Lockdown
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation this evening asking everyone in the UK
to stay at home except for specific essential forms of travel such as going to work if you are a key worker or shopping for essential supplies.
Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria
Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Comments
We are only "allowed" out for a few reasons, such as travel to work, unless you work in sports, hospitality, entertainment or so called 'non essential' retail.
There was no real need to lock people up in their own homes, only quarantine those who had tested positve, then track and test their contacts, then repeat for the postitive contacts.
Also apparently the police will be allowed to break up gatherings and even to fine those not complying (unknown amounts). Though its hard to see this working.
We are also 'permited' to take ONE run,walk or cycle per day, well who is counting, and how long is a walk?
Basically you could, if you were so inclined walk the streets all day, since you are out on your permitted walk.
Draconian attacks on our liberty will not defeat a virus so adapt at spreading, Boris is simply covering up the fact that the situation has been so badly handled by the lack of test and trace so is trying to blame it on the population for not following the rules when it does break out, and that part is for certain, its when it breaks out, not if.
Did you notice that the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales made essentially identical announcements at the same time? I presume that means they were also at a COBR meeting at which this was agreed.
There is also emergency legislation going through parliament to back this up. So there is some democratic accountability involved.
Yes, it's pretty draconian, unprecedented and frankly terrifying - but the trouble is, if we don't do this, we're probably looking at half a million deaths - that's the figure if everyone gets it and the death rate is 1%.
I know that as a society we've rather badly undermined the authority of experts over the past few years but I think this is one of the times when we listen to them and my understanding is that these measures are what the scientific and medical experts have advised the government to do.
Yes, there is going to have to be further advice to clear up ambiguities - we've never as a modern society had to do anything like this before. That clarity will, I'm sure, come in further announcements over this week.
It's a hundred and one years since the last major pandemic (just after the Great War) and we didn't know anything like as much about disease then as we do now. As far as we can judge, by comparison COVID-19 has a lower death rate per person infected than the so-called "Spanish Flu" but is much more infectious.
My great-grandfather was one of about 228,000 people in Britain and fifty million around the world who died in that pandemic, though I am personally convinced that a broken heart had as much to do with it (his wife died in the previous flu epidemic in 1916 and he died two months to the day after his son, my great uncle, was KIA in the last weeks of the war at the age of 18.)
We will get through this. Let's hope we can learn the lessons which will help us to be more prepared next time - and I'm afraid there will probably be a next time.