New Restrictions - Page 3

Well said, dinnerout.  I learned this morning that the first case of the UK's new strain of the virus was identified in Gibraltar yesterday, so my only criticism of Spain's decision-making is that perhaps they should have banned UK travellers at the weekend, in tandem with France, instead of leaving it a further 24 hours.  

When BoJo announced at the weekend the introduction of a new Tier 4 and the almost lockdown restrictions imposed by it, yet again media outlets were reporting UK citizens making a judgement call on whether these rules applied to them evidenced, for example, by the massive queues I saw on TV of St Pancras station, rammed with people trying to leave the capital.

I feel sorry for anyone severely impacted by these rapidly changing rules, but as my 92 year old father, who I haven't been able to see all year, said to me on the phone yesterday, "We all need to be in this together, it's only 1 year".

I hope you all have the very best Christmas you can under the circumstances.  The best present I feel I can give is to keep myself, and others, safe by obeying the rules.

Best wishes,

Kim

Your political stance has nothing to do with this, simply put a pcr test was good enough for entry and then the next not, brought on by pressure from the EU. Quoting  a Europe wide approach, laughingly no one knows where this new strain has come from, for your convinience your accusing the uk. I can tell you there cases in rome and Belgium but funnily neither country is being treated like the uk is. Perhaps it’s brexit, 

Sorry  Kim I can understand  what you are saying but when you have been fed so many lies and had so many changes at the drop of a hat ,I can totally understand  people ignoring rules ,if you have no trust in an organisation  you are hardly likely to follow what they say.merry xmas

Hi Terry,

You may think that, "laughingly no one knows where this new strain has come from", but you may want to have that argument with the UK's Chief Medical Officer.  I am NOT "accusing the UK" - conveniently or otherwise - they reported their discovery of the new UK strain to the WHO themselves!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-from-chief-medical-officer-professor-chris-whitty-about-new-strain-of-covid-19

I understand that you're angry, but taking out your anger on this forum is not the answer, especially when you haven't even bothered to get your facts straight first.

Stay safe,

Kim

Professor John Deeks of Birmingham Uni speaking to BBC News today said that the Lateral Flow Tests (LFT) introduced by the (private) companies employed by the UK government to test -  as one example -  University students have proved unreliable. 

He said Birmingham University retested sample batches using the PCR test and found 60 negative tests that were actually positive. The BMJ have consistently said that they believe LFTs are not fit for purpose yet the Government continues to use them.

There existed within the NHS and PHE a robust resource to test and trace prior to the Pandemic but it was decided to hand testing contracts to private enterprises, in many cases without a tendering process.

Anyone who saw the Channel 4 documentary Despatches where they placed an undercover worker in the Belfast testing lab run by Randox will have been alarmed about this. Randox won the testing contract unopposed. A paid advisor to Randox is Owen Paterson, a Conservative MP.

So despite the BMJ cautioning against LFT's the Government ignored their advice and many students returned home for the holidays thinking they were negative when in fact they were positive.

This is the truth about Pandemic management in the UK. It will be unpalatable to some who defend the UK no matter what.

Other nations were surprised when the UK locked down so late, many said so at the time, and as a consequence other nations have a low trust in the UK government's ability to manage the Pandemic proactively. That is driving the recent reaction to the discovery of a new, faster spreading strain identified there.

Not to mention pictures going world wide of giant queues at St Pancras when Tier 4 requires remain in place....

Hi John,

Sorry, but you're assuming that I agree with all the rules - I don't.  The best I can do is to read as much information as I can from as many bona fide sources as I can find, and try to understand the logic behind the decision-making.  

Let me give you an example: in the early stages of the pandemic, the WHO stated that it was not necessary to mandate the wearing of masks.  At that time, I took an 8-week Covid-19 course online with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (it made sense to me, we were in lockdown with very little else to usefully do, LOL!).  At that stage in the world's understanding of this novel coronavirus, the primary focus was on hand washing and sanitizing, and not touching the face, to prevent infection.  Secondary to this was social distancing, initially a minimum of 2m, to avoid spread by droplets projected into the air by coughing and sneezing.  As our understanding has evolved and while we continue with the initial precautions, much more emphasis is being placed on "aerosol" transmission - a much finer spray that, when people exhale their breath, lingers in the air much longer than droplets.  It was at this point that the WHO changed its advice about masks and some countries started to mandate the use of them - Spain did, the UK didn't.  It took me a while to get used to wearing a mask, but I live in Spain and so I have to abide by Spain's rules.  It's not for me to say, "Well, the UK hasn't mandated the use of masks and I'm British, so I'm going to ignore Spain's rules, even though I live here".  How selfish would that make me?  Unfortunately, there seems to be too many people who are happy to say, "I'm alright Jack", only thinking about themselves, rather than what is best for ALL of us.

As for BoJo and his clowns, we're definitely on the same page there!  ;o)   And Spain has its own bad behaviour - the president of the autonomous region of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has been a thorn in the side of Spain's Prime Minister for months.  When it comes to MPs, it's never safe to assume that a killer virus will get in the way of them playing politics!

Best wishes,

Kim

The chaos at st Pancras has been solely  blamed on idiots running scared, but think about it where do the trains go? Eurostar ? 
st Pancras is usually busy, but given the time of year and circumstance even busier.

Who knows when that picture was taken too, you just see something that suits your opinion and are happy to jump to all manner of conclusions... food for thought?

You don't believe that news crews from BBC SKY and ITV took the film on Sunday?? If that's the case you will never believe anything. 

But I notice you have no comment on the facts presented other than to label them as nonsense. There are Pandemic deniers everywhere I suppose, but deniers become believers when the virus touches them directly!

Happy Christmas ☃️

Laughingly being the first country to identify a new strain doesn’t mean your responsible for it.

It might mean the uk is ahead of the curve on the science of it, but while your dishing the uk ,just remember that to date spain hasn’t come forth with a vaccine. Actually spain just has its hand out waiting for cash from the eu and hasn’t come forth with any notable contribution to this world wide pandemic...

The UK public is currently getting a vaccine developed in the EU!

The EMA has approved the same BioNtech vaccine and it will be rolled out very shortly. 

This isn't UK v Europe, it's simply that the UK approved the vaccine earlier than the EU and has started vaccination earlier. The European countries will start innovating their populations shortly.