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Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 6:37 am
by refitman
Morning all.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 9:24 am
by frog222
Morning chuckle on Toady @ 7.27–

” Recently hired Contact Tracers sitting around doing nothing, “never been so bored in my life” , people asked to re-do training modules , just to fill in time ”

Contrast the initial team here in La Manche . 20 longtime health/social security employees in Saint Lô, and another centre in Cherbourg . If there’s no need, they can go back to their main job. I’d be happy giving them details of my contacts, they are pros who know how to respect privacy and have something to lose if they make mistakes …

Nothing against those hired for £10 ph or so in the UK , but I'd prefer LOCAL environmental health officers and other career people to be involved!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Guardian article of 6AM gives much more of the really horrible detail on this Johnson Government shambles --

'No one had any idea': Contact tracers lack knowledge about Covid-19 job

Employees told to consult YouTube for advice on how to deal with a bereaved person
UK plans for contact-tracing in doubt as app not ready until June

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... vid-19-job" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 9:41 am
by RogerOThornhill
Morning all.

Serco displaying their usual level of competence I see...

Coronavirus: Serco apologises for sharing contact tracers' email addresses

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52732818" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Serco is one of the companies hiring, training and operating the 15,000 contact tracers who do not have clinical training.[

But the mistake may leave the firm in breach of data protection rules. It is understood that at least one member of staff has raised the issue with the Information Commissioner.
:roll:

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 10:23 am
by gilsey
frog222 wrote: I'd prefer LOCAL environmental health officers and other career people to be involved!
So would we all.


Except the people making the decisions, who'd rather bung a contract to their mates than shock! horror! employ more public servants.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:15 am
by AnatolyKasparov
RogerOThornhill wrote:Morning all.

Serco displaying their usual level of competence I see...

Coronavirus: Serco apologises for sharing contact tracers' email addresses

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52732818" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Serco is one of the companies hiring, training and operating the 15,000 contact tracers who do not have clinical training.[

But the mistake may leave the firm in breach of data protection rules. It is understood that at least one member of staff has raised the issue with the Information Commissioner.
:roll:
Something for Starmer to raise in PMQs today?

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 1:31 pm
by frog222
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Good Guardian article on Dr Rosena and her 'tone',

and then the Speaker threatening to throw Hancock out for heckling SKS

who maintains his cool ...

I think I'll check the whole of that encounter later !

26°

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 1:37 pm
by AnatolyKasparov
DFH says that the PM "won" today, though. So all is right with the world again :)

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 1:50 pm
by Willow904
From Andrew Sparrow's PMQs snap verdict:
So Johnson got through this without the humbling he has endured last week. But to do so, he had to make quite a specific promise. When he first said that a contact tracking scheme capable of tracking 10,000 contacts a day would be up and running by 1 June, he made a firm commitment.
So we have another arbitrary target that will potentially need to be fudged to save Johnson's face. Always about appearances rather than substance. Unlike 100,000 tests a day, though, the difference between actually achieving an effective track and trace system by the 1st June and merely appearing to is more than cosmetic. This target really matters if we're going ahead with schools re-opening in 2 weeks time.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 2:41 pm
by AnatolyKasparov
And as I have said before, the "elephant in the room" here is that the government can insist schools "officially" reopen on a set date - but as long as a significant number of parents don't believe they are actually safe, a lot of kids still won't be going there......

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 2:42 pm
by RogerOThornhill
Really interesting thread about what was happening on the ground with the NHS > care home issue

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Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 2:46 pm
by RogerOThornhill
And this from Sam Freedman which is where I saw the above.
Sam Freedman
‏@Samfr
5h5 hours ago
More
Kids' school emails to say they're not opening on 1st June. Aim to get year 6 back on the 8th. Reception won't be till June 15th. I expect this will be quite common.
Yes, I doubt ours will differ much - it's certainly not a case of "If we don't open on 1st June then that's it until September" that seems to be the more frenzied media assumption.

I mean, what's so special about 1st June? It's just a target. Who's going to suffer if it is pushed back a week or so?

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 3:24 pm
by PorFavor
Good morfternoon.
EU response chief warns of second wave

The prospect of a second wave of coronavirus infection across Europe is no longer a distant theory, according to the director of the EU agency responsible for advising governments – including the UK – on disease control. “The question is when and how big, that is the question in my view,” says Dr Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). In an interview with the Guardian she added: “It’s not the time now to completely relax.” (Politics Live, Guardian)
and
MoD set to scale down size of Covid support force

The Ministry of Defence is poised to announce a reduction in the numbers of military personnel ready to tackle the coronavirus crisis in the UK to 7,500 from 20,000. These are soldiers and other members of the armed forces “held at readiness” so they can be deployed quickly if needed by civilian authorities, but with only 4,000 currently being used and the national situation slowly improving it has been decided fewer troops are required on standby. (Politics Live, Guardian)

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 3:30 pm
by PorFavor
And further to AnatolyKasparov's post, above -
Labour has criticised the data breach by Serco after the outsourcing firm revealed the details of hundreds of contact tracers who have signed up to work on the government’s programme (see earlier).

