Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Elixir]

2 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

10 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

Could it not be he needs to convince foreign governments / airlines / unions / lovejoys that they are no longer needed?

That's not what they've been leaking though - no PCR tests but we'll still have the charade of LFTs.

If they keep that utter nonsense then it's still not in line with the EU and many people won't want to run the risk of testing positive abroad and being fucked. There's also the total inconvenience of fannying about for shit like that when you're meant to be away enjoying yourself - especially on a three or four day city break. Impractical and pointless. If it remains we'll continue to lag the EU and US.

[GTee]

1 hour ago, Frankie S said:

As we all knew, the suggestion that the Tories would introduce vaccine passports for nightclubs, concerts and sporting events in England was just a rouse to incentivise under the younger generation to get vaccinated.

And to the surprise of exactly no-one, Sturgeon and the Scottish government, ably backed by Patrick Harvie and his cronies, who are lodged so far up Sturgeon’s arse you’d need a proctologist to find them, took this at face value, and, confronted with the prospect of being seen to be less cautious than the ‘reckless Tories’, u-turned on their high-minded (and entirely accurate) pronouncements about the essential illiberalism and discriminatory nature of vaccine passports and simply passed the economic burden of incentivising vaccine take-up amongst the young squarely onto the business community, as usual.

Making Scottish businesses carry the can for the failure of government policy is par for the course for this administration. No arbitrary and punitive restrictions on selected business sectors without compensation should be the mantra in a free society, but isn’t in Scotland, as Sturgeon has already characterised nightclubs, the events sector and the live music industry as ‘less essential’ than other sectors of the economy. Presumably the jobs of the hundreds of thousands of (mainly young) people employed by these sectors are ‘less essential’ too.

In other words, ‘furlough is ending, we don’t have any more money, and we’re making you carry the can, so suck it up.’

Vaccine passports are simply another example of the stigmatisation of the young and their leisure pursuits as reckless and irresponsible; another example of a dismally incompetent government scapegoating and disproportionately punishing the younger generation, and the businesses that cater to them and overwhelmingly employ them.

The advent of illiberalism; the casual curtailment of civil liberties; the arbitrary restriction and marginalisation of businesses; the relentless mission creep of the new authoritarianism; the seemingly endless perpetuation and normalisation of ‘emergency’ governmental powers, all emanating largely from the self-styled ‘progressive’ end of the Scottish political spectrum, seems to be the abiding residue of the pandemic. This is the deeply dystopian reality of Scotland’s ‘new normal’.

Aye, bitty dramatic like.

[Lyle Lanley]

Boris to announce there will be no more lockdowns and he’s expected to argue in parliament and in a press conference the UK must live with Covid. 

[Dawson Park Boy]

3 hours ago, TheBruce said:

NHS was fucked pre Covid and well fucked during it. No way are we getting through this winter without more restrictions. As much as Boris will deny now. Big u turn coming down the pipe, as he does.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/13/bma-issue-damning-critique-uk-government-covid-crisis-pandemic-nhs

 

 

Interesting survey just out showing during the pandemic over 20% of people were forced to go private to get the treatment they needed.

Eventually the old fashioned law of ‘supply and demand’ will sort this out and the private healthcare sector will soar as people seek the service they demand. 
It’s a bit like the old days when you had to wait 6months to get a phone installed by the state system. The public demand better thus the advent of the private sector.
Fortunately, I have not had to use it recently but I’m certainly retaining my private health insurance as a fall- back position if required.

[Guest]

NHS was fucked pre Covid and well fucked during it. No way are we getting through this winter without more restrictions. As much as Boris will deny now. Big u turn coming down the pipe, as he does.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/13/bma-issue-damning-critique-uk-government-covid-crisis-pandemic-nhs
 
 

So what's your suggestion, Lockdown the whole country every winter?

[Hedgecutter]

6 hours ago, Lyle Lanley said:

Boris to announce there will be no more lockdowns

Fairly sure he said that about tax rises too.

[Abdul_Latif]

36 minutes ago, TheBruce said:

You only lockdown when its needed and not hard to work out when ie as always in the government position to protect the NHS. That has never changed and never will, which again will make Blojo look like the idiot he is on his next u turn.

The stories above clearly show the NHS is fucked and no way getting fixed before this winter or the next if ever.

Services cant cope now even with most vaxxed, so no chance in winter.

This clusterfuck is not about Covid and all about the inability of the NHS to cope pre Covid, far less now.

