Boris announcing in House of Commons now

Surely the people who flout the rules i.e. crowd together as described, will be the ones getting infected.

Currently, it appears that the highest transmission rates are in schools/universities, followed by workplaces, not social gatherings.

lizziepopbottle
Those are lovely masks Lizzie, did you make them all?
I know people such as those to be found on Gransnet will wear masks as appropriate, but it isn’t those who don’t wear masks that are causing the problem. To be honest, I was speaking to my son in law this weekend, he is a doctor, and he said he is yet to be convinced of the value of wearing a mask. None the less I wear a mask whenever I have to, and any other time that I myself feel it is appropriate and safer. And so does he.

GrannyGravy13

By that reasoning MaizieD perhaps we should all jump on trains and travel round the UK like a Scottish Female MP or travel miles when the whole of the UK was in lockdown like Mr.Kinnock.

There are lots of folks breaking the rules and using Dominic Cummings as an excuse shows the mentality of some!!

Of someone put their hand in the fire, or drunk themselves stupid and took drugs would the rest of the Country follow?

At least the SNP MP, unlike Cummings wife didn’t write an article pretending to be in one place (London) when they were, in fact in Durham. I don’t see how anyone can defend what he did at that time and it’s obvious that by not sacking him Johnson showed himself to be weak and ineffective. Not what you want from a leader during a pandemic.

Ooops, just spotted a typo in my last post. It should read;

......it isn’t those who wear masks......

is what it should read. Sorry.

I think you're bit of whataboutery rather missed the point, GG13. Cummings was at the very heart of the government which made the rules and more than likely helped to formulate them. Then he told a load of lies to excuse himself. Which is more than anyone else accused of rule breaking has done. They've thrown their hands up and said 'It's a fair cop..'

However, the news today that there were not one, but TWO houses built at his parents' property without any planning permission is a fair indication of the mindset that he was brought up with and with which he obviously agrees. Rules are for breaking...

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/18790597.council-tax-payable-dominic-cummings-lockdown-cottage/?fbclid=IwAR0SEOUvN5safWfwIHu1kngZAizlElt3CqrDMke1Fb-3l0i2xOkga-k-2UY

OMG!

your

Im in 'the north'. Everyone in our local supermarket was masked. Our town has high levels, our own area has very very few cases. Go to other areas 3 miles away, masks not worn by certain groups.

I was at the Trafford Centre today. I saw three people not wearing masks, they were in a group and not only not mask wearing, took off their tops in order to try on clothes. All the changing room are of course, closed. Every single other person I saw wore a mask. All staff in every store wore masks.

The Apple shop is now only appointment only to enable staff to fully clean any screens used by customers.

We have areas of poverty, we have multi generations living together. We also have covid compliant, law abiding people, the majority of us. It's grim to keep reading that people in the north won't do as they're told.

I had the pleasure (not), of meeting Boris socially on a number of occasions 20 years ago, at that time he came across as a very academically intelligent man, totally without morals, who blustered and demanded to be the centre of attention. My opinion hasn't changed.

He is so pig headed that he totally ignores all professional advice, refuses to take responsibility for anything, and is totally ignorant. As for his understanding of the needs of 80% of his population, he hasn't a clue! Answer questions? Of course not, he doesn't actually hear the questions. Take professional advice? Only if it fits with his personal views (in other words only if it fits with his lifestyle), he totally lacks empathy of any kind, and his morals are questionable.

Boris is a masterful campaigner, was a good Mayor of London, but he is n o t fit to be a Prime Minister. I feel sorry for him and us.

Do you think the next person would do it better

Anyone could do it better.

No whataboutery just pointing out the obvious.

Until all the people who "don't believe in the virus," have actually been very ill with it, the virus will continue to spread. It is quite amazing how many people seem to think that they are being fooled by the Government who want to control them. Quite honestly, no matter what the rules, these people are going to flout them.
I'm not saying that this Government has got everything right but I do think that this is a difficult problem that no power could easily resolve without mistakes. I'm with LemonGrove, the latest rules are quite easy to understand. I think people just like to have a moan about everything these days and find problems where they don't need to. All the information is being given out on a 24/7 basis through the News channels, the Government web site, etc. There was a huge outcry based on Brexit because our children/grandchildren would have to pay and a Covid Economic crash would impact them just as hard. The Government do not have their own money to bail us out in the case of lockdown. They have our taxes and what they borrow; the latter has to be paid back and the former is not available if people aren't working. There just has to be a more balanced approach than lockdown.

