam]

Lassie at work is self isolating after her bidey in has a bad cough.

 

This is her 5th self isolation of the year

 

She's fucking at it but the work Covid policies mean she can't get a well deserved arse kicking. 

[Gordon EF]

14 minutes ago, Jedi said:

The NHS in Scotland is of course fully devolved though, so all decisions taken with regard to COVID have been made without Westminster 'interference' (in that area). Also there are 195 countries in the world, some have done better than others on COVID, but to suggest that Scotland has been a shining beacon in the way it has handled it, you would need data from all the others to truly make that point.

 

The range of measures available to tackle covid aren't exclusively  limited to NHS / health though.

Also, I don't think any serious person has said that Scotland has been anything like a 'shining beacon' in world terms.

It's absolutely clear that there was a real complacency across Europe compared to East Asian countries, for example. It's also the case that some countries that do tend to be held up as "shining beacons", like New Zealand, did have that little bit extra time to take measures. By the time NZ, shut their borders, there was already mass community transmission in the UK.

It absolutely isn't as simple as saying these countries did well because numbers are lower and these countries did better because numbers are higher.

[madwullie]

1 hour ago, Todd_is_God said:

But we don't close society because there might be some flu virus in a room.

Given the lengths we have gone to for 8 months, i'm surprised you think we'd all of a sudden abondon the additional hygiene measures in the room where vaccinations were administered.

I took.my dad for his flu jag today, in the middle of a tier 4 area during a covid pandemic. 

The precautions taken at Wishaw sports centre today would be pretty much the same were it covid jags or flu jags. 

The fact its a covid jag doesn't mean it needs deep cleaned more than a flu jag - the chances of catching and spreading covid are exactly the same no matter what the jag you're getting js

Edited November 24, 2020 by madwullie

[Gordon EF]

20 minutes ago, Jedi said:

Of course there will be individual cases and good on you, but 13.8% students from working class backgrounds isn't the narrative normally heard around tuition fees.

But by your own figures above, it isn't 13.8% of working class kids. It's that 13.8% of the university intake were from the most deprived 20% of areas in the country. A number which as since increased to 15.6% for the 2018 intake by the way, with the government's target as 16% by 2021.

https://www.gov.scot/news/record-number-of-students-from-deprived-areas-at-university/#:~:text=A record number of full,the 20% most deprived areas.

We know there are an array of factors set against the most deprived kids in terms of education. What number do they need to hit for you to deem that a success? It's difficult to find figures for different countries, but do you honestly think that will compare poorly to comparable countries?

It really sounds like you're just prepared to make perfect the enemy of the good to show how against the SNP you are.

[Todd_is_God]

27 minutes ago, madwullie said:

The precautions taken at Wishaw sports centre today would be pretty much the same were it covid jags or flu jags. 

I didn't realise Wishaw sports centre was a doctor's office which, given this:

"They don't have to fanny about making doctors' offices sterile between each flu jag recipient, though."

was the sentence that sent Welshy off on one is entirely relevant.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Todd_is_God

[Rob1885]

Removing the poorest paid workers from income tax and raising the higher and top rate tax bands.
Of course the SNP aren't actually a socialist party because the people of Scotland don't want socialism.
It's  a badge people in Scotland like to wear. 

That last sentence, what makes you say that?

[welshbairn]

43 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I didn't realise Wishaw sports centre was a doctor's office which, given this:

"They don't have to fanny about making doctors' offices sterile between each flu jag recipient, though."

was the sentence that sent Welshy off on one is entirely relevant.

They don't have to deep clean whatever room it's in between each vaccine recipient. You know this. I don't understand why you're pursuing this fiction.

[madwullie]

6 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

I didn't realise Wishaw sports centre was a doctor's office which, given this:

"They don't have to fanny about making doctors' offices sterile between each flu jag recipient, though."

was the sentence that sent Welshy off on one is entirely relevant.

Is there a law these have to be given in a doctors office? If so I would ask why they're not using the sports centre as a trial run as it was extremely well organised, rapid, competent and about as safe as it is possible to be getting 200 vulnerable fogeys together for a jagging party. 

The entire point of my post was to cast doubt on the idea that these necessarily needed to take place in doctors offices. 

Edited November 24, 2020 by madwullie

[Bairnardo]

There will be temporary vaccine centres springing up all over the place. They have been talking about this for months. Granted theres massive scope for this to get Hancocked right up, but the goal is a vaccination program the likes of which has never been seen, surely no one thinks its getting approved then handed over to GP practices FFS

[WhiteRoseKillie]

My old dear got her flu jag in Milngavie Town Hall a while back.

Big room, several chairs spaced out.

In and out in a couple of minutes.

I got mine last week - joined queue, mask on, hand sanitizer, in one door, jabbed, more sanitizer, out the other, mask off. Literally hardly broke stride. Actual GP appointments have been different, to be fair to Todd, but the idea that the vaccination process is some kind of logistical nightmare is absolute bollocks. Of course it helps that those of us in the "flu jab demographic" know what to expect and just get on with it.

[Steven W]

Wonder if the SG would have anticipated some more 'promotions' in the tier system by now?

There's been more 'relegations' than 'promotions', and the prospect of any of the Central Belt LAs reaching tier 2, far less 1 or 0, look very bleak.

[superbigal]

The newer tough English tier system now disallows household mixing in tier 2 & 3. It was only tier 3 previously. However they can still mix up to 6 households or 6 people indoors in tier 1.

I suspect there will be a decent amount of areas in tier 1.

Up here household mixing is literally impossible and has been since the middle of September.

Even Level 1 is now dependent on agreement.

If Shetlands can't be allowed into Level 0 then what hope is there for the unwashed.

This is why the Xmas relaxation will look so alien compared to in England.

 

 

[Empty It]

Other than...

Not sure if serious but:
Free University 
Free personal care for elderly
Free bus passes for elderly
Free prescriptions
Baby box
Free dentistry for new mothers and infants
600 hours free nursery
Axing Forth Bridge tolls
 

... what have the SNP ever done for us?!

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Imagine, for one minute, that you think free education and widening access for those in most deprived areas is not progress. 

[101]

9 hours ago, Markka said:

Successful in comparison to England? Probably. And given that Scotgov are hampered to an extent by Westminster, I'll give them some partial credit.

Successful compared to some other countries in the world? No, not at all.

How is it possible to compare us to countries will full fiscal and border control. No one can say that we wouldn't have locked down faster if we had the money and say closed the border.

[Manifesto]

 

 

Interesting to read that any virus in the EU has to be approved by them. How does Brexit work re the UK and vaccines?

 

Hungary using a loophole and has access to the Russian vaccine for testing.

 

https://hungarytoday.hu/coronavirus-russia-covid-vaccine-hungary-eu/

 

Scroll down and you'll see Hungarians are @50% anti-vaxxers and only 7% would trust a Russian one and 4% a Chinese one.

 

* They only would trust a US or Hungarian one, so no Oxford vaccine for them.

 

 

[Granny Danger]

12 minutes ago, Empty It said:

Other than...
 

 

... what have the SNP ever done for us?!

 

We’ve not had a new aqueduct in Monifieth for years.  SNPBaaaaad.