General Chat

The (deputy) chief medical officer for England, Jenny Harries.

Before lockdown she backed Johnson’s plan not to ban large gatherings, noting: “We’ve looked at what sorts of interventions might help manage this as we go forward, push the peak of the epidemic forward, and in general, those sorts of events and big gatherings are not seen to be something which is going to have a big effect. So we don’t want to disrupt people’s lives.”

She defended a fatal halt to tracking and tracing: “There comes a point in a pandemic where that is not an appropriate intervention.” She called the UK “an international exemplar in preparedness” and told doctors to have a “more adult” conversation about the lack of PPE.

She reiterated advice that it was “very unlikely” care homes would be infected.

She still appears regularly at the daily briefings.

To give her her correct title she is deputy chief medical officer.

Corrected.

She is probably being lined up as a scapegoat if the situation gets really bad. Same goes for Matt Hancock.

Hindsight is 20/20 :-0

You’d think they would have had all the answers right at the beginning - seeing as they are experts!!

Sorry, nobody could be an expert on a completely new disease which even now they don't know how it will progress.

Exactly!
My tongue was very firmly in my cheek when I wrote that. I just don’t see the point of haranguing the people who are studying the virus and learning something new every day.

Well they did have all the answers - their own Cygnus report warnings, WHO, experience of the SARS pandemic, the remnants of local govt public health, the sufferings of Italy ... Now Johnson's government is all set for an encore.

Without having a real test, trace, isolate strategy in place ( as in Denmark for instance ) - or even an app - Johnson intends to plough on with winding down the lockdown regardless. A little foresight and taking on warnings from outside of the inner circle would be a good idea if another "spike" is to be avoided. The current spikefor new cases has morphed into a plateau the downside has yet to show up.

Scotland has pretty well distanced itself from London on public health matters. The deepening cracks will be of little help to the Union - which most Tories don't care about in any case.

The French govt is trying to deploy an app "Stop-covid" similar in design to that on trial in the IOW. It has run into the same problems. Nevertheless primary schools in the green zone have reopened.

Not reported in the Telegraph:

'French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer sounded the alarm on Monday, telling French radio RTL that the return has put some children in new danger of contamination [ with 70 cases linked to schools ]. He said the affected seven schools are being closed immediately.

France has a much tougher lockdown policy than the UK. Like the UK it does not have much in the way of TTI except for an app yet to be deployed. The country is divided into a red zone - Paris and the east - and a green zone where junior children have returned to school.

When you say ‘not reported in the Telegraph’ I assume you mean it was reported in the Guardian.

no it was not in the Grauniad. Source RTL RadioTelevisionLuxembourg http://www.rtl.fr
(French only)

Then why single out The Telegraph? In fact it was reported in The Telegraph online, which is where I read it.

I am sick to the back teeth of continued criticism of the Government, it's advisors and every Tom, Dick and Harry who has uttered any 'official' opinion on how to manage the pandemic.

Who on earth would swap places with those in power? I certainly wouldn't for a King's ransom even if I was qualified to do so.

Every country will make mistakes, it's impossible to take the strictest course of action when dealing with a free society. You are juggling personal freedom (demanded by a very vocal minority) with enforced home imprisonment! You aren't going to win over every single person in a quest to curtail the spread.

Let's not even mention businesses failing daily and how defeated those owners feel. If any of us were in retail then we would be crying out for our market place to reopen, if only in a limited fashion.

It's a no win scenario for those in power it seems.

Could not have written it better myself (probably could not have written it as well actually) so thanks Sue for that.

Rollo we do know that in your eyes France can do no wrong. I do wish you had decided to stay there then we would be spared all the anti UK stuff from you.

I agree Sue; they are going to be damned if they do and damned if they don’t but would you want to live in a country where you weren't free to criticise the government?

Analyse yes, by experts in the appropriate field of expertise.

Open criticism by some journalists has been recognised simply as a point scoring exercise and some have been condemned for their endless, pointless questions.

The time for a thorough review will come when all the information has been crunched by academics who understand the raw data and the many strands of society that have suffered in varying degrees.

I have relatives/friends that live in Countries where to demonstrate will win you a prize of a night in the cells, a fine or worse! No I wouldn't swap places lol

Given that the Tories have been in power for the past 10 years there is no reason at all to shed a single tear for the government and its civil service advisors. They have let us down there is no excuse. On top we have the looming disaster of a no deal exit from the EU and the possibility of a good ol' sterling crisis.

current/upcoming expensive white elephants

1. HS2 2. Hinkley Point 3. 5G 4. 4. GWR electrification 5. brexit

are we supposed to say never mind everybody makes mistakes?

I am somewhat surprised that Supercrutch has not noticed the many parallels between the hapless Callaghan government and the current crew.

I’ve given up listening to the questions on the daily update as they ask exactly the same question all the time.

My OH has started downloading some of the statistics to try and get some understanding.

In today's UK serious criticism of the govenment , publicly owned businesses such as the NHS, government contractors ( eg HS2 , NHS ) can very quickly lead to loss of job and punitive consequences for friends, family and colleagues. That can reach as far as civil servant PPS.

Never the most democratic of countries despite its boasting the lights are going out in the UK.

I have worked in some dengerous and extremely undemocratic countries. I have an ongoing conversation with friends in the Middle East right now.

The biggest difference with the UK is that they often imprison and occasionally kill people. The levels of dishonesty are about the same. Dislike of democracy is one of the driving forces behind brexit thouogh using Orwellian logic the opposite is always claimed.

Birds of a feather flock together.
Saudi Arabia China Brunei Trumpland Burma Hungary UK

My last comment because I'm speechless for a change.

Seriously? Putting the UK in the same category as those Countries?

I would laugh if it wasn't so ludicrous!