Helen Hayes, shadow Cabinet Office minister, said:

The government’s contact tracing programme will rely on people having the confidence to pass on sensitive personal data to contact tracers.

This data breach raises serious questions for the government about the capability of Serco to command public confidence.

It is concerning that the government has so far failed to publish any information about the contract it has awarded to Serco. Far greater transparency will be needed if the public are to have faith in the companies entrusted to deliver key elements of the government’s response to coronavirus.
(Politics Live, Guardian)

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 3:45 pm
by PorFavor
Campsites are experiencing a surge in bookings after health officials indicated they could be lower risk holiday destinations than hotels, PA reports.
I'm fairly sure that they indicated no such thing. In response to a journalist's question, I think Jonathan Van-Tam (or JVT, as he is affectionately known by Matt Hancock) said that the matter needed closer scientific\medical investigation.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 4:28 pm
by RogerOThornhill
I see that Bercow is trending as people realise that he wasn't actually biased against the Tories but that they always have been a bunch of petulant ill-behaved children and have to be told off by whoever is Speaker at the time.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 4:55 pm
by PorFavor
Experts have raised questions about Boris Johnson’s pledge to have a UK-wide tracing operation in place by 1 June and cast doubt on his claim that it would be “world-beating”. (Politics Live, Guardian)

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 5:18 pm
by PorFavor
Dowden says for majority of people 'staying alert' means staying at home (Politics Live, Guardian)
Whilst returning to the workplace and school?

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 5:26 pm
by Willow904
PorFavor wrote:
Dowden says for majority of people 'staying alert' means staying at home (Politics Live, Guardian)
Whilst returning to the workplace and school?
Does anyone know if many countries lifting lockdown started with schools? The few I've seen details for seem to have allowed non-essential shops to open before schools. I'm struggling to understand why the rush to re-open schools while the rest of the country is essentially in lockdown as South Korea has only just started re-opening schools despite never going into full lockdown at all. I'm trying to work out if this schools first, while the infection rate is still high, is as experimental as it seems or whether there's a precedent out there that the presumed low risk is based on.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 5:27 pm
by AnatolyKasparov
PorFavor wrote:
Experts have raised questions about Boris Johnson’s pledge to have a UK-wide tracing operation in place by 1 June and cast doubt on his claim that it would be “world-beating”. (Politics Live, Guardian)
I mean, "world beating" - he just can't help himself can he?

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 6:48 pm
by PaulfromYorkshire
Evening all!

Nothing much to report really.

Still haven’t seen any swifts here, but I did spot a pair of cuckoos:-)

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 7:24 pm
by PorFavor
@PaulfromYorkshire

Evening!

Moving swiftly on . . .

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 10:09 pm
by Sky'sGoneOut
I just walked back from drinking in the woods and it's ludicrously warm.

One thing of note was that after 9 o'clock lots of single women suddenly appeared either walking or jogging, which seemed strange.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 10:52 pm
by Sky'sGoneOut
So amongst the other drinkers with me was a friend who is a screenwriter, she's written for Coronation Street and Emmerdale before both did her head in and is currently working on a BBC kids show called 'The Demon Headmaster' and she told me the biggest problem for Film/TV/Theatre is already insurance. Any production obviously needs to be insured and she said the cost for hers had more than doubled and dwarfed the expenses caused by the social distancing requirements.

I had to admit I hadn't thought of that.

Her prediction was that this could be the death of the TV licence because the costs of production have become so prohibitive that only Netflix/Amazon/HBO will be able to absorb them.

And she hasn't been paid by the BBC for a more than a month.

Apparently good old Auntie Beeb keeps telling her the cheque is in the post.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 10:52 pm
by citizenJA
I woke smelling the pollution we had a respite from for several weeks.
The noisy projects were back on.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 10:58 pm
by citizenJA
UK death toll rises by 363

A further 363 Covid-19 deaths were announced in the UK, taking the total to 35,704. The number of coronavirus patients in hospital in England had fallen below 10,000 for the first time since March.

