Brexit, for once some facts.

[oldgroaner]

I rather like this tweet
"James O'Brien@mrjamesob
https://twitter.com/mrjamesob

Every time you think their epic incompetence must have peaked, an even more virulent new strain of it comes along.

Yes indeedy!

 

[oldgroaner]

People do.

The number of times I have kicked myself for repeating mistakes I have previously made.

But the inability to work as a leader, getting advised and making decisions, is an irredeemable failing.

There is one area where this government has excelled.

Far and away it is the best investment(s) Russia ever made

 

[Barry Shittpeas]

BJ keeps making the same mistakes.
He must have known by now that the tier system is not strong enough to reduce hospitalisation and the hospitals are now full.

From what my niece told me, the hospitals were full last week and people were dying whilst waiting for someone else to die in ICU and free up a bed for them. About 50% admitted to ICU didn’t make it. Whist this was happening, Johnson was promising everyone that Christmas would happen come what may. What a fool.

 

[flecc]

This shows the start of the variant fermenting in Kent and SE Region from 27th Nov.

Shocking map proves vast swathes of Kent does have low infection rates

Anger over the whole of Kent being dragged in Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions deepened today after a shocking new map showed nearly half of the county had 'low' infection rates.

www.dailymail.co.uk

As does vast swathes of London as clearly shown. Three hotspots have long been in evidence, North Kent and South Essex each side of the Thames estuary and on the west side of London associated with Heathrow airport. The rest of these three counties have been well controlled and relatively little affected, considering their high population densities.
.

 

[Danidl]

From what my niece told me, the hospitals were full last week and people were dying whilst waiting for someone else to die in ICU and free up a bed for them. About 50% admitted to ICU didn’t make it. Whist this was happening, Johnson was promising everyone that Christmas would happen come what may. What a fool.

The nature of ICUs in our hospital structure is that they are for critical care.,and are extremely expensive to operate and man,so yes they are only used where there is a reasonable chance of survival say this 50% level.. it is very sobering. Many people don't get into ICU ,if the clinicians consider the outcome less favourable than 50/50.. There are other categories of hi tech ward including High Dependency ,Post operative care etc, which might look very similar,and kitted with similar equipment, but not manned as intensely,and with much higher survival rates

 

[Woosh]

As does vast swathes of London as clearly shown. Three hotspots have long been in evidence, North Kent and South Essex each side of the Thames estuary and on the west side of London associated with Heathrow airport. The rest of these three counties have been well controlled and relatively little affected, considering their high population densities.
.

the bit where I am in was green until a couple of weeks ago. A few days ago, Southend General had the most covid deaths, 20 people died on a single day.
We are constantly on alert. Someone in the team knows someone else who tested positive every day. I think it's too risky to continue working, we are going to close early tomorrow and come back in the new year.
BJ should go for a general lockdown until the hospitals can function again.

 

[Barry Shittpeas]

 

[flecc]

the bit where I am in was green until a couple of weeks ago. A few days ago, Southend General had the most covid deaths, 20 people died on a single day.
We are constantly on alert. Someone in the team knows someone else who tested positive every day. I think it's too risky to continue working, we are going to close early tomorrow and come back in the new year.
BJ should go for a general lockdown until the hospitals can function again.

I posted a few days ago that we in South Croydon had only just reached the bottom of the green at 51 and haven't had a Covid problem at all in this south of the borough, despite the government's nonsensical excessively wide area classificationas tier 4 now. But as I warned we're shortly about to be hit since there's a second from highest affected borough only one borough away now.

As also posted, I've been watching this spread from South East Kent all year long, starting from the key ports and via Ashford for the obvious reason of the connections to France via Tunnel, Eurostar station and Ferries. This has made a nonsence of the claims of wildfire spread since it's taken most of the year to cross Kent and still hasn't quite reached us. The only somewhat faster spread to London has been to the north via Eurostar, regular train commuting and the motorways.

This supports what I've been posting throughout that individual small areas and communication patterns are what matters in infection spread, not the large geographical areas defined by lines on maps that this government and their tame scientists have been foolishly using to such poor effect. Just look at the eleven large areas south of London and in Kent on Wicky's map where the disease has been suppressed to show how true this is and how utterly stupid it is to blanket them as tier 4.

Local decisions like that of Greenwich are so much better than the government's rigid approach and initial opposition to them. As quite a few posters backing rigidity in this forum stubbornly still haven't learnt, it's the people on the spot who are best placed to know what action to take. All they need is correct information on local infection and death rates and not the ridiculous complexities of R numbers, deaths for any reason within 28 days of a positive test, multiple ways of presenting the figures and multiple graphs ending in conflicting numbers for the same things.

One might think the government had never heard of the US acronym KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid.
.

 

[Wicky]

The nature of ICUs in our hospital structure is that they are for critical care.,and are extremely expensive to operate and man,so yes they are only used where there is a reasonable chance of survival say this 50% level.. it is very sobering. Many people don't get into ICU ,if the clinicians consider the outcome less favourable than 50/50.. There are other categories of hi tech ward including High Dependency ,Post operative care etc, which might look very similar,and kitted with similar equipment, but not manned as intensely,and with much higher survival rates

I did a few agency shifts many moons ago on a gastrointestinal surgical ward - and it was the most intense work I've ever done - it was like plate spinning in a bay with 6 patients post surgery, immobile and needing constant monitoring and attention for 9 hours. At the time MRSA was rife and at times it was like a battlefield with some patients despite having successful surgery turning to mush inside out.

