Blah Blah

Which is the point I was making. All that has changed is the number of people infected, and therefore the level of spread. The way the virus behaves once it infects a person, and the percentages of those infected that need ICU care and/or die has not changed. So keeping that R number down is really important, and what happens there is what will drive government policy moving forward. The world is in a much better place of understanding of this virus than it was five months ago. That means navigating a sensible way forward should be possible.

They have stopped listening to the experts it seems.

Electromagnetic fields have always existed. We would have no tv or radio without them.

Let's see where we are in four weeks time. Let's see where we are in the Autumn when other seasonal pathogens and bacteria have everyone coughing and sneezing. The government has clearly decided that it can switch to a regional model of containment (even though it has no app up and running as yet and is relying entirely on contact tracing compliance). In countries that do operate regional containment, they have community led teams, with experience in epidemics, that focus on local suppression. My worry is that the government are relying on a centralised model. Bear in mind that it takes around two weeks for any significant increase in that R number to show itself. The risk of infection is currently 1 in 1000, compared to 1 in 40 at the peak. BUT the level of infectiousness and mortality has not changed. While the overall management strategy can change, it can only do so if the public understands that differential, and continues to exercise the things that work, like social distancing and avoidance of enclosed spaces.

Have you ddboy? Any idea how tedious it is to see civil and interesting conversations being derailed by cries of 'RED FLAG' playground sneers? Give it a rest eh?

dbboy - Your responses say more about you than they do about anyone else. Address the valid points being made. Resorting to silly playground sneers undermines any point you are trying to make. If Labour were the government, they too would be scrutinised in exactly the same way. Also acknowledge that a FPTP electoral system does not accurately reflect the way people vote. We would need a PR system for that. And under a PR system, you would in fact find that most people who voted (bear in mind a third of the electorate did not), voted for other parties and not the government. This is also precisely why both main parties have never supported any move to switch to PR. Why move away from an electoral system that delivers absolute power without the need for a majority of the electorate to vote for you? So offering any GE result as some kind of mandate for a majority of people is nonsense.

Yes and another story of a day out emerging too. Cummings still won't go unless pushed though and personally, I don't think Johnson has the balls to fire him. So be it on his head when the opposition play this for all it is worth.

Any defense of Cummings here is clutching at straws. He is a hypocrite, and those defending him are also hypocrites. He is a highly paid government official. He could have paid for his child to be transported anywhere. And he didn't just merely go and drop the child off. He was seen playing with the child in his parent's back garden. He did all this knowing he had the virus. Not only did he break the rules, he put his parents at risk. This is a man that sits in on SAGE meetings for goodness sake. He is a control freak and Johnson is so reliant on him that he can not get rid of him. You have to ask, just who is the real PM?

The whole Cummings scandal is turning into a farce. He has to go but he won't. Johnson is standing by him. That pretty much sums up who is in power.

Cummings has to resign, but he won't.

Boris U-turned, and it WAS a U-turn, because of pressure from a good chunk of his own MPs. Obfuscating about that, instead of calling it what it is, is part of the problem with political discourse.

As usual, Uncle doesn't address a single point being made but goes on another predictable 'everyone is a lefty' rant.

Being offered advice by science and choosing whether to take it, are two different things. Government is engaged in balancing public health vs economy and given that different political parties have different views on what matters most within an economy, it is only logical to argue that a different party or different leadership for that matter, may have had a different approach. Whether or not that would have led to different outcomes is unknowable. Boris himself said in an interview that he did not take the virus seriously enough in the beginning. HE said that. He also said that getting in and almost dying is what made him realise he was wrong. That is pretty clear for everyone to comprehend. We have the highest death toll in Europe for a reason. We need to understand why. My view is this. We have been impacted in exactly the same ways as every country that failed to respond fast enough in the beginning. We are seeing the same trajectories as everywhere else, with the same spread of age and demographic impact. There is only one differential. The speed and extent of response between countries. Lives absolutely could have been saved with an earlier response and better preparation. At the same time, lives absolutely were saved by the speed with which the NHS was geared up. But that all should have happened earlier. Lack of national stocks of PPE (something that should be in place at all times) absolutely lies at this government's door. They directed funding away from maintaining those supplies into no deal Brexit preparations. There is no getting away from that.

