[Dave Rice]

Reports of hordes of youths in the beach areas around Polzeath (haunt of David Cameron, on the other side of the estuary from Padstow).

The Hooray Henrys have left London, it seems summer normality has returned to this part of North Cornwall.

[PlaneMan]

I’ve seen loads of people acting like t*ts around the beaches. Penarth front at about 8.30am on Saturday was heaving, hardly anyone with a mask on and the only place I saw social distancing being enforced was at a kiosk. Otherwise no-one bothered.

I didn’t stop.

Cardiff Bay had some trouble on Saturday, again. :negative:

It seems to me that most of the younger people (under 30, roughly) just don’t give a crap about anything anymore.

[Bob Williams]

Trouble with some younger (and not so young) people in Britain, is that they have been denied their packed boozers and heavy drinking, their Raves and Festivals. Being young, they head straight into major denial about any risks to themselves and others.

Problem I have with that is that I remember my own youth and wonder if I would have been so different under the same circumstances. I would like to think I would have acted responsibly, but I was a wild and headstrong lad when young.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

I cannot say I blame the young, they are the ones that have been truly shafted by the way countries (not just the UK) have locked down and forced a sea-change in the way life is lived. We are moving towards a universal base income society in one massive leap, and have destroyed probably 30% of jobs, but I’m not sure that the UK society is ready to fill the ag-lab and care industry vacancies that will exist post Brexit.

[Dave Rice]

I’m afraid both industries are going to have to go through the mill until this lot get it.

Care home fees are high enough without increasing costs and you can’t have cheap food and well paid pickers. The idea that the employers will find a magic money tree is just laughable.

They are also the party that bangs on about a “green” recovery whilst urging people back into cars and poo-pooing home working because they want you spending money in town. They think only Londoners use public transport to get to work. Try driving into an office in Bristol, you’d better have deep pockets.

People who drive to work are not those who work in town centres, but when the only statistics you look at are what Londonders do vs the whole of the rest of the country you’re not going to learn much. New Statesman article “Can you really get to work without using public transport? Commuters in most of England already do“. It’s this sort of lazy skewed bollocks that leads to these ridiculous rules and mixed messaging.

[The Duke]

I could get a bus to work everyday, but a 6min drive turns into a 1hour trip (each way). This is the issue most rural (and mine is only just rural) places have. There is no real alternative to the car. I’d be classed as lucky as my village is on the main bus route to the town, but if I worked in another town or village ect.. I’d need multiple busses or trains. It’s just not happening.especally given public transport isn’t cheap. If there is two of you, it’s the same to get ataxi to town as it is a bus. So this also undermines PT.

Now where my pub is the majority of the people that live in the town centre  don’t drive, as they can mostly walk to work. The ones that dont work in the town centre drive.

 

[Ed P]

If you live in a Dorset hamlet you are lucky to get two buses a week. I have no idea how long they take, but the locals tend to organise car-sharing into Dorchester as there is no feasible alternate. A friend of mine had to go to a hospital appointment in Poole and that took him most of the day in journey time starting with a car share into Dorchester. Retirees would love to have more public transport but the local council only have limited means to subsidise it.

 

[edit] As an aside it is no wonder that Dorset has very few Covid cases, most residents have  been in lock-down since the days austerity started.

[Bob Williams]

As rural dwellers until we moved into Louth, our village had several buses a day, from Louth Bus Station, connecting Lincoln to Grimsby, Mablethorpe and until last year, Skegness. The Grimsby bus is supposed to wait for the Lincoln bus and the Mablethorpe bus, for both. With the large distances between villages and towns, skewed timetables are a fact of life. The patient long-suffering expressions of locals at bus stops, is a fact of life here. Very occasionally, a driver loses it and drives out without waiting. The result is chaos: travellers alighting one bus, see theirs has departed, leaving them stranded. Out come the mobiles (Stagecoach on Speed Dial!) and heated conversations ensue. In the fullness of time, another bus may appear. Or not.

Catching the 51 Louth to Grimsby bus is an experience I dread: another reason to thank Motability for. By car, a shade over 20 miles, 20 minutes usually. By bus, any guess will do. It goes around every village, off and back on to the A16. We live about ¼ mile outside town centre, along convoluted Georgian streets, some below sea level. Walking to shops is not possible for me atm, so I drive.

Ed I remember Dorset well from my time at Blandford Forum APTC in the ’60’s. BF was then a very small place and I loved running the Downs and walking them later, all the small hamlets with perhaps one old fashioned pub, or none, in which case a friendly soul would direct me to the next. That is where my Army running really took off, up and down those hills and valleys. Beautiful. IIRC Hants, Wilts and Dorset was a very good bus company in those days.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Dave Rice]

Rural life is very different and not what BoJo is on about. They want office workers back in city centres spending money on coffee and food, shopping in lunch hour etc..

