ForenSix Opposition - Politics in the Soon To Be Former UK in Autumn 2020

Nothing is going to dent the spread in Kent if nothing changes with schools, manual jobs and prisons tbh. This started during the last national lockdown.

How much worse could it have been even if the UK had an anti-vax anti-lockdown headcase running the show, like Bolsonaro. Probably a bit worse, but maybe not that much. A memorable quote from a Brazilian health care worker could just as easily apply to the UK. Although at the time that regime had sacked their equivalent of Hancock and didn't bother replacing them, but the health worker said working in such chaos was like doing maintenence to an aeroplane while it was flying.

not sure how the school testing works in terms of "what if kids refuse a test, surely they have a right to refuse?" and especially for special schools where i'm told they'll be getting the test too, which is sure to be calmly and quietly accepted by autistic kids and others with learning disabilities.

It only took me about ten years to get Alex used to anual flu vaccinations, but not everyone is as *easy* as him!

my daughter was explaining how they've been told it's "going to work", pretty sure it's not going to work, she was looking forward to getting bitten tho

Sheppey East is at 2668 cases per 100k this week. It also has three prisons iirc. I’ve heard next to nothing about the prison situation in the press.

jfc

lol, we’re up 95% in a week to 1,100 too.

when we were uk number one we were something like 780-odd

I wonder whether France will ban freight as well as passengers. I wouldn’t be massively keen on trucks coming in from Kent at the moment.

Ok, France has already suspended freight for 48 hours. Going to need that chips and toast Mail article sooner than expected.

Might be a good time to consider deferring the end of the transition period yet again…

Incredible how Brexit and covid are converging like this.

Sheppey East is at 2668 cases per 100k this week. It also has three prisons iirc. I’ve heard next to nothing about the prison situation in the press.

― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Sunday, 20 December 2020 bookmarkflaglink

there's been a very big increase in infections in east london/kent/essex, which the government has blamed on a new virus strain rather than a lot of "essential workers" living there, their own incompetence, etc

— joolsd (@joolsd) December 20, 2020

Also if the government listened to the teaching unions and maybe had a different plan for schools but hey they've been defeated so I guess er, enjoy?

Might be a good time to consider deferring the end of the transition period yet again…

Has any of this "new strain" been verified with any credibility whatsover?

I don’t doubt there is a new strain but there hasn’t been any firm evidence presented about the increased transmission potential, as far as I know.

The proportion of essential workers in Kent is a factor but hasn’t changed from the first wave. The big difference is schools. Sheppey’s rate has been climbing since they reopened.

I don't particularly doubt the strain's existence. Questions are what was done about it when it's existence was discovered in late September or why wasn't the November lockdown extended when scientists were tracking the high transmission to this strain? XP yeah 11-16 is the demographic that's getting it this time.

would chris whitty cape for the government?

that boat sailed on june 23rd iirc. a massive blunder given the circumstances.

There are ways of bypassing that, supposedly, none of them straightforward:

https://www.euronews.com/2020/12/09/can-the-post-brexit-transition-period-be-extended-and-if-not-why-not

URGENT: UK-France border closes 23:00 GMT tonight. Last shuttle UK-FR is 21:34 GMT, please check in on time. Access to UK site prohibited from 22:00 GMT.

Amend most bookings using MyEurotunnel: https://t.co/J4wvRBWE64

Request a cancellation/refund: https://t.co/yYTXGiCH4s pic.twitter.com/7qzqEgfQ2A

— Eurotunnel Le Shuttle (@LeShuttle) December 20, 2020

EU source tells me they just don't know how serious this new strain is, but for the moment they have to take the British prime minister at his word that it is dangerous enough to ban all travel from the UK.

— Dave Keating (@DaveKeating) December 20, 2020

Hopefully there has been some pre-Brexit stockpiling going on as last time it snowed heavily shops were bare in three days.

