The system is utterly screwed. Listening to a call in radio programme this morning to hear that the in certain instances the system forces you to book a postal test before allowing you to look at slots at testing centres. That then counts as two tests.
Similarly if you’re booking a postal test for a sibling they will send one for you as well. Again this gets counted.
So the claim that they are testing more than anyone in Europe is likely to be yet another lie. The current number of 3000 or so cases is likely to be way off the mark.
The level of ineptitude is astounding. Just when you think they couldn’t do any worse up pops another complete clusterfuck.
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Teachers unions are telling Johnson he needs to take personal charge of the testing regime.
Fucking hell that’s the last thing we need.
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And to think teachers want us to trust their judgement. I fear for the youth of today!
Somehow we’ve had to put our trust in the government…
That reminds me of one of the best replies I’ve seen a solicitor send another. One firm wrote a long and detailed letter over several pages setting out their client’s position and just why it would be foolish for the other party to issue proceedings at this time and how it should be resolved by way of mediation etc or simply the other party withdrawing their claims. It finished with, “We trust that your client will not issue proceedings at this time”.
The response was one line. “Your trust is misplaced”
Not so funny when it’s the government, admittedly.
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As was pointed out in the old TIA politics thread, a lot of the figures regarding how many tests were being carried out earlier in the year were heavily inflated.
Since then the government has brought in a private firm to help with the testing - pays it about 3/4s of the funding and it does about 1/4 of the simpler tests.
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The most dangerous thing about the Government right now is they are clearly just trying to get through the day. Boris Johnson has responded to their testing failure by pledging 500k tests per day by the end of October - a target which will invariably be missed, prompting an even more outlandish target by the end of November.
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Their figures are a play on counting and language.
They quote capacity but that is a lie as we currently have a 185k backlog and are having to ship tests abroad.
They quote test numbers but this is also inflated through double counting, sending out postal tests that cannot or wont be used.
I can see a crux point coming where Boris will have to choose between another lockdown or killing thousands more.
Probably both. This is beyond incompetence, this is criminal negligence.
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If this was purely about policy decisions that went wrong then there is the options to change course. The concern I have for the UK and the US is that I dont think the failings are purely down to that. Boris is not Trump, but they do share this sense of both wanting the job but not wanting to do the job. I genuinely think if the US death toll his 1 million before the end of the year trump would still not lose a wink of sleep if he won the election. Boris’ disinterest isnt that sociopathic, but I do think it puts the ability to actually lead a coherent response that utilizies the right power of government in the way they are designed to be used out of the reach of both of them.
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I agree. Boris wants the title but not the job.
His own father wrote a letter to his school when he was a youngster pretty much saying exactly the same thing. In some ways its a miracle he’s got where he has, because it isn’t through hard work.
I just looked at the FT website for numbers again and the average is a steady 3100 cases for the last couple of days. I suspect this is down to the testing backlog rather than an actual slow down in incidents.
And yet I still see people citing freedoms and tyranny for being asked to wear a mask. Flu kills more etc. (it doesn’t, not in one year)
Heart breaking. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion.
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I live in chav-ville a bit. Today was going up an escalator with an 80yo in front of me without a mask on. This chav without a mask was coming down, saw the old man and gave him a wink. These two are proud antimasker bros now.
… Maybe a little unfair to the old guy who might have lung problems and find it difficult to wear a mask. But then maybe should be shielding.
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Never a truer word has been spoken. It really is like something out of 1984 at this stage.
Further update following yesterday’s appearance by the head of the UK test and trace. (or as a Labour shadow minister likes to call it trace a test) in front of a parliamentary select committee.
Supposedly doing around 240k tests a day. Demand running at least 2-3 times more than that. They believe about a quarter of tests are being taken up by people who shouldn’t be requesting them (according to current guidance).
“I think that 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”
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Matt Hancock saying that you can get a test no matter where you are in the country.
Did Harding is surprised at the increase in demand for tests.
Magical!!
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As long as you can get to Aberdeenshire I heard. 
Otherwise it’s trace a test time. 
TBF there’s pressure in France at the moment, then again the numbers are much greater. Still if all had followed Marseilles model I don’t think the problem would be 1/2 as bad.
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We know Matt Hancock will quite happily lie so there’s no surprise there. The funny bit is how utterly stupid Dido Harding appears to be and with little effort has immediately exposed Matt Hancock’s statement as bollocks.
And now we hear that Pritti Patel wants to undertake random drug testing on all office workers for cocaine. How about testing for COVID first eh?
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I hope that includes Boris Johnson even if he doesn’t consider that he holds office. He should be 1st in line to test the test.
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