Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Diogenes the Cynic]

who, the police?

The police, the authorities, the government, the media...

Anyone who supported or attended those demonstrations should at best now be social parriahs in disgrace or locked in a Covid containment camp to protect functioning members of society.

 

[tsubaki]

In principle, they're like a crowd gathered around a burning building who then throw petrol on the fire and jeer and assault fire fighters.

The police have been pathetic right through this pandemic.

A couple of months ago having to watch hundreds of 'freedom marchers' terrorising Liverpool city centre when the virus was still at a containable stage and the coppers were hopeless in enforcing their own dispersal zone.

No offence dave but this is risible - there are not, even in London, the numbers of cops to do anything significantly above normal police work.

To do what the French did (for example) with checkpoints, dedicated patrols enforcing lockdown and so on is only possible with a lot more staff - to use France again, with the Police Nationale and the gendarmerie there are more than 100,000 more officers than what we have.

 

[tsubaki]

Yeah. Should have been stamped out given the overarching situation.

Instead we got this type of guff about how it was "safe".

Covid: How to protest during a global pandemic

Young activists explain the challenges they have faced in demonstrating during a global pandemic.

www.bbc.co.uk

You do understand the absurdity of “stamping out” almost entirely peaceful marches and protests against police violence though?

I agree that it probably wasn’t the best time to have them, but if they were going to happen (and given what was happening in the US they were always going to), then they had to be handled with sensibility and tact. They were, in the vast majority of cases.

I should also say that doing what the police did there is entirely in keeping with the principles by which British policing was established back in 1829 - that the police are the public, and the public are the police. There was clear public concern, it was safely expressed, and the demos stopped. Had someone decided to block that concern with force it would have gone wrong in a very real way.

 

[Tubey]

You do understand the absurdity of “stamping out” almost entirely peaceful marches and protests against police violence though?

I agree that it probably wasn’t the best time to have them, but if they were going to happen (and given what was happening in the US they were always going to), then they had to be handled with sensibility and tact. They were, in the vast majority of cases.

I should also say that doing what the police did there is entirely in keeping with the principles by which British policing was established back in 1829 - that the police are the public, and the public are the police. There was clear public concern, it was safely expressed, and the demos stopped. Had someone decided to block that concern with force it would have gone wrong in a very real way.

Hence why I said immaturity rules the roost. The protesters should have known better and, as Diogenes says, they have blood on their hands for their petulance. There's a social contract between the public and authorities and the protesters broke it IMO.

I believe the phrase is "there's a time and a place for everything" - a middle of a global pandemic wasn't the time and place for protests.

 

[davek]

No offence dave but this is risible - there are not, even in London, the numbers of cops to do anything significantly above normal police work.

To do what the French did (for example) with checkpoints, dedicated patrols enforcing lockdown and so on is only possible with a lot more staff - to use France again, with the Police Nationale and the gendarmerie there are more than 100,000 more officers than what we have.

Just a few tactical units would have done it. Snatch squads to grab a few of them and beat the 'kin tar out of them to deter others.

FFS, if they were striking workers they'd do it.

 

[The binman chronicles]

We'll see if the government row back and close all schools later today. Good job they work fast and give people time to sort out what they are going to do as usual.

FWIW I think they should close the schools but they should have said at the start of the holidays everything is closed bar food shops and then we may have had a handle on the spread and having a downward trajectory and may have been able to re-open a week or so late. Yet now we have had 2 weeks off which was prime time to do something and now will need 3/4 weeks on top. It's incompetence on a grand scale.

 

[spectateur]

You do understand the absurdity of “stamping out” almost entirely peaceful marches and protests against police violence though?

I agree that it probably wasn’t the best time to have them, but if they were going to happen (and given what was happening in the US they were always going to), then they had to be handled with sensibility and tact. They were, in the vast majority of cases.

I should also say that doing what the police did there is entirely in keeping with the principles by which British policing was established back in 1829 - that the police are the public, and the public are the police. There was clear public concern, it was safely expressed, and the demos stopped. Had someone decided to block that concern with force it would have gone wrong in a very real way.

Here I beg to differ.
That was all changed in 1984 when Thatcher mobilised and politicised the police during the bitter miner's strike. They were used to attack strikers and pickets.
Again in 89/90 at the time of the poll tax riots.
They became "Maggies Militia" then and police / public relations haven't been the same since.

 

[grandjoeblue]

We'll see if the government row back and close all schools later today. Good job they work fast and give people time to sort out what they are going to do as usual.

FWIW I think they should close the schools but they should have said at the start of the holidays everything is closed bar food shops and then we may have had a handle on the spread and having a downward trajectory and may have been able to re-open a week or so late. Yet now we have had 2 weeks off which was prime time to do something and now will need 3/4 weeks on top. It's incompetence on a grand scale.

The school thing is similar to NYE. Every sane person knew that the pubs and restaurants would have to close, so why not tell them in advance so struggling businesses don't waste thousands of pounds on stock? They could easily have said on boxing day that pubs and restaurants will have to close due to the new variant or whatever.

The schools are the same. Countless heads and staff across the country are working to make things safe even though they'll probably come out today and say they won't open.

I don't think it helps inspire confidence with the public too. Loads of the public are not following the rules as they are so chaotic and poorly timed.

 

[arminisgod]

Legally I can't see how the government can win. You can't put most of the country on the same restrictions but deem it safer than London

 

[The binman chronicles]

Legally I can't see how the government can win. You can't put most of the country on the same restrictions but deem it safer than London

Location based aswell. So someone can't live in one area and go to school in another and likewise the edges of all these places that there isn't any mixing going on. No one cares. We are in a tier 4 and my wife is talking about going to town to get a takeaway costa coffee before walking in the park. Nobheads all around including in my household.

 

[grandjoeblue]

Location based aswell. So someone can't live in one area and go to school in another and likewise the edges of all these places that there isn't any mixing going on. No one cares. We are in a tier 4 and my wife is talking about going to town to get a takeaway costa coffee before walking in the park. Nobheads all around including in my household.

Nothing wrong with going a park as long as you stay away from people. Getting exercise is very important, helps you to be in a better position to fight off the virus if you get it.

 

[PhilM]

Big pressure on the UK Govt to keep schools shut for 2 weeks, at least. At this juncture, it makes perfect sense to me.

NAHT are taking legal action according to my wife and the other unions are joining them.

 

[arminisgod]

NAHT are taking legal action according to my wife and the other unions are joining them.

Yeah my missus has had it through from the unions

 

[The binman chronicles]

Nothing wrong with going a park as long as you stay away from people. Getting exercise is very important, helps you to be in a better position to fight off the virus if you get it.

Nothing wrong with the exercise bit, going into a shop to get takeaway coffee no matter how the queues are handled (and the fact they are open in the first place) winds me up. She was in another shop the other day with the kids and that wound me up too.

 

[Deleted member 48881]

Sydney will enforce mask wearing on public transport and indoor public venues from Monday to try and suppress the recent cluster spreading. They didn't apply this previously even with more stringent restrictions.