Not really been on the thread regular since the early summer - but during the spring and early summer I found this a really helpful place to get information and insights - certainly once all the political activists were purged to the other thread.
I still pop on every now and then - but need to read every 10th or 20th page to make catching up at all possible - and it is still a good and helpful thread IMO.
So I just want to 'float a view' and I know that there will be different views about this - so please don't just shoot me down.
But - I cannot see the why there is all this clamour for a national lockdown - or, as I heard today, a campaign for all the UK to be treated the same over the Xmas break
Of course - I get the clinical view that a lockdown for a few weeks will act as a 'something of a firebreak' - but surely the decision has to be drawn from a number of factors - and that is just one.
Of course - if there was some certainty that such an action would stop a wave 2 I would support it - but this virus is not going to disappear out of circulation any time soon and we surely need, until a vaccine comes along, to find a method of 'living with it'
This government has been majorly incompetent - but I sort of get this tiering policy - and it seems to make sense and to be practicable (if they could only make the rules clear and communicate them effectively)
The economy can recover from what has taken place - but repeated national lockdowns will surely make that recovery many times harder and longer.
Surely the majority of people can see that the country cannot afford that. If we take actions on the tiering basis then we have local shocks and then afterwards controlled local recoveries - and funding will be better used as it can be made available to those most directly affected at the time they most need it.
As an aside - I simple repeat of the previous furlough funding would be crazy - IMO. I know so many small businesses and people in the building trade that took the lump sums in a manner that was clearly them milking the system.
Also - how long a national lockdown? Do we end on some basis pre-determined criteria is achieved on infections? If so we could be in lockdown for months.
Do we do it for 2, 3 or 4 weeks etc. If so why would that be most effective - some places may have been better served for a longer period and we may have reduced the period just because it has been a national lockdown.
As I say we need to find the way to live with it and, unfortunately, we cannot simply hide from it until it goes away - I wish we could. So a process of local lockdowns and local release from lockdowns based on criteria being achieved just seems sensible to me
Anyway - just a viewpoint