So, let's leave Conference behind, onwards and forwards ...

1) Govts will start to increase the no. of cycles used in PCR tests to get more (false) positives and blame it on all the people that have been going to football matches and nightclubs. In December they will start talking about reintroducing restrictions in the run up to Christmas. As Christmas gets even closer Boris will bring in a one or two week lockdown which he will then stretch past Christmas, except for Christmas Day. After all, he's not the Devil is he?
2) Probably by March, he'll lift restrictions but then you'll have another summer of 'can we, or can't we go on holiday'.
3) Beyond that ... rinse and repeat.

I know, I know. I am a glass half full kind of person but for the last two years everything I've said will happen, has happened but maybe not the exact dates. I'm going to start gambling. I could have made a fortune over the last couple of years.

Interesting thread!

a) Short term, things will get worse, people will die as we struggle to afford heating/eating (finding more expensive fuel). The poorer will be pushed to the edge.
Here in sheffield their are apparently 70 bus drivers short for first today, plus more for other companies, buses meant to be every 10 minutes are today every 30. And more people are jammed in , with no masks, this will of course lead to a increase in covid and other infections.

b) medium term, Boris will go and will find out there are actually worse, more self centred, tories than this bumbling one. Scotland and Northern ireland will leave Union.

c) long term either we rise up and riot, or we wait for a General election and pray we get a reasonable government and re entry to single market if not EU.

I saw a headline yesterday "Lack of gritter drivers will turn roads into icy death traps this winter." Yes, one more thing to feel depressed about. Presumably the gritter drivers have been lured away to drive lorries.

Everything is just about as lousy as expected. Shortages in the shops are predicted to get worse towards Christmas. Fuel bills rocketing up. Fruit and vegetables rotted in the fields with no-one to pick them. The price of food rising rapidly. The NHS struggling to cope and sliding into privatisation. The government refusing to accept that migrants earning less than £26,500 might have anything to offer. (Although the Migration Advisory Committee had said that at least 20 professions, including butchers, should be exempt.) The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

But what else did anyone expect, after Brexit and the election of a right wing Tory government? The young blame us for both disasters and think that anything that particularly affects the old is our own fault. I have tried to argue online that there are many oldies who voted against Brexit and the Tories, and that the so-called boomer generation wasn't always so reactionary. When we were young, we were maybe a more radical generation than today's youth. However, the young are unconvinced. They point at the graphs which show that the biggest age group to vote for Brexit and the Tories was the over-65s. It's not surprising that they blame Granny and Grandad for the mess we're in.

What I find bitterly funny is the claim, made by Leavers, that Remainers are gloating and rubbing their hands as "Project Fear" becomes real. None of us wanted to be proved right - if there are empty shelves and rising prices, we suffer too. Same applies to the Tory government. They're as callous and corrupt as I expected, but being able to say "I told you so" is very cold comfort.

Boris seems to be trying to convince people all the inevitable hardship is a necessary precursor to some kind of Utopian future. Personally I don’t believe a word he says and, at my age, probably don’t have have long enough to wait for the promised Utopia. Most people posting on here also seem to have a very low opinion if Boris but I hope they’re not buying the ‘it would be worse under Labour’ line that’s being pushed. I don’t see how it could be. I just hope I live long enough to see Andy Burnham as PM!

Yes MaizieD, I too acknowledge the success of the vaccine roll out, aided of course by the thousands of volunteers.

Well you know what the Brownie motto is - Be Prepared.

Annaram1

Susieq, who do you suggest should replace them?

A pack of Brownies?

They couldn't do any worse.

Hetty58

MaizieD, in NZ, where my eldest lives, they effectively nipped Covid in the but - so the mad dash for vaccines wasn't necessary!

Just teasing really, Hetty

In all the discussions we've had about covid over the last 12 months someone has always come out with 'but we got the vaccines out early' or words to that effect. Thank God that we did, otherwise our death total would be astronomical. But that in no way excuses the government's dilatory actions over the course of the pandemic.

Susieq, who do you suggest should replace them?

Well people you reap what you sow plus you gain a set of goons who have no forward thinking/ contingency plans/ ideas for development !
So you have your Brexit, your Tory Gov, your right wing press and your shortages etc!
None of this is in my name ! BUT I shall continue to be a kind neighbour, a good mum , a volunteer and hope that BJ goes sooner rather than later as I cannot abide his bumbling much longer ! He can take Pritti with him as well as Mr Mogg!!!
Tighten your belts folks, difficult times ahead

Beaver instead of turkey?

(in the bud)

MaizieD, in NZ, where my eldest lives, they effectively nipped Covid in the but - so the mad dash for vaccines wasn't necessary!

Hetty58

'Scuse me, GrannyGravy13, but lots of people must be very thick (sorry). What other explanation is there for the clowns we have in government?