Government wants tourism to resume in July
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... 782fa7e730" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I've only now taken a look at the news today

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:00 pm
by citizenJA
Not July of next year, is it

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:02 pm
by citizenJA
The World Health Organization gave a stark warning on Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic is far from over, after 106,000 new cases were recorded worldwide over the past 24 hours – the most in a single day so far.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... ns-the-who" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:08 pm
by citizenJA
What is needed to inform decisions is information and real-time monitoring, at the local level, to tell us what the daily number of new cases and rate of transmission is. Those concrete numbers should be what drives policy, not a set of abstract arguments, even less an ideological battle.

When should British schools reopen? Here's what the science tells us
Devi Sridhar and Ines Hassan
Excellent article

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:30 pm
by Sky'sGoneOut
citizenJA wrote:I woke smelling the pollution we had a respite from for several weeks.
The noisy projects were back on.
Well quite.

Any notion that this hiatus would result in any positive 'progressive' difference has always made me laugh.

As if those who rip us off, pollute us, make a mockery of our democracy and press give a fuck.

The Daily Mail is demonising teachers unions while in the real world England has the worst excess mortality and morbitity rates in all of Europe. Other realities are available if you're paid thousands of pounds to ignore all that.

And that's what it's all about. Money. As it always has been.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:37 pm
by howsillyofme1
Willow904 wrote:
PorFavor wrote:
Dowden says for majority of people 'staying alert' means staying at home (Politics Live, Guardian)
Whilst returning to the workplace and school?
Does anyone know if many countries lifting lockdown started with schools? The few I've seen details for seem to have allowed non-essential shops to open before schools. I'm struggling to understand why the rush to re-open schools while the rest of the country is essentially in lockdown as South Korea has only just started re-opening schools despite never going into full lockdown at all. I'm trying to work out if this schools first, while the infection rate is still high, is as experimental as it seems or whether there's a precedent out there that the presumed low risk is based on.

Hi

Switzerland reopened non-essential shops and primary schools on the same day, the 11th. Also restaurants. Rest die back mid-June

The implementation is decided by each individual canton - here in Vaud the classes are half sized and in on alternative days

Cases currently running at 50 or lower per day across the country (1500 a day at the peak).

Where the UK is different is easing things whilst cases are still high - as far as I can tell it is only country in Europe to heave done this. The only other similar is Sweden but they are following a different path and different assumptions.

To check the relative situation in each country you can do a lot worse than looking at EUROMOMO figures

https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

England is an outlier

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:37 pm
by adam
AnatolyKasparov wrote:And as I have said before, the "elephant in the room" here is that the government can insist schools "officially" reopen on a set date - but as long as a significant number of parents don't believe they are actually safe, a lot of kids still won't be going there......
One of my colleagues was in yesterday, on rota. It's our school's turn to look after all of the children attending as vulnerable or from key workers families for the three local secondaries in our trust - there were 12 members of staff to oversee them, and for the three schools with a total of about 2500 children, around 500 of whom I think are entitled to attend, there were..... six.

And this is why I'm being told I have to go back in, come what may, and it's my fault I've got a problem because I choose not to drive. And this is why I'm leaving as soon as I can.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:45 pm
by howsillyofme1
adam wrote:
AnatolyKasparov wrote:And as I have said before, the "elephant in the room" here is that the government can insist schools "officially" reopen on a set date - but as long as a significant number of parents don't believe they are actually safe, a lot of kids still won't be going there......
One of my colleagues was in yesterday, on rota. It's our school's turn to look after all of the children attending as vulnerable or from key workers families for the three local secondaries in our trust - there were 12 members of staff to oversee them, and for the three schools with a total of about 2500 children, around 500 of whom I think are entitled to attend, there were..... six.

And this is why I'm being told I have to go back in, come what may, and it's my fault I've got a problem because I choose not to drive. And this is why I'm leaving as soon as I can.
My nephew and niece are at your school (and my sis works at the big hospital across the road)........the impression I got is my niece wasn't back before September - not sure where that has come from

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:46 pm
by Sky'sGoneOut
[youtube]dt9GBafFzjE[/youtube]

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:48 pm
by adam
howsillyofme1 wrote:
adam wrote:
AnatolyKasparov wrote:And as I have said before, the "elephant in the room" here is that the government can insist schools "officially" reopen on a set date - but as long as a significant number of parents don't believe they are actually safe, a lot of kids still won't be going there......
One of my colleagues was in yesterday, on rota. It's our school's turn to look after all of the children attending as vulnerable or from key workers families for the three local secondaries in our trust - there were 12 members of staff to oversee them, and for the three schools with a total of about 2500 children, around 500 of whom I think are entitled to attend, there were..... six.