The immediate concern is not Covid sufferers, but all the poor b*****ds who cannot get treatment for other critical illnesses. The country is one under resourced, under funded mess, not fit for purpose across the public services, both north and south of the border.

 

The NHS is not going back to how people expect it to be. In years to come it’ll be emergency / essential treatment only and the average punter will have private healthcare in place for additional services.

On that basis and to hurry the situation along, there’s not gonna be any lockdown to protect the NHS, as cutting of the wider services they provide over this winter and beyond is what will soon be the norm in any case.

[superbigal]

When GPs get over their strange fear of actually seeing people, and not using remote services that actually use up more time and resource. Some bottle necks further down the line may ease.
I'm not sure how they have managed to get away with this model for so long, when dentistry which is far more dangerous, returned to face to face a year ago with mitigation.

[Detournement]

We'll see what happens with passports in England. The government need Tory MPs to vote for extending the emergency powers in the next week or so this has been done to placate them.

Javid may well be against them as he is very close to GOP right wing types in America who are all dead against it. Boris seems to have chucked being PM so Javid might be thinking about a Tory leadership election in the near future. 

[Detournement]

18 minutes ago, superbigal said:

When GPs get over their strange fear of actually seeing people, and not using remote services that actually use up more time and resource. Some bottle necks further down the line may ease.
I'm not sure how they have managed to get away with this model for so long, when dentistry which is far more dangerous, returned to face to face a year ago with mitigation.

It's not really a mystery. Dentists get paid per patient so they don't have any choice. 

[Guest]

Not enough money to fund the NHS appropriately but enough money for trams, trident and HS2. It's almost as if the Tories want the NHS to struggle so they can justify privatising it, what they've wanted to do for years.

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

31 minutes ago, Detournement said:

We'll see what happens with passports in England. The government need Tory MPs to vote for extending the emergency powers in the next week or so this has been done to placate them.

Javid may well be against them as he is very close to GOP right wing types in America who are all dead against it. Boris seems to have chucked being PM so Javid might be thinking about a Tory leadership election in the near future. 

The Tories are backtracking already on what Javid said yesterday. The official line this morning is that the idea of vaccine passports is still 'open'. 

For those wanking themselves into a frenzy yesterday about Westminster throwing away restrictions while Scotland imposes them, just remember that the Tories are the ultimate populist government.....they'll say something today to please certain people, and then they'll say the opposite tomorrow to please others. 

The last 18 months, they've backtracked so often they've turned themselves inside out a dozen times. And they are barefaced about it all. What does a promise matter when we can turn it into a lie within 10 minutes ? Who cares ?

 

 

[Billy Jean King]

Therese Coffey not exactly toeing the Javid line on her TV interviews this morning.

[Billy Jean King]

The Tories are backtracking already on what Javid said yesterday. The official line this morning is that the idea of vaccine passports is still 'open'. 
For those wanking themselves into a frenzy yesterday about Westminster throwing away restrictions while Scotland imposes them, just remember that the Tories are the ultimate populist government.....they'll say something today to please certain people, and then they'll say the opposite tomorrow to please others. 
The last 18 months, they've backtracked so often they've turned themselves inside out a dozen times. And they are barefaced about it all. What does a promise matter when we can turn it into a lie within 10 minutes ? Who cares ?
 
 

Yes these are not policy announcements they are classic elbow in the babies bathwater stuff. It also makes a total fool of the Patsy put up to do the rollback, in the case Therese Coffee.

[Abdul_Latif]

11 minutes ago, Bob Mahelp said:

just remember that the Tories are the ultimate populist government.....they'll say something today to please certain people, and then they'll say the opposite tomorrow to please others.

And how is that in any way different to the SG sending Swinney out as a patsy, then backtracking once they realise his proposal wouldn’t be accepted by the electorate?

All Governments are trying to please the people (or at least a significant percentage). It’s the only way they stay in government and you are deluded if you think the SNP, or any other party have any more integrity than the Tories in that regard.

[djchapsticks]

6 minutes ago, TheBruce said:

People just can't see past their political colour of choice and the selfish, but what about me and will just defend the indefendible as the polarisation of opinion reflects.

This all should be about doing the right thing, but self entitlement and ignorance prevents it.  

The reality is, the NHS can't cope. The reality is there has been 41 variants in the last year, of which ten are on the watch list as being possible to bypass vaxxing. One South African variant in particular more dangerous and contagious than anything previous. The reality is Covid continues to spread and kill. Maybe not in the numbers as previous, but we do not know what variant will hit us next and will we be prepared? One could be left wondering that some are even prepared to see loved ones die. Ah but, we need to get to some shite hole in Turkey for our hols. Oh and the price of them pcr's ffs! Beggars belief, but unsurprising as where we are now at as a species.

