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Coronavirus

Coronavirus - The Poll

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Matt N said:
Sorry for double posting, but another thing I forgot to add that’s particularly stressing me out about school at the moment; exams, and the uncertainty about whether or not they will end up happening.

I am currently due to sit my A Level exams in June 2021. However, with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all having cancelled the 2021 exams, I’m growing increasingly doubtful as to whether I will actually end up doing exams.

While I don’t think teacher-assessed grades in themselves would be a bad thing at all (in fact, it would be quite reassuring, as I know I would already have done quite a bit of the legwork towards my final grade), it’s the whole uncertainty of it that’s getting to me. There’s never been a situation quite like this before, and I must admit that it is rather stressing me out thinking about the whole “will they, won’t they” of whether exams will actually end up happening, because there’s just so many conflicting opinions.
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Stuff your exams Matt...you've got your place now!
Just study as if they are going to happen.
Congratulations.
 
Alsty said:
Still, nothing quite says thank you to all the teachers and key workers like a three year pay freeze...
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Unfortunately that’s going to be the way it is, there is a huge black hole in the public finances and tax rises (which are coming) won’t be enough on its own.
I’d of personally gone for a more targeted approach of those that have received help are the ones that should pay it back but that’s unlikely to gain much support here.
 
You could kind of understand it if they didn't seem so relaxed about wasting tens upon tens of billions so easily on everything else, but as they have wasted so much I would have no respect for their stance here.

These are just off the top of my head. Last time I heard it was said that the furlough scheme has probably been allowed to be defrauded or wrongly paid by about 3.5 billion. That will be rising all of the time.
What was it for the test and trace system that hasn't helped paid to their mates? 12 billion. Consultants on £7000 a day in some cases.
21 million paid to a middle man to buy some PPE.
At least 500 million paid out to businesses during eat out to help out which also made Covid cases rise which means more costs and lockdowns.
No doubt at some point they'll also agree to give furlough/grants to the few million newly self employed/newly employed who fell through the cracks of furlough and didn't qualify for the scheme and they'll backdate that to March which will cost probably another 30 billion or something.
Then HS2 which in light of recent circumstances and more working from home and online meetings etc gets more unnecessary by the day. That'll probably be about 10 billion by the time they've upped the price a few more times.
But yeah, god forbid those who actually worked for 3 months whilst everyone else stayed safely at home having a rest get thrown a few crumbs.
 
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BarryZola said:
These are just off the top of my head. Last time I heard it was said that the furlough scheme has probably been allowed to be defrauded or wrongly paid by about 3.5 billion. That will be rising all of the time.
What was it for the test and trace system that hasn't helped paid to their mates? 12 billion. Consultants on £7000 a day in some cases.
21 million paid to a middle man to buy some PPE.
At least 500 million paid out to businesses during eat out to help out which also made Covid cases rise which means more costs and lockdowns.
No doubt at some point they'll also agree to give furlough/grants to the few million newly self employed/newly employed who fell through the cracks of furlough and didn't qualify for the scheme and they'll backdate that to March which will cost probably another 30 billion or something.
Then HS2 which in light of recent circumstances and more working from home and online meetings etc gets more unnecessary by the day. That'll probably be about 10 billion by the time they've upped the price a few more times.
But yeah, god forbid those who actually worked for 3 months whilst everyone else stayed safely at home having a rest get thrown a few crumbs.
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Not to mention the £3k pay rise they voted to give to... themselves!
 
Alsty said:
Still, nothing quite says thank you to all the teachers and key workers like a three year pay freeze...
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The real kick with this is how heavily we are still being hit from the last wave of austerity which appears to have been wiped clean and forgotten. I'm sure its similar numbers across the public sector and I think we are something like 14% down from where we should be vs inflationary and the private sector, which largely recovered from the worst of the financial crash much more quickly.

Now this is being justified as being reasonable as it'll be 'in line' with expected downturns in the private sector. Where was any consideration of being 'in line' while we were getting left behind?
 
Exactly as above. The worst thing about all of this is that we've barely gotten over the pay restraint of the coalition government... only in 2018 did pay start to actually uplift in line with inflation. For the 7 years prior it was 0% or 1% a year!

