Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[EdinburghPar1975]

24 minutes ago, Have some faith in Magic said:

Herald reporting him saying Cummings should consider his position

He did consider it....then thought about it while he took a spin...and decided to stick two fingers up to all of us!

[Florentine_Pogen]

2 minutes ago, bennett said:

Getting back to normal is going to be weird, also noticed that my hands are getting soft through lying about the place.

Has your heid gone soft as well ?

[bennett]

1 minute ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

Has your heid gone soft as well ?

Years ago.

[Dons_1988]

18 minutes ago, Blootoon87 said:

Carlaw is the most spineless bootlicker I've ever seen, apart from maybe Mundell. If even he's saying Cummings should go, the Tories must be absolutely livid.

Or he's just an absolute run of the mill, nobody politician who only takes a position when he can see which way the wind is blowing (like the vast majority of them) to benefit/save what's left of their career.

[Sergeant Wilson]

56 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

Replacement?

They've all stopped. My mate is walking round in circles his hip is that bad.

[Florentine_Pogen]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/26/dominic-cummings-lockdown-rules-coronavirus

During his rose garden press conference, Dominic Cummings was asked if his trip to Durham had undermined government public health messaging. I hope not, he replied. Later, Boris Johnson was asked the same question. His response was more definitive: no one in No 10 has undermined the messaging. I hope they are right. For this matters. If people stop listening to what the government asks them to do and if they stop adhering to coronavirus measures then the number of infections will rise and more people will die.

But I cannot be as certain or as optimistic as the prime minister and his adviser. All that we know about adherence (knowledge that behavioural scientists have repeatedly stressed to the government during the pandemic) suggests that damage has been done.

First, for all the complexities of Cummings’ story, the bottom line is very simple. While millions of people up and down the land faced agonising personal circumstances and decided to stick with lockdown, Cummings did not. He went to Durham at the very time his government was insisting “stay at home, don’t travel”. He went to a beauty spot at the very time his government was insisting we avoid them. And nothing has happened to him. Instead, his actions have been endorsed. At the very least, that gives the appearance of “one rule for them, another for us” (possibly the best way of corroding trust in authority and adherence to the rules). And Cummings more than anyone else understands the importance of appearance in politics.

Second, the one thing that has carried us through the pandemic so far has been an emergent sense of community. This “we” feeling has been critical in getting people to adhere to the restrictions, even when they personally were not at risk. It has been critical to all the volunteering and neighbourhood support that has helped us through hardship. It is the most valuable asset we have in a crisis. But the most notable thing about Cummings’ rose garden performance was that “we” was nowhere to be found. It was all about “I”.

His explanation was entirely about his judgments as an individual, his decisions, his personal concerns. At no point was there any thought to the impact of his actions on others. Still worse, in his defence of Cummings on Sunday, the prime minister seemed to endorse the idea that, when the going gets tough, it is fine to rely on your own judgments – and fine to follow your individual “instincts”.

In effect, Johnson’s defence of Cummings turned an issue of communal responsibility into an issue of individual preference. Had everyone done that – had we all put so much energy into thinking about loopholes that served our personal circumstances rather than thinking about the impact of our actions on others – then lockdown would not have worked, the infection would still be raging and the NHS would have been overwhelmed.

As we come out of lockdown these issues become, if anything, even more important. It isn’t that the infection has gone away. Rather we are now in a position, due to past sacrifices by the many, to use more targeted strategies against coronavirus. But these are dependent on us all maintaining physical distancing, increasing hygiene standards, revealing our contacts if infected and observing quarantine if contacted. All of these measures are personally inconvenient. Often it will be easier to ignore them. They will only work if we continue to act together and for each other.

I hope this will happen. I hope people will continue to demonstrate the remarkable solidarity they have shown so far. I hope the collective spirit won’t be damaged. But this sorry affair doesn’t help, and the more they defend themselves, the more our top politician and his top adviser demonstrate that they don’t even appreciate what the problems are.

• Stephen Reicher is a member of the Sage subcommittee advising on behavioural science, an adviser to the UK and Scottish governments on coronavirus and professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Thought i maybe had a 50/50 chance of getting my holiday in September into October, but looking at the way the English have been flocking to beaches etc fear a second wave is inevitable.
Shower of selfish desperate c***s making this worse for everyone just because they trust a man who writes lies on a bus. Think independence is the only way forward for us.

[peasy23]

So Boris said he agreed with Cummings and that he has had to start wearing glasses since he had Covid, except he was saying this 5 years ago.

[Florentine_Pogen]

Mr. Gove has eloquently allayed any fears I had that an unelected govt. advisor might have taken reckless decisions, ignored strict govt. instructions and put others at risk.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Florentine_Pogen

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

same, glad I just went for a refund and not moving the booking.

Unfortunately for me Virgin havent cancelled holidays in September meaning i have to pay the balance or lose my deposit. Ah well maybe ill be able to get an antibody test by then.

[peasy23]

Marina Hyde's view.

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/26/dominic-cummings-boris-johnson-terrified-sack-him?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true

 

 

[buddie06smfc]

Where's Carlaw said this? He was being a shitebag last I checked.

