Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Elixir]

46 minutes ago, Zetterlund said:

Any chance Ferguson's opinions can finally be consigned to the bin? Probably not. No doubt he'll be rolled out again soon with some apocalyptic predictions for autumn & winter.

He now thinks it's basically done and dusted. Even that dour c**t John Edmunds was also mentioned on the front page of The Times saying as such this morning.

 

39 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

The article is worth a read.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/33be3974-f6d6-11eb-a2a3-afea84050239?shareToken=c921a163ef5e51672a37434bddee0fca

Wonder if Detournement's email is now on Imperial College's blacklist.

Quote

Becoming a semi-celebrity has had other consequences. He has become a hate figure for anti-lockdown campaigners. “I have received hundreds of abusive emails, mostly from people on the conspiracy theory end of the spectrum,” he says.

 

[sparky88]

29 minutes ago, Dawson Park Boy said:

At least that makes some sense.

You want a UKIP or TBP type party.

Not even sure I would vote for it. But what I want more than anything is an end to perpetual SNP rule, voted for by people that don't give a shit what their policies are, apart from the one on an Independence referendum. It's created a lazy governing party in Scotland, a bit like Scottish Labour in the previous 50 years prior to 2011.

You can see it when people desperately defend the SNP's nonsensical COVID restrictions, because unless they back them, they won't get a second independence referendum.

[Elixir]

They are so fucked. It was sore to watch the likes of them and New Zealand appearing 'free' at the height of our restrictions, but I knew that long-term it wasn't sustainable and eventually we would be the ones out of this far sooner than they are. They'll be fighting battles for another year, and even longer if they don't start to accept spread in the community alongside very high vaccine uptake.

[Dawson Park Boy]

13 minutes ago, sparky88 said:

Not even sure I would vote for it. But what I want more than anything is an end to perpetual SNP rule, voted for by people that don't give a shit what their policies are, apart from the one on an Independence referendum. It's created a lazy governing party in Scotland, a bit like Scottish Labour in the previous 50 years prior to 2011.

You can see it when people desperately defend the SNP's nonsensical COVID restrictions, because unless they back them, they won't get a second independence referendum.

You’ve hit the nail on the head.

Even someone like me, a unionist, would love to be able to vote on the basis of socio economic policies rather than constantly worrying about independence.

We need ideas, badly.

Havent thought this through but here’s some ideas.

Indyref2 off the table for at least 10 years at which time a referendum to be held asking the Scottish people as to whether they want an Indy referendum to be held 3years from that date. If the referendum takes place and the answer is Yes, independence. If it is no another ‘asking ‘ referendum takes place in 10 years after that date.

Delighted to hear other ideas.

 

[Bairnardo]

12 minutes ago, Dawson Park Boy said:

You’ve hit the nail on the head.

Even someone like me, a unionist, would love to be able to vote on the basis of socio economic policies rather than constantly worrying about independence.

We need ideas, badly.

Havent thought this through but here’s some ideas.

Indyref2 off the table for at least 10 years at which time a referendum to be held asking the Scottish people as to whether they want an Indy referendum to be held 3years from that date. If the referendum takes place and the answer is Yes, independence. If it is no another ‘asking ‘ referendum takes place in 10 years after that date.

Delighted to hear other ideas.

 

We need ideas apart from ones about independence. Heres my first idea, lets have a referendum about having a referendum about independence 

[Dawson Park Boy]

Apologies for posting my last post on here.

Didnt realise I was on Covid thread.

[Monkey Tennis]

9 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

 

The problem with mixing those up is that you run a very high risk of compromising on who you are to suit other people.

 

Making such compromises is an excellent idea.  Without doing so, we'd be unable to maintain such things as relationships and jobs.

What's so great about "who you are" anyway?  You're sounding a bit like an empowered fifteen year old.

[super_carson]

31 minutes ago, Elixir said:

They are so fucked. It was sore to watch the likes of them and New Zealand appearing 'free' at the height of our restrictions, but I knew that long-term it wasn't sustainable and eventually we would be the ones out of this far sooner than they are. They'll be fighting battles for another year, and even longer if they don't start to accept spread in the community alongside very high vaccine uptake.

We've seen a lot about how amazing New Zealand have been at dealing with this, and in the short term it'd be hard to argue they have significantly outperformed everywhere else in terms of cases, deaths and restrictions.

The problem is that this was never going to be a long term solution. It would have been an absolute blinder had they used the time they bought to vaccinate on the scale that we have, but instead I think that their governments and populations got a bit complacent about their success and viewed lockdowns and zero covid as the only way to go. 

Instead, by making a mess of vaccinations, they have squandered the gains that they made and they're now in the shit. These mental policies are a reaction to that and the fact that they painted themselves into a corner by stating that community transmission would be unacceptable.

Zero covid could only ever work as a temporary fix in lieu of vaccinations.

 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

There's scope for a pro-Indy centrist party which isn't as authoritarian as the SNP.
A party which demonstrates that it is at least listening to the public.
A party which treats us like adults and not children.
There's plenty of scope for policies there and there's no need for any extremism at all.
The Lib Dems and Labour don't service that need.
Neither do the Greens.
Right now we are essentially a one party country and without the list votes, we'd be a virtual dictatorship.

We're not a dictatorship but a hegemony.

[Marshmallo]

14 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

He's teetering on the edge of my Ignore List. Borderline unreadable on General Nonsense.

Bit the bullet on this one just there. Can only improve my reading of The Forum, even if he'll be quoted regularly due to his high frequency, low quality output.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

There's scope for a pro-Indy centrist party which isn't as authoritarian as the SNP.
A party which demonstrates that it is at least listening to the public.
A party which treats us like adults and not children.
There's plenty of scope for policies there and there's no need for any extremism at all.
The Lib Dems and Labour don't service that need.
Neither do the Greens.
Right now we are essentially a one party country and without the list votes, we'd be a virtual dictatorship.

