Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[FFCinthearea]

Just now, Todd_is_God said:

I agree. I pretty much watch for the figures then zone out.

The questions are pointless as they are very repetitive, and the vast majority of what NS says after delivering the figures is pointless as, even if there were no cases for days, nothing would change before the next review date.

Exactly its perm any 4 from five every day and it's becoming like bingo.

"will make an announcement tomorrow"

"incredibly difficult time for [insert blank]"

"thanks to key workers"

"must be cautious"

Same stuff every day.  

 

[ICTJohnboy]

2 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I agree. I pretty much watch for the figures then zone out.

The questions are pointless as they are very repetitive, and the vast majority of what NS says after delivering the figures is pointless as, even if there were no cases for days, nothing would change before the next review date.

 

It's more interesting than usual today, given the number of questions coming in from journalists from London based papers given concerns being expressed my many as to whether English visitors to Scotland might have to  be quarantined.

[Dan Steele]

12 minutes ago, FFCinthearea said:

Everything she comes out with could be summed up easily in a quarter page press release and the only real benefit she's providing is a bit of w**k material for her admirers.

Or, of course, having the guts to stand up and show some semblance of being in control and showing how a leader should behave in a major world crisis. Unlike the disappearing Johnson who seems to think this week he's FDR, or the de facto leader Cummings and his Barnard Castle fiasco.

[Todd_is_God]

7 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Its clearly different strategies (and aims) either side of the border.

One's working, one isnt.

It depends what you mean by 'working'

In terms of getting down the road back to normality and getting the economy moving, the English approach is working.

Cases and deaths are also coming down alongside this.

Yes they have a localised outbreak, but there is nothing to suggest that won't happen here at somepoint, particularly once tourism starts, and visitors from outwith Scotland come here.

[Todd_is_God]

4 minutes ago, ICTJohnboy said:

It's more interesting than usual today, given the number of questions coming in from journalists from London based papers given concerns being expressed my many as to whether English visitors to Scotland might have to  be quarantined.

It's not really, though.

That question was answered yesterday. "No plans but not ruling anything out."

Asking it over and over with slightly different wording is not going to get a soundbite out of NS - She's far too good at what she does to fall in to that trap.

[ICTJohnboy]

3 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

It's not really, though.

That question was answered yesterday. "No plans but not ruling anything out."

Asking it over and over with slightly different wording is not going to get a soundbite out of NS - She's far too good at what she does to fall in to that trap.

 

I missed it yesterday. 

Was the cluster that has broken out in Dumfries and Annan discussed yesterday?

[pandarilla]

Tesco staff are the worse for it.
Dobbies you will find the pensioners are not like this.
 

[emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]
Jeezo mate, you like to hold a grudge, don't you. That can't be good for your blood pressure.

When talking about pacing, we should ignore focusing solely on England, and look at ourselves.
Based purely on the Scottish figures we should be further down the road to recovery than we are.
Despite averaging less than 10 cases per day, we still cannot go out for a coffee and a cake or visit a friend indoors...

I get why she's still being really cautious - and I'm ok with it.

The blended plan for schools returning was quite clearly never going to work (unless the virus took hold again in a big way). Folk need childcare, and kids need normality, and August 11th is still a long way away yet.

So she's hammering the virus down as much as possible, to make sure that schools can go back full time in August. That's a really big goal and if they can do that it'll make a difference (look at how the English schools have been handled - that's really all over the shop).

She's banking on Scotland being able to ease restrictions without any backward steps, like what's happening down south.

Now the problem is obviously that every week we're still heavily restricted, our economy tanks even further. It's a very difficult balance, and i certainly trust sturgeon more than the fannies in Westminster.

[H Wragg]

It's not really, though.
That question was answered yesterday. "No plans but not ruling anything out."
Asking it over and over with slightly different wording is not going to get a soundbite out of NS - She's far too good at what she does to fall in to that trap.

How did she answer the question today, out of interest?

Did she expand at all on what she said yesterday?

[Todd_is_God]

Just now, H Wragg said:

How did she answer the question today, out of interest?

