I have a French daughter who lives in Paris and she said she has completely lost the plot now and apart from the 9.00 curfew, she hasn’t the foggiest idea what she can or can’t do.
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I gave up listening to the twaddle a long time ago so I can not help. Sorry.
All I can say is it’s been completely a political situation in France from the word go and health and safty doesn’t come in to it.
I wish Melenchon had won the presidential.
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It’s really wierd how the numbers of the UK and France are so similar now.
Level playing field after all?
Scare stories of a death in the AZ vaccine trial in Brazil. The study was halted and shares fell, but it seems it has already been given the go ahead to resume, which suggests very strongly that the participant was on placebo or it was very clearly a completely unrelated incident.
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Apparently the person who died, did so from covid 19.
We have a 5 tier lock down level. Tbh it was never a problem knowing what we could or could not do as we went from level to level and it was pretty well advertised at what Level certain business or recreational activities would be allowed even when at a Level that didn’t allow it.
Not sure why Europe and the U.S are making such an almighty pigs ear of regulations. We’ve also had many a bump along the way and we might not always have agreed with the regulations but they’ve been pretty clear.
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I just think in a large part of the western world, a combination of government ambiguity and history of distrust in them and an insistence of individual freedom of choice, can make it difficult to have widespread acceptance and adoption of any regulations, no matter how clear they may be.
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Professor John Edmunds is always worth listening to when he’s interviewed. Doesn’t beat about the bush or try to mollify people; just tells it as it is.
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What makes it difficult in France is the influence some lobby groups and industries have along with a government out of it’s depth. A government that knows better than the health experts. It was clear that there was disaccord between the PM, health minister and the President the ministers have all been changed including the minister of the interior.
The population were prepared for sacrifice and showed that during the 1st lockdown. They were then told it was over. To get back to the responsibility levels of the 1st lockdown is impossible after that. Add to that the confused messaging and ‘exceptions’ to any rule and you end up with fuckwittery.
There’s nothing to think about when the debate is on the 24hr news channels everyday and right wing bigots are chanting away!
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You could replace the word France with just about any country you can think of there; it most definitely applies to England.
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I was being careful. My knowledge of what’s actually going on in the UK is limited however with the likes of Cummings and Johnson I think it’s also down to being completely incompetent.
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You could be right if it was just Johnson but adding Cummings to the mix it is more likely down to corruption
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I need to know more about this because ensuring kids don’t go hungry is a basic obligation of government. The fact that the commons voted against continuing free school meals into christmas holidays (basically food vouchers) seems so obviously counter to any rational or ethical good sense that there must surely be more to it? I’ve seen some suggestions that the government have increased benefits by more than £20 per week precisely to ensure kids don’t go hungry but that seems to me, on the face of it, a false correlation. Can anyone provide an objective summary as to what the issues are here?
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The principal arguements I have seen by Tory MPs are:
1: Sets precedent for ongoing obligations of government.
2. The government needs to be fiscally responsible.
3. Parents need to take responsibility for ensuring welfare of their own children not the state.
4. School meals create a stigma, that parents would rather not have.
My perspective is it’s another own goal, and all those arguments all appear weak.
In the absence of the government providing an alternative. The underlying motives are difficult to comprehend.
Perhaps it’s setting a marker against celebrity driven campaigns (from footballers to chiefs). Perhaps it’s ideological driven (more state rather than less), or counter to future vision (yet to be disclosed) to reform employment and benifits post brexit.
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It just makes it easier to take back what they said they will give. Take it all away.
I mean there’s more and more call for benefits to be ‘suspended’ under more and more situations. The social contract is being erroded and there’s a lot of idiots who support that.
An interesting site for COVID-related data, with direct comparison between countries:
In Switzerland, everyone has been taken by surprise regarding the quickness of the evolution of the epidemics. At the start of this month, we were at roughly 50 cases each day. Now, we have surpassed the average of 5k a day. Who knows where that will stop…
People are generally compliant with the rules here, but it doesn’t stop the epidemics it seems, so I struggle to see what, apart from confinement for everyone, will curb that sharply increasing trend.
On the other hand, our hospitalisation rate remains under control for the time being, and thus, the mortality rate remains low. Nobody knows how long that will last though… there are reports that the Covid-related health personal in hospitals is exhausted already, and the real second wave is yet to fully hit the fan.
A colleague was in Europe in August, and was startled at how hit-and-miss mask wearing was, much more relaxed than here. What are Swiss regulations for mask-wearing?
At 5k per day, a full lockdown is basically the only available tool. If you are at 5k/day now, with the same policy mix as two weeks ago, there is a reasonable probability you will see 10k/day (subject to the ability to actually test that much) before the curve bends again. That is staggering for a country that has not yet reported 100k cases.
Here, I am reassured by the sewage testing - first time in 6 weeks that it has gone down 3 days in a row.
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