COVID-19 — Coronavirus

[kevin horlocks wand]

No problem with your general point but your “joke” just came across as a dig as far as I’m concerned.

sorry it never meant to, it added nothing to my post . I was making a point about financial allocation and people have come up with good arguments either way,

 

[BlueAnorak]

Several councils threatened to withhold funding to help care homes deal with the coronavirus outbreak if they didn't agree to take in COVID-19 patients, Sky News can reveals,It comes as dozens of care homes fear a government policy allowing the transfer of coronavirus-positive or untested patients is a "major factor" in why COVID-19 deaths are so high.
The policy was changed in the middle of April but some care homes believe the damage had already been done by then

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...they-didnt-take-in-covid-19-patients-11986578

It's no surprise. Beuracrates work with blinkers on, wherever they work. They have a task to do and a budget to work with. It is above their pay grade to think about collateral damage.
It's the same all over Europe. Indeed, It amazes me actually that only 38% of English care homes have had Covid-19 cases. Scotlands a bit high on 78% but its around 50% in Spain, Italy and France.

 

[shemnel]

it’s not it’s about cost apportionment through the UK . There is nothing patriotic about it , it’s about finance allocation of the uk pot .

If a decision is taken for the Scottish to stay home for , say the next 6 months and not go to work , whereas England wales and Northern Ireland go back to work, Scotland should bear the cost of the furlough scheme for its decision.

I think there will be discussions going forward as how furlough might be paid for in Scotland should they want to extend it very long-term

as far as i understand, furlough was made to last until end of June and all VAT receipts are deferred until March 2021, you dont need to pay. Therefore there was an amount ringfenced to pay as if the whole UK was off until June 30th. Therefore couldnt there be a way of assigning less public money to Scotland based on less VAT collected, in a future barnett payment? just a thought

 

[ayrshire_blue]

Cannot provide a link. It was on the local news last night. Said Scotland was 0.7 whereas the North East is currently 0.9.

Scotland is somewhere between 0.7 and 1.0 in a community setting is the only known figures up here as far as I'm aware.

 

[ayrshire_blue]

I get the impression the lifting of restrictions in England is based on the big falls of R rate in London with little consideration for those areas still with higher infection rates.
In Scotland I live in an area like many less populated parts where infections have fallen quite dramatically. In my area we’re down to 2 or 3 new cases Every couple of days, where Glasgow is still quite high , but restrictions are being kept higher until the worst areas have improved. We are moving at the pace of the most infected areas, Doesn’t seem to be Englands policy.

Agree with this entirely.

 

[SWP's back]

Hang on you said 'A quick look on the govt's own website shows the North East of England has the highest R rate in the UK'.

Interesting.

 

[blueparrot]

i think sensibly you have said yeah you go first England and we will see what happens !

she is a smart politician Nicola .

Whatever anyones view of her politics think a lot outside Scotland have become aware of her political qualities the last 2 months, and will start to take her a bit more seriously.

 

[BlueAnorak]

As much as we moan, we’re no different to other countries - this is Australia where they have decided to open shopping malls.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05...m-over-coronavirus-social-distancing/12231780

Let's be honest, there's a big fucking bill coming our way that has to be paid for stopping economic activity to fight the virus so to minimise the bill economies have to start opening up.
It's a balancing act of risk between opening up and letting the virus go again so I'd rather wait a week or so to open up - i.e. till the track-and-trace app is working and the track-and-trace teams are deployed. But we are where we are.
Personally I think the equivalent of war bonds with guaranteed returns over 5-20 years is the way to pay for it. Savings give people fuck all return so lots of people will buy them. Additional money to that lost should be borrowed to boost UK investment and grow the economy to pay the bond bill's or we really will be fucked.

 

[urban genie]

Had to come into work today, start looking at how we will plan to distance the space ready for probable return in June.

Only three people in a building that normally has a few thousand

All very quiet

 

[Mancity1980]

Well I suppose they only work half the year normally anyway, so I guess not much has changed.

A bit like footballers, but not with as much money.:)