Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Todd_is_God]

7 minutes ago, Detournement said:

Antibody testing. 

Then the latter part of my post is relevant

[Todd_is_God]

6 minutes ago, 101 said:

Do you think folk will really want to go back to how things were? I doubt it, a huge number of folk have got used to working from home. Companies will be delighted to downsize their office space. I have already agreed to work 2 days a week in the office when normality returns I know a few people have also done the same.

This would benefit everyone tbh. I can't work from home but do a fair bit of travelling. If people were working from home it would make the drive in to Glasgow or Edinburgh much less painful

[NotThePars]

9 minutes ago, 101 said:

Do you think folk will really want to go back to how things were? I doubt it, a huge number of folk have got used to working from home. Companies will be delighted to downsize their office space. I have already agreed to work 2 days a week in the office when normality returns I know a few people have also done the same.

But agree it would be great for people to shop locally and not use their cars but even a 20% reduction would be a great platform to push on from

Bear in mind the utter shit fit people had when John McDonnell suggested a 4 day working week, a completely reasonable policy suggestion.

[superbigal]

7 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Our boys are taking a hell of a beating. Could have got 21/1 on the opposition 2 days ago, now 0-3. Eh, now 1-2?

HaHa  betting to be investigated.  

[welshbairn]

7 minutes ago, Sport socks and scampi said:

....And that was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Scottish Green Party.    

And people who can't drive.

[NotThePars]

1 minute ago, welshbairn said:

And people who can't drive.

You can just say "gays and goths", it's fine.

[vikingTON]

7 minutes ago, 101 said:

Do you think folk will really want to go back to how things were? I doubt it, a huge number of folk have got used to working from home. Companies will be delighted to downsize their office space. I have already agreed to work 2 days a week in the office when normality returns I know a few people have also done the same.

But agree it would be great for people to shop locally and not use their cars but even a 20% reduction would be a great platform to push on from

Hopefully commuting to some shitey city centre office will become increasingly a thing of the past but we'll have to go much further than that to break the back of the drive everywhere mentality that governments have cultivated for decades. It'll take a lot of sticks (or preferably truncheons) from the state as well as changes in working practices. 

4 minutes ago, Sport socks and scampi said:

....And that was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Scottish Green Party.    

My second vote is most definitely up for grabs next year for any party that takes up that agenda for change and isn't a craven unionist.

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

You can just say "gays and goths", it's fine.

Never seen the point of a car when living in a big city. Even goths and the gays need them in Highland villages though.

[red23]

Sweet! 2bn to be spent on transport changes in England, so glad i can proudly pay towards this along with HS2.

 

 

[NotThePars]

1 minute ago, welshbairn said:

Never seen the point of a car when living in a big city. Even goths and the gays need them in Highland villages though.

Aye, same. I don't have any intention to live anywhere other than a big city either so would support a big clampdown on urban driving.

[cyderspaceman]

23 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Without meaning to give credit to the government as it wasn't planned (or actually, maybe it was), if antibody testing shows there have been millions of infections in the UK already, there will be long term benefits to the UK from completely failing to contain it, vs the likes of New Zealand who contained it extremely well, but now face having to keep their borders closed for quite some time to prevent the inevitable.

Maybe,  but there is, as yet, no proof that being infected confers immunity.  AFAIK.

[cyderspaceman]

15 hours ago, virginton said:

Hopefully commuting to some shitey city centre office will become increasingly a thing of the past but we'll have to go much further than that to break the back of the drive everywhere mentality that governments have cultivated for decades. It'll take a lot of sticks (or preferably truncheons) from the state as well as changes in working practices. 

My second vote is most definitely up for grabs next year for any party that takes up that agenda for change and isn't a craven unionist.

This.

Technically decades but more like a large chunk of a century. I imagine that you will be well aware that the railway-closing Dr Beeching's boss was Ernest Marples, managing director of Marples Ridgway , the ROAD construction company. 

Funny that, eh?   

