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Coronavirus (COVID-19)


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4 hours ago, Frankie S said:

I know your schtick here is to be the contrarian ‘voice of reason’ who sets the wrong-thinking dolts right, delivering your insights with your customary dose of condescension, but you’re just blatantly wrong here.

I’ll bypass the relative differences in approach which saw me sitting with my son in an empty Hampden a full 3 hours before the opening Euro match against Czech Republic nursing a cup of lukewarm water (and my prescribed maximum A4-sized bag of snacks brought from home) with the cold beers and steak pie I enjoyed at Wembley for the England v Italy final, and confine myself to the restrictions that affected my businesses in 2021, and how these differed from those imposed on their English counterparts.

In my sectors (hospitality, live music, nightclubs and events) the differences between Scotland and England, in terms of restrictions, were never as marginal as Scot Gov’s apologists would have us believe. 

We spent the early months of 2021 in lockdown, which eventually gave way to the purgatorial realm of the Scottish tier system. Thankfully Scot Gov’s absurd recorded music ban was lifted (the only such ban in the civilised world), which after the sector reopened in late July 2020 (implemented mid Aug 2020) had eliminated what little atmosphere it was possible to generate in socially-distanced bars, a characteristically joyless act of a puritanical government that has absolutely no affinity for music or for culture, and little tolerance for the demon drink.

On 17th May 2021, indoor hospitality venues in England were permitted to reopen (with normal licensing hours) and Scotland (with the initial exception of Glasgow) was permitted to move to level 2 restrictions, in which pubs could reopen (those of us that hadn’t jumped at the irresistible opportunity of repurposing ourselves as cafes and serving soft drinks and coffees / teas with a 6.00pm curfew in Tier 3), serving alcohol only with a meal, and with a strict curfew of 10.30pm (which meant customers vacating the building at that time, so effectively last orders at 10.00pm, as if the virus only came out at night) and maximum group sizes of 6 from 3 households. England’s ‘rule of 6’ never stipulated a maximum number of households, so 6 from 6 was acceptable there. Most pubs (mine included) do the majority of their business between 10.00 and 1.00am, so arbitrarily closing bars at the back of 10.00pm effectively rendered hitherto viable businesses completely unprofitable, which in tandem with the vastly reduced capacities associated with social distancing was a terminal two-pronged threat for many outlets. 

By contrast with England, Scot Gov burdened Scottish businesses with this early curfew nonsense, which merely resulted in people being decanted en masse at the same time from socially-distanced managed environnements with Covid mitigations in place into non-socially-distanced environments with no such mitigations, such as house parties and similar gatherings, and Scot Gov also insisted on an advance bookings only policy, in strict two hour time slots, which merely encouraged people to book multiple outlets, only ever planning to go to one, resulting in hordes of no shows, with those customers that did show up having to leave after two hours to go somewhere else (presumably dispersing the virus rather more efficiently than having customers stay put) while outlets wondered if the next table booking was even going to show up.

On 19th July 2021, nightclubs reopened in England - live music concerts could take place at 100% capacity and social distancing in hospitality and related sectors was abandoned. In Scotland, by contrast, nightclubs did not reopen. Nightclubs weren’t even allowed to open in Tier 0 of the tier system. Non socially distanced concerts could not take place, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which contributes massively to the Scottish economy, and which is predicated on the raison d’être of small events in small indoor venues, was effectively cancelled for the second year in a row, with a farcically emaciated facsimile of the event scheduled to take place almost exclusively in large socially-distanced outdoor gazebos, as socially distanced gigs are simply not viable in indoors settings, small clubs especially. Meanwhile English gigs, cabaret, comedy and other events were taking place in late July and early August at full capacity. As it happens, Scot Gov finally lifted Covid restrictions on August 9th, one week into the Fringe calendar and far too late for venues to schedule any meaningful programmes of events, non socially distanced gigs were allowed to take place again and nightclubs were finally allowed ro reopen, three weeks after England. Might not seem like a long time, but England had been signalling the end of restrictions leading up to 19th July for months, while Scotland characteristically prevaricated and effectively sabotaged one of its major cultural assets - the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe.

