The Covid-19 Thread

[Mantis]

A PHD student has put together a little spider chart of all the cronyism from the government awarding uncontested contracts to random firms throughout the pandemic.

https://sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-crony/

It quite aptly illustrates just how much of our money they've given to their mates to provide PPE when they have zero experience in procuring it. Ridiculous levels of corruption.

[Raid]

Man who promised not to cancel Christmas cancels Christmas for London and the South East.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55379220

Isn't it funny how this is all being blamed on a new strain of the virus rather than the government completely fucking up its response. Has the virus suddenly gained the ability to drive cars and travel longer distances while the careful public shelter at home? Boris Johnson says "yes, umm, that."

[Rossell]

Couldn't sum that up better raid.

I'm not going to pretend the situation that Boris is dealing with is easy.

But he's done a fucking shit job.

[Mantis]

He's given enough people false hope that they could have a normal Christmas that this will now be doubling crushing when they have to cancel their plans to avoid breaking the rules. I suspect many will just go ahead with their plans anyway.

I was going to travel home on Christmas Eve, it's impossible for me to do it on Christmas Day as I don't have a car.

[Raid]

The cynic in me thinks that this was always going to be the plan, he just wanted people to go and spend money on christmas stuff before he locked everything down again.

I decided pretty early on that I'd not be travelling for christmas this year, so it'll just be myself, two cats, and dinner for 4. Given that I work with the public and will be doing so right up until the 24th, there was no way I could realistically guarantee not bringing it back to anyone I spent time with.

[Wrathbone]

I suspect many will just go ahead with their plans anyway.

Exactly this. In the last week (literally three sodding days ago) he's told everyone Christmas plans can go ahead as previously stated and then suddenly tried to pull the rug from under them. Of course loads of people aren't going to abandon what they've already planned, particularly when for many it will be one of the few moments of respite they've had all year. If he'd properly managed expectations and announced stricter regulations a week or two ago, it might be a different story now.

The reality is that people are doing what they're comfortable with, for right or wrong, nothing Boris says will make much difference to that and there's no feasible way of enforcing any of it. He's a waste of space.

[Drarok]

People in the new tier 4 have already bailed enough that the train stations were fucked, and people in cars have already reached as far as Leeds having been given a midnight deadline for evacuation. Good job?!

[arqueturus]

He should have opened with Christmas Day only and "and we may be able to expand on that depending on numbers" the absolute fucking tool.

We decided to spend Christmas together rather than travel home so it's not impacted us but I have friends that were going to travel to and spend christmas with family. One of which hasn't seen her folks for 4 months. Now, they either have to abandon that plan and organise christmas at home or go ahead with the original plan.

[eny]

So the plan is to stop the spread to relatively unaffected areas, of a new, more virulent strain of the Covid virus, so they do a last minute announcement leading to a mass exodus from the SE to those less affected areas.....well that fucking worked then didn't it!

I have to say, a vast amount of people just don't fully grasp that this is still a pandemic, and expecting a "normal" Christmas just isn't being realistic. The amount of traffic on the road outside today (Oxon/Bucks border) doesn't suggest people are taking the slightest bit of notice.

[Raid]

"We don't want to criminalise people's long made plans."



That was Wednesday, enough time to criminalise people's short term plans too.

[eny]

[Wrathbone]

And inevitably we've now got Christmas panic buying as Europe slams its doors shut on us with full justification and presumably no small amount of glee.

[arqueturus]

Getting a proper taste of what a big player on the world stage we aren't when stood alone.

[Animalmother]

Will all this be forgotten when the 2024 election rolls around or will the Torries get obliterated you think? I'm pretty sure Boris will have been ejected long before that but who knows.

[Snowy]

I keep hoping that the blatant cronyism, self serving and disdain for the nation as a whole will permanently sink the fucking tories, but the populace keeps voting them back in. We really need a leader to emerge that isn't just in it for themselves and can really pull the country together to work for the common good, but they seem in pretty fucking short supply.