Dido says that no-one prediced the rise in requests for testing. Really?

I know I can be dense at times but re the new restrictions in the North east... how does “residents in the northeast have been banned from meeting people outside their own households” match up with the pubs and restaurants staying open ? Is everyone going to said pubs alone ?

All those who say “no one could do it any better- stop carping” as a defence of the government should stop their deluded thinking. They could have done it better by not handing out jobs and money to their untalented chums. Whatever you think of Angela Merkel’s politics, she seems to have earned respect, unlike our shower of buffoons.

Christmas will no doubt take them by surprise as well. They know other countries have it, but they didn't realise that people in the UK celebrated it. The sudden surge of turkeys in the shops and only being able to get turkey sandwiches in M&S will be blamed on the population of this country, whose unwarranted demand for poultry at this time of year was unexpected and unwarranted.

Indeed, there are those who think we should all shut and and rather than complaining when the government got things wrong, we should be congratulating Boris for not having killed even more people.

I honestly thought she’d be toast yesterday in front of that committee. I’d like to be a fly on the wall when she next sits down with SAGE members!

Many Turkeys are being killed now MOnica before they grow too big. They’re being frozen. Suppliers are aware that restaurants won’t be ordering as many this year with the Covid restrictions.

At least one industry has got its ducks in a row.

Urmston perhaps the turkey breeders could stand for Parliament and we could elect them to run this country. They could certainly do better than the current lot, then that is not really that difficult.

I see Servo has been awarded another £45million contract for the failing test and trace scheme.

t.co/UgaX4efgXv?amp=1

The only turkeys relevant to this issue are those who carry on supporting Johnson no matter which of his useless chums he appoints to whatever job.

The other quite frightening thing is on the BBC news. The i is reporting that the government is using its powers to give unlicensed covid vaccine to the public.

The also intend to use their powers to prevent anyone from surging the government if they fall sick as a result.

I’m not sure I’d be willing to have that injection. I must look more into this.

Not surging! suing!

Tom Peck writes in The Independent-

January 2020 – deadly pandemic breaks out.

February 2020 – World Health Organisation issues three word advice: “Test. Test. Test.” UK’s deputy chief medical offer Jenny Harries responds by saying: “There comes a stage in a pandemic where testing is not an appropriate intervention.”

March 2020 – Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, advises people with coronavirus symptoms to self-isolate at home and don’t get tested.

April 2020 – Matt Hancock decides testing is in fact important. Launches drive to “100,000-tests-a-day” target.

May 2020 – Matt Hancock announces his own success in reaching his 100,000-a-day target, which turns out to have been through putting 35,000 tests in the post the previous day. Dido Harding is put in charge of test and trace programme. Boris Johnson promises it will be “world-beating”.

July 2020 – government starts bribing people to go to pubs and restaurants, and threatening people with redundancy if they don’t go back to the office.

August 2020 – infection rate begins to soar. People going to pubs are blamed.

September 2020 – schools reopen. Infection rates rise to more than 4,000 a day. The “world-beating” test and trace system is running at full capacity. Parents in London with coughing children are advised to drive them to Inverness if they want a test. If they don’t get a test the child can’t go to school and the parents can’t go to work.

Dido Harding tells a House of Commons select committee: “I don't think anybody was expecting to see the really sizeable increase in demand that we've seen over the course of the last few weeks.”

In fairness, did anyone foresee schools going back? Does anyone really know what time of year it happens? Just like A-level results, these things are a mystery to us all.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/dido-harding-coronavirus-test-covid-19-glastonbury-b470500.html

MOnica ?

If this was a comedy show we would all be in fits of laughter while screaming out "No! That wouldn't really happen!" Unfortunately it's real life and you wonder how many more gaffs can one government make?

these things are a mystery to us all.

To be scrupulously fair, varian they are only a mystery to some.
But not to all of us!

Some of the things that politicians are coming out with are truly laughable.
The lack of forward planning is atrocious!
It has long been a theory of mine that a) there have been a lot of people walking around unknowingly spreading and b) that younger people may well have suffered it from dayone, but because the emphasis was on the elderly and those with health conditions that nobody much seems to have wondered why , when everyone else was under lockdown that many teens seemed to think didn't include them, why the numbers weren't dropping quicker?
So , without any planning in advance,as far as testing is concerned, the schools were reopened. They are now all paranoid and any child that has so much as a sniffle is banned from school until they have a test!

M0nica

Urmston perhaps the turkey breeders could stand for Parliament and we could elect them to run this country. They could certainly do better than the current lot, then that is not really that difficult.

Well the current lot are certainly getting the stuffing knocked out of them on GN!

That flaming woman ! A former exec. of the phone company I'm doing battle with right now. How DO these useless people get their positions ??

Urmstongran

Many Turkeys are being killed now MOnica before they grow too big. They’re being frozen. Suppliers are aware that restaurants won’t be ordering as many this year with the Covid restrictions.

At least one industry has got its ducks in a row.

Boom boom. urmston

As you were.

I said as much to my husband a month ago and I am no scientist. This situation is entirely predictable. The Times today is leading with a story about the inefficiency of the labs. Dr Robinson, inventor of genotyping used in billions of tests, is quoted as saying that testing is dying on its arse. They have had the summer to get automated but it has not happened. What is tragic is that Harding considers this is a great job. Where do they go from here? Lockdown is where, but that's not a solution.

At a slight tangent, but with regard to schools going back, and everyone now nodding their wise old heads and saying it was predictable that it would contribute to a rise in cases, I recall that the teachers who tried to point out the dangers and difficulties were mocked and scorned and accused of being workshy, yes, even by some of the wise old heads on Gnet.

'The Unions' were demonised of course...

I'd also note that Starmer had offered several times to engage with the government in helping to plan a safe return to schools (it came up in PMQs several weeks running) and, as with many offers of help to the government during this crisis from interested parties in many different fields, such as supply of PPE, supply of ventilators, processing of C19 tests, the offer was ignored.

Now, of course, we also know that advice from the scientists to prepare for an upsurge in cases was also determinedly ignored...

Just saying...

Lucca - surely people can just book adjoining tables? People could at least wave at each other.

Daisymae

Lucca - surely people can just book adjoining tables? People could at least wave at each other.

I think Pritti Patel would count that as 'mingling' and send in the police armed with their new, super strength lasers to get you.. ?

Is it because the government are determined to be maverick and ignore expert advice, or any advice if it contradicts their 'gut' feeling?

EV that flaming useless woman was gifted the job by a flaming useless man. QED.