And of course in Scotland, we just had to make life that bit more difficult for our already beleaguered events, live music and nightclub sectors by introducing vaccine passports barely a couple of months after these long-shuttered businesses had finally reopened, with the shonkiest least fit-for-purpose app imaginable, which (initially at least) almost no-one could get to work, and which resulted in an immediate loss of footfall of circa 40% across these sectors.

Needless to say, just when businesses were starting to recover from that massive blow, Omicron reared it’s head and the vaccine passport regime, implemented at great cost, and requiring the recruitment of additional dedicated staff to enforce, proved (like the extensive and expensive Covid mitigations implemented throughout hospitality) to be absolutely no protection to these businesses being shuttered or heavily restricted again at the first opportunity.

In early December, Scot Gov decimated Scottish businesses’ lucrative Christmas trade with its entirely predictable overreaction to the Omicron variant, which the data from South Africa had already suggested was milder by far than Delta. The perennial bête noires nightclubs were closed again. Public Health Scotland, the FM and her Scot Gov minions told people to cancel their Christmas nights out and avoid busy hospitality settings, absolutely destroying (by far) the most profitable month of the year for these businesses, after almost two full punishing years of restrictions. As we know, England carried on more or less as normal, with little appreciable difference in case incidence or indeed in rates of hospitalisations or deaths. 

‘Business in Scotland’ statistics suggest that 20,000 Scottish businesses failed during the first 12 months of the pandemic, to March 2021. I wonder what that figure is now? I imagine the Scottish government will be dreading the release of the updated figures.

So, spare me your trite, Ill-informed nonsense about how Scotland’s regime of restrictions has varied little from England’s, because as someone who is very familiar with the minutiae of the restrictions and regulations to date, it’s patent nonsense. Scottish businesses have since virtually Day 1 one of the pandemic been subject to significantly tighter restrictions than their English counterparts (with these regulations often being arbitrary, counter-productive, inconsistent and self-contradictory), and with generally less government support to boot.

I sat in on a Zoom meeting on Tuesday with representatives of live music venues from throughout the U.K. (as I have often done over the last couple of years) and the general reaction from our English counterparts when discussing the consistently more onerous Scottish (and Welsh and Northern Irish for that matter) restrictions is a mixture of sympathy and incredulity. We have rarely if ever been on the same page as our English counterparts.

It cannot be said any better than this. A phenomenal post.

It’s astonishing to me how tolerant the nation has become to self sabotage of its people. I’d urge anyone who has not been to England over these last 12 months to have a weekend trip…it’ll be a stick on you’ll return with a higher level of disdain to how we're handling this. 

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38 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Perhaps.

It was said in reference to VT's much less detailed post, which relied mainly on differences in directives on masks and social distancing though.

If you look back, I did actually ask a couple of times about what the differences were, first of all to you actually, then VT.  That Frankie took the trouble to post at such length is therefore welcome.

As you know, my contributions on here are characterised by a winning humility.  It's therefore always good to be put right if labouring under any misapprehensions.

Sorry, but we’re in fundamental disagreement here and I don’t think we’re going to bridge that. 

VT’s post was less detailed but it set out clear differences that you seem to think are ‘cosmetic’. I probably couldn’t disagree with you more on that point. The fact that frankie made you look even more silly was a bonus. 

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8 minutes ago, NorthernLights said:

A good article on the way Western countries treated the information about omicron that came out of South Africa at the end of last year.

Is racism why South African evidence of milder infection was ignored?

I think 'Yes' is the answer to that headline.

Edit - Or rather, 'Umph we're not listening to them, Jeeves, we will wait until the Great Briddish scientists report their findings'

Edited by TheScarf
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10 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Big difference.

At schools the staff turn up at work and teach.  I'm well aware of what uni provision has often looked like so far. 

MT's time-honoured gurning about why oh why university lecturers weren't holding physical classes of 200 at a time to benefit his sprog rising to the surface yet again.

Spoken like a true Daily Mail/big bad Tooooaaaary from south of the border. 

12 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

This one sounded pretty chirpy about the fate of defenceless employees.

Indeed you are!

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24 minutes ago, NorthernLights said:

A good article on the way Western countries treated the information about omicron that came out of South Africa at the end of last year.

Is racism why South African evidence of milder infection was ignored?