Their legacy - 'worst public health failure ever' - great!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58876089?xtor=ES-208-[47815_NEWS_NLB_ACT_WK43_Tue_12_Oct]-20211012-[bbcnews_coronavirus_newshealth_response]

Aaah, but Hetty, Vaccines

'Scuse me, GrannyGravy13, but lots of people must be very thick (sorry). What other explanation is there for the clowns we have in government?

Their legacy - 'worst public health failure ever' - great!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58876089?xtor=ES-208-[47815_NEWS_NLB_ACT_WK43_Tue_12_Oct]-20211012-[bbcnews_coronavirus_newshealth_response]

GillT57

Sorry, I did reply to the original post, but must have forgotten to press the right button! Short term; I anticipate something close to the 1970s Winter of Discontent, with shortages, rubbish not being collected as needed etc., but somehow this will be twisted as being either the fault of the EU or Keir Starmer. Longer term, I think Johnson will go as it gets too difficult, there are already signs that the right wing press, with the exception of the increasingly bonkers Daily Express, are turning their eyes on him and finding him wanting. I think when it starts to fail, this government will crash like a ton of coal, there are certainly a few of them who should be answering questions posed by the Fraud Squad.

Yes I think your post has more than a grain of sense in it.

Can’t come soon enough IMO.

Sorry, I did reply to the original post, but must have forgotten to press the right button! Short term; I anticipate something close to the 1970s Winter of Discontent, with shortages, rubbish not being collected as needed etc., but somehow this will be twisted as being either the fault of the EU or Keir Starmer. Longer term, I think Johnson will go as it gets too difficult, there are already signs that the right wing press, with the exception of the increasingly bonkers Daily Express, are turning their eyes on him and finding him wanting. I think when it starts to fail, this government will crash like a ton of coal, there are certainly a few of them who should be answering questions posed by the Fraud Squad.

GrannyGravy13

Thick is what the bullies called my dyslexic child, Thick is what the bullies called my dysphasic Godson and now the bullies are calling my dear GC who is on the spectrum Thick

I also do not apologise for finding the word ^thick* offensive.

Presumably those individuals are telling your relatives to their faces that they are thick. That is very different and very wrong. WWM2 was talking about people in general and not speaking to an individual.

I too am sorry that members of your family have come across very unpleasant people, if must be very distressing but that was not the essence of what was said on here.

GrannyGravy13

Right it’s obviously just me that thinks calling people (whoever they are) thick is offensive.

It is however, obviously you who failed to read its thread properly and pick up the humorous reference to beavers. You seem eager to look for offence where none was meant. Relax

GrannyGravy13

Thick is what the bullies called my dyslexic child, Thick is what the bullies called my dysphasic Godson and now the bullies are calling my dear GC who is on the spectrum Thick

I also do not apologise for finding the word ^thick* offensive.

GrannyGravy13 I'm so sorry to hear that your child, godson and grandchild have had to deal with such insensitive bullies. From your posts it's clear you adore your family and that must have hurt you very much.

Scones, thank you for addressing a) b) and c) - very well put.

Mine would be pretty close.

GrannyGravy13

Thick is what the bullies called my dyslexic child, Thick is what the bullies called my dysphasic Godson and now the bullies are calling my dear GC who is on the spectrum Thick

I also do not apologise for finding the word ^thick* offensive.

I’m not asking you to.

Today I feel irritated by everything that is happening in this country. That irritation is showing in my choice of language.

I don't think that is true
I think they have set the scene for anger
People blaming one another
anarchy and unrest

Kali2 Are you Boris Johnson trying to get some ideas? I will make a smiley face now so that nobody thinks I'm serious or unkind.

Being serious though . Sorry, no serious face so I've improvised with a cupcake.

I think the following will happen:-

a) short-term, say from now till Christmas - Things will just get worse. Shortages. More lies. Other countries dealing with crises much better than Britain. Job vacancies everywhere and nobody to fill them. The poor getting poorer. No presents as Father Christmas can't get a visa that will last beyond midnight on Christmas Eve. Elves have been poached by other employers and are driving HGVs or picking cauliflowers.

b) next year - More of the same. Other countries will start sending food parcels and cardigans. People will start to get really fed up and begin wondering if Brexit and voting Tory was such a good idea. Rishi Sunak will become PM when Johnson steps down as the decides King of the World job is not as much of a wheeze as drinking free beer on a lounger at the villa of a millionaire to whom he's just gifted a knighthood.

c) and beyond? - Having hit rock bottom the country realise that culture wars and BuildBackBetter and signwritten buses and 'woke' and 'liberal elite' blah rhubarb blah rhubarb were just a fabrication to take our eye of the truth. The electorate will vote in a capable alternative who can do the job and will make life better for all people and not just the wealthiest. Father Christmas and everyone else will have freedom of movement.