And that sounds admirable from your daughter Ernie But wouldn’t you say that the lockdown was a disaster for those children too? which is the whole point
In many cases it was and hopefully this latest iteration of the inquiry will identify what was done badly and what should be done better, if a future pandemic takes us down a similar route. There’s many important points to learn and hopefully the inquiry can make meaningful and practical recommendations. I was just trying to counter the suggestion made earlier in the thread that the education profession somehow contrived to encourage a lockdown approach because they were intent (somehow) on protectionism.
My opinion....lockdown was a disaster because each time we went in to lockdown we went in too late and didn't put enough other controls in place, such as stopping flights from high risk countries, delaying lockdowns to allow big race meets like Cheltenham to take place to appease the horsey lobby, experts ignored from the get go and a country led by an absolute chancer who was out of his depth. Time and again decisions made last minute, like the first Xmas when all schools were told explicitly in Dec they HAD to reopen in Jan, then bang, night before they're due back sorry chaps schools to close. No response to a pandemic could ever be perfect or satisfying everyone, we got the worst of nearly all worlds edit....to add to that, I know a lot of teachers incl my wife who teaches, and they are all saying the same, that the current set of kids at junior school, ys 3-6 are seeing a level of social issues that they've never seen before because these poor kids spent 2 years in their developmental years not getting anything like the typical up bringing and opportunities and social learnings that come with interacting with other kids their age in that 0-5 age range
Hindsight's a wonderful thing but foresight is better... Who could possibly have called that situation correctly for everyone?
Here's the thing....hindsight was an option, tho it was 100 years previous the Spanish flu epidemic showed a number of traits that repeated, such as the second wave being more deadly. All by and large ignored. We had the benefit of being a month or so behind main land Europe and yet still dithered and delayed. like I said, there was no approach that would be perfect for everyone, but if you're going to do something in life, be it lockdown, sacking a manager whatever, make the decision and get it done, delaying and umming and ahhing only adds to the problem
Aye My daughter was the same My other relative teaches at a special needs school and they were 100% open all the way through anyway
It was completely ridiculous. Each time it was obvious the way things were going, the scientists were all saying the same thing and being ignored. Our leaders were in denial, all they knew was the tubthumping "we're British and we'll beat this" stuff. As many people said at the time, just the absolute worst time for that specific group of people to have been in government. Not because of their party; other Tory governments made up of more serious people would've fared much better, but because they were ridiculous, single-issue people who had no real interest in the wider running of the country.
That wasn’t the plan, and wasn’t what I said (or certainly not what I meant anyway) What I meant was that the Govt then, and after, said there was no pandemic plan, but there was and it was regularly tested. For some reason they started from scratch and didn’t follow the plan (according the the earlier evidence in the inquiry) Of course that plan would need to be reviewed and changed depending on the circumstances, as every plan does, but it would have been a starting point and it would have included the risk assessment/testing outcomes of closing schools so that risk could have been weighed up against the risk of not closing them.
I agree in principal but like I say,it wouldn't have mattered one iota what way he turned,we are a Country very much halved in two by politics.What's right for some is wrong for others ,we learn nothing and It worsens daily. It made no odds to me and I never benefited in the slightest,in fact it cost me.!! I was briefly unemployed when it all kicked off but started agency work in the June,in a food distribution warehouse,feeding the masses,with very little in the way of social distancing or managerial respect for the gravity of the situation.Others around me in my street were sitting out in their back gardens swigging beers,most on furlough +top up from their employer(full pay),I heard very few of them moaning... I went off sick the following April with whatever it was doing the rounds(tested positive to it anyway and it floored me for a week though I was told to stay away from work for 10 days). I got 3 days statutory sick pay for my efforts...That could've and should've been addressed by my devolved parliament but wasn't,that's my own beef,I wrote my disgust to 'her nibs' but it matters not now. I suppose the biggest hurt to me was the loss of my sister-in-law in the April,the 15 at her funeral, and being told by an undertaker to sit 2 metres away from her sister(my wife) in a crematorium,which to his apparent disgust I refused point blank to do... Hopefully,we,our children and our children's children are never subject to such measures ever again.
There really wouldn't have been much point in leaving schools open, but trying to get everyone else to isolate to prevent the spread. A virus doesn't care whether it's infecting kids or adults, and kids being kids would have no doubt led to a significantly higher spread. Many of them would have been fine, but many of the adults they come into contact with may not. The people that haven't been impacted would say that a wider spread was the price we needed to pay, whereas the people that were mentally and physically damaged by it all would argue that we didn't go far enough. I can see both sides of the argument. I just hope that we have a plan of action for any future outbreaks, because this was a total ****show.
Yeah, unfortunately it's exactly this. Boris in a televised interview saying he was gong round shaking hands of the infected. Telling us all to behave, tow the line and stay at home whilst a special adviser travels to Barnard Castle to test his ****ing eyes, and the Health Secretary has an affair in the workplace. One rule for them, another for the rest, and lucrative contracts for their friends who know the secret handshake.
I'm four weeks since testing negative. The covid itself was the easy bit. What follows it is horrendous. Hope there is no excitement tonight as it will set me back another week.
Having to get out of bed and go back to work and deal with colleagues again? I've got a job like that, mate. Stay strong, we'll get through this.
I was proper ****ed for 3 days after getting it, either on sofa or in bed,......or in the shower after I misjudged a fart......dodgy stomach was definitely a symptom this time :-S, but yeah since having it i'm just at 70% constantly, been going to bed early a few times a week, not back to running or playing footy.....been a right ****er
That's kind of what i'm getting at, doesn't matter which side of the political divide you're on, the approach fkd everyone off and the way that the governments own breaches of the rules were treated were just beyond a piss take. Take a special kind of ineptitude to piss everyone off!
I didn't agree with any breaches of rules by anyone on any side of the political divide and let's not forget I also had the antics of Jimmie Krankie and her ilk to put up with to boot. I'm very clear here in that I condoned no breaches from anyone and there were numerous...