Did she expand at all on what she said yesterday?

I don't really know tbh. I was making lunch.

The general gist I did hear was similar, and stating that nothing she does or doesn't do on this is political.

[Robin.Hood]

4 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

Jeezo mate, you like to hold a grudge, don't you. That can't be good for your blood pressure.
 

All good here. Week off in this beautiful weather. 

[ICTJohnboy]

1 minute ago, H Wragg said:

How did she answer the question today, out of interest?

Did she expand at all on what she said yesterday?

 

Talk of a cross border cluster monitoring system being put into operation, around concerns in Dumfries and Galloway.

[bendan]

47 minutes ago, The Skelpit Lug said:

Or, of course, having the guts to stand up and show some semblance of being in control and showing how a leader should behave in a major world crisis. Unlike the disappearing Johnson who seems to think this week he's FDR, or the de facto leader Cummings and his Barnard Castle fiasco.

Are there any world leaders doing daily press conferences answering the same questions over and over again? I can understand why she's doing it, but I don't think it's a necessary part of a proper response to this.

[Mark Connolly]

3 minutes ago, bendan said:

Are there any world leaders doing daily press conferences answering the same questions over and over again? I can understand why she's doing it, but I don't think it's a necessary part of a proper response to this.

Absolute stick on that she'd be accused of hiding something if they decided to stop them though.

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, Todd_is_God said:

When talking about pacing, we should ignore focusing solely on England, and look at ourselves.

Based purely on the Scottish figures we should be further down the road to recovery than we are.

Despite averaging less than 10 cases per day, we still cannot go out for a coffee and a cake or visit a friend indoors...

Are you related to @pozbaird?

[bendan]

2 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Absolute stick on that she'd be accused of hiding something if they decided to stop them though.

I'm not so sure - is anyone else still doing them? At the very least, she could delegate a bit more.

[Jacksgranda]

Talking to our neighbour, the one with the throat cancer and the bad foot.

He's getting a telephone consultation on his throat cancer next Monday, don't see how that's going to work, and neither does he. Makes me grateful that my treatment can be adminstered by my doctor's surgery.

Regarding his foot, he was asked to provide a photo - which his daughter organised - and he's got an appointment for October. "We saw you in March." "Aye, March 2019." By the time he gets his October appointment it will 39 months since this problem started. He's currently cleaning and dressing his foot himself rather than go to the surgery, he's probably better at it by now than the practice nurses are.

Completely unrelated, I put diesel in the car today for the first time since March, 40.00 quids worth, should keep me going to near Christmas, by the look of things...

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by Jacksgranda
grandma

[Gordon EF]

On the topic of cross-border quarantine. I'd be happy to move the border up to allow the Borders and D&G to form a little Tory bubble with England.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Gordon EF

[Ross.]

Face masks mandatory on public transport here from Monday onwards.

My work have also made it mandatory for all Swiss based staff to download the governments track and trace app.

[ICTJohnboy]

7 minutes ago, Gordon EF said:

On the topic of cross-border quarantine. I'd be happy to move the border up to allow the Borders and D&G to form a little Tory bubble with England.

 

Great idea! Hopefully it could happen sometime soon.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-29273340

[John MacLean]

While England and Scotland take different approaches to the move out of Lockdown, or at the very least move at a different paces, then I think it is important that we continue to get a Scottish Government daily update even as repetitive as they are becoming. 

I was worried at the time that the approaches in England and Scotland first started to diverge that people would take their lead from a very English centric broadcast media* with the result that the differences in Scotland's approach wouldn't be as visible and as a consequence, intentionally or not, ignored. 

I don't think that has happened largely because of these daily briefings. They have helped highlight the fact there is a different road map being followed in Scotland than there is in England. That's not to say that one is better than the other, just that there is a need for those differences be as clearly articulated as possible. 

If they stopped doing them now then it would be the English narrative that would dominate and as a result could lead to a potential increase in non-compliance with restriction measures still in place in Scotland but not in England. 

*An example of why broadcasting should have been a devolved issue.