Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[GTee]

When do we deploy the new variant?

Is that for real. Surely not.

 

 

 

[101]

8 hours ago, Zetterlund said:

It's almost as if pandemic policy was designed not by medical experts but by behavioural scientists.

The exchanges between Hancock and Whitty with the CMO trying to lower the isolation period to 5 days but Hancock saying no because it would make them seem like they have been wrong is absolutely ridiculous way to carry on.

Also it seems that the government is run by WhatsApp messages, which I'm sure is absolutely fine.

[Todd_is_God]

Would not be surprised if these leaks are a big reason NS hastily announced she was going.

[Dons_1988]

The leaks are of zero surprise. If you listened to any of the behavioural psychologists advising government that occasionally appeared on the news during that time, they basically said fear had to be deployed to get compliance. One of them literally said once ‘if the public does not fear for themselves then they have no reason to follow the rules’. 

It doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t have legitimate reasons to act that way but it does mean that unsurprisingly c***s like Hancock were very blasé about manipulating people to go along with such a fundamentally significant intervention from government in their lives. 

This journalist who’s released these is clearly a total moron but I have zero sympathy for that complete boob Hancock who deserves every bit of criticism coming his way. A vile man. 

[Todd_is_God]

32 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

complete boob

[Dons_1988]

11 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

Not the most eloquent but it just fits, in my head anyway. The man is a pathetic boob. 

[LongTimeLurker]

17 hours ago, Elixir said:

The scary thing is, as contemptible and risible as the Conservatives were, Labour and the SNP didn't think they went far enough.

It can never be allowed to happen again.

The whole we care more so we have slightly tighter nanny state restrictions on various low risk activities than they do schtick while all the time keeping the schools open was a complete farce and entirely driven by opinion poll ratings rather than the science involved.

[Michael W]

I'm sure there's more than a bit of selective leaking going on here, given who Oakeshott is, but they back up perfectly the shitshow going on that was on view for all to see. This is of course a government that tied itself in knots with baffling and inconsistent rules. Classics include: you can go to the pub for an alcoholic drink*, but only if a substantial meal** is had, and make sure you wear a mask if you get up and go for a pish. And who could forget Matt Hancock's Thursday Tiers Tombola, where you could tune in to see if you'd been promoted or relegated, though in practice you were there to hear confirmation that you had been relegated.They continually undermined themselves with daftness, inconsistent treatment and fear was really their only weapon. 

*Except for viewers in Scotland

**A Scotch egg would suffice. 

Boris Johnson seems to be coming out of this lightly so far (probably at Oakeshott"s / The Telegraph's direction), other than for the fact he's been exposed as a Foondy Maths candidate. 

Hancock is away moaning that these disclosures aren't in the public interest, for which I totally disagree. They are contemporaneous records of thw process behind decisions taken by the government and, given the profound ompact these decisions made, they are very much in the public interest. I am sure there is a huge amount of nonsense spraffed on any given government policy, but things like this have immeasurably more impact than deciding to chuck a couple of pennies on fuel duty or whatever. 

Maybe he has indeed fallen victim to an opportunist that's turned on him, but Oakeshott's previous was there for all to see. Hancock is simply being shot with the crows for his association. f**k him. 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Michael W

[vikingTON]

It's of far greater public interest than anything published in his fictional book. 

[scottsdad]

I don't understand why these politicians use Whatsapp to send messages like these. Surely they must know that somewhere, somehow, they might come put. 

I mean, in most workplaces you don't put these opinions and so on in emails. Especially with the chance that someone might put in an FoI request. 

This happened at a previous employer of mine. Early on the senior management started referring to him as X in emails, suspecting he would put in an FoI, which he did. He was sacked for embezzling money and was going down swinging. 

[Wingman]

6 hours ago, Dons_1988 said:

The leaks are of zero surprise. If you listened to any of the behavioural psychologists advising government that occasionally appeared on the news during that time, they basically said fear had to be deployed to get compliance. One of them literally said once ‘if the public does not fear for themselves then they have no reason to follow the rules’. 

It doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t have legitimate reasons to act that way but it does mean that unsurprisingly c***s like Hancock were very blasé about manipulating people to go along with such a fundamentally significant intervention from government in their lives. 

This journalist who’s released these is clearly a total moron but I have zero sympathy for that complete boob Hancock who deserves every bit of criticism coming his way. A vile man. 

Why is she a moron?

It is factual.

[welshbairn]

39 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

I don't understand why these politicians use Whatsapp to send messages like these. Surely they must know that somewhere, somehow, they might come put. 

It was probably partly to do with many of them working from home during lockdown, along with Whatsapp being encrypted and nobody thinking anyone could be daft enough to hand them all aver to a journalist with a track record of betraying her sources.

[sparky88]

4 hours ago, Wingman said:

Why is she a moron?

It is factual.

Selectively releasing the WhatsApp isn't factual. She might as well make them up. 

Absolutely nothing of interest has been released yet. Not to say it won't of course. 

Edited March 6, 2023 by sparky88

[Todd_is_God]

1 hour ago, sparky88 said:

Selectively releasing the WhatsApp isn't factual. She might as well make them up. 

Absolutely nothing of interest has been released yet. Not to say it won't of course. 

She has handed them all over, has she not? Over 100,000 messages.

It's the media who are drip feeding them.

[GTee]

One of them literally said once ‘if the public does not fear for themselves then they have no reason to follow the rules’. 

I am not sure I understand this. Should the Government who are supposed to be 'looking after' the citizens be deliberately misleading them, to the extent of unnecessarily destroying their livelihoods. 

It's making no sense. 

 

 

[Dons_1988]

8 hours ago, GTee said:

One of them literally said once ‘if the public does not fear for themselves then they have no reason to follow the rules’. 

I am not sure I understand this. Should the Government who are supposed to be 'looking after' the citizens be deliberately misleading them, to the extent of unnecessarily destroying their livelihoods. 

It's making no sense. 

 

 

I’m speculating but the strategy was to make the public want to follow the rules. 

The alternative would be high enforcement which there isn’t enough police to do effectively so you’d be talking about armed forces which is clearly a terrible look in any country, never mind one which is meant to pride itself on democracy etc. 

Instead you make the public 1) fear that they are putting themselves or others at risk and 2) they are part of a collective effort to protect the nhs, which is why you have the extreme romanticising of it all. 

Im not commenting on whether or not this was the right thing to do, I just think the above is what they were thinking. 

[welshbairn]

11 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

She has handed them all over, has she not? Over 100,000 messages.

It's the media who are drip feeding them.

She's working on the Telegraph team who are deciding which ones to drip feed.

[Wingman]

2 hours ago, Dons_1988 said:

I’m speculating but the strategy was to make the public want to follow the rules. 

The alternative would be high enforcement which there isn’t enough police to do effectively so you’d be talking about armed forces which is clearly a terrible look in any country, never mind one which is meant to pride itself on democracy etc. 

Instead you make the public 1) fear that they are putting themselves or others at risk and 2) they are part of a collective effort to protect the nhs, which is why you have the extreme romanticising of it all. 

Im not commenting on whether or not this was the right thing to do, I just think the above is what they were thinking. 

It was absolutely the wrong thing to do specially as covid only affected a small percentage of the population and even there the survival chances were high.

It was complete nonsense and, hopefully, the enquiry, with the help of those messages, will get to the truth.

We should have followed the likes of Sweden which protected their economy, schools and treated the population like adults.

Look at the mess we’re now left with!

Edited March 7, 2023 by Wingman
Spelling

[Zetterlund]

It's also pretty obvious that 'Covid deaths' were recorded in a way intentionally skewed to maximise fear and further compliance.  Deaths from any cause after a positive test is a laughably inaccurate and unreliable method, but was somehow the unquestioned gold standard of statistics around the world.

Having the nation glued to their screens for the daily briefings where these scary numbers were rammed down our throats, you have to hold your hands up to the behavioural psychologists and recognise what a remarkably successful fear campaign the whole chapter was.

[hk blues]

12 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

She has handed them all over, has she not? Over 100,000 messages.

It's the media who are drip feeding them.

Do you think she thought they'd release all 100,000 at once?