 

What restrictions, if any, did South Africa play on large sporting events during the ‘Omicron wave’? I know there was quite a lot of anger in certain corners that we completely ignored their advice on the severity of the strain and advice on restrictions that were or were not required to combat it.

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20 hours ago, Jan Vojáček said:

Just had my booster lads. Was offered Moderna, said that I'd come back another day if that was all they had because of my reaction last time. Explained what happened to the nurse, and she found some Pfizer kicking about.

In and out in about 10 minutes. Me and my girlfriend were the only folk in the vaccine centre. Which was lovely.

If I've not posted again by tomorrow morning then start the memorial thread and assume that the Pfizer had a more severe reaction than the Moderna.

Good news. I'm still living.

I've got a sore back and a few other sore joints. And I'm feeling a bit like I've been on a long car journey. But that's all really. The good lads at Pfizer > the bad lads at Moderna.

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11 minutes ago, Rugby Is Terrible said:

 

What restrictions, if any, did South Africa play on large sporting events during the ‘Omicron wave’? I know there was quite a lot of anger in certain corners that we completely ignored their advice on the severity of the strain and advice on restrictions that were or were not required to combat it.


Actually having looked it up South Africa applied some pretty draconian restrictions, including a literal curfew. That can’t be the same South Africa that the Main Players were begging us to take the lead from? 

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/removal-of-covid-rules-in-uk-risks-premature-signal-of-victory

61ye22.jpg.1755f39e43fdb88787efcf4bc4669c81.jpg

Quote

Many epidemiologists expect infections will pick up again in England. Modelling from the University of Warwick suggests that such a rise could drive an “exit wave” of hospitalisations in April and May. 

nW8Bl4.gif.51a4837b8869ca32448214472fde7462.gif

Bold call from the clowncar unit that has predicted approximately 85 million Covid deaths in the UK so far. 

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13 minutes ago, Rugby Is Terrible said:

 

What restrictions, if any, did South Africa play on large sporting events during the ‘Omicron wave’? 

There were zero crowds at the cricket in SA last week. Doesn't look like there was anyone in for yesterday's ODI either.

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33 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

I think 'Yes' is the answer to that headline.

Edit - Or rather, 'Umph we're not listening to them, Jeeves, we will wait until the Great Briddish scientists report their findings'

Who needs feedback from clinicians actually treating Shanicron on the ground, when we've got a dentist ready to tell 'Stuart n Tam' what the score is on a Saturday football show. 

Our scientific expertise knows no rival. 

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25 minutes ago, Rugby Is Terrible said:

Actually having looked it up South Africa applied some pretty draconian restrictions, including a literal curfew. That can’t be the same South Africa that the Main Players were begging us to take the lead from? 

Actually they didn't. They were already in place. They did nothing at all in response to Omicron.

The point was that nothing extra was required to stop Omicron in its tracks which, ultimately, was correct here too.

Edited by Todd_is_God
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22 minutes ago, virginton said:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/removal-of-covid-rules-in-uk-risks-premature-signal-of-victory

61ye22.jpg.1755f39e43fdb88787efcf4bc4669c81.jpg

nW8Bl4.gif.51a4837b8869ca32448214472fde7462.gif

Bold call from the clowncar unit that has predicted approximately 85 million Covid deaths in the UK so far. 

An exit wave from what, exactly?

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18 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Actually they didn't. They were already in place. They did nothing at all in response to Omicron.

The point was that nothing extra was required to stop Omicron in its tracks which, ultimately, was correct here too.


Interesting that the South Africans believed a curfew and massive restrictions on sporting events were still required during the Omicron wave. 

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24 minutes ago, Rugby Is Terrible said:

Interesting that the South Africans believed a curfew and massive restrictions on sporting events were still required during the Omicron wave. 

About as interesting as the SG deciding that facemasks were still required to be honest.

There's quite a difference between choosing not to remove something and putting something extra in place.

You know that, of course, yet posted anyway.

Edited by Todd_is_God
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6 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

About as interesting as the SG deciding that facemasks were still required to be honest.

There's quite a difference between choosing not to remove something and putting something extra in place.

You know that, of course, yet posted anyway.


Ah so the more draconian measures in South Africa were appropriate because they didn’t add even more draconian measures. Sound. A literal curfew for goodness sake. 

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