Critical care was a entirely different secure dept. kept seperate with very high specialist staff to patient ratios.

It took a lot of changes in work practices & staff healthcare culture and infection control measures, testing, PPE, gel dispensers for patients staff, & visitors etc. to get on top of endemic MRSA. All a bit of rehersal for what's widespread with coronavirus.

 

[Danidl]

I did a few agency shifts many moons ago on a gastrointestinal surgical ward - and it was the most intense work I've ever done - it was like plate spinning in a bay with 6 patients post surgery, immobile and needing constant monitoring and attention for 9 hours. At the time MRSA was rife and at times it was like a battlefield with some patients despite having successful surgery turning to mush inside out.

Critical care was a entirely different secure dept. kept seperate with very high specialist staff to patient ratios.

It took a lot of changes in work practices & staff healthcare culture and infection control measures, testing, PPE, gel dispensers for patients staff, & visitors etc. to get on top of endemic MRSA. All a bit of rehersal for what's widespread with coronavirus.

Well we have been living with MRSA in my house for probably a decade now. My son. .. almost certainly hospital acquired.( That is the infection, we acquired the son by a different procedure)

 

[oyster]

Things must be serious. Johnson is stirring his arse:

December 20, 20209:22 PM
Updated 9 minutes ago
PM Johnson to chair emergency response meeting on COVID travel, freight

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair an emergency response meeting on Monday to discuss international travel, in particular the flow of freight in and out of Britain, a spokeswoman for his office said on Sunday.

“The prime minister will chair a COBR (emergency response) meeting tomorrow to discuss the situation regarding international travel, in particular the steady flow of freight into and out of the UK. Further meetings are happening this evening and tomorrow morning to ensure robust plans are in place,” the spokeswoman said.

 

[Wicky]

Best get the portaloos out - it could be quite a queue quelle surprise . An early test of Brexit prep and should bring Gove to the fore.

Let's hope they've kept well stocked up since earlier this year.

Huge delivery of loo roll arrives at Downing Street as coronavirus panic-buying grips UK

A HUGE delivery of loo roll has been dropped off at Downing street as coronavirus panic-buying grips the nation. Brits everywhere have been stockpiling toilet paper and supplies from supermarkets. …

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[oldgroaner]

For the people who knew what they voted for
Advice for food after a no deal Brexit
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9039649/What-No-Deal-mean-food-supplies-travel-economy.html

Can't wait to try "Lobster and chips"
is that with curry or mushy peas, sir?

 

[oldgroaner]

Moderna vaccine: corrected!
UK bought 40m @ £28 = £1.12bn
EU paid $18 = £13.31 x 40m That's £532,400,000

Arrogance come with a big price tag

 

[oldgroaner]

 

[oyster]

For the people who knew what they voted for
Advice for food after a no deal Brexit
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9039649/What-No-Deal-mean-food-supplies-travel-economy.html

Can't wait to try "Lobster and chips"
is that with curry or mushy peas, sir?

What a bizarre infographic!

We appear to import more yeast than we export - so toast might not be as available as we'd hope. Specifically, Morrisons use German yeast.

Scotch whisky is indeed Scottish. But why switch from its usual branding as Scotch?

I can't see lobster, crab and prawn prices dropping enough to become affordable for most of us! And if we have such an abundance, why do we see so many harvested from around the world?

Great - we have supplies of lamb chops. What happens to the legs?

We import around twice as many hops as we export (around $27 million difference/4%).

Are chips the new spam? Chips. Chips. Chips.

And even "imports" from NI are subject to additional measures!

 

[oyster]

Couldn't they have come up with an acronym that doesn't initially (ha!) make you think "nerve gas"?

Welsh government is absolutely clear that the new variant has been found in ALL areas of Wales. And might well be why the levels here have increased so fast. Yet we get dismissed as "other areas".

 

[oyster]

Way back, I failed to understand why Johnson was saying things about all over by Christmas. As dumb an approach as you could dream up.

How Boris Johnson Spent 9 Months Completely Cocking Up Christmas For Everyone
The PM has consistently over-promised on expectations while under-delivering in the fight against the pandemic.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/how-boris-johnson-spent-9-months-completely-cocking-up-christmas-for-everyone_uk_5fdf20a6c5b60d416343117b

 

[flecc]

I can't see lobster, crab and prawn prices dropping enough to become affordable for most of us! And if we have such an abundance, why do we see so many harvested from around the world?

It's the king prawns and scampi we import. We don't produce enough of them and the Orientals farm all kinds of prawns far cheaper than our wild caught ones.
.

 

[oyster]

It's the king prawns and scampi we import. We don't produce enough of them and the Orientals farm all kinds of prawns far cheaper than our wild caught ones.
.

We import prawns (non-king, cold water) from several countries including Greenland and Denmark.

We produce quite a lot of scampi.

We import the small lobsters found in vast quantities as found in Lidl, etc.