Of course, mistakes have been made, the latest of which is extending the furlough. It removes the incentive for anyone to return to work.
Unintended consequences at work here. There is now a massive disincentive for people to return, such that they are all over social media shouting about staying home and “saving lives”. What they really mean is that they like having an extended holiday from the dreary drudge of their workaday lives and those folks pushing back against this lock-down are in danger of exposing their extended skive for what it is.
Of course, mistakes have been made, the latest of which is extending the furlough. It removes the incentive for anyone to return to work.
And there you have it. People have become used to this new normal whereby they can sit in the garden, do a bit of DIY and generally loaf about. Why wouldn’t they want it to continue?
The virus was always a low risk. A combination of hysterical screeching from the media combined with risk-averse governments has led us to this. If we really don’t go back to normal by October, there will be bugger all to go back to for a significant number of people.
If this crisis has taught us anything it is that stupidity is widespread. That we are a risk-averse species. That the government of the day can effectively impose martial law with the blessing of the victims. That Stockholm syndrome is deeply rooted in the psyche of the population. That we are surrounded by curtain-twitchers who will inform at the drop of a hat. That the police are a bunch of incompetent wannabe Stasi, more akin to the Keystone Cops than a proper police force.That we are surrounded by hysterical, judgemental, emotionally incontinent fools. That there are idiots who think that a virus and electromagnetic radiation are linked.
I should have seen this coming in the weeks following the death of Diana Princess of Wales.
I despair. Really, I do.
There are some who are considering bringing their retirement forward. One relative of mine has a longish commute. The cost travelling to work on paper wasn’t quite as self evident until she started working from home and wasn’t having to put fuel in her car every week.
Stupidity is widespread. This is the most worrying part. I always knew there were idiots around but I thought that they were a minority.
Apart from the obvious economic damage that this Covid19 panic has brought, the restrictions and the fear around a disease that as far as I can see only kills 500 per million of people it infects, has been an absolute boon for the sort of bullying public sector jobsworths that I encountered at my local tip this morning.
Not content with only allowing two cars in at a time causing delays of up to one hour in entering the tip and causing traffic holdups back to the roundabout half a mile away, users were approached by a jobsworth with a placard telling the users that they must shut their car windows at all times. I was gobsmacked at this. A lot of the people attending the tip today were of an elderly age who can be adversely affected by high temperatures yet the jobsworths insisted on a boilingly hot day, that everyone with no exception could have their car window open and which failed to take into account that not every driver has air conditioning.
There were also signs screaming at people to keep 2m away from all staff and that no help whatsoever would be given with unloading rubbish. There were also the usual menacing signs, of the sort often seen in public sector environments that treat the public like crap, that any verbal assault on the staff (which could mean just about anything) would be reported to the police. I was none too enamored of the public sector before this Covid nonsense but now I positively hate it.
Expect more of this behaviour.
It’s been bad from the start and is getting worse. It’s the mindless pettiness that gets me about the way that the public sector has behaved, things like tying children’s playgrounds up with cable ties when it was clear from quite early on that children were not the main demographic cohort at risk and the adults who accompany children should be expected to have the common sense to socially distance. In any event, I’m not sure that social distancing is doing that much good as we can see from the more Islamic areas / ‘enriched’ areas which have virtually ignored the restrictions and are seeing the virus burn itself out as viruses tend to do.
Especially new estates where the small play parks and surrounding grass would provide ample room for social distancing but instead residents are forced to use the narrow surrounding service road in bother directions thus ensuring contact (even though we all know such brief contact to be entirely harmless).
If I were a child I would think that the grown ups who locked MY play park were very mean.
Not so much “Put that light out!” rather “Put that mask on!”.
To be fair to them, the guys at our local tip seem to be doing their best to get people in and out as efficiently as they can within the rules they have to work with.
I was taken back to the demise of Diana, when the British stiff upper-lip quivered itself into oblivion and the age of emotional incontinence descended, as soon as the Chinkenpox hysteria started. That feeling that you were living in a 1950s B-movie where you couldn’t tell who had been taken over by aliens was very familiar. I never expected to live through that again, but this time it’s lasting much longer and is far, far worse. I’m truly despairing. Thank Gawd for the sceptics/sane.
I am losing the will to live. I mean, it’s not like I’m a social person, I live a quiet life alone. But I do participate in the various village clubs and activities, like to have a drink and a meal with friends from time to time. The worst of this Great Panic is to see so many, friends and acquaintances I thought sound level-headed people, taken in by this irrationality and fear. So many, I had not thought fear had undone so many.
Like you I share your disappointment with normally level headed people losing their heads over all this. Another thing that has also vexed me greatly is seeing ordinary Britons, people who would normally be staunch and decent, turning into the sort of petty grasses that existed in places like the old GDR.
Margaret Thatcher put the Great back into Great Britain
Tony Blair abolished tradition, removed Great and sissified Britain
I despair. Really, I do
imo Littlejohn today was a Piers Morgan wannabe – leant on?
I despair. Really, I do
Will we ever have this on UK TV?
Excellent: We’re Not ‘All in this together’ and Global Stats don’t support hysterical claims and reactions – says what I’ve been saying for months
1 While the rest of the country sacrifices public servants still enjoy ‘full freight’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca88cRWminM
2 ‘Health fascists’ are ‘bullying us on coronavirus lockdowns’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIFBSSQcPrA
Seems the more the lockdown is lifted the more onerous restrictions are becoming. From my Local Online today.
Torbay have started enforcing resident parking, issued a ticket on a car whose owner had already informed them his family had virus symptoms and been told to self isolate including not going out to move the car.
IKEA re-opening, cashless only, no mention of temporary.
Taxi passengers and drivers to wear (useless) homemade masks, drivers to install screens. I got a text from my GP Surgery with a link to a govt
wesite on how to make my own mask LOL.
Buses and coaches to run at 20% capacity, erstwhile passengers Will be left at the bus stop.
Once again stupid warnings about travelling on the sunny bank holiday when every day has been a holiday for 8 weeks.
Only two ‘person found dead, not suspicious’ stories today.