Bleedin' heck.
 
On the plus side at least you still have a guaranteed well paid job, millions of others are unfortunately not in that position.
 
I think it’s more to do with a global pandemic than a race anywhere, maybe you would of got a pay increase without it, maybe you wouldn’t.
Maybe you still will, right now it’s paper talk, nothing has been confirmed.
 
I was in KFC this evening and a woman walked in refusing to wear a mask, then stood right in my face telling me how it’s all a hoax and I was a sheep for wearing a mask. I said I’d rather be a sheep and potentially stop something being spread as opposed to being inconsiderate and rude toward others

she cussed me out and went to complain to someone else
 
I popped to Maccies in Congleton for lunch (well, when you've got to self-cater for a day and the Christmas menu's just launched, why not? :p), and I was really impressed with their internal set-up. Everyone was wearing masks, some order points were closed off to help with social distancing, they're encouraging usage of the app to reduce the number of things being touched, everyone waiting was doing social distancing, and collecting once food was ready was very easy. The drive-thru queue was insane (like, around the whole of the car park), and to avoid the risk of my food being cold by the time I got home, I had to eat in the car park. Not ideal, but nothing I could do about it. I tell you what, though - I've really missed those Cheese Melt Dippers. Ooft, they're so good <3
 
BigT said:
On the plus side at least you still have a guaranteed well paid job, millions of others are unfortunately not in that position.
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Guaranteed? Much more secure than many but certainly not guaranteed.

Well paid? Not really, considering the demands and risks involved, and certainly not fairly with the massive reductions in real terms vs inflation and the private sector as above which is kind of the point.
 
Tibble said:
I was in KFC this evening and a woman walked in refusing to wear a mask, then stood right in my face telling me how it’s all a hoax and I was a sheep for wearing a mask. I said I’d rather be a sheep and potentially stop something being spread as opposed to being inconsiderate and rude toward others

she cussed me out and went to complain to someone else
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I saw something similar on the way home from work yesturday. There was a queue of people waiting to go into the bank and a women just rocked up with a pram, ignored the queue and tried to walk straight into the bank, without a mask. It was at this point that i realised that things were about to go down. A couple of disgruntled members of the public, stood in the queue, politely reminded her that there was a queue, to which she went off on an all might rant about...I've got a child with me/why should i stand outside/i can't breath through masks/im in a rush/this is bad for my mental health (disclaimer, not doubting or mocking anyone with mental health issue, but some people seem to be using this as a get out clause at the moment). Ohhh and the final one...'You are all paranoid'. It was quite comical and when the bank staff came out, i decided to keep walking because i was cold. I commend the people in the queue for their patience, no one overreacted to her. Me personally, i would have lost my rag.
 
Yesterday I saw the NHS proposed vaccine time line roll out and wondered if it was genuine. It was mentioned on the news last night that they are aiming to get everyone vaccine by the end of March. Because of the government record of over promising and underdelivering, I'm viewing this with being cautiously optimistic :)

oFfawb4.jpg


Also on the flu vaccine which we are still waiting for ours, it looks like the second rollout of this will take place from the 1st of December :)

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/free-flu-vaccine-over-50s-19312496
 
I know they got the vaccine coming out but I read millions won’t take it cause of the side effects it could lead to. I know many at work don’t have the flu jab now cause what they put into it makes them more ill.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
I know they got the vaccine coming out but I read millions won’t take it cause of the side effects it could lead to. I know many at work don’t have the flu jab now cause what they put into it makes them more ill.
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It depends on how many refuse to take it but I think in my opinion when everything has reopened I reckon they will only let you in certain places if you can prove you’ve have the vaccine. I know a few weeks back ticketmaster announced that’s their plan I think in the USA so it’s something that could happen.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
I know they got the vaccine coming out but I read millions won’t take it cause of the side effects it could lead to. I know many at work don’t have the flu jab now cause what they put into it makes them more ill.
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Pfizer’s vaccine has no major adverse side effects, with some only reporting feeling a bit like they’ve had a hangover just after taking it at very worst.
 
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