Still being the snide wee weasel that he is and not releasing anything through his official channels like he did in his aggressive pursuit of the CMO up here. Instead sending his message out through hearsay where he can no doubt appear to have had a say on it to the public & then deny it if questioned by Westminster.

[Florentine_Pogen]

4 minutes ago, buddie06smfc said:

Still being the snide wee weasel that he is and not releasing anything through his official channels like he did in his aggressive pursuit of the CMO up here. Instead sending his message out through hearsay where he can no doubt appear to have had a say on it to the public & then deny it if questioned by Westminster.

 

Libby Brooks

The Scottish conservative leader, Jackson Carlaw, has finally called for Dominic Cummings to resign, after coming under intense pressure while a number of his own MSPs expressed their strong support for their colleague Douglas Ross, who resigned as a UK government minister earlier today in protest at the Cummings row.

After an earlier equivocal statement, in which he said that “this is a difficult situation for many, and people will arrive at different judgments,” Carlaw told STV this afternoon:

"It is absolutely a matter for the prime minister himself who serves him and for how long they serve but given the furore, given the distraction we are now in, given the distraction to the prime minister onto this issue if I were Mr Cummings I would be considering my position."

Carlaw being 100% unequivocal there........

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by Florentine_Pogen

[Detournement]

44 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Thought i maybe had a 50/50 chance of getting my holiday in September into October, but looking at the way the English have been flocking to beaches etc fear a second wave is inevitable.
Shower of selfish desperate c***s making this worse for everyone just because they trust a man who writes lies on a bus. Think independence is the only way forward for us.

How dare people deny you a holiday by going to the beach!

Shocking.

[superbigal]

Brilliant tweet by Donald Tusk. Cummings and his brexit friends that they leave when they should stay.

Decent patter for a Johnny.

 

 

[Wee Willie]

1 hour ago, Jacksgranda said:

My wife's outside tidying up the front garden. I was instructed asked telt to hoover up, which I have done. Now sitting down fair puggled having also hung out a wash load and made my lunch.

I commandeer the upstairs laundry room on a Sunday morning to dae my washing.

Biding on my own I've no much of it.

1 hour ago, bennett said:

I've got into the habit of being messy for a week or so then have a cleaning frenzy.

Getting back to normal is going to be weird, also noticed that my hands are getting soft through lying about the place.

I've got into the habit of being messy for a week or so then have a cleaning frenzy.

I'm the opposite in cleaning certainly no a frenzy. Mair like a reluctance.

And I stopped using fairy liquid years ago.

 

49 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Thought i maybe had a 50/50 chance of getting my holiday in September into October, but looking at the way the English have been flocking to beaches etc fear a second wave is inevitable.
Shower of selfish desperate c***s making this worse for everyone just because they trust a man who writes lies on a bus.

Think independence is the only way forward for us.

Independence IS the only way forward

Edited May 26, 2020 by Wee Willie

[Jacksgranda]

1 minute ago, Snafu said:

This what I was thinking, nobody knows because there hasn't been enough testing done and now we will never know how many have unknowingly had the virus or had very mild symptoms therefore haven't needed medical attention, so don't get tested or added to the numbers. Plus as you say we might never find out how many have died from it or from exacerbated health issues from catching the virus.

The more we gain knowledge about such viruses the better we can deal with it the next time it happens, this is a knowledge gap.

 

Of our own government's making.

[Detournement]

2 minutes ago, MixuFixit said:

I dunno what there is to be arch about - the Cummings thing will make people ignore lockdown, which will increase cases, which will cause a reimposition of lockdown that'll interrupt peoples plans and yes that includes holidays. You act like going on holiday is some rare thing only a privileged few can do when really most people can manage it. It's certainly not a class issue in this day and age.

Maybe the people are on their annual leave?

Folk in England are quite right to get out and about. I'm looking forward to the rules being eased here.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

I dunno what there is to be arch about - the Cummings thing will make people ignore lockdown, which will increase cases, which will cause a reimposition of lockdown that'll interrupt peoples plans and yes that includes holidays. You act like going on holiday is some rare thing only a privileged few can do when really most people can manage it. It's certainly not a class issue in this day and age.

Tbh i’ll get my money back, im just making the point that everyone rushing out down there and being a selfish p***k by not obeying the rules, even the lax ones they still have will cause a further spike that will undo all the good that comes from lockdown. That will undoubtedly cause issues long into the rest of the year and most likely a collapse of many airlines, lump pressure on the NHS and cause more economic damage, just simply because a number of fannies down south cannae resist the urge to be c***s. But detournment knew exactly what point I was making, he was just being his usual self.

[Florentine_Pogen]

1 minute ago, Detournement said:

Maybe the people are on their annual leave?

Folk in England are quite right to get out and about. I'm looking forward to the rules being eased here.

What does annual leave have to do with it ? We're in the middle of a pandemic. Pretty sure everyone is looking forward to lockdown being relaxed but not at the risk of ruining all the sacrifices that folk have already made.