What was the co-orperation between UK and euro scientists to try and understand this strain? Now there is this potential for what could be overreaction.

we need a convenient excuse to cancel the christmas we should have cancelled two weeks ago, don't worry no-one abroad follows our press and definitely won't hear about this and will keep their borders open

tfw nothing, absolutely nothing, is going right.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-norfolk-55376683?

au contraire, that's a venerable tradition upheld

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/695/cpsprodpb/15C8C/production/_116182298_mediaitem116181084.jpg

lol this Ebeneezer is the funniest thing I've seen all day!

Yeah I was just cracking up at Scrooge.

Honestly if people haven't learned about these things by now they deserve whatever they get

Lol I am just going through that Dave Keating thread.

Given its geography, Ireland's ban is a bit more complicated.

Flights from *Great Britain* are banned, but travel still allowed from Northern Ireland. Ferries will continue to cross the Irish Sea.

Emergency repatriation for Irish residents suddenly trapped in GB. pic.twitter.com/arwtYsK8oL

— Dave Keating (@DaveKeating) December 20, 2020

We've heard so much for decades, especially from the Conservatives about the dangers of "returning to the 1970s". Ironically it could be this moment which has most parallels- with equivalent levels of political peril for the government of the day.

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) December 20, 2020

I vaguely remember the 70's, as grim as it was there might not have been as much cheap food but also there wasn't millions of people using foodbanks, people who needed to sign on didn't have to deal with UC and there was no Rona. It's *funny* thinking that your childhood years were much closer to WW2 than this here now era is to the 70's!

_Might be a good time to consider deferring the end of the transition period yet again…_


that boat sailed on june 23rd iirc. a massive blunder given the circumstances.

Bendy or?

To be clear: German citizens flying in from London have been able to proceed into Berlin. All others without a recent negative test, Brits and others, legal residents or not, in limbo, possibly forced to return to UK.

— Tom Nuttall (@tom_nuttall) December 20, 2020

3: We have just learned that there will be no agreement today. Therefore, the European Parliament will not be in a position to grant consent to an agreement this year.

— davidmcallister (@davidmcallister) December 20, 2020

lads, lads, no need to worry, Twitter user nx1987 has a plan to get us out of this

We need #ExtendEUTransition trending to send them a message

— HiS (@nx1977) December 20, 2020

Yes, the EU defer because of twitter trending, also they déposé Bill Bailey from his Strictly win because his partner has won it twice and that's not fair...

Bendy or?

― spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 20 December 2020 22:39 bookmarkflaglink

*very straight bananas*

Coming out of hibernation to speculate:

Have we ("we" - people with vested interests) used this new variant that isn't actually new to create chaos and ensure there's no chance of any last minute EU deal?

good to see you onimo. i think the whole shitshow reflects so badly on the government it’s probably hard to see how this has any desirable impact by anyone’s standards tbh. but other more suspicious people may differ!

can't run out of space at the ports if you just close the ports *taps brane*

Think tbh it has every hallmark of a toad of toad hall genius panic plan to justify the lockdown that was required weeks ago

The knock on effects having not occurred (or not being seen as important) would seem likewise characteristic

yes, my view as well. it has all the hallmarks of a badly run project at work. insufficiently thought through, an overplus of 'how hard can it be' and 'we've got to think positively' people, leading to a last minute chaos of underthought consequences, which pure messaging cannot contain.

Toad Hallmark, obv

https://i.imgur.com/HYNsv6M.png

phew! at least they aren't running out of any proper food!

Nicola Sturgeon going all in behind the UK panic seems odd.
I get that she was never fully on board with the five day kill yr granny for Christmas thing but our cases, prevalence, hospitalisation and death numbers were all going in the right direction without the new measures.
She seems to have latched onto New Variant as an excuse to really screw everything down further. Possibly a good move politically as UK gets more of the blame while keeping the numbers down.

fuck this guy

Pressed again on Brexit, Starmer says: "I don't want an extension, I want the deal."

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) December 21, 2020

surely his focus groups have told him his public image is "whiney ineffectual wanker" by now?