Scotland lockdown from midnight.

[Kaz]

I couldn't agree more Debih. We need the rules to be enforced somehow

[cromwell]

Kaz, we don't have the police to do that. Plus there is some doubt about what is law and what are only guidelines.

[Workingman]

It is not difficult to understand why things are changing.

Today is the seventh day in a row when the UK has exceeded 50,000 cases. It was actually 58,784 and the highest since the pandemic began. From the end of the 2nd lockdown in December the 14 day average has doubled and doubled again, starting at ~ 14,000.

The numbers were out there when decisions were being made - just saying.

I agree with Cromwell re enforcement. Also I think that in all but exceptional circumstances the punishments are fines and people will simply not pay them.

[saundra]

And if stayed in since last year now to be faced with more isolation when people in my street act as normal visitors daily

[Kaz]

Kaz, we don't have the police to do that. Plus there is some doubt about what is law and what are only guidelines.

I know, that's why I added the shrug smiley

[cromwell]

Ooops. Sorry Kaz.

[Kaz]

Oh that's ok. I know how undermanned the police are xx

[Workingman]

So, it is mid February, sort of. Will it work, especially when so many people seem to have given up?

I admit to being one.... but hopefully I do it in the right(ish) way. I only shop in the late evening and then I wear a mask and social distance. I have sanitiser in the car and in my pocket and use it. I have reusable masks that I wash once worn, and I go out walking on my own - I would be driven mad otherwise.

It will not turn my life upside down as I am almost already there. However, it is going to be a big ask for ever so many, those with children for example, and I am not so sure that many will be able to play along: "be able to" being the operative phrase. They are not part of the "I'm all right Jack" brigade who we can do little about. They are just ordinary people struggling to cope, and they do have my sympathy.

[cromwell]

It will not turn my life upside down as I am almost already there. However, it is going to be a big ask for ever so many, those with children for example, and I am not so sure that many will be able to play along: "be able to" being the operative phrase. They are not part of the "I'm all right Jack" brigade who we can do little about. They are just ordinary people struggling to cope, and they do have my sympathy.

Mine too Frank.

[Suff]

Sturgeon may be clear and confident and all the information at her fingertips. But the reality is her record is 0% better than the bumbling haystack, that none of the lockdowns have worked, that Christmas was still knackered in Scotland despite her "stronger measures" and there is likely to be very little confidence that this latest lockdown will do any good other than a desperate holding action whilst they try to rush the vaccine out.

Also Jobs in Scotland are going to start vanishing again as everyone is blocked from working and economic activity falls again.

Looking good and sounding good are all very well. But, at some point, someone is going to tally up the words, actions and effect. The summation is not going to be pretty.

I, also, feel sorry for the ordinary people. I had to cope with Mrs S at Christmas where she was obsessing over whether she would ever be able to get back her Christmas that we should have had this year. For the first time in over a decade nearly all of the Children were to be with us for Christmas. #1 son and his wife only get Christmas and New year together on annual leave once a decade. #2 son heads to China to be a TESL teacher in February and god knows when he'll be back. Mrs S will be in her early 80's by a decade from now and her mother was already dead by then.

Some day people are going to second guess the governments of the world. It was clear, at the end of phase2 testing, that the leading contender vaccines would be sufficient for the vast majority of the people. That a rapid delivery of vaccines with agile controls when issues occurred would have saved lives. Tens of thousands of lives. Some day the questions will be asked. If we had approved the vaccines in August 2020, just how many lives would have been saved.

The answer is not going to be complimentary and the conclusion will be that CYA was more important that people's lives.

Lockdowns are nothing more than a holding action to try and fend off the growth of transmission until a vaccine can be deployed in sufficient volume to finally kill the thing off. Nobody is talking about what happens at the end of Feb, with only 10M people vaccinated and how much longer the restrictions will need to be applied for. Because it will not return to "normal" even in March.

Numbers will, however, start to fall and continue to fall. Just as they did here in France. The lockdown will get the credit but it is only part of the picture.