And this is why I'm being told I have to go back in, come what may, and it's my fault I've got a problem because I choose not to drive. And this is why I'm leaving as soon as I can.
My nephew and niece are at your school (and my sis works at the big hospital across the road)........the impression I got is my niece wasn't back before September - not sure where that has come from
The school have decided that 'some contact time for years 10 and 12' means half day every day timetables for half of each year group every other week. I have seen nothing to suggest that anything like this level of return was being anticipated. I get the impression that the school are just saying 'either you have a shielding letter or you attend, or you take four weeks unpaid leave and then you attend, or else'. In a seven week half term.

Sadly I started that by writing 'We' and then deleted it and changed it to 'the school'. I know I might not be able to leave straight away but I feel better for knowing that I'm going when I can.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:49 pm
by adam
She was one of ours.

[youtube]yrZLaxSmY44[/youtube]

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:54 pm
by howsillyofme1
To be honest it makes no sense to rush back to school but the whole attitude of UKG makes no sense.

I would have thought that instead of loosening shutdown they should have gone harder for next few weeks and drive down the numbers of cases to as low as possible whilst setting up the infrastructure to loosen. If done properly then it would be at most a month to do based on what we have seen elsewhere.

The quarantine for returning travellers also makes no sense whilst loosening especially when the UK is the outlier in Europe for cases.

I would have thought a few agreed and well monitored pilots in schools would be useful at some point but with the focus on September rather than this year - perhaps some schools do something in July as a test but nothing more than that

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:56 pm
by howsillyofme1
adam wrote:She was one of ours.

I went to the school down the road with the maroon uniform! Used to stand out like a sore thumb!

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:57 pm
by citizenJA
All morning on into the afternoon, we heard loud machinery of some wort carrying out domestic maintenance work. I've become less sensitive to that sort of noise and figured work needed doing and carried on. It bothered Mr citizen more than me. Just now prior going to bed, Mr citizen told me the noisy operation lasting the better part of the day was for removing life forms from a tarmacked driveway.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:58 pm
by adam
I also fear that the NASUWT rep who is a good friend (and who taught at the school down the road with the purple uniform for years before he came to us) is being taken for a ride by the head. But we don't have an NEU rep,and I'm certainly not doing it now I'm afraid, and anyway NEU policy is not to engage with reopening.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Wed 20 May, 2020 11:59 pm
by citizenJA
Sky'sGoneOut wrote:
citizenJA wrote:I woke smelling the pollution we had a respite from for several weeks.
The noisy projects were back on.
Well quite.

Any notion that this hiatus would result in any positive 'progressive' difference has always made me laugh.

As if those who rip us off, pollute us, make a mockery of our democracy and press give a fuck.

The Daily Mail is demonising teachers unions while in the real world England has the worst excess mortality and morbitity rates in all of Europe. Other realities are available if you're paid thousands of pounds to ignore all that.

And that's what it's all about. Money. As it always has been.
It got better for a lot of regular people following the Second World War.

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 12:02 am
by adam
Can't spot this up the page, and it's fallen down the Guardian's page very quickly

Police watchdog to announce decision on Johnson-Arcuri inquiry
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is to reveal its long-delayed decision on whether to investigate him for possible criminal misconduct over his friendship with Jennifer Arcuri. The watchdog will make the announcement at noon, after spending months on a scoping exercise into whether the prime minister has a case to answer.
These things can be a terrible anticlimax (election law...) but it would be nice if this is being buried today because there might be more to it tomorrow...

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 12:28 am
by Sky'sGoneOut
Let me introduce you to Zamrock.

Which is a quite wonderful thing. Zambian psychedelia.

[youtube]4n0ePVIexgM[/youtube]

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 12:29 am
by citizenJA
Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 1:06 am
by Sky'sGoneOut
[youtube]1svAZycx9OE[/youtube]

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 1:12 am
by PorFavor
[youtube]c3CnN6L2BQA[/youtube]

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 1:24 am
by Sky'sGoneOut
Heh heh, parp, look at the dog's ears.

[youtube]9rSub3IPYqs[/youtube]

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 1:40 am
by Sky'sGoneOut
[youtube]gDyhl5GSje4[/youtube]

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 1:48 am
by Sky'sGoneOut
[youtube]pEKBQ9oUtSU[/youtube]

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 1:55 am
by Sky'sGoneOut
[youtube]XOic6pVAN30[/youtube]

Re: Wednesday 20th May 2020

Posted: Thu 21 May, 2020 2:08 am
by Sky'sGoneOut
[youtube]3nY_lIuAGIs[/youtube]