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Lockdowns

We are governed by idiots maybe?
And at last Williamson has finally listened to the London boroughs re their and the teaching unions concerns re the return of children to schools.

Why is it that at almost every instance this government ignore and belittle entirely reasonable representations from such organisations? Recall their insistence that there was sufficient PPE during the initial outbreak when health unions and professional bodies were saying the opposite?

So in two weeks we’ve gone from Williamson taking legal action against some London boroughs re their proposal to shut schools before Christmas to him deciding to close them.

I would say that this is unbelievable. But with this shower, anything is possible....?
 
60 (?) million people who don't have enough collective common sense to avoid each other
Despite good old Boris, the rest of his cabal and the usual right-wing journos (Young, Vine, Oakshott, et al) continually exhorting the good old British (or rather Little Engerlish) common sense!
 
And at last Williamson has finally listened to the London boroughs re their and the teaching unions concerns re the return of children to schools.

Why is it that at almost every instance this government ignore and belittle entirely reasonable representations from such organisations? Recall their insistence that there was sufficient PPE during the initial outbreak when health unions and professional bodies were saying the opposite?

So in two weeks we’ve gone from Williamson taking legal action against some London boroughs re their proposal to shut schools before Christmas to him deciding to close them.

I would say that this is unbelievable. But with this shower, anything is possible....?

But that isn't the whole story is it James? I am sure that the government recognises the risks, but is doing absolutely everything possible to keep children in school, until it becomes absolutely impossible to do so. On another forum I suggested that the last summer holidays should be cancelled with teachers being on a rota for 2 weeks annual leave, to create headroom for more disruption later in the year. The screams of anguish were palpable. The go to solution is to take children out of school, but the impact of that on their education and well being is catastrophic. We need to stop setting up this debate as teachers/unions vs Dept of Education/Government and look for solutions that include (say) taking next year's summer holidays now and then running the remainder of the year with mini-breaks for holidays. It's not just a black and white issue. There are alternatives and considering that the educationalists set themselves up as the font of all knowledge - they need to come up with better solutions !!
 
But that isn't the whole story is it James? I am sure that the government recognises the risks, but is doing absolutely everything possible to keep children in school, until it becomes absolutely impossible to do so. On another forum I suggested that the last summer holidays should be cancelled with teachers being on a rota for 2 weeks annual leave, to create headroom for more disruption later in the year. The screams of anguish were palpable. The go to solution is to take children out of school, but the impact of that on their education and well being is catastrophic. We need to stop setting up this debate as teachers/unions vs Dept of Education/Government and look for solutions that include (say) taking next year's summer holidays now and then running the remainder of the year with mini-breaks for holidays. It's not just a black and white issue. There are alternatives and considering that the educationalists set themselves up as the font of all knowledge - they need to come up with better solutions !!
Completely agree with you, taking kids out of school again would be catastrophic for them and alternatives needs to be found. One or two London boroughs suggested an early start to the Christmas holidays to try to stop the number of cases spiralling. And what were they met with? The threat of legal action. Hardly constructive I’ve said elsewhere that this government seems incapable of engaging in a constructive manner with local councils. We saw that at the start of the pandemic when they completely ignored the existing expertise in the public health departments (track and trace being a common part of their day job). Then again when coming to the decisions where to place the likes of Liverpool and Manchester in the Tier system. They then do flip-flops and U-turns with little or no notice and then expect the schools to react immediately.
 
So why has the country pressed the self destruct button this year?


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You’re right the NHS didn’t get an extra £350m a week, it got an extra £1.3b a week.

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Completely agree with you, taking kids out of school again would be catastrophic for them and alternatives needs to be found. One or two London boroughs suggested an early start to the Christmas holidays to try to stop the number of cases spiralling. And what were they met with? The threat of legal action. Hardly constructive I’ve said elsewhere that this government seems incapable of engaging in a constructive manner with local councils. We saw that at the start of the pandemic when they completely ignored the existing expertise in the public health departments (track and trace being a common part of their day job). Then again when coming to the decisions where to place the likes of Liverpool and Manchester in the Tier system. They then do flip-flops and U-turns with little or no notice and then expect the schools to react immediately.
But those solutions that were put forwards would just have reduced the amount of time that children spent in the classroom. There was no intent to reformat the rest of the school year to compensate. This goes to the heart of the issue. The councils and public servants are not seen as being innovative and able to think on their feet. There is an unwillingness to rely on public servants for all the reasons we have explored previously
 
But those solutions that were put forwards would just have reduced the amount of time that children spent in the classroom. There was no intent to reformat the rest of the school year to compensate. This goes to the heart of the issue. The councils and public servants are not seen as being innovative and able to think on their feet. There is an unwillingness to rely on public servants for all the reasons we have explored previously
Ah, so old hackneyed “private sector good, public sector bad” twaddle. Change the record Knutsfordian, we are sick of hearing it.
 
Ah, so old hackneyed “private sector good, public sector bad” twaddle. Change the record Knutsfordian, we are sick of hearing it.
It's not about being good or bad. It's about trying to make something work that doesn't fit within the normal bounds and until we start to do things differently we won't get better solutions. There are lots of good people in the public sector, but they are constrained by the way it works. Not being able to see that or accept it is part of the problem. Folks need to be a bit less defensive !

Just look at all the bureaucracy that's preventing ex NHS staff from joining the vaccination task force. It's completely unnecessary.
 
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It's not about being good or bad. It's about trying to make something work that doesn't fit within the normal bounds and until we start to do things differently we won't get better solutions. There are lots of good people in the public sector, but they are constrained by the way it works. Not being able to see that or accept it is part of the problem. Folks need to be a bit less defensive !

Just look at all the bureaucracy that's preventing ex NHS staff from joining the vaccination task force. It's completely unnecessary.
Make sure that you are sitting down before you read this Knutsfordian!

I 100% agree with you!?
 
You’ve missed the point. So close, yet so far
 
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You do realise that the 2020/21 column includes £51.9 million in non recurring Civic 19 funding don't you? Obviously you wouldn't want to mislead us. That is from your own source.

So where’s your source saying funding won’t remain higher than previous post Covid?
 
So where’s your source saying funding won’t remain higher than previous post Covid?
The source is in the site that you referenced with your misleading graph. The clue is in the words 'non recurring'. So without the non recurring element of £51.9 billion, the graph is flat. Also, the graph only shows investment in the NHS and not the shortfall in annual investment.
 
Just seen GMB Piers Morgan present a guy called Dave Carr as a an ICU nurse and give him a free hand to slag off the government over handling of the pandemic, without any mention of the fact that he the chairman of the local Unison branch. He has a rightful point of view, but to present him as a nurse without any agenda is completely disingenuous. Typical Piers Morgan back on the telly sh1t stirring to the maximum as usual. When are they going to deliver balanced programming ??????


And then you need ask why there is distrust between public service workers and the government??

Totally outrageous
 
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