Meanwhile millions with critical non covid illness are being left undiagnosed or untreated and many are dying. This is NOT down to those who might be supportive of mask wearing, but ALL down to government neglect and incompetence. However not that the uber staunch would have sympathy with any of it, because me me me is a steep hurdle to get over.

 

We get it, you've made your point. You're the protagonist of this story, everyone else is a c**t. 

[NorthernLights]

10 minutes ago, TheBruce said:

People just can't see past their political colour of choice and the selfish, but what about me and will just defend the indefendible as the polarisation of opinion reflects.

This all should be about doing the right thing, but self entitlement and ignorance prevents it.  

The reality is, the NHS can't cope. The reality is there has been 41 variants in the last year, of which ten are on the watch list as being possible to bypass vaxxing. One South African variant in particular more dangerous and contagious than anything previous. The reality is Covid continues to spread and kill. Maybe not in the numbers as previous, but we do not know what variant will hit us next and will we be prepared? One could be left wondering that some are even prepared to see loved ones die. Ah but, we need to get to some shite hole in Turkey for our hols. Oh and the price of them pcr's ffs! Beggars belief, but unsurprising as where we are now at as a species.

Meanwhile millions with critical non covid illness are being left undiagnosed or untreated and many are dying. This is NOT down to those who might be supportive of mask wearing, but ALL down to government neglect and incompetence. However not that the uber staunch would have sympathy with any of it, because me me me is a steep hurdle to get over.

 

You aren't referring to the Beta variant are you? Just wait until you hear about Delta, it will blow your mind.

[Jacksgranda]

23 hours ago, strichener said:

I thought this was a public health issue not a case of have we managed to dupe more of the population. 

With the likes of you signing their praises it is no wonder that they are winning the popularity contest whilst imposing needless and no doubt costly impositions on people.  Oh, and allowing more of their population to die than other developed nations.

Never mind, it is only really killing the old and they are more likely to be unionist.  Win win.

What an arse you are making of yourself over this.  Day after day, post after post.

I think it's commendable he's reaching out to the deaf community...

[Michael W]

The health budget was just over 25% of the total UK tax take in 2019/20. In 2020/21 it was a lot higher due to a big increase in spending a sharp reduction in tax revenues. We'll go with 25% since 2020/21 is an outlier. 

UK tax takes - https://www.statista.com/statistics/284298/total-united-kingdom-hmrc-tax-receipts/

UK spending - https://www.statista.com/statistics/301992/health-spending-uk/

It always comes back to the NHS being underfunded and under resourced, but how much money does it need? Is the NI increase going to cut it? It doesn't seem like it will given that money is changing to a ring-fenced social care levy after two years. So then what do we do - are we just going to wave our hands and say it's fucked again, better raise another tax? 

On the resourcing point, the NHS has over 1.3m employees  (over 1.19m FTE). We are always hearing about shortages and the waiting lists would back this up even before covid hit, but how many employees does it need? I know it's not as simple as that as the figure includes many, many people that are not clinicians or medical staff, but you start to question what staffing level is adequate. The UK total workforce is just under 31m, so 4% of the UK workforce is employed by the NHS. One in 25 people in Britain is employed by the NHS - why on earth isn't that enough? It ought to be. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/281998/employment-figures-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics/may-2021

So, 25% of the tax take the country brings in and also 4% of its workforce. That should be more than enough to sustain a workable system and it seems inexcusable, frankly, that this isn't enough. We need to have a serious conversation about exactly what the NHS needs to function because its resources certainly seem like they ought to be sufficient, but they're not. This will never happen, though, because everyone gets far too defensive when the NHS is criticised and a whole load of strawman arguments about Americans going bust because of healthcare bills will be raised. Fine if we're arguing it should be abolished, but anyone doing so is acting from a very fringe perspective. Saying we should give it more money and hire more nurses is the simple way of avoiding this difficult conversation. 

I value the NHS, don't get me wrong, but object to the way that it appears to be sacrosanct. Criticising it is, in some quarters, the closest thing we now have in the UK to blasphemy. 

Edited September 13, 2021 by Michael W

[ICTChris]

The UK government has terminated an agreement for the Valneva vaccine, currently being manufractued in Livingston.  There were around 100m doses on order, the UKG allege a breach of the agreement, which Valneva deny.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/13/uk-cancels-covid-vaccine-deal-french-firm-valneva