Guardian? Enough said! The govt would not win with some people whatever way you cut it. The knives were out from the start, that's why they became so defensive and party political broadcast sounding. Agree, with the word hindsight there would be a number of things addressed differently. But they stopped that spike as they said they would, but certain people still moan about the lockdown decisions. They cannot win. Anyone in charge cannot win. It's a thankless task. And the truth is you detect political undertones, not what you need right now!

Originally Posted by: Phil G 

That's an incredibly distorted view. Aside from the fact that we haven't stopped 'that spike', as the number of deaths show. The 'Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives' mantra was the consequence of a desperate U-turn when the initial stance proved to be a horrendous misjudgement. The UK's record to date is abysmal on so many fronts and I know you know that.

But the substantive point, irrespective of what newspaper carried the story, is that you cannot have criticism suppressed like this. If mistakes have been made how do we learn from them if they are not discussed?

Originally Posted by: Gandalf The White 

The Coastguard has said that on Friday it had the highest number of call-outs since lockdown began as people “ignore” the government’s stay-at-home message.

It said there were 97 incidents, 54% more than the average of 63 recorded for the previous month.

Matt Leat, duty commander with the Coastguard, urged people to stop “ignoring” the government’s measures for the sake of the NHS and all those on the frontline

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/may/09/uk-coronavirus-live-ministers-plan-14-day-quarantine-for-arrivals-as-garden-centres-set-to-reopen--latest-updates

Originally Posted by: Justin W 

Why am I not surprised? 

UK scientists condemn 'Stalinist' attempt to censor Covid-19 advice

Government scientific advisers are furious at what they see as an attempt to censor their advice on government proposals during the Covid-19 lockdown by heavily redacting an official report before it was released to the public, the Guardian can reveal.

The report was one of a series of documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) this week to mollify growing criticism about the lack of transparency over the advice given to ministers responding to the coronavirus.

Several SPI–B members told the Guardian that the redacted portions of the document contained criticisms they had made of potential government policies they had been formally asked to consider in late March and early April.One SPI-B adviser said: “It is bloody silly, and completely counterproductive.” A second committee member said: “The impression I’m getting is this government doesn’t want any criticism.”

“Personally, I am more bemused than furious,” said Stephen Reicher, a professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews. “The greatest asset we have in this crisis is the trust and adherence of the public. You want trust? You need to be open with people. This isn’t open. It is reminiscent of Stalinist Russia. Not a good look.”

At least one scientific adviser is understood to be considering resigning over the government’s secretive approach to science around the Covid-19 outbreak, which they believe is undermining public trust.

“This government has failed to show any self-criticism whatsoever, when it is glaringly obvious to everybody that big mistakes have been made. If you want the trust of the population you hold up your hand and you say ‘we’ve made these mistakes, this is why they happened, we regret it, we’re learning from it’. Rather than just keep saying ‘we’ve done the most fantastic job’ and not being open to criticism in any way.”

Originally Posted by: xioni2 

Another 80 new Britons today, having been ferried across the Channel. Hopefully none have covid-19, but we'll see.

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/around-80-migrants-intercepted-226937/

Given the lockdown and the mealy-mouthed reassurances, I really don't know why they're still not being intercepted until they're past the halfway point...

(There were several boats yesterday as well, of course.)

I wonder if, as others have speculated, this is why Kent is seeing so many reported cases... It's been at the top of the county charts for weeks now.

Originally Posted by: Retron 

Guardian? Enough said! 

Originally Posted by: Phil G 

Back to the VE Day celebrations yesterday. There might be a positive in this in that it represented a sort of unofficial low level breach of the lockdown. In other words people were generally trying to meet social distancing requirements but many were more lax than they had been. My experience was 1-2m distancing and long periods of chatting going on at closer distance than before. But this would only be a proportion of the population. So, a bit of a dummy run. Be interesting that if there isn't a spike in infection rate in the next 1-2 weeks might mean that easing isn't as dire as we fear. 

Originally Posted by: fairweather 

Another 80 new Britons today, having been ferried across the Channel. Hopefully none have covid-19, but we'll see.

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/around-80-migrants-intercepted-226937/

Given the lockdown and the mealy-mouthed reassurances, I really don't know why they're still not being intercepted until they're past the halfway point...

(There were several boats yesterday as well, of course.)

I wonder if, as others have speculated, this is why Kent is seeing so many reported cases... It's been at the top of the county charts for weeks now.

Originally Posted by: Retron 

What  a perfect headline this would make for the Daily Mail? As we know immigrants are the source of most ills in this country...why not blame them for Covid 19 too?  Talk about pandering to base prejudices...If the illegal immigrants were being brought ashore and then let lose in the community, that would  be one thing...Is there any evidence that this is actually what is happening? 

Originally Posted by: Chichesterweatherfan2 

Been for a long walk round south Manchester today. 

Most people being very courteous and socially distancing, a fair number of people sunbathing etc but always in small groups and in isolation.

Always warms my cockles to see all the rainbows in windows and chalked out by kids on footpaths and doorsteps. Love it. 

Need to be careful not to assume everything happening on Twitter is representative of the entire population. It’s easy to get carried away with anecdotes from social media. 

Not saying everything is rosy, but I firmly believe that most people are fairly decent out there. 

Originally Posted by: Joe Bloggs 

Been for a long walk round south Manchester today. 

Most people being very courteous and socially distancing, a fair number of people sunbathing etc but always in small groups and in isolation.

Always warms my cockles to see all the rainbows in windows and chalked out by kids on footpaths and doorsteps. Love it. 

Need to be careful not to assume everything happening on Twitter is representative of the entire population. It’s easy to get carried away with anecdotes from social media. 

Not saying everything is rosy, but I firmly believe that most people are fairly decent out there. 

Originally Posted by: Joe Bloggs 

Guardian? Enough said! 

Originally Posted by: Phil G 

Yep, round here have seen people generally being fairly responsible. One thing to remember is that the R value was around 3 during normal times and people's activity seems to be a long way short of that so any increase in the R value is hopefully going to be small. Commentary has been that the chances of catching it outside are much smaller than indoors so arguably it is the socialising that you can't see which is more dangerous. Guess we will start to find out in about a weeks time, not nice to be living in a science experiment like this.

Originally Posted by: JHutch 

What  a perfect headline this would make for the Daily Mail? As we know immigrants are the source of most ills in this country...why not blame them for Covid 19 too?

Originally Posted by: Chichesterweatherfan2