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by cyderspaceman
typo

[D.A.F.C]

Use public transport or prepare to move house instead. If there's one beneficial change that should come out of lockdown then it should be a decision to curb private, car use as a daily 'essential' activity and keep traffic levels as low to this base line as possible. Everyday car use should be made prohibitively expensive with tax hikes, while road space is cleared for other users and car parks removed from town and city centres. The enormous reduction in noise, CO2 and small particle pollution over the past seven weeks shouldn't be frittered away by a 'back to normal' attitude.

Road tax and mot plus vat on petrol means easy money for the government though. Not to mention speed cameras for the police.
Car drivers get absolutely smashed for tax despite there being little alternatives.
Scrap cars and bring back electric trains and trams. If there was an alternative I would use it.

[Todd_is_God]

16 minutes ago, cyderspaceman said:

Maybe,  but there is, as yet, no proof that being infected confers immunity.  AFAIK.

I'd say the zero confirmed instances of re-infection anywhere is a good indicator that there is at least short term immunity.

[mizfit]

40 new cases now linked to the South Korean Nightclub breakout.

[101]

30 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

Bear in mind the utter shit fit people had when John McDonnell suggested a 4 day working week, a completely reasonable policy suggestion.

I really do worry that the American way of working yourself to death for no reason is on the increase here, anything that can be done to reverse this is to be welcomed.

32 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

This would benefit everyone tbh. I can't work from home but do a fair bit of travelling. If people were working from home it would make the drive in to Glasgow or Edinburgh much less painful

Even relaxing "core working hours" so that everyone isn't trying to cross the forth between 7 and 8. The past few days I've been driving into Edinburgh the bridge has been busy by lockdown standards but it's mainly commercial vehicles, very few private cars.

25 minutes ago, virginton said:

Hopefully commuting to some shitey city centre office will become increasingly a thing of the past but we'll have to go much further than that to break the back of the drive everywhere mentality that governments have cultivated for decades. It'll take a lot of sticks (or preferably truncheons) from the state as well as changes in working practices. 

My second vote is most definitely up for grabs next year for any party that takes up that agenda for change and isn't a craven unionist.

Anything that allows people to spend more time doing the stuff they like rather than working has to be better for everyone but it needs a whole policy change like you say.

[Falcor Roar]

Myself and my partner both work in the public sector. She is working as a nurse in Peterhead now. Her shifts start half an hour before the first bus arrives in town. We will never discourage private car usage until the public sector actually takes a lead on the issue and thinking becomes joined up. Living in a Tory voting backwater certainly doesn't help.

Compare us to the Germans. New developments are all connected through transport corridors. Many of them also have electric car sharing schemes. There is far too much emphasis on the individual in this country. 

 

 

[vikingTON]

10 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

Road tax and mot plus vat on petrol means easy money for the government though. Not to mention speed cameras for the police.
Car drivers get absolutely smashed for tax despite there being little alternatives.
Scrap cars and bring back electric trains and trams. If there was an alternative I would use it.

Car drivers have benefited from an effective freeze on most taxes - above all fuel duty - for roughly a decade now by a government that has shat itself at the prospect of putting their noses out of joint. Compare and contrast with the above rate of inflation, set in stone fare increases on the railways and the complete decimation of bus services up and down the country. Despite this, motorists in the UK continue to peddle a laughable sense of injustice that wouldn't be out of place in the Falkirk boardroom right now.

Car driving is nowhere near as expensive as it should be: public transport should be far the more economical choice in every part of the country and yet that isn't close to being the case.

[Todd_is_God]

Public transport is extortionate and stuck 40 years in the past.

If the government are serious about people using public transport more in today's 24/7 society, Sunday Services need to go and the serious lack of overnight services needs addressing.

It will never happen though as the Unions will tell them to GTF

[welshbairn]

34 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

Aye, same. I don't have any intention to live anywhere other than a big city either so would support a big clampdown on urban driving.

The odd time you need a car for a trip that public transport doesn't provide you can just hire one, much cheaper than owning it.