Behind closed doors again?
With Wales just announcing that all outdoor sporting events are to be behind closed doors from Boxing Day, what will happen in England?
Boris certainly lacks a plan and seems to be afraid of his own back benchers and unable to make a decision at all.
I think Boris may announce something early next week instead and god forbid that he will have to call parliament back from their Xmas holiday, useless lot of idiots.
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He won't do it. He knows he's royally f****d up (even if he doesn't care) with this latest leak of the
garden partywork meeting and hasn't got a leg to stand on - plus the backlash from the likes of Brexit Hardman Steve Baker ™. More restrictions are probably necessary, but he's lost every last shred of the authority he supposedly had.From the start there should have been a cross party COVID team, including the devolved governments, who made decisions and U.K. wide plans based on scientific fact.
As you say @ReturnToSenda, Boris is at the end of the road and a pretty lame duck PM and the country needs a strong leader right now but I fear the alternatives are just as incompetent.
Just from a gut feel reading the news, I think we will be closed doors from w/c 27th December for around a month.
Can see loads of Boxing Day games getting called off anyway to be honest due to covid cases.
Personally I'd rather a firebreaker and pause for a short time as football without fans is just shocking, but there isn't much scope to do that for for more than a couple of weeks, particularly with the world cup next year making fixture congestion even worse.
To be fair the ruling on no cup replays was a sensible move.
Yep! Equally incompetent, just in a different way.
Would definitely prefer there to be games on without fans, then no games at all. But I know a lot disagree with that.
But unless they get the players really tight in those bubbles like last time, then it's the players getting covid that's the problem, not the fans anyway.
@Blue_since_1990 interested in what you and others understand by 'scientific fact'. You are presumably aware that public health policy is about more than just science. I am inclined to agree that a cross party approach might have been better, but ultimately the Welsh and Scots would have reserved the right to do their own thing, given that is what the devolution settlements allow. The Scots and Welsh have adopted stricter measures than England, but not identical measures to one another, which illustrates in a way how scientific fact informs but doesn't dictate policy.
Johnson will be v reluctant to introduce restrictions. But if the maths indicates that the NHS will be overwhelmed without further restrictions then he won’t have any choice.
Never stopped him before.
What winds me up is.. they've had two years of this, know the implications, know what has to be done...and still they leave business twisting in the wind with no real direction. I would have more respect if they did say 'Bugger it! keep everything open and we'll take the consequences' rather than this grey, nothingness which helps or pleases no-one while still pointing their Newsnight thumbs on the telly telling us what strong, robust measures they are taking, much better than them foreigners, by the way. Surely, no-one can say: 'Well, it was unexpected and unprecedented for everyone so poor Boris...' any longer.
Agree @Malone I think it's an issue for the clubs now rather than the fans (with some exceptions of course!)...we won't get games behind closed doors if the players aren't getting vaxxed anyway!
The NHS will continue to be at risk of being overwhelmed for as long as the Tories are in power. You could argue that it's pretty much overwhelmed by default - but even more so in the current climate, and the unvaccinated are only exacerbating the problem.
Personally I’d much prefer to see a break to the season introduced now, with games being extended into late May and early June to accommodate. It’s the lesser of two evils.
Persevering now is likely to lead to many games being postponed due to illness, with some teams having a huge number of rearranged games. And if the season does eventually need to be extended then players end up playing through without a proper break in the summer before season 22/23. Seems more sensible to me to have the certainty of a month break now, allowing the players to wind down a bit knowing that the summer break will be truncated. And then resume normal service in early Feb when (hopefully) the situation looks a little better.
Also, games with no fans is utter crap. The EFL should do everything possible to re-jig the season calendar so that most or all games take place in front of fans.
I agree @Malone.
If as @DJWYC14 suggests, our clown at number 10 does a "firebreak" lockdown immediately after Christmas, I fear it will end up lasting more than a couple of weeks. Once in lockdown, we will only come out once Twitty's dodgy data tells Bozza everything is fine.