What. A. Fucking. Spanner.

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

Bit the bullet on this one just there. Can only improve my reading of The Forum, even if he'll be quoted regularly due to his high frequency, low quality output.

I know you won't see this, but thank you anyway. My dotting average will improve immeasurably. 

[Monkey Tennis]

4 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

And with that incredibly ironic response I'll leave it there.

Incredibly ironic?   Vacuous individualism has less appeal for some of us.

That's all.

[Wee Bully]

22 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

Bit the bullet on this one just there. Can only improve my reading of The Forum, even if he'll be quoted regularly due to his high frequency, low quality output.

Wow.  What a strange little man. 

[strichener]

Has someone moved the COVID thread from GN into the politics forum?

Edited August 7, 2021 by strichener

[NotThePars]

6 hours ago, Abdul_Latif said:

Their primary function of achieving independence is being watered down by the need to administer a government, which they are failing to do effectively. Because of this they risk losing supporters who have life long followed them due to Indy campaigning. This group of people are waking up and simply cannot accept the SNPs level of incompetence at government level.

It’s taken some time, much longer than I thought it might, but the honeymoon appears to be over and without a big shake from top to bottom and new dynamic leadership etc, I can see membership reducing in larger numbers than they would like.

These people are not going to abandon politics, nor their quest for Indy, but they need a new vehicle for it. What that looks like, well that’s still to be seen, but it’s certainly not Alba or a reincarnation of a hardcore Socialist party.

What are the numbers here? Genuine question because the SNP have just scooshed their way into government again.

[Lyle Lanley]

 

YAS

Edited August 7, 2021 by Lyle Lanley

[superbigal]

Daily Cases Update:  That is us as low as we may get now for a few weeks. Cases on the rise again in Scotland and in England. The new normal bottom line will range from 145 to 160 cases per 100K   England looks to bottom out at closer to 300. 

Cases will rise again with the pathetic circa 2,000 daily 1st vaccinations, which is hugely less than 1% of unvaccinated under 40s.  Europe is having more success in jagging young people. Even England is having about a 50% more success rate in the last few weeks.  Who are these 355,000 ?  

17 of the councils are within 15% above or 15% below the current average figure.  With very few restrictions the virus should be pretty much equal everywhere. 

Figures for Jags where 1st Vaccines went  from 2209 to 2,202   Still circa 355,000 to go.  2nd vaccines 17,266 to 19,172   

Total Cases Scotland 7 days from 29th July to 4th August  were 7,784 now 7,802 up 0.23%.  Positivity was 5.6%  now 5.6%.   Cases per 100k were 142.4 now 142.7

Home Nations Daily update  :  UK Average  268.7 to 268.6 down 0.04%, England  282.1 to 282.2 up 0.04%, Wales 141.5 to 141.4 down 0.07%, Northern Ireland  445.3 to 440.0 down 1.19%

In Europe for travellers  Spain is top at  308.5 to 301.6,  France 236.3 to 237.5, Ireland 179.5 to 185.1, Greece 182.9 to 183.7, Portugal 162.7 to 160.6, These are the only main countries over 110 cases per 100K

Scotland peaks in Wave 3 at 425.1 for 27th June to 3rd July, (UK was 229.9) . Cases that day were 23,222 and positivity 10.8%

Scotland previously peaked in wave 2 at 301.9 for figures 29th Dec to 4th Jan, (UK was 642.1)    Cases that day were 16,496 and test positivity rate was 11.9%  

Council progress in last 24 Hours as follows.

Click cases by neighbourhood to see the spread on the geographical map. 
https://public.tableau.com/profile/phs.covid.19#!/vizhome/COVID-19DailyDashboard_15960160643010/Overview

South Lanarkshire 205.4 to 201.4 

North Ayrshire    188.5  to 198.1 3rd large rising day in a row

North Lanarkshire  191.7 to 190.2

West Dunbartonshire   186.8 to 183.4

West Lothian   183.9 to 181.7

Midlothian   180.4 to 171.8  

East Lothian    159.4 to 162.2 

Inverclyde  188.2 to 160.9  Down 25% in 2 days.

Fife   154.0 to 155.0

Glasgow City    153.4 to 150.9

Dumfries & Galloway   147.0 to 148.4

Renfrewshire  138.8 to 143.8

East Dunbartonshire    144.4 to 140.7

City Of Edinburgh  139.9  to 139.9 

East Renfrewshire    127.0 to 138.5 

East Ayrshire   123.4 to 137.3

Dundee City  127.7 to 129.7  

Scottish  Borders   117.1 to 126.7  

Stirling   136.1  to 124.4

Aberdeen City   130.1 to 122.2

South Ayrshire 128.4 to 122.2

Aberdeenshire   100.1 to 110.8  

Highlands 93.4 to 104.1

Falkirk   98.4 to 98.4  

Clackmannanshire    122.8 to 97.5 Down another 25%

Argyll & Bute  94.8 to 97.2

Western Isles   86.8 to 94.3  

Angus    91.5 to 88.1   

Perth & Kinross   81.0 to 87.6

Moray    71.0 to 77.3

Shetland Islands  65.6 to 70.0

Orkney Islands  22.3 to 31.3

Edited August 7, 2021 by superbigal

[101]

Obviously it's easy to write off anti Vax people as complete and utter moon howlers but part of the post covid work has to be protecting free speech but removing dangerous content and promoting proper critical thinking skills.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Obviously it's easy to write off anti Vax people as complete and utter moon howlers but part of the post covid work has to be protecting free speech but removing dangerous content and promoting proper critical thinking skills.

This is my favourite one so far