Again,. it just boils down to consideration doesn't it? When we last did noisy DIY, we liaised with our neighbours to find time slots that least impacted them. One had just had a new baby, the other worked shifts. It was not hard to do and we were able to find times when both were out. We even were given some nice wine for our consideration, and then invited them round to drink it :D. Life is much better when you get along with people, it really is.

Even with PPE, conditions won't be ideal. Dentists often never stop, esp if treating NHS patients where they are time limited, and PPE is hot and uncomfortable to work in. This is why tests that deliver results in minutes (be they antigen or viral) are needed asap. It is the ability of asymptomatic and incubating infected people to shed the virus that makes all of this very complicated. I think there needs to be some expert guidance on this to develop a policy for moving forward. We need dental treatment, even just the six month checkups, for good reason.

Boris has a track record of being poor on detail, so he finds any scenario where his is not controlling the narrative difficult. He will never be a match for Starmer at PMQ's for example because of that. The reason why a British woman is languishing in a prison term in Iran is also because he can not grasp details. He is invisible for the same reason any leader is invisible, because he is a liability who is prone to making stuff up on the hoof. He was no more visible before he got ill btw. Fundamentally, Boris is lazy, has never worked full time at anything and has winged it for most of his life. I personally thinks he finds the reality of being PM challenging and that is worrying because it invariably leads to an over reliance on advisors and ministers. Fine if you are surrounded by genuine talent. Bad if you are surrounded by mediocrity and narcissism.

If I were you I would call Guys and see if you can see an emergency dentist. If a filling is out, it risks exposing the nerve which will be far worse for pain than a sharp edge (probably caused by the filling taking a piece of the tooth with it). They may at the very least be able to get a dentist to call you back and discuss it. And edited to add that NHS services are still open for advice and emergencies. So do not worry about giving Guys a call. It is just a call and hopefully someone qualified will be able to assess you over the phone.

The London Mayors Office is a bit like a devolved government. So it has a limited range to set local policy, some of which regards how it spends the funding that comes from central government, and other monies it receives from taxpayers. Do we need it? Well the idea is to have a layer between local authorities and central government, in the same was as we used to have regional and metropolitan elected bodies. For me it makes sense in a city with 8 million residents to have an elected office that oversees the infrastructure and policies that pull all that together. That is what the London Assembly is also for. To hold the Mayor and his advisers to account. And just as we elect the Mayor, we also elect the Assembly Members.

What bothers me about the government strategy, is easing lockdown before they have an intensive test, track and trace system in place. By the time we get to that, the virus could already be on its way to another peak. We also need to understand why BAME people are disproportionately impacted. It is very easy for the public to have a false sense of security while that curve is flattened but if that R number rises above 1 again, we'll be back in lockdown. On enforcement, we just do not have enough police officers and wardens etc to do that effectively.

I have seen quite a few cars deliberately go through red lights lately, and the usual run of cyclists doing the same. I even had one car pull out of a stop line right in front of me, with no excuse for not having seen me. He actually continued moving as I was passing in front of his bonnet! My opinion is that the same people who think lock down rules don't apply to them, are the same people who think rules of the road don't apply to them. It's a attitude problem.

first mate Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Malumbu, fairly sure fox poo a whole lot nastier > in terms of pathogens than is dog poo! Not actually true. Both foxes and dogs originate from the same animal family, called canidae. Both dogs and foxes are carnivores and are susceptible to worms. Both also get fleas. Foxes can be treated for those things in the same way domestic dogs are.

Is that B&Q on Old Kent Road?

Maybe try giving Sopers a ring on Nunhead lane KK. They have the 2m rule on queuing in effect and even if they don't have it in, I am sure they can get what you want in. They are an old style fishmonger, so go to the fish market every morning. This is their phone number 020 7639 9729 Give them a call and tell them what you want. I am sure they can get it for you.

CLAIM warning ;)

PnB please give it up. You are neither funny nor clever. FYI I grew up on a farm, that my parents still own and farm. Foxes are neither vermin nor a pain in the ass if farmers take the right protective measures (as most farmers do). They have moved into urban areas because commercial farming has destroyed the hedgerows where the could find the small rodents they could live off. The biggest risk on farms is to chickens and guess what? Most farmers (if not all) have fox proof barns to keep their chickens safe. Have a chat with farmers dealing with mink....you'll soon see who the biggest predators are. Most people moaning about foxes in urban areas are more worried about fox poo in their gardens (as most townies do not keep chickens). Shooting a mother fox is cruel as her cubs may well be left to starve in their set. THAT is why it is illegal.