The council run long stay car parks are £12 for >4 hours,  some do a £216 for a pack of 20 deal or £2,496 annual pass. Sort stay are £4 for 2 hours maximum, but some do have the same annual pass option.

There are 4 Park & Ride sites on the outskirts open 6:15 to 21:15 Free parking and the normal First Bus fare of £4.50 a day, £18.90 a week, £72.60 a month or £715 a year.

There are several “Metro” bus routes now with express lanes (until they get into the centre) and enhanced frequencies, same prices. However most buses are arterial routes, going cross town is very difficult and usually quicker going in and out if there is a Metro route.

The larger commuter towns, Portishead, Clevedon, Yate, Nailsea etc have express routes, especially at rush hour, and the prices are a little more. Some have rail options too, but Temple Meads is some way off of Bristol centre.

So, from the view of a Bristol office commuter, are you going to use your car? Especially as you probably have a bus pass already. But how will you get on with a covid restricted bus service running at 25% capacity? The buses are full at rush hour time with some routes having extra buses.

They just don’t think any of this through.

[Ed P]

I live in a commuter town, and very few commuters have been furloughed. Despite this, the car parks remain empty and everyone I speak to say they want to continue to work from home. (better quality of life, more home time, more money to spend).  Those in senior management roles say that they are closely assessing the advantages of  ‘hot-desking’ and reducing their office space square footage. Zoom etc has been an eye-opener for many senior managers and they can see real cost savings in preserving the new status-quo.

5G was built into a number of these plans so I’m not sure what the effect of our toadying unnecessarily to the Yanks will do to these plans. I just hope that in five years time we do not read of ex-Ministers enjoying $200000 speaking fees like certain Iraq war toads. I reckon the Huawei 5G mess will cost the country $5billion in direct costs and another £20bn down the pan in opportunity costs.

Never trust a Yank, it is always America first.

[Bob Williams]

The business of America, is American business and American profit. Everyone and everything else comes second, including any “Special Relationships.”

Boris should be asking Trump, ‘OK Donald, what plans do any of your tech companies have to give us workable 5G to compare with Huaweii?”

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Bob Williams wrote:

Boris should be asking Trump, ‘OK Donald, what plans do any of your tech companies have to give us workable 5G to compare with Huaweii?”

The emphasis should be on GIVE.. IMO 5 eyes is a one way street, we get naff all.

[Dave Rice]

They’re doing the same thing with CCTV for the same reasons. Don’t tell me that any military CCTV is in any way connected to the internet!

[Bob Williams]

+1

:negative: 🙁

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

As we move slowly away from lockdown and enter a riskier world, this chart may be helpful in assessing the risk associated with various activities.

My only criticism of the chart is that it may give too high an impression of risk and  it should include some non-covid comparative risks. e.g the risk of death from being a motorbike/MTB rider is probably an example of a daily activity that is ‘high’ risk. (I’m not saying bike riders are dangerous, but they are very vulnerable to other road users)

[Ed P]

Xcd parodied my comment with this chart.

link

Wired draws them all together in an article.

link

[Ed P]

Good news for mask wearers, it isn’t just a selfless act it . New research shows that even simple masks also protect the wearer to a degree by reducing the number of virus particles they inhale, and apparently reduces any disease severity as a result.

[Ed P]

Hurrah the Government is playing Poo-Sticks. link

All joking aside, I view this as a HUGE step forward as it will address the problem of the 80% asymptomatic people who have caught Covid and are potential sources of infection. If done at every sewage farm it could test 5000+ people at a time on a daily basis – this will be far more effective than Talk-Talk Harding’s efforts!

What is however worrying is that it has taken 5 months to get to this stage following the Chinese indicating that it was a plausible infection route. We must become less risk averse if we are to get on top of this virus in a timely fashion.

[Dave Rice]

My son’s PhD was on the same subject but measuring prescription drug traces, so why are we so behind? Bath University has been involved for 5 years, since the inception of the idea, so why is it Bangor Uni who weren’t part of the EU wide project?

[Ed P]

[edit] to my post – Dido Harding’s INEPT efforts.

We have seen her lack of managerial ability before at Talk-Talk, but it appears that she still has not learnt any management skills and a review by UCL and the London School of Tropical Medicine have found that our so-called ‘World Leading’ Track & Trace programme is not fit for purpose.

Maybe it is time for her to eat crow and ask the German’s to give us their code for their working Apple/Android app!

[Author]

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