Any extended lockdown will make it impossible to finish the season and the liklihood of PPG will rear its ugly head again. Much better to keep playing behind closed doors and watch on iFollow.
Isn't London the epicentre of Omicron anyway? Just put a giant dome over London and let the rest of us carry on.
Adams Park will remain fully open under the benevolent rule of the People’s Republic of Steve Baker.
No proof of vaccination or negative lateral flow tests will be needed to attend, unless Adams Park becomes a polling station, in which case you will definitely need multiple forms of ID before being allowed to vote (a Daily Mail ‘just say non!’ car sticker or similar will also be acceptable).
By the way, who is ‘Boris’? Are we talking about Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson?
@mooneyman Interested to know on what basis you think the CMO's data (well, that provided to him) is "dodgy"?
Interesting that people seem think Bogjob is probably bareable because all his mates and some of his foes are incompetent too. The idea that he's not accountable to anyone for the next few years and then the next one in gets 5 years to do whatever they like unchallenged regardless of any lies or rule breaking is more dangerous than the individual decisions.
If the devolved parliament's all bring forward rules that broadly match you can probably read that as the actual advice they've all been given and we'll follow along next.
'king hell life is exhausting isn't. One lot falling over themselves with cock up after cock up, the other lot barely able to string a coherent alternative. Life is just noise noise noise. This time next week we will either have 6000 deaths a day or 60. This time next week we will either have 200k a day cases or not. This time next week we will be locked in, or not.
It's 24 hour a day noise and the consequence is that some people will simply not cope. The default setting for most the population appears to be argue or fight.
Stay sane people. Take a breath. You don't always have to have an opinion. Listen to others. Bite your tongue and take a breath before responding. Watch out for others, if anger isn't their normal setting something is wrong.
Merry Christmas
@Blue_since_1990 @ReturnToSenda Interested to understand how you think Starmer would be as incompetent as Johnson, specifically on Covid? He seems pretty sensible to me, as well as honest and honourable...especially compared to Johnson!
Huh? I mean other Tories. Starmer would be infinitely better than any of them, although he is a right wet lettuce.
Hear hear.
Ohhh, I see. I took "alternatives" to mean Labour, completely agree the rest of the Tories are equally useless!! All the half decent ones were ousted prior to 2019.
I think we have seen with the Orange President and the Posh liar, that people seem to want a 'character' a greedy, selfish, trivial mouth flapper, not someone with any track record of success, or judgement, or morality or sense of duty, to 'shake things up'. I don't like or trust Rishi (who let's face it is the next leader) but you get the feeling he is competent. Starmer like Broon is a dull man but who I believe would have made a better fist of this. As for footy, as I said, we can only watch it behind closed doors if there are enough fit players to play it!
In fairness, I think anger is the normal setting for most of us at the moment.
I'm afraid it doesn't matter who is running the country, and however much they give the NHS it will always need more and the more it gets the more new ways they will find to waste lumps of it.
The whole management structure and the way budgets are run in the NHS is truly shocking and they wouldn't last 5 minutes if they were made to run as a normal business does
One example - multi-million pound scanner has say a 10 year life. Rather than budget an amount each year for its replacement they 'suddenly' discover they need to find the whole sum when it breaks down after 15 years (going against manufacturers recommendations of lifespan is quite normal), they then work out how to find the money they knew they were going to need all along.
Only 500 people allowed outdoors in Scotland. It's coming...
Population of Scotland is around five and a half million. To allow only 500 jocks out is a tad harsh!
Agree Johnson is incompetent but Starmer, you must be having a laugh. Couldn’t make a decision, if his life depended on it. His leadership in opposition has been embarrassing.
He used to run the crown prosecution service, I think he can make a decision
Can none of you remember when Labour were in charge ? They were bloody hopeless as well !! At the end of the day whoever is in control it doesn't make much of a difference.... their all fecking useless and only in it for themselves