When you have idiots like a guy who was stopped in the street today and asked what he thought of the tier system, and he said he thought it was rubbish because the Government hadn't told us when the pandemic was going to be over .... well, what can you do with people with that mentality?

Sparklefizz we’re doomed

GrannyGravy13

No whataboutery just pointing out the obvious.

Still spectacularly missing the point, GG13

The Government do not have their own money to bail us out in the case of lockdown. They have our taxes and what they borrow; the latter has to be paid back and the former is not available if people aren't working.

With respect, Icanhandthemback, you are wrong. We have a sovereign currency. The government can issue as much of it as it wants. It doesn't have to be 'borrowed' or paid back. We have very little foreign debt and what there is is historic. Since we came off the gold standard in 1971/2 we have had the freedom to issue whatever we want to. I think that the government actually understands that because they are handing out £billions in dodgy contracts and failed test, track & trace, absolutely willynilly.

They just don't want the public to understand it as it will give them an excuse to privatise the NHS and anything else that they can. And to impose austerity and tax increases on us little people who pay taxes... (not the tax evading billionaires, of course)

Much of our so called 'debt' is actually people's savings and investments, by way of bonds, premium bonds and National Savings. The rest is direct funding by the Bank of England. Taxes do help to pay for stuff, but low revenues from taxation aren't critical.

Maybee70 The problem is that there is no-one in the government that could do it better, they are all of them fools and while I have a lot of confidence in Keir Starmer, I have absolutely no confidence in the capabilities of any of the shower of people behind him that can swear allegiance to Jeremy Corbyn and all that went with him one day and completely change their views and direction of travel to swear allegiance to Keir Starmer and his vision for Labour, that is very different to Jeremy Corbyn's the next.

Not at all if sheeple follow someone abusing the rules then they are stupid.

I am not excusing Mr Cummings or any rule breakers by the way, it is just a totally weak excuse to say because so and so did that I can do this

But that’s what stupid people do. And there are a lot of stupid people in this country. Is it right that those who govern us break the rules they set for everyone else?

There is no cure for stupid!

Iam64
Your post demonstrates well two important points. One is that wherever we live, we could be in an area that’s either low, or barely has any Covid cases, whilst a few miles down the road, Covid can be rampant. And then the whole area is treated as the same, because it’s simply too difficult for the powers that be to divide areas so precisely.
And point two is that it is certain people who refuse to wear masks, or at least push the boundaries of mask wearing, such as wearing it under their chin. To be honest, I’ve seen every group represented in the under the chin brigade, old people, young people, people in the middle. Age doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it. Maybe socio economic factors have a bearing, but I suspect not. It may be to do with personality types, the non conformers perhaps. Anyway, my medic son in law has little confidence in mask wearing as a preventative, he feels there is no evidence, and it’s simply to make people feel they are doing something.

I don’t know! However I do wear my mask, perhaps I wear it more than necessary because I wear it all around our little town on the rare times I go shopping there, and I wear it when I enter the apartment complex where my elderly mother lives, until I reach her apartment.

Crafty cat we don’t have to imagine anything about any other leader. Boris and his government were elected to run the country no matter what was thrown at them. This crisis, and it is a crisis, has shown us very clearly that this government is inadequate in many ways. We in the north are bearing the brunt as a result of deprivation, austerity, lack of opportunities etc etc. In my view we have two options a circuit breaker lockdown as offered by Keir Starmer or we get everything back to normal and take the risk associated with herd immunity. As a 70 year old I am doing what I can to stay safe, sane and solid.
We have to work together which is what parliament should have done as a coalition of the best brains from the outset. Nit too late to do that now! But Boris is not good enough or decisive enough.

GG13 I am not excusing Mr Cummings or any rule breakers by the way, it is just a totally weak excuse to say because so and so did that I can do this

I totally agree.

Susieq ‘the North’ is a big place.....it is not bearing the brunt because of poverty, it is bearing the brunt because of the selfishness, ignorance and and defiance shown by many people in certain areas that they will not put up with restrictions on their social lives.It’s by no means the only place with either poverty or selfish people, but at this time it’s the worst.
Starmer is now saying he wants a lockdown again with everything closed for three weeks, whilst Labour Mayors in the North believe nothing should be closed.
If these new balanced measures don’t work then there will be local lockdowns.The populace in those areas need to have a good hard think about being compliant.