Lockdown Squared?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55529640
we are already in T4 any idea what further measures could be imposed?

[ToraToraTora]

Jim: "I should also say that I am not claiming that all unemployment was avoidable -- just that the damage could have been controlled far more effectively. "
Err...this is you, right? 16:24 - "Not at all. I'm saying it *was* avoidable. "

[emmie]

you just can't police it, you can shut all the shop except supermarkets, i guess and all non essential business but i already thought that was in tier 4 law -

[eve1974]

Interested in an icu docs comment: “people keep blaming the new mutant of the virus. But it’s not the virus that’s to blame. It’s people. A virus can only spread via people’s actions”

Ok so it wasn’t word for word but you get the gyst

[eve1974]

I don’t envy politicians atm

[jim360]

Perhaps I should have clarified that "it" wasn't equal to "all of it". I was trying to make a short, snappy post.

The results of this pandemic so far have been pretty dire. It's defeatist to suggest that they had to be so bad. It's also manifestly wrong, as there are other countries which have done far better, both in terms of health and economic outcomes.

[Sunk]

Covid job losses in the UK are 819,000. Possibly higher than anywhere else in the EU*. That is not to say that is the Government’s fault. And the furlough schemes across Europe mask the true unemployment figure.

* Figures are hard to find, but of the ones I did, the UK is the highest.

[pixie374]

Sunk, as someone with a small self-employed business, I think, in the UK, we have been given a lot of help, as well as furlough for those employed.

[Sunk]

Pixie,
I know the UK have helped a lot of companies with the furlough scheme. But we have still lost 819,000 jobs (some of my friends when furlough was stopped in September).
The fact is, there are many people on furlough schemes that are not showing on the unemployment register, but will have no job when furlough finishes.

[eve1974]

Sunk definitely! In many other countries there has been zero financial assistance, furloughs etc.

[pixie374]

Did it stop in September, sunk? Self-employed is until April. I thought that was to keep them the same?

[Togo]

It is becoming increasingly obvious who is "enjoying" the crisis. There was a time when incubating, then spreading, alarm and despondency could get you into trouble with the Government. Indeed the Governments in previous times of National suffering would likely silence the dedicated and deliberately insidious bellyacher pretty efficiently, if they could get to them before the neighbours did that is. Now they hide on the internet and slink away and sulk when they are challenged. Only to return in a sly new persona, but always with the same deceitful message.

[pixie374]

Who is that to, Togo?

[pixie374]

Sunk, or anyone... was furlough stopped in September?

[jno]

pixie, someone else may be able to give more details but my recollection is it was extended at the last minute and I read of companies that had sacked people because they didn't know about the extension.

[pixie374]

Thanks, jno. It seemed up until now that self-employed people were being ignored, but after everyone else, were given the same. I'm not sure why people were being sacked "just in case".
But anyway... there has been a lot of help given, particularly considering less overheads for those not working, plus their profits when they were.
I still can't help feeling that those not surviving, were either about to go bankrupt or were not honest with their dealings with HMRC.